(ATLANTA) — The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s Georgia election interference case has scheduled a Thursday hearing to hear oral arguments on a number of motions from Trump and his co-defendant David Shafer.
The hearing will be the first since the failed disqualification effort against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who brought the case.
It comes after Judge Scott McAfee granted Trump permission to appeal his disqualification ruling — but vowed to move the case forward in the meantime.
McAfee earlier this month declined to outright disqualify Willis based on accusations that she benefited financially from a romantic relationship with prosecutor Nathan Wade, but ruled that either she or Wade must step aside from the case. Wade subsequently resigned as special prosecutor.
Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty last August to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.
Defendants Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and Scott Hall subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.
The former president has blasted the district attorney’s investigation as being politically motivated.
(WILMINGTON, Nc.) — On Nov. 10, 1898, more than 2,000 white supremacists in Wilmington, North Carolina, ransacked a Black-owned newspaper, Black-owned banks and forced the city’s local leaders, which included a mix of white and Black elected officials, to resign in what historians call the only successful coup in U.S. history.
Now historians, residents and descendants of the victims are working to ensure that one of the darkest days in Wilmington’s history doesn’t remain lost and forgotten.
While the city has been working to identify and honor the victims of the insurrection who lost everything, some of their descendants, like Inez Campbell-Eason, say more needs to be done to rectify the sins of the past.
“I was really angry. I used to cry all the time, like angry, fiery, angry tears, because this is generational wealth that was taken away from my family,” she told ABC News.
Campbell-Eason said she only found out a few years ago about the insurrection and how her great, great grandfather Isham Quick was evicted from town banks that he successfully managed.
Campbell-Eason was visiting a museum that had hired a black curator, who pulled out old records about her ancestor. Campbell-Eason said she learned Quick, a freed slave, joined the board of directors for Wilmington’s first Black-owned bank, the Perpetual Savings and the People’s Perpetual Savings and Loan, in 1887.
He ended up owning three banks in Wilmington and records show he had at least $2 million in holdings. His two white business partners took over the banks after he was forced out during the coup, she said.
Historians said that such economic success among Black Wilmington residents was not uncommon during the end of the 19th century. Many of those entrepreneurs worked with white business owners, according to historians.
The city’s elected office was also made up of former slaves and white men.
“It was basically the Black Mecca of the South,” Campbell-Eason said.
That integrated coalition, however, did not sit well with white supremacists around the state who were already making efforts to limit Black businesses and promote the passage of Jim Crow laws, according to historians.
LeRae Umfleet, a state historian, told ABC News that white supremacists took aim at the Wilmington city election of 1898 to further their agenda and that campaign led to the coup.
Tensions rose in August of that year when white Wilmington newspapers ran a racist speech from the year before by Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia.
“Essentially that article said all Black men have one thing that they want to do in life and that’s to rape white women. And so we need to do everything we can to protect white womanhood. And if that means lynching a Black man today, then she says lynch,” Umfleet said.
Alex Manly, the editor of one of the city’s Black-owned newspapers, responded to the speech with an editorial.
“He essentially said that white women choose to be with Black men,” Umfleet said. “And that was an insult to the white leadership that a white woman would choose to be with a Black man. So he becomes a target.”
A week after white supremacist candidates won the election, Alfred Moore Wadell, a former Confederate soldier, led a group of men with torches and burned Manly’s newspaper office, historians said.
The mob grew and they raided city hall, where they violently threw out the racially diverse city leaders who still had another year in office and forced them to resign from their positions.
Wadell then became the mayor.
“We call it the only successful coup in the United States history because there have been other attempts and those attempted coups did not last longer than a day or a week,” Umfleet said. “This time it stuck and was reaffirmed at the next election and every other election subsequent…until the advent of the Civil Rights Movement.”
An estimated 300 Black residents were murdered during the incident, historians said. Those who fled the violent mob, who historians say used a Gatling gun on Black residents and businesses during the coup, took shelter inside churches and a segregated cemetery until it was safe to go outside.
The story was left out of history books and local lore for over a century.
“African-Americans did not want to talk about that. You know, they were kind of told not to talk about it. And so it kind of went underground,” genealogist Tim Pinnick told ABC News.
But in recent years, the city has worked to rectify this problem. It has set up makeshift tombstones of the people killed in the event. A school that was named after one of the white supremacist perpetrators of the coup was renamed to Mason Borough Elementary.
Pinnick has been using DNA databases to find the descendants of the victims who were across the country and spread the word about what happened.
“We’re going to keep finding people because that’s what our mission is now,” he said.
But some Black residents say more needs to be done to undo the century of damage done to the community.
Campbell-Eason said she would like to see the properties that her ancestor owned returned to her and her family or other financial reparations.
She dismissed arguments that taxpayers of the day should not pay for past crimes.
“Yesterday’s crimes helped this country to amass the wealth that it has today,” she argued.
(NASHVILLE, Tn.) — At least three assailants were being sought Monday in the killings of two teenagers police said were “targeted” in a shooting at a Nashville apartment complex over the weekend.
One of the victims was identified as 17-year-old Camron McGlothen, who lived at the Hermitage Flats Apartments in East Nashville, according to police. The name of the other victim, an 18-year-old, was withheld by police, pending the notification of his relatives.
“Homicide Unit detectives are pursuing leads as they work to determine why two young men, ages 18 and 17, were targeted for fatal gunfire,” the Nashville Police Department said in a statement.
The double homicide unfolded around 4:45 p.m. local time on Saturday when three assailants, one wearing a ski mask, approached the two teenagers who were standing in a breezeway at the apartment complex and opened fire, according to police.
Both victims were shot multiple times, according to authorities.
When police officers arrived, they found the mortally wounded victims on the ground and unresponsive, police said. The older teenager was pronounced dead at the scene, while McGlothen was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, officials said.
“The suspects reportedly fled from the apartment complex after the victims were down,” police said in a statement.
A juvenile died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound following an altercation with deputies in the lobby of a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department station on Sunday evening, the department said.
The juvenile, whose age and name have not been released, knocked on the door of the department’s Industry station at about 7:40 p.m. on Sunday evening, law enforcement said in an updated advisory early Monday.
“The deputies walked to the lobby door,” the department said. “At which time the juvenile lunged into the lobby and reached for the deputy’s holstered firearm and took possession of it.”
A “struggle” ensued between deputies and the armed juvenile, who was identified as a “female Hispanic juvenile,” according to the advisory.
“During the struggle, the juvenile suffered from a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” the department said.
ABC News has reached out to the department for comment.
“This was not a Deputy Involved Shooting incident,” the department said in an earlier advisory.
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.
A weekend outing to the Northern California woods took a horrific turn for two brothers when a mountain lion attacked them, killing one and leaving the other with traumatic injuries to the face, authorities said.
This was the first fatal attack by a cougar in the state in 20 years, California officials said.
The attack unfolded Saturday afternoon while the brothers, ages 21 and 18, were out searching for shed deer antlers near the El Dorado National Forest, about 52 miles northeast of Sacramento, authorities said.
The teenager who survived the attack called 911 at about 1:13 p.m. PT, reporting they had been attacked by a cougar and that he had become separated from his older sibling, according to a statement from the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office.
When sheriff’s deputies and paramedics arrived at the scene near Georgetown around 1:34 p.m., they located the injured teenager and began administering first aid, according to the sheriff’s office.
Additional deputies sent to the scene launched a search for the teenager’s brother, finding him nearby lying motionless on the ground with the mountain lion crouched between them and the mortally injured man, according to the sheriff’s office.
“Deputies discharged their firearms in order to scare the mountain lion off so they could render medical aid,” the sheriff’s office said.
But by the time they reached the victim, he was dead, authorities said.
The teenager was taken to a local hospital where he was being treated. Information on his condition was not immediately disclosed.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife game wardens and an El Dorado County trapper combed the area for the mountain lion, authorities said.
“The mountain lion was dispatched, and the body of the mountain lion was collected for further examination,” according to the sheriff’s office.
Mountain lion attacks on humans are rare in California, authorities said. According to state fish and wildlife officials, the last recorded fatal mountain lion attack in California occurred in January 2004, when a 35-year-old cyclist was killed on a trail in Orange County, authorities said.
The last fatal mountain lion attack in El Dorado County occurred in April 1994, when a 40-year-old woman was killed in the Auburn State Recreation Area, according to officials.
Since 1890, fewer than 50 mountain lion attacks on humans have been reported in California, including six that have been fatal, officials said.
In February, a group of cyclists near Seattle, Washington, were credited with saving a fellow rider’s life by fighting off a cougar that attacked her on a trail, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The scary wildlife-human encounter happened near Fall City, Washington, about 25 miles southeast of Seattle and left the 60-year-old rider, Keri Bergere, hospitalized with serious injuries, officials said. Four other cyclists were hurt when they rushed to save Bergere, who suffered injuries to her face, neck and jaw.
“I just think all the time how I could be dead if my four ladies that I was with didn’t jump in and save my life,” Bergere said in an interview with ABC News last week. “We call fought out there, but I could not have done it on my own.”
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department/Twitter
One person was killed and five others, including an off-duty police officer, were injured in a shooting outside a bar in Indianapolis, law enforcement said early Sunday.
At about 1:30 a.m. two officers — who were in uniform but were off-duty — were at a bar when there was a disturbance in the parking lot, Indianapolis Metro Police said during a press conference.
Police exchanged gunfire with a suspect, and one of the officers was struck, police said. The officer was transported to a local hospital and is expected to be OK, according to police. He should be released sometime Sunday, police said.
A firearm was recovered in the parking lot, police said.
Four other individuals were injured during the shooting, police said. All were expected to recover.
Shortly after the shooting, an adult man arrived at a local hospital seeking treatment for gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead, police said, adding that he was believed to be connected to this incident.
(GROVE CITY, Ohio) — An Amber Alert has been issued for 15-year-old Kaylee Cope who police in Ohio believe may have been abducted by her 17-year-old boyfriend.
Cope’s boyfriend, Jeffery Gimenez, allegedly posted a video of himself holding a hand gun just hours before, saying that he “has a bullet” for Cope.
Cope’s mother, Heather Zogleman, reported her missing at around 6 a.m. Saturday after Cope left their home earlier in the night and she was unable to reach Cope by phone, according to Grove City Police.
Police learned that Cope was with Gimenez and found the video he posted while holding a gun. A stolen vehicle that is believed to be connected to the case has been recovered by police.
Gimenez allegedly took Cope at around 11:30 p.m. on Friday, according to police.
Warrants have been put out for Gimenez for robbery and felony kidnapping, according to police. The suspect is possibly armed and dangerous.
Gimenez was last seen two days ago in a silver Honda four door sedan with black tinted windows that may be stolen, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
(FORT WORTH, Texas) — Opal Lee was only 12 years old when a racist white mob stormed and set fire to her home on 940 East Annie Street in Fort Worth, Texas. The violence raged on June 19, 1939 — the date now known as “Juneteenth,” the annual holiday that celebrates the end of slavery in the U.S.
“The whites didn’t want us in the neighborhood,” Lee told ABC News.
“The police were there and when my dad came from work with a gun, the police told him if he busted a cap that they would let the mob have us,” she added.
Her family had moved from Marshall, Texas, to Fort Forth, where they purchased a home in an all-white neighborhood. And only five days later, a violent white mob destroyed it.
“Those people tore the house asunder. They drove the furniture out and burned it. They did despicable things,” she said.
Lee, who is known as the “grandmother of the movement,” became a lifelong activist for social justice and now, nearly 85 years later, the 97-year-old matriarch found herself back on 940 East Annie, where a large group of people gathered again.
But this time they were all there to celebrate the reclamation of her family’s home with a wall-raising ceremony.
“Today, Oh, it was groundbreaking,” Lee said, after taking part in the wall-raising ceremony organized by Habitat for Humanity.
“I know my mom would be smiling down and my dad, well, he’d think we finally got it done.”
Lee said that she spent years wondering what had happened to her family’s land and, upon inquiring about the lot at 940 East Annie, she learned that Habitat for Humanity, which has worked to revitalize much of her old neighborhood in Fort Worth, owned the land.
“I went to Habitat to buy it and they wouldn’t sell it to me. They gave it to me,” Lee said.
Lee, who had also served on board of Trinity Habitat for Humanity in the past, hoped to buy the land from Habitat. But when she reached out to the organization, Lee said that the CEO Gage Yager told her that he would not only like to give Lee her family’s land back, but that the organization would also work to build Lee and her family a home on the land.
Lee’s granddaughter Renee Toliver told ABC News that since Lee already owns a home, Habitat for Humanity – an organization that builds homes for those without housing – couldn’t use their own funds to build the home, so Lee’s own nonprofit, led by Toliver, took on the mission to fundraise for the project. It didn’t take long before History Maker Homes, a local construction company, and a local branch of Capital Bank donated the funds to make the home a reality.
“I don’t really know how to act except to thank God for all that has happened,” Lee said.
According to Lee, the target date for her to move into her new home is June 19, which would not only mark “Juneteenth,” but also 85 years since her family was violently driven out of their home.
“So far, it seems to be paid for to be able to get in it in June,” she said. “I don’t know how to express my thankfulness in how joyful I am. And I keep telling people at my house, all I’m taking is my toothbrush to go to the new house.”
ABC News’ Tesfaye Negussie and Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — The Texas Medical Board released guidance on what qualifies for an exception to the state’s multiple abortion bans, weighing in on how physicians can provide care in medical emergencies.
While the board voted to publish the guidance publicly, they will vote on adopting the guidance in the future. The guidance was released publicly, with the board asking physicians, patients and the public to weigh in with comments on whether it addresses physicians’ confusion.
Texas, which has multiple abortion bans in place, is one of 14 states that have ceased nearly all abortion services since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending federal protections for abortion rights.
Despite being called on to elaborate on the wording of the bans, the Medical Board said it is not their jurisdiction to determine what the law should be, but they sought to elaborate on how physicians should provide care.
“I just want to remind everybody that we cannot make law. We can help clarify existing law,” Dr. Sherif Zaafran, president of the Texas Medical Board, said during a public meeting Friday.
Physicians should determine what care is medically necessary based on their “reasonable medical judgment,” Zaafran said.
The board’s guidance includes telling physicians to document their decision-making and the circumstances of a patient’s illness in their medical record in cases of medical emergencies that pose the danger of death or risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function, according to the rules.
The record-keeping of the physician’s thought process and medical decisions is what would determine whether the physician’s actions met the standard of care or not, Zaafran said.
The rules also said physicians should determine whether there is “adequate time to transfer the patient by any means available to a facility or physician with a higher level of care or expertise to avoid performing an abortion.”
However, the board said it would not release a list of medical conditions that would qualify for the exceptions, despite singling out ectopic pregnancies.
“If you put a list out there, that may be a list that is accurate in one setting but inaccurate in another setting,” Zaafran said.
The new rules proposed exclusions for procedures to remove ectopic pregnancy, the remains of a dead fetus, or procedures meant to save the life of the unborn fetus, saying they are not all abortions. The treatment for an ectopic pregnancy is an abortion.
After a portion of the rules was read during the board meeting on Friday, the floor was opened up to members of the public wishing to comment on it. Three women suing Texas over its abortion bans, who say the bans put their lives in danger, shared their stories with the medical board, and their disappointment that the guidance did not cover cases of fatal fetal anomalies.
Taylor Edwards told the board that her physician’s medical judgment was for her to get an abortion but she was not allowed to receive one
“I had to flee the state,” Edwards said. “That shouldn’t be what’s happening in Texas.”
“I am currently pregnant today because I got an abortion,” Edwards said.
Kaitlyn Kash, whose fetus had skeletal dysplasia, was told her baby was unlikely to survive until birth or would suffocate soon after being born, but she could not get an abortion in Texas.
“I probably would have taken my own life to end my child’s pain,” Kash said.
“I’ve tried to get the courts to help to explain what would happen in my situation as a plaintiff in the Zurowski [v. State of Texas] case. And they said that we needed to wait for you, and now you’re saying it’s not your responsibility either. So where else am I supposed to go?” Kash said.
The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, Amanda Zurawski, told the board the guidance is very confusing and she is concerned it would add further burdens on physicians — with documentation requirements — and potentially delay care.
“On the one hand, we have the Supreme Court telling us that this decision is up to you, and the clarity should be something that you provide. However, today it sounds like you’re saying the opposite and that it’s not within your jurisdiction, and that the Supreme Court should actually be the ones to make these decisions,” Zurawski said.
Stephen Brint Carlton, Texas Board executive director, responded that the documentation should not delay care and can be done retroactively.
“I don’t believe it’s contemplated by the board that someone is in an immediate medical emergency and the physician needs to stop saving the patient and treating them to go and document a bunch of stuff. This can come after saving the patient’s life,” Carlton said.
An attorney working with the Center for Reproductive Rights in their legal challenges against the state of Texas over its abortion bans told the board he fears the new rule does little to change the current state of things and does not protect lifesaving care for pregnant mothers.
The Center for Reproductive Rights released a statement criticizing the proposed rules, saying they “fall short of clarifying abortion exceptions.”
“The rules Texas Medical Board proposed today contain more of the same rhetoric we have been hearing for years: that physicians should just read the language of the exception and exercise their reasonable medical judgment, even when we know from Kate Cox’s case that the Attorney General will continue to second guess that judgment,” Molly Duane, the CRR’s lead attorney, said in a statement.
“The proposed rules also create a new and extremely burdensome documentation system that physicians must use when providing abortions under the exception that includes documenting whether there was ‘adequate time to transfer the patient’ ‘by any means available’ to a different facility to avoid having to perform an abortion. This is not what medical providers and patients need,” Duane said.
(CAMEL VALLEY, Calif.) — A 30-year-old woman who went on a day-trip hike in coastal California has now been missing for four days, according to authorities.
Search and rescue teams are scouring the trails around the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center for Caroline Meister, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office said.
Meister left for her hike around 10 a.m. Monday and was reported missing that night, the sheriff’s office said.
Meister planned to hike a trail that loops back around to the Zen Center, according to the sheriff’s office, but she also mentioned hiking the Windcave Trail.
She was only carrying enough food for the day and wasn’t dressed or equipped to stay overnight, authorities said.
Meister has been living and working at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center for the last year and a half, so her parents remain hopeful for her return, they told Monterey Bay affiliate KSBW.
“She’s very familiar with the area. She’s also an avid hiker,” her father, John Meister, told KSBW.
Meister has long, brown, wavy hair and was wearing teal-colored boots and carrying a blue bag, authorities said. She stands at 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighs 150 pounds.
Anyone who was hiking in the area of the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center on Monday and may have seen Meister is asked to call the sheriff’s office at 831-755-5111. Anyone who plans to hike that area is urged to be on the lookout, the sheriff’s office added.
