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(NEW YORK) — Attorneys for Donald Trump are expected back in court on Monday to defend the $175 million bond in the former president’s civil fraud case, days after New York Attorney General Letitia James urged the court to reject the bond and give Trump seven days to find a new one.

Judge Arthur Engoron ordered the hearing earlier this month after James took exception to the bond and asked the company behind the bond — Knight Specialty Insurance Company — to prove they are sufficiently collateralized to pay the bond if Trump’s appeal of the $464 million judgment fails.

The bond hearing presents a legal double-header for the former president, who is required to attend the opening statements in his criminal hush money trial on Monday morning. Down the street from the criminal courthouse, Judge Engoron will hear arguments that could place the former president in financial dire straits if the bond is rejected.

Trump’s bond saga began in February when Engoron ordered the former president and his co-defendants to pay $464 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest for engaging in what he found to be a decade of business fraud. Trump attempted to delay the fine, telling an appellate court that finding a surety willing to handle a half-billion-dollar bond was a “practical impossibility.”

James vowed to begin seizing Trump’s assets, including his namesake buildings, if he did not pay the judgment in time.

“If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets,” James said in an interview with ABC News.

At the deadline for Trump to pay the judgment, New York’s Appellate Division First Department granted the former president’s 11th-hour request to reduce the size of his bond, permitting the him to post a bond of $175 million.

Days later, Trump and his co-defendants posted a $175 million bond collateralized using $175,304,075 held in a Charles Schwab brokerage account controlled by the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust.

Because the company behind the bond was not admitted in New York, James filed a notice that requires Knight Speciality Insurance to demonstrate they are capable of paying the bond if needed.

“KSIC is a respected, well-capitalized, Delaware-domiciled insurer that has long underwritten surety bonds and other types of insurance placed around the country,” attorneys for Knight Speciality Insurance and Trump wrote in a filing last week.

The filing specified that the bond was secured by more than $175 billion held in a brokerage account controlled by Knight, which independently maintained more than $539 million in their own assets. The filing also stated that the company has access to more than $2 billion in assets through their parent company.

“By any standard, KSIC has therefore provided assurance to the Plaintiff judgment creditor that she can collect the designated amount if the award is affirmed on appeal,” the filing said.

In a filing on Friday, the New York Attorney General argued that the bond itself should be rejected because the defendants failed to prove that Knight could handle “this extraordinarily large undertaking” and that the bond was sufficiently collateralized.

According to James’ filing, Knight does not have the exclusive right to control the money in Trump’s brokerage account, which could become problematic if the value of Trump’s assets in the account dips below $175 million. James also raised issues with Knight’s business practices, which she argued should make the company ineligible to do business in New York.

“KSIC is not qualified to act as the surety under this standard because its management has been found by federal authorities to have operated affiliated companies within KSIC’s holding company structure in violation of federal law on multiple occasions within the past several years,” the filing said.

Don Hankey — the chairman of Knight Specialty’s parent company — declined to comment on the attorney general’s recent filing on Friday.

In an interview with ABC News on April 4, he said he had “no concerns at all” about the bond.

“Seldom do our applications or our bonds get turned down. I imagine it is being scrutinized very carefully, and they’re checking to make sure all the i’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed,” Hankey said. “It’s a large amount for anybody.”

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(LOS ANGELES) — A suspected intruder was arrested early Sunday morning after a break-in at the home of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, according to police.

“Around 6:40 AM this morning an individual smashed a window to gain entry into the Getty House while occupied,” the LAPD PIO said in a statement on X.

Bass and her family reside at the Getty House in the Hancock Park neighborhood in Los Angeles.

The mayor’s office tells ABC News Bass was one of the occupants who was at home when the intruder broke in, but did not specify if she had an interaction with the suspect.

“There were no injuries to the occupants during this incident,” LAPD wrote, adding, “The suspect was taken into custody without incident.”

Authorities said late Sunday night that the suspect, who was identified as Ephraim Matthew Hunter, 29, was booked on a felony burglary charge. His bail was set at $100,000.

It was not immediately clear if Hunter had a legal representative.

Police said the investigation is ongoing.

Following the break-in, Bass’ Deputy Mayor of Communications Zach Seidl released a statement, saying, “The Mayor is grateful to LAPD for responding and arresting the suspect.”

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(NEW YORK) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams addressed the ongoing protests at Columbia University, condemning examples of antisemitism and hate speech in a statement Sunday.

“I am horrified and disgusted with the antisemitism being spewed at and around the Columbia University campus,” Adams said.

Protests over the Israel-Hamas war continued at the University campus in Upper Manhattan for the fifth day on Sunday, which has led to the arrest of over 100 people, according to police.

“I have instructed the NYPD to investigate any violation of law that is reported,” Adams said. “Rest assured, the NYPD will not hesitate to arrest anyone who is found to be breaking the law.”

Mayor Adams called out specific examples of hate speech, such as, “a young woman holding a sign with an arrow pointing to Jewish students stating ‘Al-Qasam’s Next Targets, or another where a woman is literally yelling ‘We are Hamas,’ or another where groups of students are chanting ‘We don’t want no Zionists here.'”

“I condemn this hate speech in the strongest of terms,” Adams said.

Columbia Chief Operating Officer Cas Holloway said in a post on the university website Sunday that the school was boosting “safety measures” on the Morningside campus.

“The gathering of large crowds on campus and around the Morningside perimeter are causing considerable disruption and distress,” Holloway wrote, noting the school would be upping security by 35 additional guards and two additional supervisors per shift; “enhanced perimeter security staffed by additional private security personnel”; and additional coverage at the Kraft Center over Passover.

On Thursday, demonstrators had occupied Columbia’s south lawn for over 30 hours “in violation of the university’s rules” and did not leave despite “numerous warnings,” Mayor Adams said at the time.

NYPD arrested 108 people for trespass without incident, officials said Thursday. Among those, two were also arrested for obstruction of governmental administration, officials said.

The protests, which began on April 17, followed Columbia University president Minouche Shafik’s testimony to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce about antisemitism on college campuses.

New York Rep. Elise Stefanik called for Shafik’s resignation on Sunday, saying Columbia University “failed to enforce their own campus rules and protect Jewish students on campus,” in a post on X, formally known as Twitter.

“While Columbia’s failed leadership spent hundreds of hours preparing for this week’s Congressional hearing, it clearly was an attempt to cover up for their abject failure to enforce their own campus rules and protect Jewish students on campus,” Stefanik wrote.

“President Shafik must immediately resign. And the Columbia Board must appoint a president who will protect Jewish students and enforce school policies,” Stefanik wrote.

In his statement Sunday, Adams acknowledged how the ongoing conflict in the Middle East “has left many of us grieving and angry.”

“New Yorkers have every right to express their sorrow, but that heartbreak does not give anyone the right to harass or threaten others or to physically harm someone they disagree with,” Adams said.

Mayor Adams recognized the heightened tensions in New York, as the Jewish community celebrates the beginning of Passover on Monday.

“As Mayor of the city with the largest Jewish community in the world outside of Israel, the pain these protests are causing Jews across the globe is not lost on me, especially as we start Passover tomorrow evening,” Adams said, noting, “I also see and hear the pain of those protesting in support of innocent lives being lost in Gaza.”

Concluding his statement, Adams said, “In this moment of heightened tension around the world, we stand united against hate.”

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(CHICAGO) — A Chicago police officer heading home from his shift early Sunday was shot and killed, the “victim of the type of crime he was working against,” the Chicago police superintendent said.

The slain 30-year-old officer was shot multiple times and had his car taken, Chicago Police Department Superintendent Larry Snelling said during a news conference Sunday morning.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson identified the slain officer as Luis M. Huesca, saying his death was the result of “an act of unconscionable gun violence in our city.”

“I met with Officer Huesca’s mother and uncle this morning and assured them that they have my full support as they deal with this unspeakable loss. Our city is grieving, and our condolences go out to their entire family as well as Luis’ fellow officers and community,” Johnson said in a post Sunday on X.

The mayor said Huesca worked in the police department’s 5th District as a member of the Priority Response Team.

Huesca was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, officials said.

Snelling said detectives are working to determine if the officer was gunned down during a carjacking.

“We can’t confirm that right now, but detectives are working through it. What we do know is that the officer’s vehicle was taken,” Snelling said. “But to get to the total motive of what happened, we need more information and the detective division is working on that.”

No arrests were announced.

The shooting unfolded around 2:53 a.m. on West 56th Street near South Kedzie Avenue in the Gage Park neighborhood, according to a police statement. Officers responding to a gunshot detection alert found the mortally wounded officer lying outside on the ground suffering from several gunshot wounds, according to the statement.

Snell said the officer, a six-year veteran of the CPD, was in his uniform, but with a jacket over it at the time he was shot.

“Our officer was headed home after his tour of duty,” Snelling said. “While returning home, the officer was shot multiple times.”

CPD said the shooting happened in the 8th Police District on the Southwest Side of the city.

“He was working hard out there to keep communities and to keep people safe, and today that officer was a victim of the type of crime that he was working against to keep people safe in this city,” Snelling said. “There’s a lot of violent crime out here and there are people who are brazen and cowardly in the way they go about their days and carry out these violent acts against the decent hardworking people of this city, who are just trying to live their lives the right way. It has to stop.”

Snelling said the officer is survived by his mother and an uncle.

“He was just a great officer, a great human being and his family is dealing with a lot right now. My condolences go out to the family. We really need to keep the family, his mother in our prayers,” Snelling said. “These are senseless, senseless crimes that are taking the lives of our community members. Today, one of our officers.”

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(LOS ANGELES) — A tram crash at Universal Studios Hollywood injured 15 people on Saturday night, the Los Angeles County Fire Department said.

The crash at the theme park “resulted in multiple minor injuries,” a spokesperson for the Studio City park said in a statement.

“We are working to support our guests and understand the circumstances that led to the accident,” the spokesperson said.

Fifteen people were transported to local hospitals with minor injures, fire officials said. First responders were dispatched to the park at about 9 p.m., officials said.

The California Highway Patrol will lead an investigation into the crash.

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(BALTIMORE) — A man was transported to the hospital with injuries after a fire and an explosion at a house in the suburbs east of Baltimore City, Maryland, a fire official said.

Fire crews responded to the two-alarm fire late Saturday, the Baltimore County Fire Department said in a statement on social media.

The house on Ridgemoor Road in Essex, Maryland, appeared in photos shared by the department to have been completely destroyed by the blast.

Crews were expected to be on the scene for “an extended period of time,” the department said. Hazmat and fire investigators had been on their way to the scene, officials said.

The injured man was transported to a local hospital with non life-threatening injuries, Lt. Twana Allen said in an email to ABC News.

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(GREENBELT, Md.) — Five teenagers were injured after gunfire rang out at a large gathering of high school students taking part in a senior skip day in Maryland, police said.

Officers from several law enforcement agencies were responding to help control a crowd of 500 to 600 students who had gathered in Schrom Hills Park in Greenbelt Friday afternoon when they heard multiple shots ring out, according to Greenbelt Police Chief Richard Bowers.

Five male victims ranging between the ages of 16 and 18 were located with gunshot wounds, Bowers said. All five victims were transported to local hospitals.

Three victims were released from the hospital and the sole victim listed as critical has been upgraded to stable condition, Greenbelt Police said Saturday.

A suspect in the shooting is believed to have fled the park when the crowd dispersed following the gunfire and has not been located at this time, Bowers said. Police believe there was only one shooter, he said.

The police chief called the shooting a “horrible, tragic, senseless act.”

“These were kids on senior skip day who were looking to have a good time in a local park, and to have something like this occur is just maddening,” Bowers said.

The students had initially gathered in Bowie, Maryland, for senior skip day and were asked to disperse by local law enforcement, a Greenbelt Police Department spokesperson told ABC News. Many of those students then moved to Schrom Hills Park, where they participated in a large water gun fight prior to the shooting, police said.

Greenbelt Mayor Emmett Jordan said the gathering was “informally organized” on social media.

“We don’t condone skipping school, but it’s the senior skip day,” Bowers said. “It’s just a tragedy.”

Students from multiple high schools in the area are believed to have been at the park, the chief said.

A motive remains unclear.

The shooting remains under investigation. Bowers urged anyone with footage from the incident to reach out to police. Investigators will also be looking over body-worn camera footage, he said.

“We know that the person involved is definitely on a camera somewhere,” Bowers said.

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(PARKLAND, Fla.) — Last month, Vice President Kamala Harris toured Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, site of a 2018 mass shooting, with families of the 17 victims of the massacre and vowed to do more to curb gun violence.

Fred Guttenberg, who lost his daughter Jaime in the shooting, was one of the parents who pushed for elected officials to take the tour and meet with the families about tackling gun violence.

He spoke with ABC News’ Rachel Scott shortly after the visit.

ABC NEWS LIVE: I do want to start with you telling me about your push to get the vice president here. Where did that come from?

FRED GUTTENBERG: I guess about 10 months ago, when the building was turned over from the state attorney to the school district, one of the other dads, Max Schachter, had this idea of walking through political people to see what’s happening in that building, or what happened in that building.

The blood is still there, the DNA is still there. The shards of glass are still there, the books and all the coursework, it’s still out there on the desks as if the kids just went out for a fire drill. It’s all still there. And we wanted to walk people through so that they could receive the lessons of why something like this happened. And a day of mass carnage, leading to 17 dead and 17 injured, but not only why it happened [but also] what kinds of things can we do to stop the next one.

And I reached out to the Office of Gun Violence Prevention folks, which are an amazing group of people, and the vice president’s office, and I told them what we were doing. And I said, “I’d really like you all to come.”

This was scheduled to be a three-hour day. She was here, not three hours, [but] almost five.

Because she wanted to know about those we lost. She wanted to know about the work that we’re doing.

Today was an incredibly consequential, meaningful day.

ABC NEWS LIVE: You told me that this building is going to be demolished.

GUTTENBERG: Yeah.

ABC NEWS LIVE: And that this was sort of the final chapter.

GUTTENBERG: The final lesson.

ABC NEWS LIVE: The final lesson.

GUTTENBERG: Yeah.

The vice president can now go forward and talk specifically about what she saw in this building and relate it to what she needs to do [and] what we need to do as a country. Whether it’s on gun safety policy, whether it’s on school construction, any of those things. She saw it today. She can talk about it now.

ABC NEWS LIVE: What do you believe needs to be done? We know that the president signed the most comprehensive gun safety legislation into law in decades. But still, that did not go as far as the president and the vice president were hoping.

GUTTENBERG: I wish we could have gone further. And I hope people vote in the next election to ensure we get to go further. But it went, and it got a lot of things done. I’ll give you this. I’ll just tell you this, for the first time in months, the homicide rate related to gun violence, for the first time in years, is trending down. I was just at the FBI facility in West Virginia, where they conduct threat assessment and background checks last month. And they’re doing the new enhanced under 21 background checks which are a part of that legislation. And they were talking about the abundance of young people now that they’ve been able to stop from getting a weapon because of that new enhanced under-21 background check.

Red flag laws save lives. Let me be clear, had a red flag law been in place in Florida before February 14, 2018, in all likelihood, this shooting never happens. Had a red flag law been in place before February 14, 2018, I’d be visiting my daughter at the University of Florida, not at a cemetery.

ABC NEWS LIVE: I do want to ask you about your daughter and just what we should know about her and how you have been able to cope with the loss of a daughter so young.

GUTTENBERG: My daughter will forever be the toughest person I ever knew. And if you saw the way she died on the third floor, running down the hallway for her life, because she got locked out of a room – knowing there was a shooter at her back with an AR-15. And she made it to within 1 second of her life, turning into the stairwell.

It does not surprise me that she was fighting for her life that way. She’s the toughest person I’ve ever known. I get through every day because she stands on my shoulders pushing me forward. I get through every day because I know no matter how hard this fight is, I will never ever, ever have anything as hard as what she did running down that hallway.

I am her voice now. My daughter was 14 when she was killed. Forever 14. She should be 20 now.

And I have a dream now of ending gun violence in America and I’m dedicating my life to it.

ABC NEWS LIVE: You’ve been through that building. You’ve walked that hall. What was that like for you?

GUTTENBERG: When you walk through it, you see the blood of the victims still there. You see DNA of the victims. It’s still there.

I sat in the spot where my daughter took her last breath. And for me, it’s something I’ll never ever get over, I’ll never comprehend how it was possible. I’ll never forgive those who failed to deal with the reality of gun violence, because we were listening to too many of the wrong people. And I will do everything I can to ensure we fire every single elected person who continues to fail on this issue. All I want to do is stop the next one.

ABC NEWS LIVE: We are now in a critical election year. What do you want Americans to know heading into this election year?

GUTTENBERG: What I want America to know is there is only one president and vice presidential candidate – they’re the ones running for re-election, President [Joe] Biden and Vice President Harris, who stand for doing something about gun violence

So here’s what I want America to know. This is not an election to sit home. If you’re any of the many people across this country who think I’m gonna stay home on my couch, I don’t need to vote. Yes, you do. Let me be clear: If there’s anybody in your life that you love, and because of that, you want to reduce gun violence, you know how to vote and you know you need to vote.

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(LITTLETON, Colo.) — When 12 students and one teacher were gunned down in a mass shooting at Columbine High School in 1999, the tragic event marked a turning point for America.

Twenty five years later, some survivors recall how they have dealt with the physical and mental impact of PTSD, anxiety and depression.

“It’s a big part of my identity and who I am and not necessarily that day, but more who I’ve become,” Heather Martin, a Columbine survivor, told ABC News Live. “And a large part of that is because of the aftermath overcoming.”

America endured school shootings before Columbine, but never one quite like the April 20, 1999, shooting.

“We didn’t have any context for a school shooting, couldn’t name a school shooting,” teacher Kiki Leyba a survivor, said.

According to an ABC News review of the Gun Violence Archive, a website that tracks all shootings in the United States, 415 people have been killed in school shootings since the Columbine attacks. As of April 2, 2024, 907 have been wounded.

The Columbine High School shooting was one of the first instances where authorities brought in psychological experts to help the survivors cope with PTSD.

It took 47 minutes for SWAT teams to enter the school after the shooting started. It took five hours for law enforcement to declare the school under control.

“What we learned over the time was, certainly back then, you know, it was surround, wait for SWAT,” Grant Whitus, one of the first SWAT officers to run inside Columbine High School, said. “But later on, everybody was going in. So that’s what we were teaching. You get in small group of people, we first started with four, you first four go immediately. Then it cut down to one- and two-man’s response to the active shooter. But no matter what, the first person was through that door, engaging the shooter. At least, they may not be able to take him out, but he can’t be off shooting people when he’s in a firefight with the cops.”

The survivors of that day say they have suffered from trauma for 25 years, and the tragedy still haunts them.

“That six weeks of therapy after it initially started, I received the insomnia diagnosis as well as the question of PTSD,” Melissa Missy Mendo said. “Somebody had asked my mom, you know, ‘Why did you feel that Melissa was going to be, or that Missy was going to be different?’ And she said ‘I knew this: It was going to be different because she was 14 years old, sleeping with her shoes on in between her parents every night for weeks.'”

As the years passed, the survivors of the shooting sought to connect with like-minded individuals who could understand their pain. In a snowball effect of grief and loss, the survivors of the Columbine shooting became the first modern iteration of mass shooting survivors. They found solace in their similarities in a group that only grew.

The Columbine group connected with other mass shooting survivors, such as survivors from the Aurora movie theater shooting in 2012 and the Washington Navy Yard shooting in 2013.

The group calls themselves The Rebels Project, a network of people who support one another across the country.

“I feel fortunate to have a large survivor network from The Rebels Project because there were other moms in there that had gone through it,” Mendo said. “And they were like, when you start to talk to them about them, make sure that it’s going to be age appropriate and make sure that it’s situational. Because the story you want to give them at the beginning is going to be something that they can understand.”

While the former students, now adults, are using unity to move forward, the teachers nearing retirement are handling their past experiences differently. Retired Columbine High School Principal Frank DeAngelis is embracing the lessons he learned from the tragic incident and using them to teach others.

He is a safety and emergency management adviser for the school district and travels the world, sharing his 25 years of experience.

“Every morning before my feet hit the ground, I recite the names of my beloved [students]: Cassie Bernell, Stephen Curnow, Corey DePooter, Kelly Fleming, Matt Kechter, Daniel Mauser, Danny Rohrbough, Dave Sanders, Rachel Scott, Isaiah Shoels, John Tomlin, and Lauren Townsend. They give me the inspiration to do what I’m doing right now,” DeAngelis said. “I’m going to continue doing it because I am not going to allow them to die in vain, along with all the other students and staff members who have lost their lives. And that’s a promise that I can guarantee.”

Before his retirement in 2014, DeAngelis said he had to check himself into the emergency room over 10 times because of anxiety attacks. He added that he was able to reduce the frequency of his attacks by consoling former students who faced similar problems.

On April 20, 1999, the survivors who shared their experiences with ABC News described it as the worst day of their lives. However, 25 years later, they said some positive outcomes have emerged. One of them is the bond the survivors share with each other and the strength they derive from it. One survivor said some outstanding individuals are really tough, capable of enduring challenging situations and fighting through them.

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(LOS ANGELES) — Amid the decision to cancel this year’s valedictorian speech, the University of Southern California announced it would be eliminating all outside speakers and honorees from its main-stage commencement taking place next month.

In a memo released on Friday, the university said, “To keep the focus on our graduates, we are redesigning the commencement program. Given the highly publicized circumstances surrounding our main-stage commencement program, university leadership has decided it is best to release our outside speakers and honorees from attending this year’s ceremony.”

Scheduled keynote speakers included USC alumnus filmmaker Jon M. Chu, director of “Crazy Rich Asians” and “Wicked.” Sports icon Billie Jean King was also scheduled to speak.

Asna Tabassum, a first-generation South Asian-American Muslim, was scheduled to give a commencement speech on May 10. School administrators, however, decided to cancel her speech citing safety concerns.

USC said the decision was based on potential threats regarding the selection of the valedictorian.

“After careful consideration, we have decided that our student valedictorian will not deliver a speech at commencement,” provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs at USC, Andrew T. Guzman, said in a letter to students on Monday. “While this is disappointing, tradition must give way to safety.”

The college senior spoke about the situation with ABC News Live’s Phil Lipof on Wednesday.

“The valedictorian honor is ultimately a unifying honor, right? It’s emblematic of USC’s unifying values. And I think I take that to heart.”

“I wanted my speech to be in the genre of a valedictory speech, and so that being said, I wanted to impart a message of hope. I also wanted to impart a message of responsibility,” Tabassum said to Lipof.

USC — which expects a crowd of 65,000 for the commencement festivities on May 10 — said the focus of the ceremony should be “on the tremendous accomplishments of our 19,000-plus graduates, their friends, their families, and the staff and faculty who have been such a critical part of their journeys.”

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