(NEW YORK) — More than 100 million people across the country are under winter alerts early Friday morning as a quick-hitting storm system moves across the Mid-Atlantic and parts of the northeast. This comes as another brutal surge of Arctic air pushes into the south as we head into the weekend.
Snow is falling in many locations from Indiana to Delaware on Friday morning and, while the storm is not considered a blockbuster by any means, the morning commute may be slick in cities like Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia and possibly New York City with snow mostly on the lighter side along with a few scattered bursts of moderate to heavy snow.
In terms of snow amounts, we’re still on track for a fairly minor snowfall of around 2 to 5 inches but a few localized spots could top 6 inches by the time the storm is over.
New York City may be seeing some minor accumulation — under 2 inches — which may be just enough to mark the second day this week with more than an inch of snow following a snow drought of more than 700 days.
By sunset on Friday, the storm will be mostly offshore, leading to a quiet weekend with bitterly cold temperatures across much of the Northeast as low temperatures will be dropping below zero in many parts of New England.
Meanwhile, a reinforcing shot of Arctic air is expected to settle in on Friday and should stick around through the weekend across the Midwest and Great Lakes.
All that cold air should help generate the intense lake effect snow bands that have been blanketing numerous locations along the lakes this week.
Elsewhere, the highest snow report in the last 48 hours is from Copenhagen, New York, with 50 inches of heavy lake effect snow.
While this cold snap won’t be as brutal as the “polar plunge” earlier this week, however, more than a dozen states are still facing sub-zero temperatures and wind chills as we head through the weekend.
We’re right around the mid-point of winter and it will certainly feel like it in the deep south this weekend as freeze watches and warnings are in effect for cities like Jacksonville, New Orleans, and even as far south as Corpus Christi, Texas.
As the cold air heads into south Florida this weekend, temperatures may drop into the 30s and 40s.
Out west, avalanche warnings have now been canceled in Colorado after several days of dangerous conditions on the mountain slopes with conditions looking to slightly improve heading into the weekend in an active weather season already.
Meanwhile in the Pacific Northwest, snow will change over to sleet and freezing rain across parts of Washington and Oregon on Friday, which may lead to slick roads and dangerous travel.
Throughout this weekend, another storm makes its way onshore from the Pacific Ocean, bringing a heavy rain chance to central and northern California as an estimated 1 to 3 inches of rain is likely from San Francisco to the Oregon border.
(SALT LAKE CITY) — A man has been charged with murder for allegedly killing his coworker at a storage facility after he “messed with his stuff,” authorities say.
The incident began on Dec. 29 in Salt Lake City, Utah, when a driver reportedly overheard his passenger — later identified as the suspect, Nathan David Evans — tell another person in his vehicle that “he was going down to a warehouse to kill someone by bashing his head in because the person had messed with his stuff,” according to a statement from Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill.
Later that evening, authorities say that another coworker of Evans left their workplace, leaving the eventual victim, David Hinkebein, and Evans alone at the storage facility.
“When the same co-worker came back to work on January 1, 2024, he saw Mr. Evans but not Mr. Hinkebein,” Gill said in his statement announcing the charges against Evans. “During the shift, that same co-worker went near a back office and noticed bloody handprints on the wall and blood-stained carpet.”
Authorities said that Evans “made it clear that he did not want to talk about the mess when the co-worker confronted him about it.”
However, when the same coworker noticed that the mess was still not cleaned up the next day and confronted the suspect again, Evans simply told him that “Hinkebein was done,” which led to Evans’ colleague reporting to authorities that Hinkelbein was possibly dead.
Police went to the warehouse on Jan. 3 for a welfare check but, when they arrived, they found a large amount of blood as well as Hinkelbein’s body.
“When detectives arrived, they found a hammer next to a minifridge that had blood on it and hair the same color as Mr. Evans’ hair,” said the Salt Lake County District Attorney. “They also found a garbage bag with clothes that were later identified as clothes that Mr. Evans typically wore, covered in blood. A medical examiner later conducted an autopsy and found at least 15 blunt force injuries to the head of Mr. Hinkebein, consistent with a hammer.”
Evans was subsequently charged on Thursday with one count of first-degree felony murder and one count of third-degree felony abuse or desecration of a human body.
“When people go to work they do not expect to be faced with violence. Workplace violence is intolerable and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law by this office. Our hearts go out to those who knew Mr. Hinkebein through his work with those experiencing homelessness in Salt Lake County,” said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill. “All persons accused of wrongdoing are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.”
The investigation into Hinkelbein’s death is currently ongoing and Evans’ trial date has not yet been set.
(ATLANTA) — Spelman College, a historically Black, women’s liberal arts college in Atlanta, announced Thursday that the school received a historic $100 million gift.
The donation is the largest single donation ever received by any Historically Black College or University (HBCU).
The record-breaking donation comes from businesswoman and philanthropist Ronda Stryker and her husband, William Johnston, chairman of Greenleaf Trust. Stryker has been a Spelman College Trustee since 1997 and holds a passion for empowering women through higher education and opportunities for marginalized communities, according to a press release.
Spelman explained that $75 million of the $100 million donation will go towards endowed scholarships for future students, and the remaining $25 million will be used to “develop an academic focus on public policy and democracy, improve student housing and provide flexible funding to meet critical strategic needs,” the press release said.
The multi-million donation comes as Spelman College marks 100 years since its official naming in 1924. Spelman is ranked first among HBCUs by U.S. News World & Report. The college was founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, and is a member of the Atlanta University Center Consortium.
Located in the heart of Atlanta, the AUCC is the world’s largest consortia of African American private institutions of higher education. With campuses just steps from one another, the consortium’s members include Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, and Morehouse School of Medicine.
The school’s mission statement states that the institution is “dedicated to academic excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, and the intellectual, creative, ethical, and leadership development of its students.” Spelman’s student body comprises over 2,100 students from 43 states and 10 foreign countries.
“We are invigorated and inspired by this incredible act of generosity,” Dr. Helene Gayle, president of Spelman College said. “This gift is a critical step in our school’s mission to eliminate financial barriers to starting and finishing a Spelman education. We can’t thank Ronda Stryker enough for her selflessness and support as both a trustee and friend. There’s no doubt that Spelman College is better because of her.”
(ATLANTA) — The Fulton County judge overseeing the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump has set a hearing to hear evidence over allegations from one of the co-defendants in the case that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was having an improper relationship with a prosecutor she brought in for the case.
The hearing is set for Feb. 15 in Atlanta.
The hearing order comes before the Fulton County DA’s office has filed any response to the allegations. The judge’s order directs the DA’s office to respond by Feb. 2.
Michael Roman, one of former President Donald Trump’s co-defendants in the election interference case, is seeking to dismiss the indictment against him and disqualify Willis, alleging she “engaged in a personal, romantic relationship” with one of the top prosecutors she brought in to work on the case, which allegedly resulted in financial gain for both of them.
In a court filing earlier this month, Roman, a former Trump campaign staff member, accused Willis of having potentially committed “an act to defraud the public of honest services” based on her “intentional failure” to disclose the alleged relationship that she allegedly “personally benefitted from.”
The 127-page filing from Roman’s attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, alleged the prosecutor, Nathan Wade, has a “lack of relevant experience” but has been paid approximately $650,000 in legal fees since being appointed to the role — which the filing claims was a “self-serving arrangement.” Trump’s attorney said in court on Friday that they’re considering joining in the complaint against Willis.
Speaking on Sunday at the Big Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day service, Willis defended Wade credentials in emotional remarks that appeared to acknowledge the allegations leveled against her but never directly addressed them.
During her remarks of more than 30 minutes, which were livestreamed, Willis never denied or directly addressed the allegations she and Wade had an inappropriate relationship.
Trump, Roman, and 17 others pleaded not guilty in 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, Jena 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.
The setting of the hearing date came on the same day that Willis filed a motion seeking to quash a deposition subpoena she received last week as part of Wade’s divorce proceedings.
Willis, in the filing, claims that her deposition, which is currently scheduled for next week, would be “outside the scope of discovery” in the divorce matter and amounts to an “attempt to harass and damage her professional reputation” while “obstructing and interfering with an ongoing criminal prosecution.”
(JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.) — A Missouri teacher has been charged with attempted murder after her husband told police he believed she was poisoning him for several weeks — and allegedly captured her adding a toxic plant to his smoothie — court records show.
Jefferson City police said they investigated allegations of “intentional poisoning of a spouse” after the suspect’s husband contacted them this week.
“Authorities were notified by the victim that he believed a period of unexplained illnesses were in fact an intentional act of poisoning,” Jefferson City Police Department said in a news release.
Sarah Scheffer, 37, of Jefferson City, was arrested on Wednesday on a first-degree domestic assault charge, police said. She has since been charged by the Cole County prosecuting attorney with attempted murder in the first degree and armed criminal action, both felonies, court filings show.
Scheffer’s husband suspected her of poisoning his food and beverages for the past six weeks, according to a probable cause statement.
“The victim described eight occurrences in which the defendant provided a beverage or food that had an odd taste and shortly after ingesting he experienced extreme fatigue, confusion, blurred vision, severe cotton mouth, and nausea,” the probable cause statement said.
He confronted her on Jan. 1, after she brought him a beverage with a “bitter taste,” according to the probable cause statement. Scheffer allegedly said she urinated in the beverage, then “admitted to putting an industrial strength adhesive in it,” only to then deny putting anything in the beverage, the statement said.
Her husband decided to install a hidden surveillance camera, which on Tuesday captured Scheffer make a smoothie for him in a blender, according to the probable cause statement. She allegedly added the contents from a green bowl that contained a root from a bag labeled “lily of the valley” that her husband had previously seen on a table in the home, the statement said.
Lily of the valley is a “very poisonous” plant that contains numerous cardiac glycosides, which “slow down the heart and cause irregular heart rhythm,” according to the National Capital Poison Center.
The smoothie, which had been placed in the fridge, was seized by police to be submitted to a state laboratory for testing, according to the probable cause statement.
When questioned by police, Scheffer allegedly admitted to adding the root of the lily of the valley to the blender “with the intent to cause the victim harm,” the probable cause statement said.
“The defendant admitted to knowing that ingesting ‘lily of the valley’ could result in death,” the statement said.
Scheffer is being held on a no-bond arrest warrant at the Cole County Jail. Online court records do not list any attorney information or upcoming court hearings.
Police said they believed she would be at risk for failing to appear in court in response to a criminal summons because she allegedly said she has a relationship with someone who lives in Pakistan and “has conducted Google searches for flights to Pakistan,” the probable cause statement said.
Scheffer is a design and art teacher at Calvary Lutheran High School in Jefferson City, according to Jefferson City ABC affiliate KMIZ. Her name and photo appear to have been removed from the school’s faculty page online following her arrest.
In a statement to KMIZ, Calvary Lutheran High School said it was notified by police Wednesday afternoon of a “criminal matter pertaining to an employee” who has since been placed on leave.
“The alleged conduct was outside of the employee’s association with the school and did not involve a student or any other school personnel,” Calvary Lutheran Executive Director John Christman said in the statement. “As a Christian community, Calvary Lutheran High School believes in protecting the well-being of all individuals who are part of our programs and we seek to respond in a caring and sensitive manner to everyone in our school community.”
Former President Donald Trump speaks at his caucus night event at the Iowa Events Center, Jan. 15, 2024 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is on trial this week in New York City to determine whether he will have to pay former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll additional damages for defaming her in 2019 when he denied her allegations of sexual assault.
Last year, in a separate trial, a jury determined that Trump was liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the 1990s, and that he defamed her in a 2022 social media post by calling her allegations “a Hoax and a lie” and saying “This woman is not my type!”
Trump has denied all wrongdoing and has said he doesn’t know who Carroll is.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jan 18, 4:27 PM
Defense challenges expert on reputation repair
Donald Trump’s defense attorneys contested the conclusion of a plaintiff’s expert who said restoring E. Jean Carroll’s reputation would cost as much as $12 million.
Defense attorney Michael Madaio challenged the validity of Northwestern University professor Ashlee Humphreys’ report, suggesting that it failed to consider Carroll’s increased social media following and career prospects after she accused Trump of rape.
Madaio also argued that some of the negative attention Humphreys calculated really came from articles about the allegation, and not from Trump’s statements denying the claim.
“It’s likely more people know her name,” Humphreys allowed.
Humphreys also conceded that she had never, herself, carried out a reputation repair campaign.
“Do you have any real-world experience other than being a professor?” Madaio asked. “Have you ever applied the methodologies in the report in the real world?”
“No,” Humphreys responded. “I teach students how to apply these methodologies.”
At several points during the cross-examination, Judge Kaplan expressed frustration with Madaio’s questions and the pace of his cross-examination.
“We’re now wasting time — big time,” Kaplan thundered at one point.
Court was subsequently adjourned for the day after Humphreys stepped down from the witness stand. The trial is currently scheduled to resume on Monday.
Jan 18, 1:48 PM
Repairing Carroll’s reputation would cost $12M, says expert
Former President Trump’s defamatory denial of E. Jean Carroll’s rape allegation was seen online as many as 25 million times and 63 million times on television, causing “severe” damage to Carroll’s reputation that would cost more than $12 million to repair, an expert called by Carroll’s attorneys testified.
The expert, Northwestern University professor Ashlee Humphreys, said Trump’s statements reached between 85 and 104 million people. Not everyone believed them — maybe a fifth to a quarter — but they altered the associations attached to Carroll’s name, Humphreys said.
Before June 2019, Humphreys said Carroll was known as a journalist, a “truth-teller and sassy advice columnist.” After her allegation became public and Trump responded to it, Carroll was publicly associated with being a liar or a Democratic operative, Humphreys said.
“I found that damage to her reputation was severe and the costs to repair it were considerable,” Humphreys testified. She estimated it would cost $12 million to repair Carroll’s reputation by placing positive messages about her on television, with social media influencers and on blogs.
Jan 18, 12:26 PM
‘It took great courage to come forward,’ Carroll says
E. Jean Carroll testified on redirect examination that she would prefer to have the reputation she had prior to her allegation against then-President Trump than the one she has now — despite defense assertions that her online following and her income have increased.
“Would you prefer to have the reputation you have now with all those Twitter followers, or the reputation you had before June 2019? Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan asked.
“Before,” Carroll responded.
Carroll testified she did not go public with the accusation to enhance her social status, get herself on a magazine cover, or make money. “No, it took great courage to come forward and say what happened,” Carroll said.
While she said she anticipated backlash, Carroll said that Trump’s defamatory statements made the backlash worse than what she expected.
After earlier conceding under cross-examination that she received negative messages in the hours before the White House issued a public denial of her rape claim, she testified on redirect that the messages became more threatening and abusive after Trump’s statement.
Regarding the tweets Carroll received after she went public but before Trump’s denial, Carroll’s attorney asked her, “Did any of those tweets accuse you of being a paid Democratic operative?”
“No,” Carroll responded.
“Did any of those tweets threaten your life?” her attorney asked.
“No,” Carroll said.
“Did any of those tweets say you should be in jail?” her attorney asked.
“No,” Carroll answered.
“Did any of those tweets say you should be raped?” her attorney asked.
“No,” Carroll replied.
Carroll then stepped down from the witness stand, concluding her testimony. Her lawyers next plan to call a reputational repair expert to the stand.
Jan 18, 11:16 AM
Defense presses Carroll on her ‘bigger status’
E. Jean Carroll’s Twitter followers increased from about 12,000 to 282,000 after she went public with her rape allegation against then-President Trump, Carroll said under cross-examination.
Carroll testified that the increase was the “result of hard work,” but defense attorney Alina Habba asked, “You don’t believe any of that increase came from coming forward with your story?”
The defense has suggested that Carroll craved attention, took on Trump to revive her flagging career, and relished the verdict in an earlier trial — known as Carroll II — that established Trump was liable for sexually abusing and then defaming her.
“Did the Carroll II verdict, in your opinion, provide you with bigger status in New York?” Habba asked.
“It provided me with enormous elation,” Carroll responded.
The defense has also suggested that Carroll assumed the burden for any abusive or threatening messages by appearing on television, participating in a podcast, and sitting for an interview with The New York Times.
“Do you believe you are more well-known because of the allegations you brought against my client, Donald Trump?” Habba asked.
“Yes I am more well-known, and I’m hated by a lot more people,” Carroll responded. “I am partaking in this trial to bring my old reputation and status back.”
“So you sued Donald Trump to get your old reputation back?” Habba asked.
“Yeah,” Carroll bluntly answered, ending the cross-examination.
Jan 18, 10:42 AM
Carroll concedes she was attacked online before Trump’s denial
E. Jean Carroll, who testified yesterday that she’s been inundated with online attacks ever since then-President Trump fiercely denied her rape allegation on June 21, 2019, conceded on cross-examination that, after the allegation was published, people were sending her negative messages in the hours before the White House publicly issued Trump’s denial.
“Nothing like making up fake news to ruin the president’s win in 2020,” one message said. “I’ve got some advice for you drop this lie because it’s a bad look for you,” said another. A third called Carroll a “lying sack of s— making false accusations right after a presidential run announcement.”
“And that was before President Trump’s tweet?” defense attorney Alina Habba asked Carroll.
“Yes,” Carroll said.
Habba attempted to show more of the messages sent to Carroll, but Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, interrupted, saying, “We’ll stipulate that there were nasty tweets sent to Ms. Carroll prior to 5:17 p.m.,” the time of the first Tweet repeating Trump’s denial.
Habba is trying to convince the jury that the former president should not be financially liable for the negativity hurled at Carroll by others. Carroll, who is seeking at least $10 million in damages, suggested that all of the negative, threatening messages she received mimic Trump.
“They want to emulate him,” Carroll testified. “They’re standing up for the man that they admire.”
Jan 18, 8:21 AM
Cross-examination of Carroll to resume
E. Jean Carroll will return to the witness stand this morning to resume her cross-examination — this time without Donald Trump in the courtroom.
After attending the first two days of the trial, Trump will be absent today to attend the funeral of former first lady Melania Trump’s mother, Amalija Knavs, who died last week after a long health battle.
During yesterday’s proceedings, Judge Lewis Kaplan, for a third time, denied a request from Trump’s legal team to pause the trial so Trump could attend the funeral.
“We would have assumed that for a trial like this, it’s not an emergency in terms of timing, the judge would have been very nice, and they would let me go because I want to be at every trial day,” Trump told reporters after court yesterday, calling Kaplan a “radical Trump hater.”
Trump’s attorney Alina Habba told Judge Kaplan she intends to question Carroll for less than an hour today, after which Carroll’s lawyers plan to call to the stand an expert on reputational harm, as well as Robbie Myers, the former editor of the magazine where Carroll worked as an advice columnist.
Jan 17, 4:53 PM
Carroll agrees she did not shy away from publicity
E. Jean Carroll conceded on cross-examination that she anticipated “blowback” would follow the publication of her rape allegation against then-President Trump, and that she did not shy away from publicity that she now says has shattered her reputation.
“You’ve continued to publicize every lawsuit you had against President Trump?” defense attorney Alina Habba asked.
“Yes,” Carroll responded. “Because I wanted people to know that a woman can speak up and win a trial. I wanted people to know. I’m 80. I don’t want to be quiet. It’s not right to make a woman be quiet. It has gone on for too long.”
The defense has been trying to portray Carroll as an attention-loving woman who is overplaying her emotional accounts of how the backlash following her rape accusation affected her.
Carroll also said under questioning that she hosted watch parties in her lawyer’s office that were attended by comedian Kathy Griffin and Trump’s niece Mary Trump, both of whom are critics of the former president.
“Isn’t Kathy Griffin known for holding up a severed head of President Trump?” Habba asked.
“Yes,” Carroll said.
Court subsequently adjourned for the day, with Carroll scheduled to return to the witness stand on Thursday for additional cross-examination.
Trump indicated he would be making remarks to the press later this afternoon.
Jan 17, 4:24 PM
Judge promptly rejects defense request for mistrial
In the middle of E. Jean Carroll’s cross-examination, former President Trump’s defense attorney Alina Habba sought a mistrial, which the judge promptly denied.
Habba was questioning Carroll about threatening emails she said she received. Carroll said she deleted many of those messages because “I didn’t know how to handle death threats. I thought deleting them was the easiest way to get them out of my life.”
When Carroll said she had deleted some messages around the time of her earlier trial involving Trump, Habba asked for a mistrial, saying, “The witness has just admitted to deleting evidence herself.”
Judge Kaplan immediately denied the request and said, “The jury will disregard everything Ms. Habba just said.”
Habba also questioned whether Carroll received disparaging messages after publishing her account of the sexual assault at Bergdorf Goodman, but before Trump issued his denial.
“Some of the slime happened before the president issued his statement?” Habba asked.
“No,” Carroll responded. “Because they were reacting to the White House statement.”
Asked how she knew, Carroll said, “Because of the wording,” prompting Habba to say, “So a denial from the White House would mean that any statement echoing it would be President Trump’s fault?”
Jan 17, 2:46 PM
Cross-examination of Carroll stumbles at the start
The direct examination of E. Jean Carroll ended with her telling the jury she would “never get used to attacks” like the ones she has continued to endure from former President Trump and his followers.
“Was he posting about you as recently as yesterday? Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan asked regarding Trump.
“That’s what I’ve been told,” Carroll answered before she was shown a Truth Social post from Tuesday, during the lunch break, in which Trump called the trial a “fake case from a woman I’ve never met, seen or touched.”
The cross-examination of Carroll began on a discordant note when defense attorney Alina Habba tried to confront Carroll with some of her testimony from an earlier deposition.
There was a dispute over whether Habba had properly told the judge which part of the deposition she intended to introduce.
“We’re going to do it my way, Ms. Habba,” Judge Kaplan said.
“Sure,” Habba replied, abandoning that line of questioning.
Jan 17, 2:01 PM
Judge denies defense motion for him to recuse himself
Following the a lunch break, the defense team made an immediate motion for Judge Kaplan to recuse himself from the trial because of the “general hostility” defense attorney Michael Madaio said the judge has shown toward Trump’s side.
Kaplan responded with a single word: “Denied.”
Carroll is now returning to the witness stand to continue her testimony.
Jan 17, 1:17 PM
‘You can’t control yourself,’ judge admonishes Trump
At the lunch break, Judge Lewis Kaplan threatened to boot former President Trump from the courtroom if he continues to make side comments within earshot of the jury.
The warning came after E. Jean Carroll’s attorney Shawn Crowley complained for a second time about Trump’s comments.
“The defendant has been making statements that we can hear at counsel table,” she said, quoting Trump as saying, “It is a witch hunt” and “It really is a con job.”
When a video of Trump disparaging E. Jean Carroll was played for the court, Crowley said Trump remarked, “It’s true.”
Judge Kaplan, in response, addressed the defense from the bench.
“Mr. Trump has the right to be present here. That right can be forfeited and it can be forfeited if he is disruptive, which is what has been reported to me,” the judge said. “Mr. Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you from the trial.”
“I understand you are probably very eager for me to do that,” the judge added, to which Trump threw his up his arms and said, “I would love it, I would love it.”
“I know you would, because you can’t control yourself in this circumstance,” Kaplan replied. “You just can’t.”
Jan 17, 12:38 PM
Carroll says she’s always on ‘hyper alert’ due to threats
Ever since then-President Trump defamed her in June of 2019, E. Jean Carroll told the jury, she has been inundated with threats of physical and sexual violence.
In one message, Carroll said of the sender: “He wants me to stick a gun in my mouth in pull the trigger.”
Another message said, “I hope someone really does attack, rape and murder you.”
When another message was displayed for the jury, Carroll said, “I’m sorry people in the courtroom have to see this.” Her attorney, Roberta Kaplan, replied, “I’m sorry to have to ask you about it, Ms. Carroll.”
The message said, “i will rape u e jean carroll.”
Carroll described her visceral reaction to these messages. “The body believes it’s going to happen,” she said. “It feels like it’s going to happen.”
Carroll said she now lives her life on “hyper alert” for potential threats in and around her home in upstate New York.
“I have a pit bull rescue. He’s a great dog, but I never, never had him off the leash. When the first threats came in, I let him off the leash and he now patrols,” Carroll said. “I alerted the neighbors to be on the watch and I bought bullets for the gun I had inherited from my father.”
“Where do you keep that gun?” Kaplan asked. “By my bed,” Carroll responded.
Jan 17, 12:00 PM
Judge instructs Trump to keep his voice down
Former President Trump has been making side commentary during E. Jean Carroll’s testimony within earshot of the jury, Carroll’s lawyer complained during a break in the proceedings, outside the jury’s presence.
“Mr. Trump is sitting at the back table and has been loudly saying things” like “‘Carroll’s statements are false’ and ‘she now seems to have gotten her memory back,'” the attorney, Shawn Crowley, told Judge Kaplan.
Sitting at the defense table, Trump has been seen scoffing, chuckling, and encouraging his attorney, Alina Habba, to interject during the proceedings. He has been visibly shaking his head at some of what Carroll asserts on the witness stand.
When, earlier, Judge Kaplan denied the defense’s request for an adjournment and instructed Habba to “sit down,” Trump was heard saying, “He is a very nasty guy.”
During Carroll’s testimony in which she said she interpreted Trump’s remark that “she’s not my type” to mean “I’m too ugly to assault,” Trump was heard laughing after the judge overruled a defense objection.
Before the jury returned to the courtroom, Judge Kaplan addressed Trump’s side comments and instructed him to “take special care” to keep his voice down when conferring with counsel, “so that the jury does not overhear it.”
Jan 17, 11:35 AM
Trump ‘ended the world that I had been living in,’ Carroll says
Recounting her response when Trump denied her rape claim in 2019, Carroll said that when Trump said “she’s not my type,” she interpreted it to mean “I’m too ugly to assault.”
“What did it feel like to have the President of the United States say those things about you?” her attorney Roberta Kaplan asked.
“To have the President of the United States, one of the most powerful persons on Earth, calling me a liar for three days and saying I’m a liar 26 times — I counted them — it ended the world that I had been living in. And I entered a new world,” Carroll responded as Trump sat at the defense table. “I was attacked. I was attacked on Twitter, I was attacked on Facebook, I was attacked in news blogs, I was attacked, brutally attacked, in messages.”
The jury saw some of those messages, which mimicked Trump’s statements, calling her “lying old hag” or saying “shame on you and your lying I-hate-Trump story.”
Carroll testified that the messages started instantly and have not stopped. She said she sometimes receives “scores and scores, sometimes hundreds a day.”
Jan 17, 11:25 AM
Carroll says she’s paid ‘as dearly as is possible to pay’
“I’ve paid just about as dearly as is possible to pay,” E. Jean Carroll testified about her life after then-President Trump fiercely denied her rape claim in a series of defamatory statements in 2019.
When New York magazine, on June 21, 2019, published an excerpt of Carroll’s book that included her allegation that Trump raped her in a department store dressing room, she testified that she expected him to respond.
“I expected him to deny it but to say it was consensual, which it was not, but that’s what I expected him to say,” Carroll testified.
“Is that what he did?” her attorney Roberta Kaplan asked. “No,” Carroll answered.
According to a reporter’s Tweet from 5:17 p.m. on June 21, 2019, which was shown in court, Trump responded to the allegation by saying, “I’ve never met this person in my life.”
“That is a lie,” Carroll said. “He said I made up an accusation to sell a book. That is a lie. He said I made up the accusation for publicity’s sake. That is a lie. He said my accusation damaged the real victims of sexual assault. That is a lie.”
Carroll read additional statements by Trump reacting to her allegation.
“He said people like me, who make false accusations, are very dangerous, in very dangerous territory, that I shouldn’t have done it for the sake of publicity. That is also a lie,” Carroll said.
Jan 17, 10:32 AM
Carroll takes the stand as Trump looks on
Eight months after a jury determined that former President Trump was liable for sexually assaulting and defaming E. Jean Carroll, the former magazine columnist is back on the witness stand this morning — this time with Trump in attendance.
“I’m here because Donald Trump assaulted me and, when I wrote about it, he lied and he shattered my reputation,” Carroll told the jury after taking the stand. “Yesterday I opened up Twitter and it said ‘Hey lady, you’re a fraud.'”
The courtroom seating arrangement, with Carroll on the witness stand and Trump looking on from the defense table, brings the two of them face-to-face after they appeared to avoid eye contact during the trial’s first day Tuesday.
Jan 17, 10:24 AM
‘I said sit down,’ judge admonishes Trump attorney
The start of former President Trump’s defamation trial this morning was delayed briefly by a juror transportation issue.
As proceedings got underway, outside the jury’s presence, a tense exchange unfolded between the judge and defense attorney Alina Habba, who again repeated a request to adjourn the trial on Thursday so Trump can attend the funeral of former first lady Melania Trump’s mother, Amalija Knavs.
“I am asking your honor to have the kindness that my client deserves,” Habba said to Judge Lewis Kaplan, who has already twice denied the defense’s request to postpone the trial due to Thursday’s funeral.
Kaplan, interrupting Habba, said, “Indeed Ms. Habba, the right that he has according to the Supreme Court of the United States is to be present either in person or through counsel.”
Habba persisted, with Trump looking on, prompting the judge to instruct her to “sit down” and make no further argument.
“I said sit down,” Kaplan said.
“I don’t like to be spoken to that way,” Habba responded. “I am asking your honor to please refrain from speaking to me that way. I am asking for an adjournment.”
“It’s denied. Sit down,” Kaplan said.
Jan 17, 9:32 AM
Trump arrives at courthouse
Former President Trump has arrived at Manhattan federal court for Day 2 of his defamation damages trial.
His motorcade pulled up to the courthouse at around 9:15 a.m. ET.
Jan 17, 7:37 AM
Carroll set to testify as first witness
Donald Trump is expected to be in the courtroom this morning when E. Jean Carroll takes the stand to testify about how the then-president’s defamatory denial of her sexual assault allegations in 2019 upended her life.
Trump “unleashed his followers to go after her online” after Carroll went public with her allegations, damaging her reputation as a writer and making her feel unsafe in her own home, Carroll’s attorney Shawn Crowley told the jury in her opening statement yesterday.
“Ms. Carroll bought bullets for the gun that she inherited from her father, and she now sleeps with it right beside her bed. She checks her surroundings every time she leaves her house or gets out of her car,” Crowley said. “She’s afraid — afraid that someday, somebody is going to make good on their threats and come after her in person.”
Despite sitting feet from each other in the courtroom yesterday, Carroll and Trump avoided eye contact and never interacted during the first day of the trial. However, when Carroll takes the stand to testify this morning, she will speak directly in front of the counsel table where Trump is seated.
Jan 16, 8:30 PM
Trump expected to attend trial Wednesday, sources say
Former President Trump, who was campaigning in New Hampshire Tuesday evening, is expected to return to New York to attend the second day of his defamation trial on Wednesday, sources tell ABC News.
Trump is then scheduled to return to New Hampshire later Wednesday.
Jan 16, 6:02 PM
Trial is ‘straight out of banana republic,’ says Trump attorney
Donald Trump’s legal counsel Boris Epshteyn briefly spoke to reporters outside court at the conclusion of Tuesday’s proceedings, calling the trial “straight out of [a] banana republic.”
“Manhattan is 90-95% Democrat,” Epshteyn said, despite voter registration records showing the borough is about 70% Democratic. “Does anybody think the President will get a fair trial here? Absolutely not,” he said.
Despite a jury last year finding Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll, Epshteyn alleged that Carroll is making “false accusations.”
“President Trump has consistently stated that he did not commit the allegation and did not commit the acts that the plaintiff alleges. He has been steadfast in that. And it is right to defend himself from false accusations,” Epshteyn said.
Epshteyn declined to comment on whether Trump plans to attend court tomorrow.
Carroll did not speak to reporters when she left court.
Jan 16, 4:52 PM
Carroll seeking a ‘windfall’ over ‘mean Tweets,’ Trump attorney says
E. Jean Carroll is looking for a “windfall” over a series of “mean Tweets from Twitter trolls,” Trump attorney Alina Habba said during the defense’s opening statement, in which Habba sought to cast doubt on the severity of the alleged harm Carroll said she endured.
Habba told the jury they do not have to believe Carroll’s account of how she has suffered as a result of Trump’s defamatory statements.
“Her career has prospered and she has been thrust back into the limelight like she has always wanted,” Habba said, accusing Carroll of using her story “to obtain as much fame and notoriety as possible.”
The defense framed Carroll’s lawsuit as nothing more than an attempt to shake down Trump for money over scores of critical Tweets that have nothing to do with the defamatory statements by Trump that are at issue in the trial.
“She expects you as the jury to give her an award for every negative comment that was thrown her way,” Habba said. “She is looking for you to give her a windfall because some people on social media said mean things about her.”
Habba showed a photo of Carroll in the company of Trump critic Kathy Griffin and said Carroll is close with another critic of the former president, his niece Mary Trump.
“This is someone who craves fame and seeks fame wherever she can get it,” Habba said. “She got what she wanted.”
The proceedings were dismissed for the day after both sides concluded their opening statements. The trial will resume Wednesday with the first witness in the case.
Jan 16, 4:00 PM
Trump ‘unleashed his followers,’ Carroll’s attorney says
Donald Trump’s lies about E. Jean Carroll “unleashed his followers to go after her,” and as Trump campaigns for president he “continues to lie about Ms. Carroll,” Carroll’s attorney said in her opening statement.
“How much money will it take to make him stop?” Carroll’s attorney, Shawn Crowley, said. “He kept up those very same lies even after a federal jury sat in this courtroom and unanimously found that he sexually assaulted her and defamed her.”
Crowley reminded the jury that Trump “was president when he made those statements and he used the world’s biggest microphone to humiliate her” — the result of which was that he “wrecked” Carroll’s reputation in a matter of days, Crowley said.
“Donald Trump’s response was swift and brutal,” Crowley said. “Donald Trump did not just deny the assault. He went much, much further.”
She quoted Trump’s statements from June 22, 2019: “‘People should pay dearly for making up accusations” about him.
Crowley also quoted Trump saying “she’s not my type” on that day in 2019. “In other words, she was too ugly to assault. She must have been lying because she was too unattractive for Mr. Trump to sexually assault,” Crowley said.
Carroll, who is now 80, sat at the plaintiff’s table as her attorney showed the jury messages Trump’s followers posted calling her ugly and urging her to kill herself.
“When Donald Trump called Ms. Carroll a fraud and a liar, they listened and they believed and they decided to go after her,” Crowley said. “Donald Trump knew exactly what he was unleashing.”
Jan 16, 3:40 PM
‘This is not a do-over,’ judge instructs jury
Judge Lewis Kaplan told the nine jurors that they must accept as true that Trump forcibly sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll and defamed her when he denied it.
“Ms. Carroll did not make up her claim of forcible sexual abuse,” Judge Kaplan told the panel. “His false statements tended to disparage Ms. Carroll or tended to expose her to hatred or to induce an unsavory opinion of her.”
The judge made it clear the jury was only determining damages related to two defamatory statements Trump made in June 2019 when he denied Carroll’s rape allegation. He said the trial was not an opportunity to re-litigate the prior trial, in which a jury found Trump liable for defamation and sexual assault.
“This trial is not a do-over of the previous trial which determined those facts,” Kaplan said.
Jan 16, 3:18 PM
Trump departs before opening statements
Former President Trump has departed Manhattan federal court prior to the delivery of opening statements in his defamation damages trial.
Trump voluntarily showed up to court for jury selection this morning, and did not return after the lunch break. He has a campaign event scheduled later today in New Hampshire.
His attorney suggested Trump would return to court for at least part of tomorrow’s proceedings, when E. Jean Carroll is expected to be the first witness.
The jury has been sworn in, with opening statements to begin following instructions from the judge.
Jan 16, 2:08 PM
2 election deniers don’t make cut as jury is seated
A jury of nine has been selected to hear the evidence in the case.
One juror is a married father of two grown children who works in the subway system. and said he is an avid local news viewer. Another juror is a German native who emigrated to the United States and said she does not watch the news.
The jury also includes a newlywed who works in property management and gets his news from social media, a woman with a master’s degree who works as a publicist for a tech firm, and a single man who works in television.
Two people who said they believed that the election was stolen from Donald Trump by President Joe Biden did not make the jury. Nor did a man who said he believed Trump was being treated unfairly by the United States court system.
Opening arguments will begin follow the lunch break. As they exited the courtroom, Trump and Carroll came within feet of each other but appeared to ignore one another.
Jan 16, 12:11 PM
Prospective jurors questioned about political leanings
Former President Trump has been twisting and turning in his seat at the defense table as prospective jurors answer the judge’s questions about their political affiliations, voting habits, campaign donations, and any experience with sexual assault — and whether they ever watched The Apprentice or read E. Jean Carroll’s advice column in Elle magazine.
As another columnist was known to say, “Only in New York, kids.”
One prospective juror, number 68, affirmed that he donated to Trump’s campaign, followed him on social media, and believed that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump by President Joe Biden.
Prospective juror 63 was excused after he said that his knowledge of Trump’s criminal indictments — of which there are four that the former president is currently facing — would impact his ability to be fair and impartial.
The majority of prospective jurors signaled they were registered to vote, prompting the judge to ask if they had voted in 2016 and 2020. Trump turned to look at those who answered in the affirmative.
Three prospective jurors said they had donated to Trump’s campaign. Eleven said they donated to either the Obama, Clinton or Biden campaigns. At least ten watched The Apprentice.
Jan 16, 11:32 AM
Judge explains case to prospective jurors
Judge Kaplan explained the case to prospective jurors, saying, “Ms. Carroll sued Mr. Trump for defamation for certain statements he made” shortly after she publicly accused him of raping her.
“This trial is limited to the issue of the money damages, if any, that Ms. Carroll should receive for those publications. The reason that’s so is that the court determined in a previous decision that Mr. Trump is liable,” Kaplan said. “It has been determined already that Mr. Trump did sexually assault Ms. Carroll.”
To whittle down the jury pool, Kaplan began with this question: “Having heard what you have heard about this case so far, would you be unable to give both sides a fair trial and to decide this case solely on the basis of the evidence you hear during this trial and the instructions I give you?”
Three prospective jurors were immediately excused for signaling they could not be fair.
One woman said she worked for Ivanka Trump’s company from 2017 to 2018. “Would that experience have any effect on your ability to be fair and impartial to both sides in this case?” Judge Kaplan asked regarding her connection to Trump’s eldest daughter. “No,” the woman replied.
After the judge asked if anyone else had worked for Trump or his family, a man indicated he was an officer in the U.S. Navy while Trump was commander in chief. The man said it would have no impact on his ability to be fair.
Jan 16, 11:23 AM
Prospective jurors enter courtroom to begin selection process
As prospective jurors filed into the courtroom for jury selection, Donald Trump surveyed the group. One woman appeared to smile upon recognizing Trump. A man leaned forward and appeared to stare for several seconds.
“You’ve been summoned for possible service in a civil case,” Judge Kaplan said before introducing the plaintiff and defendant. “This case is between a writer, advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, and former President Donald Trump,” he said.
Jurors were told the case is expected to last three to five days and that they would sit through Thursday and, if necessary, return on Monday. They were also told they will be anonymous.
“That means neither your names nor the names of the jurors who are ultimately selected will be made public,” Judge Kaplan said. He had earlier cited Trump’s rhetoric as among the reasons for the anonymous jury.
Jurors will assemble daily at an off-site location and be driven to court under guard, the judge said.
“This is for your own protection. As you may understand, this case has attracted media attention and that’s likely to continue,” Kaplan said.
Jan 16, 10:40 AM
Layout of courtroom has Trump sitting 2 tables behind Carroll
Unlike courtrooms where the counsel tables are arranged side by side, the counsel tables in the courtroom this morning are arranged behind one another, with Trump and his attorneys seated two tables behind Carroll and her counsel.
Trump appeared to take note of that arrangement when he entered the courtroom.
He appeared to point at Carroll, then he and his team asked a man seated at the table between them to slide over — possibly to block Trump’s view of Carroll, or to provide a better view of the proceedings.
Jan 16, 10:27 AM
Judge again declines to delay trial
On Friday, Judge Kaplan denied a request from Trump’s attorneys to postpone the trial for a week so Trump could attend Thursday’s funeral of Amalija Knavs, the mother of former first lady Melania Trump, who died last Tuesday after a long health battle.
In court this morning, Trump attorney Alina Habba repeated her request for an adjournment so Trump can attend Knavs’ funeral.
“You asked me for a week’s adjournment and I denied it,” Judge Kaplan said. “The repetition is not accomplishing anything.”
The judge said Friday that he would grant a continuance so the trial, which was initially scheduled to conclude this week, would be extended so Trump could testify on Monday, Jan. 22.
Jan 16, 10:12 AM
Defense lodges several objections as court gets underway
“The court has made a number of rulings precluding evidence and argument,” said Judge Lewis Kaplan as court got underway, asking each side’s lead attorney to affirm that the parties understood the rules.
The defense objected, arguing that the court lacked jurisdiction. Kaplan quickly dispensed with the objection, saying, “Overruled.” Kaplan, who has a reputation as a no-nonsense judge, also overruled several other defense objections.
“I do think these are issues that will become an issue on appeal. We still don’t know what witnesses are coming in and which aren’t,” Trump attorney Alina Habba said, before Kaplan interrupted, saying, “Ms. Habba you have had a witness list for months.”
Habba pressed on, with Kaplan noting her objections.
“I have heard you, I have considered what you have to say and I have ruled,” Judge Kaplan said.
Jan 16, 9:56 AM
Trump seated in courtroom
Donald Trump has taken a seat in court, where jury selection in his defamation trial is scheduled to get underway this morning.
His decision to attend this trial is a clear shift for the former president, whose lawyers portrayed his absence from last year’s defamation and battery trial as a service to New York City, saying the city would not have to suffer the “logistical and financial burdens” of Trump’s attendance.
Carroll’s attorneys, however, pounced on Trump’s absence.
“He didn’t even bother to show up here in person,” attorney Roberta Kaplan told the jury.
Writing on social media last month, Trump blamed his absence at the trial on “not good advice” from his then-lawyer Joe Tacopina.
“I was asked by my lawyer not to attend–‘It was beneath me, and they have no case.’ That was not good advice,” Trump wrote.
Trump attorney Alina Habba is serving as Trump’s lead defense attorney for this week’s trial.
Jan 16, 9:21 AM
Carroll arrives for trial
E. Jean Carroll has arrived at the courthouse for the first day of the trial.
She smiled to reporters as she entered court.
Jan 16, 9:03 AM
Trump arrives at courthouse
Following his victory in Iowa, former President Trump landed at 3:30 a.m. in New York and just arrived at his civil defamation trial in lower Manhattan.
Trump is not required to attend the trial, though his decision not to attend last year’s defamation and battery trial by the same plaintiff, writer E. Jean Carroll, was mocked by Carroll’s attorney.
Trump’s motorcade pulled up to the courthouse this morning at at 8:50 a.m. ET.
Jan 16, 8:51 AM
On heels of Iowa victory, Trump is back on trial
When Donald Trump’s federal defamation trial gets underway in lower Manhattan this morning, it will be only about 11 hours since the former president claimed victory in the Iowa caucuses.
The trial is expected to take about a week, which could take Trump right to the doorstep of the New Hampshire Primary, scheduled for next Tuesday.
Trump has said that he plans to attend the trial at some point during the week, but has not indicted when.
The former president did not attend last year’s trial, held at the same courthouse, where a New York jury found him liable for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll and defaming her when he denied her accusation in a 2022 social media post.
Andy Alfaro/The Modesto Bee/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(LOS ANGELES) — The LA Innocence Project has taken up the notorious case of convicted wife killer Scott Peterson in new court filings, ABC News has learned exclusively. The group is seeking new evidence from the original trial.
Laci Peterson, who was 27 years old and eight months pregnant, disappeared on Christmas Eve in 2002. Her body was found in San Francisco Bay in April 2003.
Scott Peterson, 51, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife and second-degree murder in the death of their unborn son. He was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to death in 2005. He was later sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Attorneys with the LA Innocence Project claimed that Scott Peterson’s state and federal constitutional rights were violated, including a “claim of actual innocence that is supported by newly discovered evidence,” according to the court filings.
“New evidence now supports Mr. Peterson’s longstanding claim of innocence and raises many questions into who abducted and killed Laci and Conner Peterson,” the filings state.
His attorneys are seeking dozens of items they say they could not locate after reviewing the trial files from his prior counsel “after a thorough search,” according to the filings. The items include evidence from the investigations into a December 2022 burglary of a home across the street from the Petersons’ in Modesto in Stanislaus County, Laci Peterson’s missing Croton watch, and a van fire in the Airport District on Dec. 25, 2022, according to the filings. They are also seeking documents from interviews with several witnesses.
Paula Mitchell, the director of the LA Innocence Project, said she found “deficiencies” while reviewing the discovery of Scott Peterson’s case and sent a letter to Stanislaus County District Attorney Jeff Laugero on Nov. 14, 2023, “seeking informal production of numerous specific items of post-conviction discovery,” according to a declaration included in the filings.
The letter “includes private identifying information concerning numerous citizens, potential material witnesses, and possible suspects — as well as sensitive investigative leads relating to Mr. Peterson’s claim of innocence-information that was referenced throughout various police reports, tip sheets, and other investigative materials from both the prosecution and the defense that I reviewed,” she said in her declaration.
Mitchell also said during her investigation, she has come across “numerous witnesses” who have expressed hesitation or “outright unwillingness” to provide information due to the high-profile nature of the case.
Peterson, who pleaded not guilty, has maintained his innocence and claimed he received an unfair trial based on possible jury misconduct. His lawyers have previously claimed that a woman, known as Juror 7, had not disclosed involvement in other legal proceedings.
In 2020, the California Supreme Court overturned Scott Peterson’s death sentence, citing that his jury was improperly screened for bias against the death penalty, according to court documents.
He was resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in December 2021 and moved off death row in October 2022.
In December 2022, Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo denied Scott Peterson “relief” in his appeal based on stealth juror accusations.
Scott Peterson’s attorney, Pat Harris, said in a statement to ABC News on Thursday that they are “thrilled to have the incredibly skilled attorneys at the LA Innocence project and their expertise becoming involved in the efforts to prove Scott’s innocence.”
The LA Innocence Project provides pro bono legal services to people incarcerated in Central and Southern California who may have been wrongfully convicted.
Mike Belmessieri, who served as a juror in Scott Peterson’s trial, told ABC News on Thursday that there isn’t a day that goes by where he hasn’t thought about the case. He said he supports the LA Innocence Project’s review of the case.
“If they think they’re going to find something different, that sheds light on something new, I fully support it,” Belmessieri said.
ABC News’ Nicholas Cirone contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Well over two decades since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the unyielding DNA testing by the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner paid off with a positive identification of another victim.
John Ballantine Niven, of Oyster Bay, New York, became the 1,650th victim to be identified from the Sept. 11 attacks, the medical examiner’s office announced Thursday.
“While the pain from the enormous losses on September 11th never leaves us, the possibility of new identifications can offer solace to the families of victims,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams. “I’m grateful for the ongoing work from the Office of Chief Medical Examiner that honors the memory of John Ballantine Niven and all those we lost.”
The new identification was made through ever-advancing DNA testing of remains recovered in 2001, the medical examiner’s office said.
“Our solemn promise to find answers for families using the latest advances in science stands as strong today as in the immediate days after the World Trade Center attacks,” said Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jason Graham. “This new identification attests to our agency’s unwavering commitment and the determination of our scientists.”
Some 1,103 victims — 40% of those who died — remain unidentified.
New identifications have been fewer and farther between in recent years. Most recently, the city medical examiner made two new identifications of victims in September 2023, and withheld their names at the request of their families.
(NEW YORK) — A scathing Justice Department report into the 2022 mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, described “cascading failures of leadership” during the attack and an “unprecedented” level of misinformation in its aftermath that crippled the community’s attempts to recover.
A review team empowered by the department to investigate the shooting “identified several critical failures and other breakdowns prior to, during, and after the Robb Elementary School response,” the report released Thursday morning found.
It described insufficient planning and major departures from established active-shooter protocols. After the shooting had ended, investigators described a chaotic scene in which dead bodies were transported in ambulances and injured students were loaded onto buses. One teacher died on a sidewalk outside the school, where she was being treated.
An 18-year-old gunman entered Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022, killing 19 students and two teachers before law enforcement breached the classroom and killed the shooter. Responding officers from state and local outfits waited some 77 minutes before breaching a classroom and killing the shooter.
The police response came under scrutiny almost immediately, and a series of misstatements by officials in its aftermath compounded frustration within the tightly knit community. After state and local officials initially lauded the bravery of first responders, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw called their performance an “abject failure.”
MORE: ‘No one took leadership’: A detailed look at the failings in Uvalde school shooting
“The extent of misinformation, misguided and misleading narratives, leaks, and lack of communication about what happened on May 24 is unprecedented and has had an extensive, negative impact on the mental health and recovery of the family members and other victims, as well as the entire community of Uvalde,” the Justice Department report said.
The law enforcement response to the shooting was “a failure that should not have happened,” an emotional Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a news conference Thursday, announcing the findings of the Justice Department’s year-long review into the massacre.
“As I told families and survivors last night, the department’s review concluded that a series of major failures — failures and leadership in tactics and communications, in training and then preparedness were made by law enforcement leaders and others responding to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary,” Garland said. “As a result, 33 students and three of their teachers, many of whom had been shot, were trapped in a room with an active shooter for over an hour as law enforcement officials remain outside.”
Within weeks of the shooting, the Justice Department announced plans to launch a “Critical Incident Review” to examine the police response. Garland commissioned 9 law enforcement experts to conduct interviews and review evidence to craft a “complete incident reconstruction,” a department official said at the time.
That work culminated this week in a searing 575-page report that includes gut-wrenching new details about law enforcement’s lack of preparation for an active shooter, failures in the police response, and the toll of misinformation and chaos in its aftermath.
The school and the school district were woefully unprepared, the report found. Most officers “lacked specialized, advanced training and preparation to handle such situations” and the school district had cultivated “a culture of complacency regarding locked-door policies” – both of which contributed to the challenges in responding to the incident.
“[Some] families received incorrect information suggesting their family members had survived when they had not,” the report noted. “And others were notified of the deaths of their family members by personnel untrained in delivering such news.”
The review team reserved its most critical commentary for the officers who arrived first on scene, who retreated from the classroom and treated the gunman as a barricaded subject, not an active shooter. The review team described this as “the most significant failure.”
“The most significant failure was that responding officers should have immediately recognized the incident as an active shooter situation, using the resources and equipment that were sufficient to push forward immediately and continuously toward the threat until entry was made into classrooms 111/112 and the threat was eliminated,” according to the report.
Lt. Mariano Pargas, Uvalde’s acting police chief at the time, was among the first officers to arrive at Robb. He was deemed by the review team to be “the person best positioned to direct command and control” the law enforcement response, but “failed to do so.”
After the initial failure to pursue and confront the shooter, communications breakdowns compounded the confusion on-scene – even after the arrival of Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, whom the report identified as the de-facto on-scene commander. Arredondo “lacked a radio,” the report found, “having discarded his radios during his arrival thinking they were unnecessary.”
“Leadership … demonstrated no urgency for establishing a command and control structure, which led to challenges related to information sharing, lack of situational statuses, and limited-to-no direction for personnel in the hallway or on the perimeter,” the report found.
Counter to well-established active-shooter training methods, Arredondo “directed officers intending to gain entry into the classrooms to stop.”
The failures continued after the shooting. As parents flocked to a chaotic reunification center, “[some] families received incorrect information suggesting their family members had survived when they had not,” the report noted.
And in the days that followed, investigators struggled to preserve evidence from the crime scene “when non-investigatory personnel entered the hallway and classrooms 111/112 for the purpose of viewing the scene.”
President Joe Biden reacted to the report Thursday, pointing to the “multiple points of failure” outlined in the report and called on Congress to pass “commonsense” gun laws, including universal background checks, a national red flag law — which allows courts to order the removal of firearms from a person deemed potentially dangerous — and a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
“No community should ever have to go through what the Uvalde community suffered,” Biden said in a statement.
The Justice Department assessment builds on a report issued in July 2022 by a special committee of the Texas state legislature which described a series of “shortcomings and failures” in the law enforcement response.
Members of the DOJ team visited Uvalde 9 times, spending a total of 54 days on site and conducting more than 260 interviews with individuals from more than 30 organizations with knowledge of the response.
Garland visited family members of the victims on Wednesday. Afterwards, members of the community expressed gratitude to the department for pursuing the truth.
“I think it’s a step in the right direction,” Kim Rubio, whose daughter Lexi Rubio was killed in the shooting, told ABC News. “I think for the first time we felt respected – we felt treated with respect, and I believe we’re going to get the answers we’re looking for.”
(NEW YORK) — A scathing Justice Department report into the 2022 mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, described “cascading failures of leadership” during the attack and an “unprecedented” level of misinformation in its aftermath that crippled the community’s attempts to recover.
A review team empowered by the department to investigate the shooting “identified several critical failures and other breakdowns prior to, during, and after the Robb Elementary School response,” the report found.
An 18-year-old gunman entered Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022, killing 19 students and two teachers before law enforcement breached the classroom and killed the shooter. Responding officers from state and local outfits waited some 77 minutes before breaching a classroom and killing the shooter.
The police response came under scrutiny almost immediately, and a series of misstatements by officials in its aftermath compounded frustration within the tightly knit community. After initially lauding the bravery of first responders, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw called their performance an “abject failure.”
“The extent of misinformation, misguided and misleading narratives, leaks, and lack of communication about what happened on May 24 is unprecedented and has had an extensive, negative impact on the mental health and recovery of the family members and other victims, as well as the entire community of Uvalde,” according to the Justice Department report.
Within weeks of the shooting, the Justice Department announced plans to launch a “Critical Incident Review” to examine the police response. Attorney General Merrick Garland commissioned 9 law enforcement experts to conduct interviews and review evidence to craft a “complete incident reconstruction,” a department official said at the time.
That work culminated this week in a searing 575-page report that includes gut-wrenching new details about law enforcement’s lack of preparation for an active shooter, failures in the police response, and the toll of misinformation and chaos in its aftermath.
The school and the school district were woefully unprepared, the report found. Most officers “lacked specialized, advanced training and preparation to handle such situations” and the school district had cultivated “a culture of complacency regarding locked-door policies” – both of which contributed to the challenges in responding to the incident.
“[Some] families received incorrect information suggesting their family members had survived when they had not,” the report noted. “And others were notified of the deaths of their family members by personnel untrained in delivering such news.”
The review team reserved its most critical commentary for the officers who arrived first on scene, who retreated from the classroom and treated the gunman as a barricaded subject, not an active shooter. The review team described this as “the most significant failure.”
“The most significant failure was that responding officers should have immediately recognized the incident as an active shooter situation, using the resources and equipment that were sufficient to push forward immediately and continuously toward the threat until entry was made into classrooms 111/112 and the threat was eliminated,” according to the report.
Lt. Mariano Pargas, Uvalde’s acting police chief at the time, was among the first officers to arrive at Robb. He was deemed by the review team to be “the person best positioned to direct command and control” the law enforcement response, but “failed to do so.”
After the initial failure to pursue and confront the shooter, communications breakdowns compounded the confusion on-scene – even after the arrival of Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, whom the report identified as the de-facto on-scene commander. Arredondo “lacked a radio,” the report found, “having discarded his radios during his arrival thinking they were unnecessary.”
“Leadership … demonstrated no urgency for establishing a command and control structure, which led to challenges related to information sharing, lack of situational statuses, and limited-to-no direction for personnel in the hallway or on the perimeter,” the report found.
Counter to well-established active-shooter training methods, Arredondo “directed officers intending to gain entry into the classrooms to stop.”
The failures continued after the shooting. As parents flocked to a chaotic reunification center, “[some] families received incorrect information suggesting their family members had survived when they had not,” the report noted.
And in the days that followed, investigators struggled to preserve evidence from the crime scene “when non-investigatory personnel entered the hallway and classrooms 111/112 for the purpose of viewing the scene.”
The Justice Department assessment builds on a report issued in July 2022 by a special committee of the Texas state legislature which described a series of “shortcomings and failures” in the law enforcement response.
Members of the DOJ team visited Uvalde 9 times, spending a total of 54 days on site and conducting more than 260 interviews with individuals from more than 30 organizations with knowledge of the response.
Garland visited family members of the victims on Wednesday. Afterwards, members of the community expressed gratitude to the department for pursuing the truth.
“I think it’s a step in the right direction,” Kim Rubio, whose daughter Lexi Rubio was killed in the shooting, told ABC News. “I think for the first time we felt respected – we felt treated with respect, and I believe we’re going to get the answers we’re looking for.”
