(NEW YORK) — Extreme heat is gripping the Midwest before moving into the Northeast.
Chicago is in the center of an excessive heat warning that stretches north to Madison, Wisconsin, and south to Springfield, Illinois.
The heat index — what temperature it feels like with humidity — soared to a scorching 114 degrees in Chicago on Tuesday. Chicago’s actual temperature hit 98 degrees, breaking the city’s daily record of 97 degrees.
In Detroit, public school students were released three hours early on Tuesday due to the heat.
Next, the dangerous temperatures will move east.
On Wednesday, the heat index is forecast to climb to 104 degrees in Nashville, Tennessee; 100 degrees in Indianapolis; 105 in Philadelphia; and 103 in Washington, D.C.
D.C. may hit a new record-high actual temperature of 100 degrees.
By Thursday, the Northeast will cool down. But temperatures will stay in the 90s in the South as the week ends.
There are hundreds of deaths each year in the U.S. due to excessive heat, according to CDC WONDER, an online database, and scientists caution that the actual number of heat-related deaths is likely higher.
Last year marked the most heat-related deaths in the U.S. on record, according to JAMA, a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Medical Association.
Click here for tips on how to stay safe in the heat.
(ATLANTA) — Two workers were killed and one was seriously injured in an accident at Delta Air Lines’ Atlanta Technical Operations Maintenance facility at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, according to Delta TechOps.
Details surrounding Tuesday morning’s accident were not clear, but Delta TechOps said the incident took place at its wheel and brake shop.
Delta said the accident involved a tire and components within the tire. The wheel was not attached to an airplane or near an airplane at the time of the accident, according to Delta.
“We are extending our full support to their families at this difficult time and conducting an investigation to determine what happened,” John Laughter, executive vice president, chief of operations and president of Delta TechOps, said in a statement. “This news is heartbreaking for all of us. [Employee assistance program] resources will be onsite at the [Atlanta Technical Operations Maintenance facility] to support our teams as long as needed.”
The incident had no impact on airport operations, according to airport officials.
Delta said it’s “working with local authorities and conducting a full investigation to determine what happened.”
The airline added it’s “heartbroken” and “grateful for the quick action of first responders and medical teams on site.”
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said, “I offer my deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased Delta employees. My thoughts are also with those who were injured, and I hope for their swift and full recovery.”
Police, fire and airport teams are at the scene, the mayor said.
Atlanta airport officials also offered their condolences.
ABC News’ Ayesha Ali and Sam Sweeney contributed to this report.
(PARK CITY, Utah.) — A Utah judge ruled Tuesday that the case of Kouri Richins, the Utah mother accused of murdering her husband with a lethal dose of fentanyl, will go to trial.
The 34-year-old realtor and mother of three, who wrote and self-published a children’s book on grieving following her husband’s death, was arrested last year following a lengthy investigation. She was charged with aggravated murder and drug charges in connection with the 2022 death of her husband, Eric Richins.
Eric Richins, 39, was found dead in the couple’s bedroom on March 4, 2022. An autopsy determined he died from fentanyl intoxication, and the level of fentanyl in his blood was approximately five times the lethal dosage, according to the charging document. The medical examiner determined the fentanyl was “illicit fentanyl,” not medical grade, according to the charging document.
Following a two-day preliminary hearing, Judge Richard Mrazik said Tuesday that the prosecution had shown probable cause for the charges of aggravated murder and distribution of a controlled substance.
He said the prosecution had also shown probable cause that she attempted aggravated murder on Feb. 14, 2022, after the state claimed she gave him a sandwich laced with fentanyl — a first, failed attempt to kill him, prosecutors allege.
Mrazik further said the prosecutors submitted sufficient evidence to support a reasonable belief that Kouri Richins had fraudulently secured a life insurance policy on her husband’s death in January 2022 and “had a significant financial incentive to secure his death because she would do better under the premarital agreement if he were dead and her businesses were highly leveraged,” Mrazik said.
A not guilty plea to all charges was entered on her behalf in court on Tuesday.
Prosecutors have alleged Kouri Richins was having an affair and was deeply in debt when she procured illicit fentanyl and attempted to kill her husband a month before he died by poisoning an egg sandwich on Valentine’s Day. He died by a lethal dose of fentanyl on the night of March 3, 2022, according to the probable cause statement in the charging document.
Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth claimed during probable cause arguments in court on Tuesday that Kouri Richins administered the fatal dose of fentanyl in a “lemon shot” so that Eric Richins would “throw it back all at once.”
“She says that in her journal article,” he said. “She learns that it takes a truckload of fentanyl to kill him. She learns that one bite in the sandwich isn’t enough. It has to be administered at once, and it has to be a lot. And that’s why Eric Richins’ toxicology shows five times the lethal amount in his blood and 20,000 nanograms per millimeter remaining in his gastro fluid.”
Her defense, meanwhile, charged there was no evidence she attempted to poison her husband in either instance.
“You have a claim that Mr. Richins was poisoned on [Feb. 14, 2022]. There is no medical evidence. There is no there is no connection, there is no causation, there is nothing but pure speculation that because they believe she tried to kill him and successfully killed him in March, that that must mean she tried it before,” defense attorney Kathy Nester said.
Kouri Richins was also charged with multiple counts of forgery, insurance fraud and mortgage fraud. Prosecutors allege she forged her husband’s signature on an insurance application weeks before he died. The insurance policy, which became effective 10 days before the alleged Valentine’s Day poisoning, had a death benefit of $100,000, according to the charging document.
During the two-day preliminary hearing, prosecutors presented three witnesses, including a detective on the case who spoke to the alleged drug dealer. A cell mapping expert also testified Kouri Richins texted about 30 times in since-deleted messages with an alleged drug dealer leading up to Valentine’s Day 2022. A financial fraud expert also testified about the defendant’s “increasing” debt load from her home-flipping business.
The defense, meanwhile, seized on the fact that detectives never looked at or interviewed other possible suspects in Eric Richins’ death, that there were no pills found in the family’s home and statements detectives made to the alleged drug dealer, a convicted felon, about working with the prosecutor’s office to reduce charges in exchange for information on Eric Richins’ death.
The defense also claimed the cell mapping expert’s data was unreliable.
Bloodworth said there’s evidence Kouri Richins texted her paramour on Feb. 15, 2022, the day after the alleged Valentine’s Day incident, that “if he could just go away … life would be so perfect.”
“And then two weeks later, she assured her paramour, life is going to be different. I promise, hang in there until Friday,” Bloodworth said. “On Friday, Eric Richards is dead.”
Nester argued the text from Feb. 15, 2022, was not proof of murder.
“I mean, this was not a perfect couple. They didn’t have the perfect relationship. But to take a context, one single text, and to say that that gives you a reasonable belief that she tried to kill him the day before, I don’t see the connection at all,” Nester said.
Kouri Richins waived her right to testify, and the defense did not call any witnesses.
Kouri Richins has remained in jail since her arrest in May 2023. She proclaimed her innocence in an audio recording released in May.
“The world has yet to hear who I really am, what I’ve really done or didn’t do,” Kouri Richins insisted in the audio, provided to ABC News through a trusted confidant. “What I really didn’t do is murder my husband.”
Prior to the preliminary hearing, Kouri Richins was appointed new attorneys by the court after her defense filed a motion in May to withdraw from the case due to an “irreconcilable and nonwaivable situation.”
Her defense at the time had also filed a motion asking the court to disqualify prosecutors for what they alleged was gross misconduct, including the claim the state recorded and listened to privileged calls between Kouri Richins and her attorney.
Prosecutors in a statement called the motion “materially inaccurate” and charged it was “filed in bad faith.”
The judge denied the motion to remove the prosecution earlier this month.
A month prior to her arrest in May 2023, the mom of three appeared on a “Good Things Utah” segment on Salt Lake City ABC affiliate KTVX to promote her book. In the segment, Kouri Richins said her husband of nine years died “unexpectedly” and that his death “completely took us all by shock.”
(NEW YORK) — Longtime Defense Department researcher Luis “Lue” Elizondo has become well-known for reporting the existence of UFOs (unidentified flying objects), now known as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs).
In his new book, “Imminent: Inside the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs,” which is available now, former Pentagon insider Elizondo invites the reader into this hidden world.
He joined ABC News’ Stephanie Ramos to discuss why he decided to write the book, government secrecy around UAPs, official comments on these phenomena and some of his own unusual experiences.
ABC NEWS: Unidentified flying objects have fueled decades of speculation and conspiracy theories. In his new book, “Imminent: Inside the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs,” longtime Defense Department researcher Lue Elizondo, the former head of the Pentagon program responsible for the investigation of UFOs, now known as unidentified anomalous phenomena, reveals long hidden truths with profound implications for not only national security, but our understanding of the universe.
Joining us now is Lue Elizondo. Thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it. So “Imminent” tells the story of your courageous fight to make public what the government knows and doesn’t know about UAPs. What made you want to write about this?
ELIZONDO: Yeah, well, I wanted to be able to tell the American public my experiences and what the government has been doing for a very long time, not just when I was in the program, but for decades about the government’s interest in UFOs or now what we call UAP. You’re absolutely right, unidentified anomalous phenomenon. The fact is, they’re real and they are a national security issue for this country.
ABC NEWS: And it’s so interesting because many, many years ago I worked at the Pentagon for ABC, and I remember getting a tour of some of the hallways and, and somebody said “Oh, that’s where they study UFOs, UAPs. But it’s top secret.” Like that’s all they would say. So there’s this secrecy approach to all of this, right?
You write in your book, “While there are valid reasons for secrecy around some aspects of UAPs. I do not think humanity should be kept in the dark about the fundamental fact that we are not the only intelligent life in the universe.” So why do you think the United States government and other major governments have taken a secrecy approach to UAPs?
ELIZONDO: Sure. I think if we look at this, temporally speaking, the U.S. government, when we started really looking at this, was at the height of the Cold War. And you had this contentious relationship at best with then-Soviet Union.
And what we didn’t want to do was necessarily tip our hand to any information, perhaps, that we’ve gleaned from UAP or UFOs and, certainly, perhaps any information gaps or maybe information that we don’t know about the UFOs. So that’s one reason. And then I think the other reason is that governments inherently are responsible for ensuring the protection of their people, their citizens.
ABC NEWS: So Lue, for those who may be skeptical and are thinking “Nope, there’s no such thing as UFOs, it’s non-existent.” And you’re here to tell us that there is fact and research that they do exist.
ELIZONDO: Let’s not forget, Stephanie, that we’ve had already a former director of national intelligence, a former director of the CIA, and even a former president of the United States all come out on the record and say “Yeah, looks like these things are real.”
Our very best, most sophisticated technology is picking these things up. We also have eyewitness testimony from our trained observers, our combat pilots. And then you’ve also got the radar data all basically substantiating the same event at the same time, at the same place, under the same circumstances.
ABC NEWS: And so much technology that’s been analyzed and researched. Now, let’s talk about your own personal experience. You mentioned in this book that UAPs have appeared both in and around your home. How did these personal experiences influence your views on UAP and what exactly did you see?
ELIZONDO: Yeah, sure. So first of all, let me preface. We’re not sure if they are actually UAP-related. What we do know is that a lot of people that were in the program that I was in also had very similar encounters while they were in the program.
So not before or not after, but during the time that we were researching these UAP and from our experience, when I say ours, I mean my families and even our neighbors, witnessed some of these – are these luminous green balls of light. Very diffuse in nature. No hard edges. That would just seem to kind of peruse the house and go down the hall and go through a wall.
I know it sounds rather bizarre. And look, there are absolutely possible natural explanations, right? You could say ball lightning or Saint Elmo’s fire or some sort of plasma static charge in the air. But the bottom line is, it was very bizarre. It was witnessed by not only my family, but again, neighbors and other individuals who were part of our effort, and the government, also experienced, very, very similar encounters at their residences.
ABC NEWS: Absolutely fascinating. Thank you so much Lue, for sharing your experience and for documenting what you know and what you think we should all know in your book, “Imminent: Inside the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs,” which is available now to purchase. Thanks Lue.
(NEW YORK) — Before he allegedly killed four members of his family with a pump-action shotgun, a New York auto mechanic displayed obvious signs of distress and issued threats that were the talk of his neighborhood, but police said no one told them.
The quadruple homicide in the Long Island town of Syosset might have been avoided had someone with knowledge of the mental health issues 59-year-old Joseph DeLucia Jr. exhibited leading up to Sunday’s killing had called 911.
“As a community, we hear things, we know things, we see things. If we don’t say something, sometimes the outcomes are like what we got [Sunday],” Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said at a news conference on Monday.
Ryder said if police had known of DeLucia’s condition, they might have been able to enforce New York’s “red flag” laws, enabling them to seize the Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun before he allegedly used it to fatally shoot his family members and himself.
The commissioner said a preliminary investigation found that there was talk in that community about the distress DeLucia was under after his mother, whom he lived with at the family home on Wyoming Avenue up to her death from natural causes on Aug. 19.
The victims were identified by police as Joanne Kearns, 69, of Tampa, Florida; Frank DeLucia, 64, of Durham, North Carolina; Tina Hammond, 64, and her daughter, Victoria Hammond, 30, both of Patchogue, New York.
The killings unfolded while DeLucia and his relatives were gathered Sunday at the family home to meet with a realtor about selling the residence over his objections, police investigators said.
DeLucia had allegedly become upset that he was going to be displaced from the home he had lived in his entire life without another place to go, officials said, citing preliminary information gathered by detectives.
Ryder said homicide investigators are probing unconfirmed reports that DeLucia had voiced threats to neighbors about using a gun to commit violence. He said neighbors told homicide detectives that days before the shooting DeLucia made threatening statements, saying, “If you hear gunshots, don’t bother calling 911. It’s going to be too late.”
“These are things that are disturbing to us in law enforcement. We open up so many avenues to use for help. Call 911, call the local precinct, or come down and visit us and talk to us. We will keep it anonymous,” Ryder said. “There are laws that are put in place to make sure individuals that are suffering through some mental health issues or current stress that we can remove weapons, like the ‘red flag’ laws.”
The shooting unfolded just before noon on Sunday when a 911 call was made by a neighbor reporting that DeLucia, who police said worked as a mechanic for a local auto dealer, had shot himself on the front lawn of his home, said Detective Capt. Stephen Fitzpatrick of the Nassau County Police Department’s homicide squad.
After finding DeLucia on the front lawn, officers discovered four bodies in a den at the back of the residence, Fitzpatrick said. He said all of the victims had been shot multiple times and that the gunman likely reloaded the shotgun during the killings.
“He did have past mental issues, psychological issues that were reported to us that we still have not confirmed,” Fitzpatrick said.
Fitzpatrick said that DeLucia was not only distressed and panicked about being displaced from a home he had lived in his entire life, the suspect also thought he was being cut out of his mother’s will, a belief other relatives told investigators was inaccurate.
“Because of that perception, [DeLucia] decided that day to get a loaded Mossberg shotgun, 12 gauge, approach them in the rear area of the house and from the kitchen fired 12 shots striking all four of them multiple times,” Fitzpatrick said at Monday’s news conference. “He then took the weapon, went out onto the front lawn, was shouting indiscriminately about what had happened. A neighbor heard him doing this, called 911 and that was our 911 caller. He then self-inflicted a shot to the chest and killed himself.”
Fitzpatrick said police records showed officers had been called to the house once before in 2022 to conduct a welfare check on DeLucia.
“He was not displaying any signs of anything that we would take action and take him against his will, that he was dangerous to himself or others at the time,” said Fitzpatrick, adding that DeLucia also had a prior arrest on his record for driving while impaired in 1983.
Fitzpatrick said police are still investigating where and when DeLucia obtained the shotgun, which he said had not been modified and was a legal weapon. He said detectives have found no records showing DeLucia had a handgun permit.
New York enacted red flag laws in 2019 and Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a law in September 2023 strengthening the laws, also called Extreme Risk Orders of Protection. State records, according to the governor’s office, show that New York State Police filed 1,385 Extreme Risk Orders of Protection to seize 2,549 guns in 2023.
Besides New York, 20 other states have enacted red flag laws within the past six years.
Commissioner Ryder said the lesson that should be taken from Sunday’s massacre is to “speak up.”
“This is 2024. We will protect you, we will protect your identity,” Ryder said. “Tell us what you hear. Tell us what you see.”
The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office released this Ring camera still of Stanley Kotowski in the clothes he was last seen wearing before going missing. (Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office)
(NEW YORK) — Authorities in South Carolina said they have found the body of an endangered Massachusetts man who went missing over a week ago while vacationing with his family on Hilton Head Island.
Stanley Kotowski, 60, had not been seen since leaving his family’s vacation rental in Sea Pines the morning of Aug. 16, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office incident report. He had been experiencing a mental health crisis prior to his disappearance, authorities said.
His body was found under a home in a crawl space in Sea Pines on Monday, upward of 600 feet from where he was last seen, the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office said. His cause of death was asphyxiation by hanging and it has been ruled a suicide, Beaufort County Coroner David Ott said during a press briefing on Tuesday.
Authorities responded to the home around 11:30 a.m. Monday “in connection to suspicious activity,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. A Sea Pines security officer who was walking in the neighborhood noticed a “foul odor” and flies in the area and contacted the sheriff’s office, Beaufort County Sheriff’s Lt. Eric Calendine told reporters Tuesday.
The body was recovered from a 3-foot-high crawl space about four hours later, the sheriff’s office said. Kotowski was determined to have died the day he went missing, though the exact time is undetermined, Ott said.
Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner called the discovery “deflating” following the massive search by deputies and the community for Kotowski.
“Just wish the outcome was different,” he told reporters Tuesday.
Tanner described the crawl space as “unusual” and its entry point as “very unique,” in explaining that he understood how it may have been missed during the search.
Kotowski was reported missing by his family about two hours after he was last seen, according to Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office Master Sgt. Daniel Allen. He was listed as endangered due to his mental state, the length of time he has been missing and because he was last seen on a Ring camera without any shoes on, Allen said.
According to the incident report, Jackie Kotowski told deputies her husband “believes Sea Pines is a ‘set up’ and has a conspiracy that the people here are out to get him.” She also reported he had made “several statements of people at this place ‘watching him,'” the incident report stated.
His wife also told deputies that, before he left, Stanley told her, “Promise me you will go on without me,” according to the incident report.
He had been struggling with anxiety before he went missing, his family told Savannah, Georgia, ABC affiliate WJCL following his disappearance.
“He had really bad insomnia for about a month. This is like a brand-new thing,” his wife, Jackie Kotowski, told WJCL. “He doesn’t have dementia. His anxiety just kept getting worse and worse and worse and he started to get a little paranoid, and he thought someone was chasing him.”
Kotowski had sought medical attention days before his disappearance for his mental health issues, according to Calendine.
He had not taken any personal items, such as his phone or wallet, when he left the rental, according to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
Tanner said they are not releasing the exact location where his body was recovered out of respect for those living and vacationing in the community.
Authorities thanked the community for their efforts in attempting to find Kotowski, including searching their properties and checking security cameras.
“I’m very thankful for the community itself for what they did during this whole endeavor,” Calendine said.
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
(ATLANTA) — Two workers were killed and one was seriously injured in an “accident” at Delta Air Lines’ Atlanta Technical Operations Maintenance facility at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, according to Delta TechOps.
Details surrounding Tuesday morning’s accident were not clear, but Delta TechOps said the incident took place at its wheel and brake shop.
“We are extending our full support to their families at this difficult time and conducting an investigation to determine what happened,” John Laughter, executive vice president, chief of operations and president of Delta TechOps, said in a statement. “This news is heartbreaking for all of us. [Employee assistance program] resources will be onsite at the [Atlanta Technical Operations Maintenance facility] to support our teams as long as needed.”
The incident had no impact on airport operations, according to airport officials.
Delta said it’s “working with local authorities and conducting a full investigation to determine what happened.”
The airline added it’s “heartbroken” and “grateful for the quick action of first responders and medical teams on site.”
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said, “I offer my deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased Delta employees. My thoughts are also with those who were injured, and I hope for their swift and full recovery.”
Police, fire and airport teams are at the scene, the mayor said.
(LOS ANGELES) — California officials are asking for help locating a 14-year-old mother, her newborn and her 15-year-old sister-in-law, all of whom haven’t been seen since Sunday night.
Amoria Brown, 14; her daughter Omoria Brown, 3 months old; and Sanaii Brown, 15, were last seen at around 10 p.m. Sunday and were believed to be headed to a high-desert area with family, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The newborn girl suffers from a heart condition and needs daily medication, according to the LAPD.
Amoria Brown is described as Black, 5-foot-4 and about 140 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. She was seen wearing a multicolored shirt, gray shorts and gray sandals, according to the LAPD.
Sanaii Brown is Black with brown hair and brown eyes. She is 5-foot-1 and weighs about 150 pounds, the LAPD said.
Police ask anyone with information about the teens and newborn to contact the LAPD at 1-800-222- 8477.
(FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla.) — A circuit court judge denied a former Florida deputy pre-trial release in connection with the shooting death of United States Air Force Sr. Airman Roger Fortson who was killed in his own home.
Rod Smith, the attorney for ex-deputy Eddie Duran, 38, who made his first court appearance Tuesday via Zoom, asked the court for Duran’s release until his next court appearance on Thursday at 12:30 p.m.
“I think he should be released now. We’ll be back Thursday. And there’s no reason to think – we’ve had this thing hanging over us since May,” Smith said. “We believe that he’s no risk, no flight risk. He’s going to show up there. He’s going to show up anytime.”
The state argued that Duran should not be granted pre-trial release because of a new Florida statute that requires him to stay in custody without bond as he is charged with a first-degree felony. The Okaloosa County Circuit Court judge told Duran that he would stay in jail until his next hearing.
Duran’s arrest on Monday comes after the Florida state attorney filed one count of manslaughter with a firearm against him on Friday. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 30 years.
Fortson, 23, was in his home in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, on May 3 when Duran responded to the apartment for a call reporting a domestic disturbance, according to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office. Fortson was alone in the apartment at the time, police said.
In body-worn camera footage released by the sheriff’s office, Fortson is seen holding a gun in his right hand with his arm extended downward and the muzzle pointing at the floor as he opens the door in response to the deputy, who can be heard announcing twice that he’s with the sheriff’s office. The footage, reviewed by ABC News, also shows Fortson had his left hand up, palm showing, gesturing towards the deputy when he opened the door.
Duran shot Fortson within seconds of the door opening, according to the footage. Fortson died of his injuries.
The deputy said he saw Fortson armed with a gun and claimed that Fortson took a step toward the deputy and had a look of aggression in his eyes, according to an interview Duran conducted with the sheriff’s office during their subsequent investigation.
The deputy was terminated in May, according to a sheriff’s department statement obtained by ABC News.
Fortson’s girlfriend, who asked not to be identified due to fears for her safety, spoke in May to Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB-TV, telling the station her and Fortson were having a conversation on the phone about weekend plans when the shooting occurred.
“We continue to wish Mr. Fortson’s family comfort and peace, as the former deputy’s criminal case proceeds,” the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office previously told ABC News in a statement. “We stand by our decision to terminate Mr. Duran as a result of the administrative internal affairs investigation that found his use of force was not objectively reasonable.”
A sweep of the home did not find another person in the apartment besides Fortson, police said. In the body camera video, a woman, presumed to be a building manager, explains to the officer that someone in the building notified her of the disturbance and that she called police.
Fortson’s family said in a statement to ABC News on Friday that the charges marked a “first step towards justice” in the case.
“Nothing can ever bring Roger back, and our fight is far from over, but we are hopeful that this arrest and these charges will result in real justice for the Fortson family,” the statement said. “Let this be a reminder to law enforcement officers everywhere that they swore a solemn oath to protect and defend, and their actions have consequences, especially when it results in the loss of life.”
The state attorney’s office said it’s very limited in what it can say because there is still an ongoing investigation.
(WILMINGTON, Del.) — The federal judge overseeing the case of the former FBI informant charged with lying about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden’s overseas business ties has rejected an effort to challenge the legitimacy of special counsel David Weiss’ appointment, according to court records.
The challenge from Alexander Smirnov’s attorneys was filed just hours after Judge Aileen Cannon unexpectedly dismissed former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case last month on the grounds that special counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed — which is currently being appealed.
Judge Otis Wright’s ruling in the Smirnov case is yet another indication of how Cannon’s controversial dismissal of Trump’s classified documents case – which ran contrary to decades of precedent set by other courts — is not holding water with other judges weighing similar challenges to special counsels.
A separate judge overseeing Hunter Biden’s tax case in Los Angeles rejected a similar challenge to Weiss’ appointment earlier this month.
Cannon’s ruling centered around arguments that Smith’s prosecution of Trump was illegitimate because, in her determination, Smith was unlawfully appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to his position as special counsel because he was never confirmed to his post by the U.S. Senate.
Special counsels have typically served previously as U.S. attorneys, who are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Smith was previously the acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee and was working for the International Criminal Court at the Hague prosecuting war crimes when he was tapped by Garland in November 2022 to lead both the classified documents probe and the federal election interference investigation.
Smith, in a filing on Monday, urged the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse Cannon’s decision.
