(NEW YORK) — Rankin County, Mississippi, residents and activists have called for the removal of the county sheriff after the sentencing of his deputies, who were involved in the torture and sexual abuse of two Black residents, was delayed for a second time.
“If our leadership is not in order, the system cannot be in order,” said Tasha Parker co-chair of the Local Organizing Committee, a local activist organization.
The Rankin NAACP chapter along with the Local Organizing Committee and Rankin residents held a press conference Jan. 15 after a second delay in the sentencing of six former law enforcement officers who were convicted of assault in August 2023.
Sentencing for Brett McAlpin, Christian Dedmon, Jeffrey Middleton, Hunter Elward, Daniel Opdyke, and Joshua Hartfield was meant to begin on Jan. 16 but was postponed until March 19. This marks the second time the sentencing has been delayed by the judge.
The press conference began with a call for the removal of Sheriff Bryan Bailey and the sentencing of the six men who tortured Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker, as well as those involved in the 2021 death of Damien Cameron, who was another Black man killed by Rankin County Sheriff’s deputies. Elward, one of the officers charged in the Jenkins and Parker assaults, was involved in Cameron’s death during a police killing in Rankin County in 2021.
“Today we have with us organizations all over the state of Mississippi and all over this country that are standing in solidarity with the Michael Jenkins family, that stand in solidarity with the Eddie Parker family,” said Kareem Mohamed, chair of the Local Organizing Committee. “And all those victims in Mississippi that has been victimized by the Goon Squad over the years.”
On Jan. 24, 2023 five Rankin County deputies and one Richland Police Department officer entered the residence where Jenkins and Parker were staying without a warrant. They entered the residence of Eddie Parker and Michael Jenkins, which resulted in the two men being beaten, sexually assaulted with a sex toy and shocked with Tasers for roughly 90 minutes while handcuffed, according to court documents obtained by ABC News.
For residents in Rankin County, this behavior is far too common from those who are entrusted to “protect and serve.”
“I also have a nephew who just come to me on Christmas Day, told me the exact same thing,” Prisicilla Sterling, cousin of Emmett Till, said. “A gun was placed in his [her cousin’s] mouth, his lips were busted and he had a ring, a black ring from a gun being pushed into his socket.”
The community expressed feelings of disappointment and frustration by the continued delay of the sentencings and plan on protesting economically if the sentences are deemed too light.
“If this continues on, we will begin to shut these doors down,” Mohammed said, “We will not spend our money where people do not care.”
On Aug. 3, 2023 the six men in question pleaded guilty to a total of 16 federal charges. These charges included conspiracy against rights, deprivation of rights under color of law, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and obstruction of justice.
“Six defendants, five former members of the Rankin County, Mississippi, Sheriff’s Office (RCSO) – chief investigator Brett McAlpin, 52, narcotics investigator Christian Dedmon, 28, Lt. Jeffrey Middleton, 46, deputy Hunter Elward, 31, deputy Daniel Opdyke, 27 – and one former member of the Richland, Mississippi, Police Department – narcotics investigator Joshua Hartfield, 31 – pleaded guilty to all charges against them.,” the United Department of Justice said in a statement.
(NEW YORK) — Stormy Daniels is “set to testify” in former President Donald Trump’s Manhattan hush money trial set for March, the adult film actress said on the most recent episode of her podcast.
“Obviously, things have been next level crazy since I am set to testify in, at this point in time, March,” Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said during an episode of her podcast, “Beyond the Norm,” that was released Sunday.
A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to comment to ABC News.
Daniel’s lawyer said he could not comment on her potential testimony.
“That will be their call,” her attorney, Clark Brewster, told ABC News, declining to say whether his client met with prosecutors to prepare for possible testimony.
“I have no clue as to their timing, strategy, and whether they will call her as a witness,” Brewster said.
Daniels’ comments were first reported by CBS News.
Trump in April pleaded not guilty in New York City to a 34-count criminal indictment charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment made to Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election. The former president has denied all wrongdoing.
Judge Juan Merchan has tentatively set a trial date of March 25, but he has signaled a willingness to move the date in order to avoid a conflict with other Trump criminal cases.
ABC News previously reported that Daniels met with prosecutors at the request of the Manhattan district attorney’s office roughly two weeks before Bragg brought the case.
Trump in November dropped his effort to move his criminal prosecution over the hush money payment from state court into federal court.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump sits with his attorneys Joe Tacopina and Boris Epshteyn inside the courtroom during his arraignment at the Manhattan Criminal Court April 4, 2023 in New York City. (Andrew Kelly-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump on Monday lost an experienced defense attorney from his legal roster.
Joe Tacopina told ABC News, “I withdrew on all matters.”
Tacopina accompanied Trump when the former president pleaded not guilty in New York last April to charges that he falsified business records stemming from his hush payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
Prosecutors with the Manhattan DA’s office allege that Trump engaged in a “scheme” to boost his election chances during the 2016 presidential race through a series of hush money payments made by others to help his campaign, and then “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records” to conceal that criminal conduct. Trump has denied all wrongdoing.
In a letter to Judge Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing the case, Tacopina wrote, “I write to respectfully inform the Court that my firm, Chad Seigel and I hereby withdraw as counsel for Defendant Donald J. Trump in this proceeding,”
Susan Necheles is Trump’s lead counsel in the case. Attorney Todd Blanche also appeared at April’s arraignment.
Tacopina also represented Trump in the civil defamation and battery case brought by former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll, in which Trump was found liable and ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in damages.
Tacopina will no longer handle Trump’s appeal of that verdict.
Attorney Alina Habba and her partner Michael Maddaio are representing Trump in Carroll’s other lawsuit in that case, which is scheduled to go on trial Tuesday in Manhattan federal court.
Tacopina was one of the most accomplished trial lawyers on Trump’s legal team, with a long history of criminal case victories. His client list has included former baseball star Alex Rodriguez, Fox News host Sean Hannity and rapper A$AP Rocky.
He declined to comment further on his withdrawal as Trump’s attorney.
(NEW YORK) — Opening statements are expected Tuesday in the trial of Victoria Jacobs, an Uzbekistan native who is charged with using cryptocurrency to fund Syrian-based terrorist groups and launder supporters’ contributions.
It is the first-ever terrorism financing trial in the New York State court system.
The six-count indictment, filed in January 2023, charged Jacobs with providing support for an act of terrorism, money laundering and other crimes.
“This complex case demonstrates the depth of knowledge and resources this Office has to combat terrorism and extremism in New York and throughout the globe,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said at the time.
Jacobs, who was known as Bakhrom Talipov, provided material support to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, a U.S. State Department-designated foreign terrorist organization, and provided more than $5,000 to the terrorist training group Malhama Tactical, which fought with and provided special tactical and military training to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, the indictment said.
Jacobs allegedly laundered $10,661 on behalf of Malhama Tactical by receiving cryptocurrency and Western Union and MoneyGram wires from supporters around the globe and sending the funds to Bitcoin wallets controlled by Malhama Tactical. In addition to sending cryptocurrency, she also purchased Google Play gift cards for the organization, according to the indictment.
Jacobs pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In October 2018, the defendant saved notes on her cell phone, which the indictment quoted as saying “Assalamu aleykum my dear brothers and sisters, we currently are buildings new place (train camp), it’s getting cold and we need new place, who want help us and support can do this safely and anonymously by Bitcoin wallet. Send me DM for details. Retweet.”
In December 2019, Jacobs provided a comprehensive U.S. Army Improvised Munitions Handbook to an online group – which she believed was associated with both Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and al-Qaeda affiliated Jihadist group Hurras al-Din – to facilitate their bomb-making efforts in Syria, the indictment said.
Prosecutors said Jacobs bought military-style combat knives, metal knuckles, and throwing-stars in August 2021 that were found in her Upper East Side apartment.
“Disturbingly, approximately one month later, on September 21-22, 2021, the defendant, in a Telegram chat, claimed to be a ‘brother’ who was ‘behind enemy lines’ and asked for prayers for the ‘courage, strength, guidance, and wisdom to carry out certain missions,'” Assistant District Attorney Edward Burns said.
“Along with these statements, defendant posted a 15-second video clip of an unknown person ominously moving around with a firearm. The timing of this post and the defendant’s acquisition of the weapons supports the conclusion that she intended to use the weapons in an unlawful manner.”
(NEW YORK) — A New York judge has cleared the way for Donald Trump to testify at his own defamation trial after lawyers for writer E. Jean Carroll raised concerns that the former president could “sow chaos” by attending the trial, which begins Tuesday.
Judge Lewis Kaplan said that, if necessary, he would grant a continuance so that the trial, which was initially scheduled to conclude this week, would be extended so Trump could testify on Monday, Jan. 22.
In a separate order, the judge rejected Trump’s request to postpone the trial for a week so he 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.
“The Court offers its condolences to Mr. and Mrs. Trump and the rest of Ms. Knavs’ family,” the judge wrote. “Mr. Trump is free to attend the trial, the funeral, or all or parts of both, as he wishes.”
Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist, sued Trump in November 2019 over comments he made shortly after Carroll publicly accused him of raping her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s.
Last May, Carroll won a related case accusing Trump of battery and defamation based on a 2022 statement Trump made on social media in which he again accused her of lying about the alleged attack. Jury members found that Trump did not rape Carroll but sexually abused her, and awarded her a total of $5 million. Trump, who has denied all wrongdoing, is appealing that case.
This week’s trial will determine how much Trump owes Carroll in damages for defaming her in 2019, after a Carroll in September won a partial summary judgment against Trump based on the ruling in last year’s case.
Concerned that Trump might “poison” this week’s court proceedings, Carroll’s attorney had requested “robust prophylactic measures” in case Trump attends the jury trial.
“If Mr. Trump appears at this trial, whether as a witness or otherwise, his recent statements and behavior strongly suggest that he will seek to sow chaos. Indeed, he may well perceive a benefit in seeking to poison these proceedings,” wrote Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan, who is no relation to the judge.
In arguing for strict rules governing Trump’s attendance, Carroll’s attorney cited Trump’s conduct last week at his New York civil fraud trial, where Trump delivered a closing statement that the attorney said contradicted the court’s summary judgment ruling, attacked the legitimacy of the proceedings, and violated the ground rules established by the judge.
“It takes little imagination to think that Mr. Trump is gearing up for a similar performance here — only this time, in front of a jury,” Carroll’s attorney wrote.
In advance of the trial, Judge Kaplan had issued a series of orders limiting what Trump and his lawyers are allowed to argue. Per those orders, Trump cannot claim he did not rape Carroll, nor can he deny that he sexually assaulted her, or question her motives, or claim she was lying. With such testimony off the table, Carroll’s attorney argued that Trump would likely have no feasible arguments that he could make if he testifies, suggesting the move would be part of a broader political tactic to delegitimize the trial.
“While a defamation defendant could theoretically offer testimony about their lack of wealth in the hope of minimizing a punitive damages award, any such testimony from Mr. Trump here would run headlong into Mr. Trump’s sworn testimony and public statements elsewhere,” she wrote.
Carroll’s attorney asked that the judge warn Trump about the consequences of violating the court order against prohibited testimony, that he direct Trump’s lawyers to provide proof of that Trump understands the consequences before Trump testifies, and that he require Trump to testify on the record that he “sexually assaulted Ms. Carroll, and that he spoke falsely with actual malice and lied when accusing her of fabricating her account and impugning her motives.”
Responding in a letter to the court, Trump attorney Alina Habba described the requests as a “desperate attempt to pigeonhole President Trump’s defense and to prevent his legal team from preparing for the upcoming trial.”
Habba told the court that Trump “can still offer considerable testimony in his defense,” including clarifying the circumstances of his allegedly defamatory statements and differentiating the alleged multiple instances of sexual assault raised at trial. She added that the remedies proposed by Carroll’s team are “far-fetched” and unreasonable to enforce in front of a jury, including forcing Trump to state on the record that he sexually assaulted Carroll.
“We presume that this is not a kangaroo court of a third-world country where a party to a lawsuit is involuntarily made to say what a court and an opposing party wants them to say,” Habba wrote. “Given the Court’s prior rulings in this case, President Trump’s ability to defend himself at trial is already severely limited. Precluding him from taking the stand altogether would be a manifest injustice and a clear violation of his constitutional rights.”
Judge Kaplan declined to adopt the measures proposed by Carroll’s lawyers but vowed to ensure the rule of law would be followed during the trial.
“The Court will take such measures as it finds appropriate to avoid circumvention of its rulings and of the law,” the judge wrote.
(NEW YORK) — Over 2,500 flights have been canceled Monday, with airports in Denver, Dallas, Houston and Chicago hit the hardest, as a major winter storm unleashes heavy snow and ice across the South.
Up to 6 inches of snowfall has already buried parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee.
Major cities in the snowstorm’s path for Monday include Little Rock, Arkansas; Memphis, Tennessee; and Nashville, Tennessee.
Near Houston, an 18-wheeler overturned due to ice on a freeway, shutting down traffic in both directions, according to Houston ABC station KTRK.
Schools will be closed Tuesday in Little Rock and Nashville due to the weather.
The snow will keep falling in the South throughout Monday, with an icy mix moving into southern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia at night. Drivers should be on the lookout for slick roads through Tuesday morning.
Record cold settles into Texas, much of the Heartland
Meanwhile, the Heartland is seeing record-low temperatures, with wind chill alerts issued from the U.S.-Canada border in Montana to the Rio Grande in Texas along the U.S.-Mexico border.
All-time lows could be recorded Monday in Sioux City, Iowa; Kansas City, Missouri; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Austin, Texas; and Dallas.
During the Republican presidential caucuses in Iowa Monday night, the wind chill — what the temperature feels like — is forecast to plunge to minus 25 degrees.
On Tuesday, temperatures will be in the teens and single digits for Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana.
In Chicago, the wind chill is forecast to drop to minus 23 degrees on Tuesday.
The record cold is forecast to linger over the next couple days from Nebraska to Texas to Mississippi.
Snow on the way for the Northeast, including Philadelphia and New York City
Monday night into Tuesday, snow and ice is expected from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia, New York City and Boston. Some areas could see 1 to 3 inches of snow.
Lake-effect snow is also pounding western New York.
Up to 27 inches of snow fell just south of Buffalo, New York, this weekend, with up to 1 foot of snow accumulating in the city.
The Buffalo Bills were set to host the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, but the game was pushed to 4:30 p.m. Monday because Sunday’s intense snowfall made driving nearly impossible.
On Monday morning, the Bills were still looking for volunteers to help shovel snow from the stadium.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz warned that many seats may still be covered in snow by game time.
The heaviest snow is ending in Buffalo, but the National Weather Service has issued another winter storm watch for the city for Tuesday night into Thursday, with the possibility of 2 to 3 feet of snowfall.
(NEW YORK) — Over 2,000 flights have been canceled Monday, with airports in Denver, Dallas, Houston and Chicago hit the hardest, as a major winter storm unleashes heavy snow and ice across the South.
Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and Alabama have already gotten 4 to 6 inches of snowfall, and more is on the way.
Major cities in the snowstorm’s path for Monday include San Antonio; Little Rock, Arkansas; Memphis, Tennessee; and Nashville, Tennessee.
Near Houston, an 18-wheeler overturned due to ice on a freeway, shutting down traffic in both directions, according to ABC Houston station KTRK.
Schools will be closed Tuesday in Little Rock and Nashville due to the weather.
The snow will keep falling in the South throughout Monday, with an icy mix moving into southern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and northern Georgia at night. Drivers should be on the lookout for slick roads through Tuesday morning.
Record cold settles into Texas, much of the Heartland
Meanwhile, the Heartland is seeing record-low temperatures. All-time-lows could be recorded Monday in Sioux City, Iowa; Kansas City, Missouri; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Waco, Texas; Austin, Texas; and Dallas.
Winds are expected to make the already chilly temperatures feel even colder on Monday. The National Weather Service has issued wind chill alerts for 26 states, from the U.S.-Canada border in Montana to the Rio Grande in Texas along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The record cold is forecast to linger over the next couple days for the central U.S. and the Deep South, from Nebraska to Texas and east to Mississippi.
Then, after a brief moderation in wind chills, another cold blast is expected to hit the nation at the end of the week. The wind chill — what the temperature feels like — is forecast to drop below zero degrees in Chicago by Thursday and Friday.
The cold blast is moving into the Northeast on Monday. Temperatures are in the teens and lower 20s, marking the chilliest day of the season from Washington, D.C., to New York to Boston.
Snow on the way for the Northeast, including Philadelphia and New York City
Snow and some ice is forecast from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia, New York City and Boston Monday night into Tuesday. Some areas could see 1 to 3 inches of snow.
The frigid air is also helping produce lake-effect snow in western New York.
So far, up to 27 inches of snow fell just south of Buffalo, New York, with up to a foot of snow accumulating in the city.
The Buffalo Bills were set to host the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, but the game was pushed to 4:30 p.m. Monday because Sunday’s intense snowfall made driving nearly impossible.
On Monday morning, the Bills were still looking for volunteers to help shovel snow from the stadium.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz warned that many seats may still be covered in snow by game time.
The heaviest snow is ending in Buffalo, but the National Weather Service has issued another winter storm watch for the city for Tuesday night into Thursday, with the possibility of 2 to 3 feet of snowfall.
(NEW YORK) — Over 1,800 flights have been canceled Monday, with airports in Denver, Dallas, Houston and Chicago hit the hardest, as a major winter storm unleashes heavy snow and ice across the South.
Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and Alabama have already gotten 4 to 6 inches of snowfall, and more is on the way.
Major cities in the snowstorm’s path for Monday include San Antonio; Little Rock, Arkansas; Memphis, Tennessee; and Nashville, Tennessee.
Near Houston, an 18-wheeler overturned due to ice on a freeway, shutting down traffic in both directions, according to ABC Houston station KTRK.
Schools will be closed Tuesday in Little Rock and Nashville due to the weather.
The snow will keep falling in the South throughout Monday, with an icy mix moving into southern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and northern Georgia at night. Drivers should be on the lookout for slick roads through Tuesday morning.
Record cold settles into Texas, much of the Heartland
Meanwhile, the Heartland is seeing record-low temperatures. All-time-lows could be recorded Monday in Sioux City, Iowa; Kansas City, Missouri; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Waco, Texas; Austin, Texas; and Dallas.
Winds are expected to make the already chilly temperatures feel even colder on Monday. The National Weather Service has issued wind chill alerts for 26 states, from the U.S.-Canada border in Montana to the Rio Grande in Texas along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The record cold is forecast to linger over the next couple days for the central U.S. and the Deep South, from Nebraska to Texas and east to Mississippi.
Then, after a brief moderation in wind chills, another cold blast is expected to hit the nation at the end of the week. The wind chill — what the temperature feels like — is forecast to drop below zero degrees in Chicago by Thursday and Friday.
The cold blast is moving into the Northeast on Monday. Temperatures are in the teens and lower 20s, marking the chilliest day of the season from Washington, D.C., to New York to Boston.
Snow and some ice is forecast from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia, New York City and Boston Monday night into Tuesday. Some areas could see 1 to 3 inches of snow.
The frigid air is also helping produce lake-effect snow in western New York.
So far, up to 27 inches of snow fell just south of Buffalo, New York, with up to a foot of snow accumulating in the city.
The Buffalo Bills were set to host the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, but the game was pushed to 4:30 p.m. Monday because Sunday’s intense snowfall made driving nearly impossible.
On Monday morning, the Bills were still looking for volunteers to help shovel snow from the stadium.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz warned that many seats may still be covered in snow by game time.
The heaviest snow is ending in Buffalo, but the National Weather Service has issued another winter storm watch for the city for Tuesday night into Thursday, with the possibility of 2 to 3 feet of snowfall.
A passport application from April 1983 when Epstein sought to replace a lost passport in time for a trip to London is seen. CREDIT: U.S. State Department
(NEW YORK) — In June 2011, the U.S. Department of State received an urgent request from an American businessman who sought a second U.S passport for impending trips to Europe and multiple African nations.
“I am frequently required on extremely short notice to schedule international trips with itineraries to multiple destinations requiring me to obtain multiple visas at the same time, which is simply not possible on such short notice without a second passport,” the letter said.
The applicant, who identified himself as the president of an international financial consulting firm, said he had business trips scheduled in the coming weeks to France, Sierra Leone, Mali and Gabon.
“Please issue me a second passport so I may have the 3 visas issued for Africa while I am using my current passport in France,” he wrote.
The businessman’s name: Jeffrey Edward Epstein.
Three years earlier, Epstein had pleaded guilty in Florida to solicitation of an underaged girl, a felony that required him to register as a sex offender for life.
The letter is found among several passport applications and renewal forms submitted over three decades by Epstein, whose staggering wealth and proximity to power have long defied ready explanation.
More than 50 pages from Epstein’s files were obtained by ABC News in a public records request to the State Department. The records span from the early 1980s, when Epstein was an unknown bushy-haired broker from Brooklyn, to 2019, when his indictment in New York for alleged sex-trafficking of children made him notorious worldwide.
The documents reveal Epstein’s penchant for reporting lost passports and his intentions to travel to far-flung destinations, including several countries — Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, and Senegal — that have not appeared in other accounts of Epstein’s travel.
The earliest application is from April 1983 when Epstein sought to replace a lost passport in time for an upcoming trip to London. In barely legible handwriting, then 30-year-old Epstein lists his occupation as “banker” and his address as an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The stapled color photograph depicts Epstein, who in later years favored loose-fitting track suits, in a crisp black suit and glossy tie.
In the mid-1980s, Epstein was a college dropout who taught math at an exclusive Manhattan private school and later worked for five years as a self-described “financial strategist” on Wall Street. After an abrupt exit from Bear Stearns, he claimed to have launched a career as a self-employed investment adviser for the uber-rich.
Epstein twice more in the 1980s reported his U.S. passport lost or stolen; once left behind in a London black taxi, and once stolen “out of [his] jacket pocket” as he dined at a restaurant, according to his explanations in the files.
In an application to replace his passport on Feb. 26, 1985, Epstein reported he was then residing in London. The address he provided, which has not previously been associated with Epstein, is in an area surrounded by foreign embassies.
In his affidavit of loss, Epstein indicated he had a flight booked the next day to Sweden. Less than a week later, former Miss Sweden Eva Andersson was the host of a televised musical contest in the country. Video of the event, unearthed by YouTube user “Green Clown2021,” shows Epstein in the audience, clapping half-heartedly between musical acts. Andersson would later testify, in Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal trial in 2021, that she and Epstein dated on and off in the 1980’s.
Epstein’s 1993 passport application shows his hair graying and his fortunes improving. His listed address on East 69th in New York City was the former residence of the Iranian ambassador which had been taken over by the State Department before Epstein rented the property. The government later terminated Epstein’s lease after he sublet the townhouse, without permission, and jacked up the rent.
The records obtained by ABC News also contain multiple instances in which Epstein applied for a second passport “in order to avoid conflicting visa stamps” when traveling to Israel and certain Arab states, including Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Epstein had long-standing connections to Ehud Barak, a former prime minister of Israel. Barak publicly acknowledged visiting Epstein “more than ten but much less than a hundred” times, including one visit to Epstein’s private estate in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He told The Daily Beast in 2019 that he had “never attended a party” with Epstein and had never met with him “in the company of women or girls.”
A New York Times columnist reported in 2019 that Epstein had boasted, without evidence, of speaking often with Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.
“For both safety and business reasons, it is imperative that Mr. Epstein have the necessary flexibility of a second passport,” one of his corporate representatives wrote in 2003.
State Department policies permit certain frequent international travelers to carry a second passport, particularly in cases where a visa stamp from one country might prohibit entry into another.
The issue arose again two years later, when Epstein reported a scheduled trip to Israel and Afghanistan.
As part of a request for an additional passport, Epstein submitted travel itineraries indicating he had booked two first-class trips in the spring of 2005.
The first was from London to Tel Aviv on March 29 that year. Epstein also provided details of a journey that would take him on April 7, 2005, to Istanbul, where he would connect through Baku, Azerbaijan, to Kabul. The records do not indicate whether he actually made the trip. On the day of Epstein’s scheduled departure from Kabul, the late former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made an unannounced visit to the Afghan capital for a joint press conference with President Hamid Karzai. There is no evidence that Rumsfeld and Epstein’s visits were connected.
While Epstein was apparently traveling in southern Asia, police officers in southern Florida were hunting for evidence in trash cans outside his Palm Beach mansion. Three weeks earlier, the parents of a 14-year-old girl had reported to police that their daughter had been molested by a white-haired man who went by the name “Jeff.” The police investigation that followed would turn up dozens of alleged underage minor victims and begin a saga that would ultimately lead to Epstein’s permanent status as a sex offender.
But that designation would have little impact on Epstein’s ability to obtain a U.S. passport or to travel internationally, until Congress passed the “International Megan’s Law” in 2016. That legislation allowed the government to revoke the passports of sex offenders, who must re-apply for a special passport carrying a notice inside that reads, “The bearer was convicted of a sex offense against a minor, and is a covered sex offender,” according to the State Department. It also strengthened a requirement that registered sex offenders provide advance notice of all intended international travel.
Epstein’s files indicate that a passport issued to him in 2016, and valid for ten years, was revoked. A second passport valid until 2020 was also revoked. His final application in the state department files indicates his last US passport was issued in March of 2019.
ABC News has previously obtained records of the United States Marshals Service that show the agency was looking into Epstein’s foreign trips. “Investigation reveals EPSTEIN travels Internationally quite frequently using private planes and may have failed to report all his International travel,” a January 2019 report stated.
Six months later, he was arrested at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, after his private Gulfstream Jet touched down from Paris. A federal indictment charged him with conspiracy and child sex-trafficking.
When FBI agents executed a search warrant at Epstein’s New York home later that day, they found a locked safe that contained 48 loose diamonds and $70,000 in cash.
Also recovered were three U.S. passports and one Austrian passport with Epstein’s picture, but with someone else’s name and an address in Saudi Arabia.
Epstein’s defense attorneys, seeking to secure bail for their client, said that two of the US passports were expired. The foreign passport, they claimed, was given to Epstein “by a friend,” and he had never used it to travel. They argued he received it in the 1980s for personal protection when traveling in the Middle East.
“Some Jewish-Americans were informally advised at the time to carry identification bearing a non-Jewish name when traveling internationally in case of hijacking,” his attorney said.
Partly because of that foreign passport and Epstein’s history of international travel, a judge determined Epstein was a flight risk and refused to grant bail. Three weeks later, Epstein was dead. His death was ruled a suicide by hanging.
Following his death, the Marshals service investigation into his travel was dropped.
Thomas Volscho, a contributor to ABC News, is a professor of sociology at City University of New York, Staten Island. He is writing a book about the tactics of wealthy sex-traffickers.
Workers lower a ladder into a monument as they dismantle the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery December 20, 2023, in Arlington, Virginia. CREDIT: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/GETTY IMAGES
(NEW YORK) — More than 60 years after Martin Luther King Jr. uttered ‘Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia,’ racial and historical tensions continue to boil over at Stone Mountain, which doubles as the home of the largest Confederate monument in the world and the Ku Klux Klan’s 20th-century rebirth.
The Confederate monument etched into the mountain is larger than Mount Rushmore, according to the Atlanta History Center. The carving honors three Confederate figures in the Civil War — Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate states, and Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson.
Stone Mountain is one of more than 2,000 Confederate memorials still in place across the country, according to the legal advocacy group Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). This list includes monuments, plaques, street and building names, and more.
In 2023, about 49 memorials were removed, including nine Department of Defense forts that have been renamed, according to the SPLC.
According to a Congressional Naming Commission Report, hundreds of Confederate monuments — including names, symbols, monuments, and paraphernalia — honoring figures on Department of Defense land alone were set to be removed by January 2024.
This includes the controversial Reconciliation Monument at the Arlington National Cemetery that the cemetery said promotes “a nostalgic, mythologized vision of the Confederacy, including highly sanitized depictions of slavery.” Monument removals or changes — like the Reconciliation Monument and changes at Stone Mountain — have prompted legal threats and challenges from Confederate heritage groups.
This represents a growing, concerted effort to remove Confederate monuments from public spaces. Critics say these memorials distort history and praise the Confederate fight in favor of slavery.
“These memorials serve the purpose of rewriting history, telling a different story of that war and remaking Confederate heroes as American heroes,” said SPLC historian Rivka Maizlish. “You can imagine the psychological impact, especially on African Americans, but on anyone who does not believe that white supremacy is an American value, and seeing these memorials all over the country.”
She continued, “Another real goal was to claim white spaces. A lot of these memorials are put up in front of courthouses to claim the law as something that is only for whites. After Brown v. the Board of Education made segregation illegal, many schools suddenly changed their names to the names of Confederates, making a clear statement that no matter what the law says, these schools are white spaces.”
There has simultaneously been a fight to preserve these spaces, specifically for those whose ancestors played a role in the Confederate Army and who say that removing these statues removes a piece of their heritage.
Martin O’Toole, of the Georgia branch of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, told ABC News that at least two of his ancestors fought under Jackson in the war.
“Stone Mountain is intended to be a memorial to the sacrifices of the people of Georgia, in particular, but the South in general in the establishment of a southern Republic, and then the sacrifices that were made were tremendous,” said O’Toole.
He continued, “When this current upsurge of destruction of monuments, historical monuments and the like took place, then many of the members became convinced that our charge that we got from General Steven D. Lee … required that we do something in the legal realm to defend these monuments.”
Stone Mountain and the surrounding park are just one of the spaces at the center of controversy.
The park is lined with streets named after Confederate soldiers and Confederate flags waving on its lawns, with the large Confederate rock etchings as their backdrop. Stone Mountain, the city at the base of the park, is a predominantly Black community, according to the U.S. Census.
The park was also the site of the reemergence of the white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan in 1915 amid the national success of the controversial Civil War epic film “The Birth of a Nation,” according to the Atlanta History Center.
Before the film came to Atlanta, several men walked up Stone Mountain and set fire to a cross to symbolically resurrect the group — which would later host Klan rallies, member initiations and more for decades, the Atlanta History Center reports.
Much of this memorial is protected by old Georgia law, which states that the memorial must be maintained as “an appropriate and suitable memorial for the Confederacy.”
“The memorial to the heroes of the Confederate States of America graven upon the face of Stone Mountain shall never be altered, removed, concealed, or obscured in any fashion and shall be preserved and protected for all time as a tribute to the bravery and heroism of the citizens of this state who suffered and died in their cause,” read state code on the memorial.
This has made discussion over park changes more difficult.
Those against the Confederate monument, including history teacher Sally Stanhope of the Stone Mountain Action Committee, say they are calling for an end to the upkeep of the monument, to allow it to grow over with biomass. They also say slavery is not mentioned in the signage and historical displays around the park.
However, a museum — dubbed by park officials as a “truth-telling museum” — will address some of these issues. ABC affiliate station WSB-TV in Atlanta reports that the museum will cover the racist past of the monument, including the KKK’s resurgence and the monument’s symbolic origins.
The state has dedicated $11 million for the museum’s construction in a building that also houses the current Stone Mountain Museum, according to WSB-TV. It’s expected to take two years to complete.
O’Toole said that because of these laws, the Sons of Confederate Veterans have threatened the state of Georgia with legal actions over changes that have been proposed, as well as those that have been made at Stone Mountain. This includes changes that have been made to put the park’s Confederate flags in a more inconspicuous area.
O’Toole said the group has filed an ante litem notice in anticipation of a lawsuit, arguing that the changes are unlawful.
“They want to have it sort of basically turned into a civil rights playground,” said O’Toole. “We take the position that they need to obey the law … If they want to change things, they need to change the law.”
Mayor Beverly Jones, the first Black female mayor of Stone Mountain, has already faced backlash for making several changes around the park — this includes renaming streets that honored Confederate figures.
She said she sees these monuments as a glorification of dark aspects of life for Black Americans.
“We don’t ever want to have any cities to have monuments children have to look at every day and feel like ‘[Confederate figures] were powerful and you know, this is someone to look up to.’ We don’t want that to ever happen in the city of Stone Mountain.”
She said that while speaking to high school students who live in the city of Stone Mountain, they told her they never visited.
“They talked about the Klan and they still had this image that they were walking to this area that they have their rallies at,” Jones told ABC News in an interview.
She hopes an MLK Day march on Monday at Stone Mountain can bring attention to the ideals of freedom and King’s cause which he advocated for in his 1963 ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.
Rev. Abraham Mosley, appointed to his position as chairman of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, is at the center of the back-and-forth discussions between the two sides.
He was born and raised in Georgia, but said he has no personal connection to the mountain: “I’m a Black person and it was a place in the past — way back in the past — that a Black person wasn’t seen around,” he said.
He continued, “It’s a lot different now from what it was back then. And we’re still improving.”
However, a football-field-size rock etching is much more difficult to remove than an honorary plaque or a statue, said Mosley.
“Those problems and things that are on that mountain, they didn’t show up overnight and they’re not gonna go away overnight,” said Mosley. “So that’s gonna take some time to try to come to some common ground with everybody.”
