Former US President Donald Trump looks on during his criminal trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments at Manhattan Criminal Court, in New York City, on May 13, 2024. (STEVEN HIRSCH/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is on trial in New York City, where he is facing felony charges related to a 2016 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. It marks the first time in history that a former U.S. president has been tried on criminal charges.
Trump last April pleaded not guilty to a 34-count indictment charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment his then-attorney Michael Cohen made to Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
Here’s how the news is developing:
May 14, 7:22 AM Stormy Daniels wore bulletproof vest to court, lawyer says
An attorney for Stormy Daniels told CNN that Daniels wore a bulletproof vest to court before her testimony last week.
“She was concerned about the security coming into New York,” attorney Clark Brewster said. “She wore a bulletproof vest every day until she got to the courthouse.”
Brewster said that Daniels was concerned about a rogue actor targeting her due to her testimony in the trial.
“Before she came on Sunday, I mean she cried herself to sleep,” Brewster said. “She was paralyzed with fear.”
Daniels testified over two days last week that she and Trump had a sexual encounter in 2006 and that she was subsequently paid $130,000 for her silence. Trump has denied all allegations of a sexual encounter.
May 14, 7:12 AM Michael Cohen to return for 2nd day of testimony
Ex-Trump attorney Michael Cohen is set to resume his direct examination this morning in former President Trump’s criminal hush money trial.
Across six hours of testimony yesterday, Cohen laid out the trial’s most incriminating testimony so far regarding Trump’s involvement in a scheme to hide information from voters by falsifying business records in order to disguise a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels just days before the 2016 election.
Cohen testified that he helped coordinate a “catch and kill” scheme with David Pecker of the National Enquirer, making a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump, then devising a reimbursement arrangement with then-Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg in 2017. Trump, who has steadfastly denied Daniels’ allegations, has denied all wrongdoing.
Cohen told jurors that Trump approved the Daniels hush money payment in October 2016, and that Cohen wired the money from a shell company he funded using a home equity line of credit.
He then recounted a 2017 meeting with Trump and Weisselberg in Trump Tower just days before the inauguration where Trump agreed to the plan to reimburse Cohen for the hush money payment.
“He approved it,” Cohen said of Trump. “What I was doing, I was doing at the direction and for the benefit of Mr. Trump.”
Michael Cohen, former President Donald Trump’s former attorney, arrives at his home after leaving Manhattan Criminal Court on May 13, 2024 in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Michael Cohen took the stand at former president Donald Trump’s hush money trial on Monday, testifying that Trump told him it was Melania who came up with the infamous “locker room talk” defense.
When the Access Hollywood tape dropped in October 2016, Cohen said he became very concerned about the impact it could have on Trump’s presidential election.
In the 2005 video, Trump could be heard boasting that “when you’re a star” you can “do anything” to women, including “grab them by the p—-.”
“This was going to be significantly impactful, especially with women voters,” Cohen testified.
In phone calls that day, Cohen said he and Trump spoke about how to handle fallout from the tape.
“He wanted me to reach out to all of my contacts in the media — we needed to put a spin on this. And the spin that he wanted to put on it was that this is locker room talk,” Cohen testified.
Trump has denied all wrongdoing related to Daniels’ hush payment.
Cohen said Trump told him the “locker room talk” defense was “something that Melania had recommended” they use “in order to get control over the story and minimize its impact on him and his campaign.”
In the wake of the Access Hollywood tape surfacing, Trump learned that adult film star Stormy Daniels was shopping around the story of an alleged 2006 sexual encounter — something Trump has denied — and the situation, he said, would be a “disaster,” Cohen testified.
“He said to me this is a disaster. A total disaster,” Cohen said of Trump’s response when he first informed him.
According to Cohen, Trump anticipated how the Stormy Daniels story would play differently with men and women.
“Women will hate me. Guys may think it’s cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign,” Cohen testified that Trump said.
Trump was “really angry” to hear the story might surface, Cohen testified and specifically asked him to push off paying for the story until after the election — feeding into prosecutors’ theory that this scheme was made to influence the 2016 election.
“I want you to push it out as long as you can,” Cohen testified Trump told him. “Push it out past the election, because if I win, it has no relevance, and if I lose, I don’t care.”
Cohen also testified that Trump did not express concern about how news of the alleged affair might affect his family — only his White House run.
“He wasn’t thinking about Melania — this was all about the campaign,” Cohen said.
(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — As residents of Buffalo, New York, commemorate Tuesday two years since a self-professed white supremacist killed 10 people at a grocery store in a racially motivated mass shooting, the final design for a permanent memorial has been unveiled to honor those killed.
The memorial, titled “Seeing Us,” is comprised of 10 arching interconnected pillars inscribed with the names of the people killed in the attack at a Tops store on Buffalo’s East Side. The project will also include a new building, which New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said will serve as a central hub for education, exhibitions and other community events.
The memorial will also include an elevated, park-like “Memorial Walk” on the roof of the new building, leading visitors to a vista point overlooking the monument.
“This tragedy shocked us, it devastated us, it pushed us to what we thought was beyond our limits. But it didn’t break us. Instead, it revealed a strength that runs deep in the veins of this city,” Hochul said at a news conference Monday to unveil the memorial design that a committee of community residents, including relatives of those killed in the massacre, selected from 20 submissions.
Killed in the May 14, 2022, attack were Ruth Whitfield, 86; Roberta Drury, 32; retired Buffalo police officer Aaron Salter Jr., 55; Heyward Patterson, 67; Pearl Young, 77; Geraldine Talley, 62; Celestine Chaney, 65; Katherine “Kat” Massey, 72; Margus Morrison, 52; and Andre Mackniel, 53.
Hochul said the memorial will “show future generations what these people stood for and the depth of their families’ love. This will endure forever.”
The memorial was designed by architects Douglass Alligood and Jin Young Song.
The governor announced the state is investing $5 million to build the memorial and kick off a yearlong fundraising effort. The city of Buffalo is also contributing $1 million to the construction of the memorial.
Mayor Byron Brown announced a new committee to raise an additional $9 million for the construction.
“It is my hope that with this 5/14 memorial, we can offer some sense of healing, peace and hope for the future,” Brown said.
Payton Gendron, the teenage gunman who committed the mass shooting, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to 15 state charges, including 10 counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder and domestic terrorism motivated by hate. In January, federal prosecutors announced they would pursue the death penalty against Gendron.
“Two years ago, a shadow fell over our beloved Buffalo, a shadow created by hate, pure evil and a despicable act of violence, a racially motivated mass shooting right at Tops supermarket that tore through the heart of this community,” Hochul said.
Hochul, who was raised in Buffalo, added, “I want all the families to know, we’ll never leave you to carry the burden alone. We are at your side and we’ll also never be defeated by hate. We’ll only rise up stronger in the face of it. That’s who we are as Buffalonians, that’s who we are as New Yorkers.”
Zeneta Everhart’s son, Zaire Goodman, was working at the Tops store and was among three people wounded in the attack.
“My son’s journey to recovery is a testament to the resilience of our community, but it’s also a stark reminder of the scars left behind by that tragic day on 5/14,” said Everhart, a member of the 5/14 Memorial Committee who won election to the Buffalo City Council in November. “As we honor the memory of those we lost and continue to support those who were injured and are still recovering, let us not forget the deep wounds that still linger in our city and community. The unveiling of the final design for the memorial is not just about erecting a monument; it’s about weaving together the threads of our collective grief and resilience into a tapestry of remembrance and hope. May this memorial stand as a beacon of unity and justice, reminding us all that we are stronger together in the face of racism, hatred, and violence.”
A second memorial, titled “Unity,” will also be unveiled Tuesday outside the Tops store where the Buffalo mass shooting occurred.
A moment of silence will be held at 2:28 p.m. ET, marking the time the massacre unfolded, followed by a tolling of the bells, officials said.
(NEW YORK) — The body of a man who had been traveling down the Colorado River on a wooden raft has been found in Grand Canyon National Park, officials said.
Thomas Robinson, a 58-year-old man from Santa Fe, New Mexico, was believed to have attempted to travel down the Colorado River on a wooden raft with his dog before abandoning the vessel at Lees Ferry, just a few miles south of Arizona’s border with Utah, according to a statement from the National Park Service detailing the incident.
National Park Service personnel were notified of a body in the Colorado River near river mile 6 on Friday.
“Park rangers responded and recovered the body which was transported to Lees Ferry and transferred to the Coconino County Medical Examiner’s Office,” park officials said. “Initial information indicates the body is that of missing person Thomas L. Robison. The Coconino County Medical Examiner will confirm positive identification.”
The circumstances around how Robinson may have died is currently unknown and the investigation into his death is ongoing. Additionally, authorities did not disclose the whereabouts of the dog or whether or not the canine survived.
Park officials said no additional information regarding this case will be made available at this time.
(NEW YORK) — Protecting children and teens from online dangers is no easy feat. It’s an ever-changing landscape and in many ways, it’s easier than ever for predators to target children online.
In 2023, reports of child online exploitation made to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) Cyber Tip Line rose by more than 12%, surpassing 36.2 million reports.
“Child predators used to be the person who was going around driving in a creepy van, going by schools offering candy to kids,” New Jersey State Police Lt. Paul Sciortino told ABC News. “The internet has become that van.”
Sciortino works on the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and investigates cyber tips that come from NCMEC. He told ABC News that the dangers that lurk online can often be overlooked by kids and parents.
Titania Jordan, the Chief Parent Officer at Bark, a technology company that aims to help parents and educators keep children safe online by offering advanced monitoring services through an app and a phone, said there are hundreds of thousands of predators.
“The estimated half a million predators that are known to be online at any time know the internet is a vast playground for children that are online [an] upwards [of] eight hours a day, most of them unmonitored, unfiltered, unrestricted,” Jordan told ABC News in an interview.
Bark says they use artificial intelligence to analyze the content and context of children’s digital signals, whether it’s text, social media, email or browsing.
“You’re giving [children] access to the entire world, and you’re giving the entire world access to them,” continued Jordan, who spoke about how Bark’s app allows parents to receive alerts if their children view something potentially harmful.
“And currently, the laws in place — at least the United States — are not holding social media are big tech accountable. They are not liable for what’s happening to children on their platform,” she added.
In January, the CEOs of five major social media companies — TikTok, Meta, X, Snapchat and Discord — faced the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to speak to politicians on protecting kids from sexual exploitation online.
“This disturbing growth in child sexual exploitation is driven by one thing: changes in technology. … Smartphones are in the pockets of seemingly every man, woman and teenager on the planet,” U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said in his opening statement during the hearing.
“These apps have changed the way we live, work and play. But, as investigations have detailed, social media and messaging apps have also given predators powerful new tools to sexually exploit children,” he said.
During the hearing, parents sat in the room holding photos of their children who had fallen victim to predators and scammers on those very platforms, many no longer alive.
“I’m sorry for everything you have all been through,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told families in the room. “No one should go through the things that your families have suffered, and this is why we invest so much, and we are going to continue doing industry-wide efforts to make sure no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer.”
Platforms like Meta and Snapchat have introduced new tools they say will help protect teens from unwanted contact and their parents monitor their online activities.
“Child exploitation is a horrific crime,” a Meta spokesperson said in a written statement to ABC News. “We’ve spent years supporting law enforcement in investigating and prosecuting the criminals behind it and have developed over 50 tools, features and resources to protect teens, including to help prevent unwanted contact.”
“Our goal is to make it as hard as possible for young people to be contacted by people they don’t know, which is why we have extra safeguards for teens to protect against unwanted contact, offer easy blocking tools, and send in-app warnings if someone they don’t know tries to contact them,” said a Snapchat spokesperson.
Experts like Jordan say that while these family parental controls “sound great” they don’t give parents or caregivers “enough of the critical insight that you need to keep your child safe.” She argues that too often children are left responsible for making decisions about their online safety.
“We limit driving age, alcohol and tobacco use, et cetera, but when it comes to the internet, social media gaming, screen time, even, we’re leaving it up to the children without giving parents full access and ability to help them become responsible digital natives,” Jordan said.
(NEW YORK) — Although the number of days that there is a tornado in the U.S. is decreasing overall, the average annual number of tornadoes has remained roughly the same, according to the latest research.
Last week, more than 125 tornadoes were reported in the U.S. over a five-day period across states including Iowa, Missouri, Georgia and Mississippi — a continuation of a trend that shows more tornado outbreaks despite fewer tornado days, meaning days during which at least one tornado is reported, experts told ABC News.
The variability of tornado occurrences in the U.S. has increased over recent decades, in that there are now fewer days in which a tornado forms. However, there are more tornadoes on those days, Harold Brooks, senior research scientist on the climatology of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Severe Storm Laboratory, told ABC News.
Because of this, the total number of tornadoes over the course of a year, on average, has remained unchanged, Brooks said.
Researchers describe the shift as “a decline in the number of tornado days per year” but an “incline in the number of tornado outbreaks,” Robert Trapp, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and director of the School of Earth, Society and Environment, told ABC News.
New data from an upcoming paper that studies tornadoes through 2022 shows that this dichotomous trend is continuing, Trapp said. The new study also shows that the greatest number of tornado days are lost during the warmest months, particularly June, July and August.
“It’s a pretty striking trend in in the long term,” Trapp said.
Climate change could be affecting tornado behavior, Brooks said. As average global temperatures increase, they provide one of the main ingredients that allow tornadoes to form, Brooks said — namely, energy available for storms. A warming planet could create more favorable conditions for tornadoes to form because more moisture and atmospheric instability essentially fuels the storm systems in which tornadoes develop.
However, the changes of tornado behavior during the cool season — November, December, January or February and even early March — could be the biggest indicator to the impacts of climate change, Trapp said.
“When I think about how I explain the potential impact of climate change on tornado seasons, it’s the cool season that really stands out,” he said.
Data shows an increase of tornado activity during the cool season in the Southeast U.S., including in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky and parts of southern Indiana. This is significant because the source of energy for the thunderstorms in which tornadoes form is typically absent in colder weather, Trapp said.
Climate change may also be expanding the geographic area of what is traditionally considered to be the so-called Tornado Alley, where the storms most commonly form, recent research shows.
Tornado frequency is slightly declining in the Great Plains and increasing in the East, a 2018 study by NOAA and Northern Illinois University found. The authors of the study added that further research is needed to determine for sure whether the shift is specifically driven by natural or human-induced climate change.
Additionally, analysis from Climate Central, a non-profit climate science communication organization, shows that since 1979, the frequency of favorable tornado days per decade has increased significantly in parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, with a decrease observed in states like Oklahoma and Texas. The number of days conducive to severe weather is projected to increase as the climate continues to warm.
A large part of the increase in variability in tornado behavior is related to the increase in tornado occurrences in the mid-South region, Brooks said.
In addition, the geographic location with the most frequent tornado activity tends to change year over year, said Jana Houser, associate professor of meteorology at Ohio State University. One year, the Southeast may get slammed with tornadoes, while another year may see the activity concentrated further west, she said.
As the geographic location of where tornadoes tend to strike changes, so does the destructive potential of the twisters. Many of the places where tornadoes are now occurring have much larger population densities and include infrastructure that is not durable enough to withstand tornadoes, such as mobile homes, the experts said.
Places like Mississippi and Alabama have a lot more people living in rural areas than do places in the Great Plains, like the western parts of Kansas and Oklahoma, Brooks said. There is also a lot more poverty and socially vulnerable populations in those Southern states, Brooks said.
Tornado seasons typically are not as well-defined as hurricane season is, Brooks said, adding that it is difficult to define trends for tornadoes because they’re considered “rare events” at every location they strike.
Around the 1970s, the peak period for tornado activity shifted to earlier in the year, from mid-June to the last quarter of May, Trapp said. Last month, however, was the busiest April for tornado activity in the U.S. since 2011, even as the U.S. is now approaching the peak of strong and violent tornado occurrences, Brooks said.
Due to the unpredictable nature of tornadoes and the increase of extreme weather events overall due to climate change, residents need to be prepared for natural disasters more than ever before, American Red Cross spokesperson Stephanie Fox told ABC News in a statement.
“The climate crisis is forcing the American Red Cross to respond to nearly twice as many large disasters as we did a decade ago,” Fox said, pointing to the organization’s new climate crisis initiative that can help communities on the frontlines of extreme weather build resiliency.
(NEW YORK) — The criminal hush money trial of former President Donald Trump reached a crescendo Monday when the state’s star witness, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, testified about his ex-boss directing him to “just take care of” a payment to silence adult film actress Stormy Daniels in the waning days of his 2016 presidential campaign.
Cohen claimed that Trump blessed those negotiations, approved the final deal, and signed off on the reimbursement plan in the final days before his presidential inauguration. Cohen testified that the sole purpose of the scheme was to protect Trump’s political fortunes and obscure his role in orchestrating the arrangements.
“Everything required Mr. Trump’s sign off,” Cohen said on the stand.
Trump is on trial for allegedly falsifying business records to hide the reimbursement of a hush money payment that Cohen made to Stormy Daniels in order to boost Trump’s electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election. The payment was to buy Daniels’ silence about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump that the former president has steadfastly denied.
Cohen delivered critical testimony for prosecutors from a man who they acknowledge carries significant baggage. But instead of the hyperbolic bombast Cohen often espouses from behind his keyboard, the Michael Cohen jurors met on Monday stayed on message.
The big question now: Will jurors buy it?
Here are four big takeaways from Day 16 of Donald Trump’s hush money trial.
‘Just do it,’ Cohen said Trump told him
Donald Trump’s fixer-turned-foe claimed that the then-candidate ordered him to “just do it,” referring to the execution of a payment to Stormy Daniels in the waning days of the 2016 campaign.
It was the most direct testimony jurors have heard tethering Trump to the concept of “catch-and-kill” payments to keep unfavorable stories under wraps. Cohen said he solicited feedback from Trump at every point in the process — from the moment he learned of the allegations to the day payments were executed.
He did so “because everything required Mr. Trump’s sign off,” Cohen said.
“I wanted to ensure that once again he approved what he was doing, because I required approval from him on all of this,” Cohen said.
After hesitating to approve a payment to Daniels, Trump relented, Cohen said, after discussing the matter with “some friends.”
“He stated to me that he had spoken to some friends, some individuals, very smart people. It’s $130,000. Just pay it. There’s no reason to keep this thing out there. Just do it. So he expressed to me, ‘Just do it,'” Cohen said.
Daniels’ payment was ‘all about the campaign,’ Cohen said
If Stormy Daniels’ story had emerged in the press prior to the 2016 election, Cohen testified that the fallout would have been “catastrophic” for Trump’s campaign — particularly in the wake of the release of the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump was heard boasting about grabbing women.
“Women are going to hate me, guys may think it’s cool,” Cohen recalled Trump telling him, “But this is going to be a disaster for the campaign.”
“At the time, Mr. Trump was … polling very poorly with women,” Cohen testified, saying that, coupled with the “Access Hollywood” release, “would have been ‘catastrophic’ for his electoral prospects.”
When the time came to execute a payment to Stormy Daniels, Trump still encouraged Cohen to hold out — allegedly citing the upcoming Election Day deadline.
“I want you to push it out as long as you can,” Cohen said Trump told him about the Daniels story. “Push it out past the election, because if I win, it has no relevance, and if I lose, I don’t really care.”
In short, Cohen said, “This was all about the campaign.”
Cohen stayed on script
Michael Cohen as a witness is a far cry from the Michael Cohen jurors have heard about so far.
Other witnesses have called him a “jerk” and “difficult” — describing him as a vicious pit bull who would eviscerate anyone who threatened to damage the reputation of his former boss.
But today, in front of the jury, he seemed earnest, morose and — most importantly for the state — on script.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger tried to back up every word of Cohen’s testimony with documentary evidence or prior testimony — questioning him in a deliberate style of testimony-document-testimony-document — relying as little as possible on his word alone.
And toward the end of a long day on the stand, Cohen sprinkled in a moment of levity — perhaps in an effort to endear himself to jurors — when he acknowledged his reputation as being short-fused.
Asked about his reaction to learning that his bonus at the Trump Organization would be slashed by tens of thousands of dollars, he said, “Even for myself, I was unusually angry,” drawing laughter from the gallery.
Cohen’s testimony will continue Tuesday
Cohen will return to the witness stand on Tuesday morning, when Hoffinger is scheduled tom continue her direct examination. Prosecutors still need to ask Cohen about the invoices and checks he received — documents that are central to their case.
At some point on Tuesday, Cohen will face what will likely be a hostile cross-examination from a member of Trump’s legal team — a tete-a-tete that will no doubt test the limits of his temperament.
The state has suggested they could rest their case as soon as this week — meaning Cohen will be one of their final witnesses.
ABC News’ Kendall Ross and Julia Reinstein contributed to this report.
(BALTIMORE) — Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge wreckage was demolished in a controlled explosion on Monday evening after being delayed due to lightning near the site on Sunday.
The removal process took place Monday at 5:00 p.m., officials said.
Engineers set off controlled explosives in the steel remains of the Key Bridge to help remove the debris from the freighter that crashed in March.
Ongoing storms in the Baltimore and Washington D.C. region had delayed the demolition since Friday.
The explosives split a large section of truss at specific locations to allow “salvors to use cranes and barges already on scene to remove these sections of the bridge and ultimately remove the MV Dali from the channel,” Unified Command, the group in charge of the recovery and salvage operations, said in a statement.
“By using precision cuts, we reduce risks to our personnel and can safely and efficiently continue clearing the channel for the Port of Baltimore,” Capt. David O’Connell, the Key Bridge Response federal on-scene coordinator, said in a statement.
Officials said hearing protection would not be required outside of a 2,000-yard radius of the site.
“Sound levels outside of the noise radius will be no louder than a standard fireworks show and will last two to five seconds,” Unified Command said.
A cellphone alert went out to residents warning them about the explosion, Unified Command said.
The freighter has been stuck in the location ever since it slammed into the bridge during the early morning hours on March 26 after the vessel experienced a malfunction.
Body camera footage of the incident, which was released Friday by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources in response to a public records request by ABC News, shows officers getting an up-close look at the location where the bridge once stood.
“There is no bridge,” an officer can be heard saying. “The whole center span is gone completely. It’s in the water.”
Another officer reported encountering a “large debris field” with containers on the side of the river closest to Baltimore. In one video, he can be heard shouting toward the freighter to ask if anyone was hurt. Someone aboard the ship responded that their finger was cut.
The bridge suffered a near-total collapse and caused massive logistical delays in the Port of Baltimore. Six construction workers who were on the bridge at the time were killed in the incident.
The incident is still under investigation and the recovery efforts are ongoing.
ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson, Jared Kofsky and Josh Margolin contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — A man who drove a U-Haul truck into metal barriers outside of the White House in May 2023 pleaded guilty on Monday, admitting he carried out the attack fueled by Nazi ideology and an intent to replace the U.S. government.
Sai Varsith Kandula, a non-U.S. citizen who was residing in St. Louis before traveling to Washington, D.C., to carry out the attack, admitted in court papers he planned it for “several weeks” in advance.
“Kandula admitted to investigators that he would have arranged for the killing of the U.S. President and others if necessary to achieve his objective,” his plea papers say. “His actions were calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion.”
The ramming of the truck sent law enforcement scrambling around the area around 9:30 p.m. on May 23 of last year, as nearby civilians ran panicked from the scene.
As he exited the vehicle, Kandula pulled out a three-by-five-foot red and white Nazi flag from a backpack he was carrying and displayed it before being taken into custody.
The ramming caused roughly $4300 damage to the metal barriers.
Kandula is set to be sentenced on Aug. 23 in Washington and will remain in government custody through that date, court records say.
(WASHINGTON) — Foreign terrorist organizations may seek to exploit “LGBTQIA+-related events and venues,” including events during 2024 Pride month — celebrated in June, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned in a recent public service announcement.
“Organizations like ISIS may seek to exploit increased gatherings associated with the upcoming June 2024 Pride Month,” according to the announcement, which the agencies issued last week. The announcement added that the threat is “compounded” by the “current heightened threat environment” in the United States.
The threats could come online, in person or in the mail, according to the FBI and DHS.
Last February, ISIS “called for followers to conduct attacks on unidentified soft targets, although the attacks and targets were not specific to LGBTQIA+ venues,” the agencies wrote in the public service announcement.
Nearly eight years ago, ISIS applauded the June 12, 2016, shooting at Pulse nightclub — when a gunman killed 49 and wounded 53 at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
“After the Pulse shooting, pro-ISIS messaging praised this attack as one of the high-profile attacks in Western countries, and FTO supporters celebrated it,” the FBI and DHS wrote in the announcement.
While there’s no evidence that ISIS directed or had prior knowledge of the attack, the shooter called 911 after the shooting began to pledge his allegiance to ISIS.
Javed Ali, the former senior counterterrorism director on the National Security Council, said members of the LGBTQ+ community have long been the target of terrorist groups.
“LGBQTIA+ members have drawn the ire of al-Qaida and ISIS supporters in the past based on their perceived lifestyles and beliefs,” Ali, who is now an associate professor at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy, told ABC News. “However, the degree to which this announcement was driven by specific and credible intelligence about attacks here against this community, versus a more general abundance of caution based on Pride month, remains unclear.”
Probing security measures at events, photography of security and unusual questioning about event security are all telltale signs that an attack might be planned, the FBI warned.
Last year, experts warned to cancel Pride events because of the threats they received. No major events were cancelled, however.
GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement to ABC News that Pride events “bring communities together” and that safety remains a priority for all LGBTQ gatherings.
“A fringe few extremists, domestically and overseas, are irrationally threatened by the rising tide of acceptance for LGBTQ people,” Ellis said. “It is important to keep Prides safe for all attendees, and for people to keep showing up during Pride and throughout the year to speak up for the equality and safety of their communities and all marginalized people.”
