(CALIFORNIA) — Voices were full of panic when 911 operators began answering the urgent calls for help that started flowing into the emergency line on the evening of Jan. 7.
“There’s houses on fire. There’s no [expletive] anybody here,” one caller told the woman answering for the Sierra Madre Police Department in the suburbs of Los Angeles County. The caller was begging for firefighters. “Get them here now!”
The caller had spotted what would become known as the Eaton Fire, one of the most destructive infernos in California history.
ABC News and affiliate KABC-TV obtained a recording of the woman’s call, along with multiple other conversations between residents and Sierra Madre dispatchers under the California Public Records Act.
The recordings shine new light on the initial confusion and subsequent fear faced by residents who saw the initial flames during January’s deadly wildfires.
“I don’t know if anyone has called yet, but we noticed that there is an extremely large fire to the northwest of Grand View,” another caller said. “It looks like it’s in the neighborhood. Like, we’re starting to think we need to evacuate and we need Sierra Madre to start getting on this.”
The dispatcher responded that the fire was in neighboring Pasadena at the time, not in the caller’s area.
“No, no, no, not Pasadena,” the caller responded, explaining his location. “We just walked outside. We’re panicking to evacuate.”
One by one, the calls poured in from Sierra Madre and surrounding areas. A third caller told a dispatcher that he was not home at the time, but could see flames from a surveillance camera on his property.
“There’s homes on fire on Ranch Top in Hastings Ranch,” a fourth caller said. “There’s no fire truck out here. Not one.”
Over the next 24 days, the Eaton Fire would spread across 14,000 acres in the San Gabriel Mountains, Altadena, Pasadena and Sierra Madre, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. More than 9,000 structures were destroyed and 17 people died.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
The Eaton Fire started more than seven hours after the Palisades Fire broke out on the other side of Los Angeles County, near the Pacific Ocean.
Multiple agencies, including the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the California Highway Patrol and the Los Angeles Police Department, have declined requests to provide ABC News with audio files associated with the Palisades Fire.
(WASHINGTON) — Pete Marocco, the Trump administration official tasked with dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, told State Department staff on Tuesday night that he is stepping away from his role at USAID and returning to his previous role at the State Department, according to an email obtained by ABC News.
“It’s been my honor to assist Secretary Rubio in his leadership of USAID through some difficult stages to pivot this enterprise away from its abuses of the past,” Marocco said in the email. “Now that USAID is under control, accountable and stable, I am going to return to my post as the Director of Foreign Assistance to bring value back to the American people.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio named Marocco USAID deputy administrator in early February, and Marocco — along with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency — led the widespread effort to dismantle the agency by laying off thousands of employees, revoking funding for more than 80% of its programs, and shedding its Washington, D.C., headquarters.
Marocco said in his email that he is leaving now that “USAID is under control, accountable, and stable” — however many of the administration’s moves are currently being challenged or stalled in the courts, with a judge on Tuesday ruling that the dismantling of USAID was unconstitutional.
A State Department official confirmed that Marocco would return to his role as the agency’s Director of Foreign Assistance, and that two political appointees would assume the responsibilities of the deputy administrator.
Those two individuals are Jeremy Lewin, who will serve as USAID COO and Deputy Administrator for Policy and Programs, and Ken Jackson, who will be USAID CFO and Deputy Administrator for Management and Resources, according to Marocco’s email.
Lewin, 28, has been working with DOGE at the State Department, helping in the effort to dismantle USAID, sources told ABC News. He graduated in 2022 from Harvard Law School, where he co-authored multiple op-eds with renowned liberal constitutional law expert Laurence Tribe.
He was later hired as an associate in the Los Angeles office of the law firm Munger, Towles & Olsen, according to a now-defunct profile on the firm’s website.
Lewin appears to have no apparent government experience, though his law firm bio claimed that he had “confidentially advised senior global policymakers — including the U.S. President and senior Congressional leaders, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zekelsnkyy, and senior members of the G7 and UN — on matters of international law and policy.”
Critics of the Trump administration say its efforts to nullify the agency will cripple American influence overseas and carry devastating effects for some of the most vulnerable populations in the world, which relied on U.S. funding for health care, food, and other basic needs.
In a statement shared by the State Department, Marocco said that “the crisis-level issues that had plagued USAID were far worse than we anticipated,” and that “It has been an honor and a privilege to help restore accountability and transparency at USAID.”
Federal authorities responded to the CIA headquarters in Virginia on Wednesday after a man brandished what appeared to be a handgun outside the building, sources told ABC News.
At one point, the man pointed a gun at his head, and local police and security personnel were negotiating, according to the sources.
The man was taken into custody Wednesday afternoon after several hours in the “barricade incident,” police said.
“The barricade incident has been resolved,” Fairfax County police said. “The suspect surrendered to FCPD negotiators and is in custody.”
A CIA spokesperson said law enforcement responded to an “incident” outside the CIA headquarters, located in Fairfax County.
“Additional details will be made available as appropriate,” the spokesperson said.
The incident prompted a large police response, including from the FBI.
“Members of the FBI Washington Field Office’s National Capital Response Squad and other FBI resources have been deployed to assist our law enforcement partners in response to an incident outside CIA Headquarters,” the FBI Washington Field Office said in a statement earlier Wednesday.
(NEW YORK) — Attorney General Pam Bondi called the recent spate of arson attacks and vandalism against Tesla vehicles “nothing short of domestic terrorism” and promised harsh punishments for perpetrators if they are caught.
The White House also weighed in on the recent attacks Wednesday, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt calling the vandalisms “despicable.”
“Democrats were big supporters of Tesla and of electric vehicles until Elon Musk decided to vote for Donald Trump. So we would like Democrats to also come out and condemn this heinous violence that we have seen,” Leavitt said.
The statements from Bondi and Leavitt came after the latest incident in which five Tesla vehicles were damaged when a fire was started at a Tesla Collision Center in Las Vegas on Tuesday morning. That was the latest in a wave of incidents aimed at the electric vehicle company, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
“This was a targeted attack against a Tesla facility,” said Dori Koren, assistant sheriff for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Along with the burning vehicles, officials said the word “RESIST” was spray-painted across the doors of the facility and three rounds of shots were fired at the additional Teslas. The suspect approached the business wearing black clothing and is believed to have used Molotov cocktails and a firearm to conduct his attack, police said.
Officials received notice that an individual had “set several vehicles on fire in the parking lot and caused damage to the property.”
Police and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force are investigating this incident, which they believe was an isolated attack. Authorities are still searching for a suspect.
Two Tesla Cybertrucks also caught on fire at a dealership in Kansas City, Missouri, on Monday evening, according to the Kansas City Police Department.
Tesla vehicles, dealerships and charging stations have been vandalized, suffered arson and faced protests in recent weeks since the company’s CEO Elon Musk began his work at the White House spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
In the statement Tuesday, Bondi said, “The swarm of violent attacks on Tesla property is nothing short of domestic terrorism.” In some of the cases, she said the Justice Department is charging perpetrators with crimes that carry five-year mandatory minimum sentences.
“We will continue investigations that impose severe consequences on those involved in these attacks, including those operating behind the scenes to coordinate and fund these crimes,” she said in the statement.
In the Kansas incident, a police officer in the area spotted smoke coming from one Cybertruck at a Tesla dealership on State Line Road shortly before midnight. The officer attempted to put out the flames using a fire extinguisher, but the fire spread to a second Cybertruck parked next to the original one, police said.
The Kansas City Fire Department ordered the bomb and arson unit to assist on the scene, the fire department said. Officials were able to put out the flames and the vehicles were “covered with a fire blanket to prevent reignition,” the fire department said.
“The circumstances are under investigation but preliminarily the fire is being investigated for the potential of being an arson,” police said in a statement on Monday.
There have been no arrests made for this incident, police said. The FBI is assisting the Kansas City Police Department in this investigation.
This follows a spree of similar incidents that have occurred across the country in the last few weeks.
Last week, “more than a dozen” shots were fired at a Tesla dealership in Tigard, Oregon, according to Kelsey Anderson, the public information officer at the Tigard Police Department.
Additionally, three Teslas were vandalized in Dedham, Massachusetts on March 11, according to the Dedham Police Department. Officials said “words had been spray-painted” on two Tesla Cybertrucks, with all four tires of the trucks and a Tesla Model S being “reportedly damaged.”
Earlier this month, a Tesla charging station was targeted in South Carolina, where an individual spray-painted an expletive directed at President Trump along with “LONG LIVE UKRAINE” on the ground in red paint and threw homemade Molotov cocktails at the station, according to the North Charleston Police Department.
Federal ATF agents arrested 24-year-old Daniel Clarke-Pounder in that incident, charging him with arson of property in interstate commerce.
During a search of his apartment, agents said they found a purple composition notebook that contained a three-page handwritten statement which asserted anti-government beliefs and statements opposed to DOGE.
“The statement made mention of sending a message based on these beliefs and was signed with the initials ‘DC,'” court records said.
Protests against the company have also occurred at dealerships nationwide. Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs told ABC News the demonstrations and the company’s plummeting stocks — which have tumbled nearly 48% this year — can all “be tied to [Musk’s] time at DOGE.”
“It has been a distraction for the company and it’s been a problem for the brand,” Frerichs said.
In recent weeks, four top officers at the company have sold off $100 million in stock, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Musk, the owner of X, said on Monday that his companies “make great products that people love and I’ve never physically hurt anyone, so why the hate and violence against me?”
“Because I am a deadly threat to the woke mind parasite and the humans it controls,” Musk said on X.
Musk has also reposted reactions that criticized previous Tesla attacks, including one that said those responsible for the Las Vegas attack are “terrorists and should be treated accordingly.”
A spokesperson for Tesla did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
ABC News’ Jack Moore and Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.
A woman was charged for allegedly holding her “severely emaciated” stepson in captivity for over 20 years, since he was 11 years old, and forcing him to endure “prolonged abuse, starvation, severe neglect, and inhumane treatment,” police said. Facebook / Waterbury Police Department
(WATERBURY, Conn.) — A crowdfunding effort has raised over $100,000 for a Connecticut man who was held captive for over 20 years in his home.
His stepmother was arrested last week for allegedly holding her “severely emaciated” stepson in captivity since he was 11 years old.
The now-32-year-old man suffered prolonged abuse, starvation, severe neglect and inhumane treatment, according to police. He had not received basic medical and dental care and an education.
The man is 5-foot-9 and weighed just 68 pounds when he was found, according to officials.
The crowdsourced effort, organized by Safe Haven of Greater Waterbury, will be used to pay for medical and dental care, counseling and therapy for physical and emotional recovery, housing and daily living expenses and support for legal fees, the nonprofit said.
Safe Haven of Greater Waterbury said it is in the process of setting up a trust for the man. The crowdfunding effort has gathered donations from over 300 people as of Wednesday morning.
The man was discovered on Feb. 17, when Waterbury Police Department officers, along with personnel from the Waterbury Fire Department, responded to a house fire.
The fire was quickly extinguished and two occupants were found inside the home at the time. The first person was identified as 56-year-old Kimberly Sullivan, the owner of the property who called authorities for help, and the second person was identified as a 32-year-old man who was later determined to be Sullivan’s stepson.
Sullivan was evacuated to safety following the fire but the male occupant, who had suffered smoke inhalation and exposure to the fire, had to be assisted from the home by Waterbury Fire Department personnel and was placed in the care of emergency medical services, police said.
Investigators quickly realized there was a room in the house that appeared to have exterior locks on the door and, as they began speaking to the male victim, he disclosed he had been held captive in the house for approximately 20 years.
The victim then told police he had started the fire, telling first responders, “I wanted my freedom,” officials said.
Sullivan’s lawyer defended his client and said it was the victim’s late father who was responsible.
“He was not locked in the room. She did not restrain him in any way. She provided food. She provided shelter. She is blown away by these allegations,” her lawyer, Ioannis Kaloidis, told New Haven ABC affiliate WTNH last week.
Kaloidis said the stepson’s late biological father “dictated how the boy would be raised.”
(NORMAN, Okla.) — Winds of up to 75 mph were fanning multiple fast-moving Oklahoma wildfires on Wednesday morning, prompting evacuation orders for towns in the path of the flames, officials said.
Firefighters are battling blazes in Logan, Pawnee, Beckham and Roger Mills counties, including one about seven miles northwest of Sweetwater, near the Oklahoma-Texas border, officials said.
Residents of Meridian were ordered to evacuate early Wednesday as a fire came within two miles of the Logan County town. Officials rescinded the order after several hours as a cold front developed and raised humidity in the area, officials said.
In Roger Mills County, residents of Durham and Dead Warrior Lake were also told to evacuate around 4 a.m. local time Wednesday, as a fire nearby was spreading rapidly, officials said.
The fires erupted amid red flag warnings for extreme fire danger that were issued by the National Weather Service.
“Firefighters and incident responders should anticipate extreme fire behavior, including wind-driven and torching fire,” the NWS office in Norman, Oklahoma, said in a social media post around 6 a.m.
There were no reports of injuries or structures damaged from the blazes.
The fires came on the heels of a 30,000 acre wildfire that erupted on Friday in Logan County and destroyed more than 100 homes. The Logan County fire was just 25% contained on Tuesday and officials suspect embers from the blaze caused the new fire near Meridian on Wednesday.
At one point over the weekend, there were 130 fires reported in 44 counties across Oklahoma that killed four people, destroyed more than 400 homes and burned a total of 170,000 acres, officials said.
The Oklahoma fires erupted amid severe weather across the South and Midwest, which included several deadly tornadoes and dust storms. At least 42 people were killed, including two young brothers in North Carolina when an uprooted tree fell on their mobile home.
Up to 26 million people were under red flag warnings on Wednesday morning from west Texas to Illinois. Dangerous fire conditions — including high winds, dry vegetation and low humidity — are also expected Wednesday in parts of West Virginia, eastern Ohio and eastern Kentucky.
Up to 75 million people were under high wind alerts on Wednesday in 20 states from Nebraska to Georgia.
Meanwhile, more than 3 million people were under a blizzard warning on Wednesday from Colorado to Minnesota, where blowing snow is expected to be so strong that visibility will be reduced to a quarter-mile or less, making travel on roadways hazardous. Snow accumulations could reach 2 to 10 inches across the area, with winds gusting over 70 mph.
A line of thunderstorms is expected to move through the upper Midwest on Wednesday, creating the risk of strong tornadoes. Cities with the greatest risk of seeing severe weather include Peoria and Springfield, Illinois. Severe weather is also expected to move into Chicago; Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, Indiana; and Louisville, Kentucky.
ABC News’ Kenton Gewecke and Ginger Zee contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — A day after a federal judge ordered the Justice Department to provide details about two deportation flights to El Salvador over the weekend, the Trump administration is escalating its legal battle against him.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Saturday blocked the Trump administration from deporting noncitizens under the Alien Enemies Act and ordered that they turn around two flights the administration said were deporting migrant gang members to El Salvador.
After officials failed to turn the flights around, Judge Boasberg demanded that they provide more information about the flights, under seal, but DOJ attorneys refused, citing national security concerns.
According to a court filing Wednesday morning, DOJ attorneys say they are considering invoking the state secrets privilege to deny the judge that information.
Despite signaling a willingness, in a filing Tuesday, to provide the information if it’s shielded from public view, the administration said Wednesday they should not be forced to provide the information privately.
“The underlying premise of these orders, including the most recent one requiring the production of these facts ex parte today at noon, is that the Judicial Branch is superior to the Executive Branch, particularly on non-legal matters involving foreign affairs and national security,” they wrote. “The Government disagrees. The two branches are coequal, and the Court’s continued intrusions into the prerogatives of the Executive Branch, especially on a non-legal and factually irrelevant matter, should end.”
President Donald Trump lashed out again at Boasberg Wednesday morning in a post on his Truth Social platform.
“If a President doesn’t have the right to throw murderers, and other criminals, out of our Country because a Radical Left Lunatic Judge wants to assume the role of President, then our Country is in very big trouble, and destined to fail!” Trump wrote.
The escalation comes after Trump called for Boasberg’s impeachment.
“Many people have called for his impeachment, the impeachment of this judge. I don’t know who the judge is, but he’s radical left,” Trump told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham in a Fox News interview on Tuesday.
“He was Obama-appointed, and he actually said we shouldn’t be able to take criminals, killers, murderers, horrible, the worst people, gang members, gang leaders, that we shouldn’t be allowed to take them out of our country,” Trump said. “That’s not for a local judge to be making that determination.”
In the wake of Trump’s call for impeachment, Chief Justice Roberts issued an unusual statement of rebuke.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in the statement. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
Congress can impeach a judge if a simple majority is reached in the House. If the articles were taken up and ultimately clear the House, the Senate would need to hold a trial. It would require a two-thirds majority vote in the upper chamber to convict a judge.
It’s rare, but not unprecedented, for members of Congress to file articles of impeachment against a judge.
Trump, meanwhile, brushed off Roberts’ criticism, saying, “He didn’t mention my name in the statement. I just saw it quickly. He didn’t mention my name.”
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s attempt to ban transgender people from military service continues an unfortunate history of the armed services excluding marginalized people from the “privilege of serving,” a federal judge wrote Tuesday night.
In a 79-page decision, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes blocked the Trump administration from enacting the policy and offered a scathing rebuke of the Pentagon’s development of the policy.
“The Court’s opinion is long, but its premise is simple. In the self-evident truth that all people are created equal, all means all. Nothing more. And certainly nothing less,” Judge Reyes wrote.
A Defense Department memo last month said the Pentagon will be required to form a procedure to identify transgender troops by March 26 and separate them from the military by June 25, unless they receive an exemption. This includes service members receiving some form of treatment or hormones for that diagnosis of gender dysphoria, as well as those who have gone through a gender-affirming surgery.
According to Reyes, the Trump administration failed to justify the policy by articulating its impact on military readiness, harmed thousands of transgender servicemembers, and likely violated the United States Constitution.
“The President has the power—indeed the obligation—to ensure military readiness. At times, however, leaders have used concern for military readiness to deny marginalized persons the privilege of serving,” Reyes wrote.
“[Fill in the blank] is not fully capable and will hinder combat effectiveness; [fill in the blank] will disrupt unit cohesion and so diminish military effectiveness; allowing [fill in the blank] to serve will undermine training, make it impossible to recruit successfully, and disrupt military order,” she added. “First minorities, then women in combat, then gays filled in that blank. Today, however, our military is stronger and our Nation is safer for the millions of such blanks (and all other persons) who serve.”
While the judge acknowledged that the judiciary should generally defer to military leadership, she said that permitting the policy to be enforced would be her following the Pentagon “blindly” after it justified the policy with “pure conjecture” during multiple court hearings.
Anticipating the Trump administration’s appeal, Reyes delayed her decision from taking effect until Friday so the Department of Justice could ask a higher court to stay her order.
“The Court knows that this opinion will lead to heated public debate and appeals. In a healthy democracy, both are positive outcomes. We should all agree, however, that every person who has answered the call to serve deserves our gratitude and respect. For, as Elmer Davis observed, ‘[t]his nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.’ The Court extends its appreciation to every current servicemember and veteran. Thank you,” the judge concluded her opinion.
There are currently 4,240 active-duty, National Guard and Reserve service members who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a defense official previously told ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — The National Archives on Tuesday released thousands of pages of declassified records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
The records were posted to the National Archives’ website, joining recently released records posted in 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2017-2018.
Most of what the government released tonight is not new — in fact, much of what has attracted attention on social media and in news reports has long been in the public domain, except for minor redactions, such as the blacking out of personally-identifiable information of CIA sources or employees, including names and addresses, which have now been disclosed.
But the newly-declassified versions of these documents also shed light on granular details of mid-20th century espionage that the CIA had fiercely fought to keep secret. President Biden and President Trump had accepted those arguments, until now.
Tuesday’s initial release contained 1,123 records comprising 32,000 pages. A subsequent release on Tuesday night contained 1,059 records comprising 31,400 additional pages and key takeaways from the newly released tranche of previously classified records.
Surveillance
Several of the newly-released pages detail how the CIA went about tapping telephones in Mexico City between in December 1962 and January 1963 to monitor the communications of the Soviets and Cubans at their diplomatic facilities, which Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald visited in the months before the assassination.
The previously-redacted pages spell out specific instructions for CIA operatives on how to wiretap, including the use of certain chemicals to create markings on telephone devices that could only be seen by other spies under UV light.
For decades, the CIA has urged the continued secrecy of these details out of fear that they would reveal the methods of the agency’s spy craft.
Another newly-disclosed portion details CIA surveillance of Soviet embassies in Mexico City and efforts to recruit double agents from Soviet agency personnel — and reveal the names and positions of those who were recruited.
The CIA officials writing these memos tout the efficacy of their efforts, with one trumpeting, “I cannot help but feel that we are buying a great deal for our money in this project.”
The memo also details the CIA’s surveillance of an American man described as a Communist living in Mexico. The bulk of the memo is a listing of phone numbers that were tapped by the U.S. government. This file has long been sought by researchers due to Oswald’s visits to the Soviet and Cuban embassies in Mexico City, but the document includes no mention of Oswald by name.
Cuba and Castro
The material shed new light on U.S. covert activities in Cuba targeting revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.
Unredacted text of a June 1961 memo on the CIA — sent to Kennedy by aide Arthur Schlesinger Jr. — contained harsh criticism of the spy agency just months after its backing of the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion.
Some of the other documents also detailed operations to potentially overthrow Castro. One 1964 document showed that two intelligence assets discussed potentially assassinating Castro under the administration of President Lyndon Johnson.
The document said the CIA was allegedly “formerly in favor of such a plan,” but it was “shelved” due to the opposition of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
Another previously released document detailed RFK being briefed on potential plans to kill Castro. “RFK asks to be told before the CIA works with the Mafia again,” a footnote of the document read.
CIA foreign footprint
Schlesinger had also argued to Kennedy that the CIA’s reliance on “controlled American sources” had been encroaching on the traditional functions of the State Department, and that the CIA may have been seeking to infiltrate the politics of America’s allies.
At the U.S. embassy in Paris, for example, Schlesinger wrote that the “CIA has even sought to monopolize contact with certain French political personalities, among them the President of the National Assembly,”
Newly declassified portions of Schlesinger’s notes also revealed the number of CIA sources in Austria and Chile.
RFK killing
The release included 77 documents regarding RFK, with most of the documents relating to his activities as attorney general and senator, totaling about 2,500 pages.
Of those, only two directly mentioned his assassination in 1968. An intelligence document from 1968 — previously released in 2018 — discusses how RFK’s assassination stoked interest in his brother’s assassination and New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison’s investigation into the matter.
“The forthcoming trial of Sirhan, accused of the murder of Senator Kennedy, can be expected to cause a new wave of criticism and suspicion against the United States, claiming once more the existence of a sinister ‘political murder conspiracy,'” the dispatch said.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is lashing out again against the top federal judge of the Washington, D.C. circuit, who issued an order stopping deportation flights of alleged gang members under the Alien Enemies Act.
“If a President doesn’t have the right to throw murderers, and other criminals, out of our Country because a Radical Left Lunatic Judge wants to assume the role of President, then our Country is in very big trouble, and destined to fail!” Trump wrote early Wednesday morning in a post on Truth Social, reacting to U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s order on Saturday to stop deportation flights that were already in the air.
It also comes after Trump called for Boasberg’s impeachment.
“Many people have called for his impeachment, the impeachment of this judge. I don’t know who the judge is, but he’s radical left,” Trump told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham in a Fox News interview on Tuesday.
“He was Obama-appointed, and he actually said we shouldn’t be able to take criminals, killers, murderers, horrible, the worst people, gang members, gang leaders, that we shouldn’t be allowed to take them out of our country,” Trump said. “That’s not for a local judge to be making that determination.”
In the wake of Trump’s call for impeachment, Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts issued an unusual statement rebuking the move.”For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in the statement. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
Congress can impeach a judge if a simple majority is reached in the House. If the articles were taken up and ultimately clear the House, the Senate would need to hold a trial. It would require a two-thirds majority vote in the upper chamber to convict a judge.
It’s rare, but not unprecedented, for members of Congress to file articles of impeachment against a judge.
Trump, meanwhile, brushed off Roberts’ criticism, saying, “He didn’t mention my name in the statement. I just saw it quickly. He didn’t mention my name.”
