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(WASHINGTON) — A longtime business partner of Hunter Biden, Eric Schwerin, said in a closed-door interview Tuesday with members of the House Oversight Committee that he is “not aware of any financial transactions or compensation” that then-Vice President Joe Biden received related to business conducted by this family members, calling the allegations “preposterous,” according to Schwerin’s opening statement obtained by ABC News.

Schwerin was called the appear before the Oversight Committee as part of the Republican-led impeachment inquiry into the President Joe Biden, for whom Schwerin previously worked as a financial adviser before going into business with his son, Hunter Biden.

“I am not aware of any financial transactions or compensation that Vice President Biden received related to business conducted by any of his family members or their associates nor any involvement by him in their businesses. None,” Schwerin told the committee, according to his statement.

“I cannot recall any requests for Vice President Biden to take any official action on behalf of any of Hunter’s clients or his business deals, foreign or domestic,” Schwerin said. “In fact, I am not aware of any role that Vice President Biden, as a public official or a private citizen, had in any of Hunter’s business activities. None.”

Schwerin, who “managed almost every aspect of [Hunter Biden’s] financial life” for years, according to Kathleen Buhle, Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, in her 2022 memoir, “If We Break,” also told committee members that he never asked President Biden to “take any official actions for the benefit of Hunter’s clients or any other client.”

“Furthermore, I have no recollection of any promises or suggestions made by Hunter or myself to any clients or business associates that his father would take any official actions on their behalf. None,” he said.

According to what Schwerin said he previously told Oversight Committee staff, between 2009 and 2017 he performed a number of administrative and bookkeeping tasks for then-Vice President Joe Biden related to his household finances, and helped him and his accountants in their preparation of his taxes and his annual financial disclosure statements.

Schwerin told the Oversight Committee Tuesday that “in my discussions with the Vice President concerning his personal finances, he was always crystal clear that he wanted to take the most transparent and ethical approach consistent with both the spirit and the letter of the law.”

“Given my awareness of his finances and the explicit directions he gave to his financial advisers, the allegation that he would engage in any improper conduct to benefit himself or his family is preposterous to me,” Schwerin said.

Schwerin is the latest associate of Hunter Biden to speak with the committee, following recent appearances by associates Rob Walker and Kevin Morris.

Republicans have accused President Biden of using his office when he was vice president to “coordinate with Hunter Biden’s business partners about Hunter’s role in Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company,” citing an email exchange between Schwerin and the vice president’s then-communications staffer Kate Bedingfield collaborate on a response to questions from the media about Hunter Biden’s appointment to the board of Burisma.

In response to the allegations by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, White House spokesperson Ian Sams tweeted in September: “More lies by @JamesComer. As Comer tells it, then-VP Biden ‘colluded’ with this business by … saying he doesn’t endorse it and wasn’t involved with it? Total nonsense.”

Hunter Biden was subpoenaed late last year to sit for a closed-door deposition with the Oversight Committee — a move that Hunter Biden initially resisted but ultimately agreed to earlier this month, under threat of a contempt vote. He is now scheduled to sit with lawmakers in late February.

The Biden impeachment inquiry, launched unilaterally by now-ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and then formalized months later by the House in a party-line vote, has yet to yield any concrete evidence to support GOP claims that Joe Biden participated in and profited from his son and family’s foreign business dealings.

President Biden has denied any wrongdoing.

The younger Biden, meanwhile, is facing unrelated gun and tax charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty. On Tuesday his attorney, Abbe Lowell, filed a series of court papers after special counsel David Weiss earlier this month rebutted his efforts to dismiss the gun charges.

“The filings made by the prosecutors provide more evidence that these charges result from a politically motivated attack instigated by former President Trump and his MAGA allies,” Lowell said in a statement.

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(OXFORD, Mich.) — Jennifer Crumbley’s trial continued on Tuesday with witnesses testifying about the morning of the 2021 Oxford High School shooting in Michigan. Andrew Smith, the CEO of the real estate company where Jennifer Crumbley worked at the time of the shooting, testified that she would have been allowed to leave for the day if she needed to take care of her son.

Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of school shooter Ethan Crumbley, pleaded not guilty to four counts of involuntary manslaughter for her alleged role in the shooting.

Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in December for killing four students and injuring seven others in November 2021.

Smith testified that Jennifer Crumbley would have also been allowed to bring her son to the office the day of the shooting if needed. She had told school officials that they couldn’t take Ethan home after a meeting on the day of the shooting because both parents had to work.

He also testified that he saw Jennifer Crumbley racing down the hall, telling him that there was an active shooter at her son’s school.

Jennifer Crumbley texted Smith minutes after leaving the office that “the gun is gone and so are the bullets,” according to evidence of the texts.

Smith testified that he was “taken aback” and “surprised” when he received a text from Jennifer Crumbley after the shooting that said, “I need my job. Please don’t judge me for what my son did.”

Crumbley was terminated from her job days after the shooting, Smith testified.

Video played in court on Tuesday showed Jennifer Crumbley sitting in the back of a police car as detectives searched her house in the hours after the school shooting.

In the video, she could be heard telling Sgt. Matthew Peschke of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department — who was in the squad car with her — that her son was a “good kid” and she and her husband are “not bad people.”

“This is f—– up. Like, I just, my son just ruined his life. I’ll probably never see him again,” Jennifer Crumbley said as she started to cry.

At other points in the video, she asked Peschke for a cigarette and even took a short phone call while sitting in the back of the squad car.

During the search of the house, Oakland County Sheriff’s Detective Adam Stoyek testified they found an open gun box and an empty box of ammunition for the 9 mm Sig Sauer handgun used in the shooting, as well as gun range targets with bullet holes taped to the shooter’s bedroom wall and an empty bottle of whiskey next to his bed. They also found two more weapons in a locked gun safe that could be opened with the default code of 0-0-0.

Nicholas Ejak, who worked as the dean of students at Oxford High School at the time of the shooting, testified about the morning of the shooting, including meeting with the Crumbley parents when concerns were raised about the Ethan Crumbley.

Ejak testified that the school asked the Crumbley parents to get him counseling that day and informed the parents of resources to get that help, including options that would have allowed them to get him help immediately.

Ejak testified that the parents chose to have their son return to class. He also said he was the one who retrieved Ethan’s backpack from his math class and returned it to him. The backpack contained the gun Ethan used in the shooting, but Ejak said he didn’t search his bag because he “didn’t have reasonable suspicion to do that.”

Ejak testified that if Ethan Crumbley were to go home, his parents said he would have to walk home and remain alone. School officials, who were worried about his mental health, did not think it was a good idea for him to be alone since they were concerned he was considering suicide.

Throughout his testimony, Ejak stressed that Ethan Crumbley’s actions in the days leading up to the shooting — including Googling bullets at school, watching shooting videos in class and drawing violent images on his papers — did not warrant the school taking steps to discipline him. Instead, he said, the school felt Ethan was experiencing mental health issues and were concerned about him, saying that would “supersede” any discipline concerns.

Amanda Holland, a co-worker of Jennifer Crumbley, also testified about speaking with Jennifer the morning of the shooting and the nature of her relationship. Holland testified that the morning of the shooting, Jennifer Crumbley told her she had a rough night and that Ethan Crumbley had been “locked out” of the house. It wasn’t clear to Holland if Ethan had been purposefully locked out by his parents or if he had forgotten his keys.

On Monday, video of police’s first interrogation of the Crumbley parents, just hours after the shooting, was shown in court.

At one point in the video, Jennifer Crumbley is seen scrolling through her phone. The prosecution tried to suggest this was not normal behavior for a mother who had just learned her son had committed a school shooting. The defense tried to counter that by pointing out that Jennifer was sharing messages she had received from her son with police.

At one point in the video, his parents are taken to the room where Ethan Crumbley is being held and Jennifer Crumbley appear to ask the shooter, “Why?”

Oxford High School counselor Shawn Hopkins testified he met with Ethan Crumbley and his parents just hours before the shooting happened after he drew disturbing images on a math worksheet.

Hopkins testified that he previously interacted with Ethan Crumbley on a couple of occasions earlier in 2021, after teachers had reached out to Hopkins to share their concerns over Ethan Crumbley’s behavior.

On the morning of the shooting, Hopkins called Ethan Crumbley to his office over the images he had drawn on his math paper. Ethan Crumbley initially told Hopkins the drawings were related to a video game. Hopkins said he began to ask more pointed questions to get beyond the “video game” idea, and that’s when the shooter’s demeanor shifted and he became sad.

He told Hopkins that his friend moved, his family dog and a grandparent had recently died, he was struggling with COVID-19 and attending school during the pandemic, and that he had argued with his parents about grades the night before.

After this discussion, Hopkins said he called Jennifer Crumbley to come to the school right away. The counselor said he was concerned the shooter was displaying “suicidal ideation,” and that he should seek help immediately.

Hopkins said he did not explicitly ask the parents to remove the shooter from school, however, he testified that he asked the parents to get the shooter therapeutic help that day, if possible. Jennifer Crumbley “made it clear” that they wouldn’t be able to take the shooter for help that day, Hopkins said.

Because the parents weren’t taking the student home that morning, the counselor expressed concern about the shooter being alone, since he was believed to be potentially suicidal. Ethan Crumbley requested to remain in class, and the parents were on board with him staying in class, so the shooter was allowed to return to his normal schedule before the shooting began, according to the counselor’s testimony.

Kira Pennock, who managed the barn where the Crumbleys kept their two horses, walked through messages she exchanged with Jennifer Crumbley on the day of the shooting and the days following where the two women work out a potential deal for Pennock to buy the horses.

ABC News’ Whitney Lloyd contributed to this report.

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(WICHITA, Kan.) — A statue of baseball legend Jackie Robinson stolen from a Kansas park was found dismantled and burned in a trash can fire Tuesday morning in what authorities called a “disgraceful” act, as the search for the perpetrators continues.

The statue was taken from McAdams Park in Wichita last week. Surveillance video captured individuals entering Jackie Robinson Pavilion around midnight on Thursday, removing the statue and placing it in a pickup truck. They cut off the statue at the ankles, leaving behind only Robinson’s feet, with damages estimated to be around $75,000.

Around 8:38 a.m. local time on Tuesday, the Wichita Fire Department responded to a report of a trash can fire at Garvey Park, according to Wichita police spokesperson Andrew Ford.

After extinguishing the fire, they found what appeared to be pieces of the Robinson statue, “which is not salvageable at this time,” Ford told reporters during a press briefing Tuesday.

The Wichita Fire Department is investigating the arson, while police continue to investigate the theft, Ford said.

“It’s really disheartening to see the remnants of the statue, the disgraceful way it’s been disrespected,” Wichita Police Chief Joe Sullivan said during the briefing. “This is a direct indication of the pressure our investigators are putting on the perpetrators that committed this act.”

Sullivan urged those involved in any way to turn themselves in.

“Either way, we will be arresting several people for what they’ve done to our community,” the chief said.

Police said Monday they have recovered the truck they believe was used to haul away the statue. Sullivan did not provide any additional updates on the vehicle Tuesday.

The statue was built by artist John Parsons and donated to the community by League 42, a nonprofit named after Robinson’s number with the Brooklyn Dodgers, which aims to introduce baseball to the youth of Wichita.

“This was a heartbreaking discovery this morning. I hate to see that the statue was not in one piece,” Wichita Council member Brandon Johnson said at the briefing. “But I do want everyone to know that we are undeterred and making sure that that statue gets rebuilt and put back there for our community, for League 42, for the young people.”

“That symbol of hope will only be gone for a short time,” he continued.

League 42 founder and CEO Bob Lutz told reporters that the mold from the original statue is still viable, and that they intend to replace the piece in the coming months.

“It will be a joyous occasion — unlike today, unlike the past five days,” Lutz said. “We’re ready for some joy. We’re ready for some happiness.”

League 42 paid about $50,000 for the sculpture, which was installed in 2021, according to The Associated Press.

Johnson said funds for a new statue are being raised through a GoFundMe campaign and local businesses.

“I’m confident we can get that statue back for our young people and community to enjoy,” Johnson said.

Robinson is known for breaking the color barrier in the modern era of MLB. He played for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues and for the minor league Montreal Royals before being signed to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

The signing signaled the end of segregated baseball and led to other Black players joining the major leagues. During his time with the Dodgers, Robinson won Rookie of the Year in 1947, was named National League MVP in 1949. He was a six-time All-Star, won the World Series in 1955 and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1962.

ABC News’ Mary Kekatos contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — A “game jam” is an online competition for people who make games, whether tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons or video games like Minecraft or Call of Duty. But most game jam submissions are a lot smaller than those titles. Teams are often small, and they usually only have a few weeks to develop their games.

“You see a lot of first-time game designers, because it’s a very approachable way of designing your first game, because the expectations are very low,” Randy Lubin, who has helped organize game jams for a few years, tells ABC Audio. “Because it’s just something that’s being produced over the course of a weekend, or maybe a week or so, nobody’s expecting the highest quality, highest caliber game content.”

Still, the smaller scale hasn’t impacted the popularity of game jams.

“These have gotten immensely popular in the last half decade if not longer, with there being dedicated sites online just to game jams,” says Lubin.

Video games can be based on all kinds of things, from Pokémon to Spider-Man. But small game developers, like those who participate in jams, often don’t have the money to license those properties from the copyright owners. That’s why some are turning to the public domain, a set of laws that designate when movies, artwork, music, and books become free to use.

“If you locked up works indefinitely, then you are preventing the opportunity for others to build on those works to create new works, which is something that we as a society see to be beneficial,” says Aaron Moss, a copyright attorney based in Los Angeles.

Certain versions of Sherlock Holmes, Frankenstein, Winnie the Pooh and more are currently available to artists because of the public domain, giving rise to a fresh crop of movies, music, writing, and, of course, games.

Lubin is one of the organizers behind Gaming Like It’s 1928, alongside co-organizers Leigh Beadon and Mike Masnick. It’s a game jam that requires participants to create games incorporating works that have recently entered the public domain.

Characters like Sherlock Holmes, Frankenstein, even Winnie the Pooh have all entered the public domain in recent years. But Masnick says this year promises to be a big one.

“1928 has been on the radar of copyright folks for a long time,” he says.

That’s because Steamboat Willie came out that year — the animated, black and white Disney short film that marks the classic cartoon debut of Mickey Mouse.

Mickey Mouse is more than just the mascot of Disney, the parent company of ABC News. It’s also a character that’s been the subject of years of lobbying and negotiation. Masnick says Disney has retained the rights of the Steamboat Willie cartoon up to this year through a law known as the Copyright Term Extension Act.

“In fact, people kind of jokingly, or condescendingly, referred to the last Copyright Term Extension Act as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act,” says Masnick.

But as of January 1, Steamboat Willie is now in the public domain. However, game designers and other artists don’t have free rein on the Mickey Mouse character.

“When you have a character like Mickey Mouse, that has changed over time, later works in which the character has appeared may and still are protected by copyright,” says Moss.

Steamboat Willie features the original design of Mickey Mouse, which means that iteration of the character is free to use. But the later Fantasia cartoon, for example, features an updated look for Mickey. That version is still owned by Disney – and therefore still subject to the same penalties.

“If there are damages that make it worthwhile for the copyright owner to file a lawsuit, [they] could theoretically file a lawsuit,” says Moss.

Regarding Steamboat Willie entering the public domain, Disney told ABC Audio in a statement that “people have associated the character with Disney’s stories, experiences, and authentic products. That will not change when the copyright in the Steamboat Willie film expires.” The statement goes on to say, “We will, of course, continue to protect our rights in the more modern versions of Mickey Mouse and other works that remain subject to copyright, and we will work to safeguard against consumer confusion caused by unauthorized uses of Mickey.”

But the Gaming Like It’s 1928 crew says fights over copyright are not something they’ve had to deal with.

“Not yet! You know, my fingers are crossed,” says Beadon.

“We are always watching for that and wondering if it will happen,” says Masnick, adding, “we try to be pretty clear with the folks who are entering the game jam about the limitations. And to make sure that they do their best to understand what is allowed and what is not. But to date, we have not had any copyright holders complain.”

What’s more, Beadon says the hype around Steamboat Willie this year may end up being overblown.

“We do expect a lot of games using Mickey Mouse, but sometimes we’re surprised,” he says. “We expected to get almost all games using Winnie The Pooh when he entered the public domain, but there were fewer than we thought.”

Already, Mickey has appeared in one of the Game Jam submissions. But there’s also more obscure works, like “Author Tycoon,” a game where players are tasked with selling books and short stories from 1928. There’s also “In Old Arizona,” a tabletop game based on a movie from that year.

“We all love that, when someone finds an obscure, really out there work,” says Beadon. “You can go to the Internet Archive or somewhere like that and search for works published in 1928 and find, like, scientific studies, and municipal journals of sewage design. And you never know when one of these might yield some really interesting diagram or some really interesting something that you can use to make a game.”

In fact, Lubin says they even have a category dedicated to the super obscure.

“One of our favorite sub-prizes, sub-awards, is for ‘Deep Cut.’ Which is something that nobody ever – or nobody living – has probably ever heard of,” says Lubin.

They also award prizes for best visuals, and best tabletop game.

Gaming Like It’s 1928 stops taking submissions at the end of this month. Winners will be announced in mid-February. But Lubin says whichever entries take home prizes, the game jam has a promising future, as works from the 1930s begin entering the public domain.

“Some of the more famous Charlie Chaplin movies, ‘Gone With The Wind,’ ‘The Wizard Of Oz,’ and so I think that will enable new and different types of remixing original content into games. That’ll be really exciting,” says Lubin.

 

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(NEW YORK) — Ohio lawmakers have introduced a bill that would allow execution by nitrogen gas, a controversial practice critics call untested and lacking in evidence that it’s more humane than lethal injection, after Alabama became the first state to execute someone with nitrogen gas.

Ohio state Reps. Phil Plummer and Brian Stewart, both Republicans, introduced legislation during a press conference Tuesday that would allow executions to be conducted via nitrogen gas, known as nitrogen hypoxia.

“Nitrogen hypoxia is an alternative method for carrying out capital punishment that has been made available in other states,” Stewart told reporters. “The legislation introduced by Rep. Plummer and I will authorize the state of Ohio to utilize nitrogen hypoxia, in addition to lethal injection, and directed [that] it shall be used in instances where lethal injection is not an available means of carrying out a capital sentence.”

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost expressed his support for the bill during the press conference and said he believes some crimes are “so heinous” they deserve the “ultimate punishment.”

“I am aware of the moral weight of this debate, but this is law of the land,” Yost said. “If we wish to break the promises that we made to the families of all these victims over all these years, if we wish to not keep faith with the jurors that we asked to take this heavy weight on to make a judgment, then we owe it to our society and to all those that are involved to own our decision to change our minds.”

Yost previously expressed support for the nitrogen gas method after Kenneth Smith, 58, a convicted murderer, was put to death Thursday in Alabama. Three states — Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma — have approved nitrogen gas as a form of execution.

The protocol in Alabama called for Smith to be strapped to a gurney and fitted with a mask and a breathing tube. The mask is meant to administer 100% pure nitrogen, depriving the person of oxygen until they die.

“Perhaps nitrogen — widely available and easy to manufacture — can break the impasse of unavailability of drugs for lethal injection,” Yost wrote Friday on the platform X, previously known as Twitter. “Death row inmates are in greater danger of dying of old age than their sentence.”

Ohio currently has 129 people on death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that provides data and analysis on capital punishment.

The state has not executed anyone since 2018, when a de-facto moratorium was put in place. At the time, the governor’s office claimed there was a lack of access to certain drugs used for lethal injection.

Stewart on Tuesday criticized Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, for issuing several reprieves and questioned whether it was actually difficult to obtain lethal injection drugs.

“Florida has been using lethal injection drugs during that entire period of time; other states have, as well, including the federal government,” he said during the press conference. “I think we have a reasonable question as to whether it’s actually a[n] impossibility to find those drugs if all the other states and the federal government are able to do so.”

DeWine told The Associated Press in 2020 that “[l]ethal injection appears to us to be impossible from a practical point of view today,” and said he was unsure if capital punishment is a crime deterrent.

Tennessee inmate on death row for 28 years fights for his freedom

Yost told reporters Tuesday that nitrogen gas is widely available commercially, can be manufactured easily and that he believes the state should be able to secure a contract to obtain the gas.

While Alabama officials said execution by nitrogen gas was a more humane and painless form of death, medical and legal experts previously told ABC News there was no evidence to suggest this.

Additionally, eyewitnesses to Smith’s execution said it took 22 minutes to complete, The Associated Press reported, and that, “for at least two minutes, he appeared to shake and writhe on the gurney, sometimes pulling against the restraints.” State officials had said Smith would lose consciousnesses within seconds and die within minutes.

In Ohio, not everyone is in support of resuming executions, In September 2023, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers introduced a bill that would abolish the death penalty and make the maximum sentence for a crime be life in prison without parole.

 

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(NEW YORK) — An 11-year-old is being praised for her quick action after a man allegedly attempted to kidnap her in an incident that was caught on camera in Glendale, Arizona, on Friday.

In security camera footage obtained by the Glendale Police Department, a driver in a car is seen making a sharp U-turn before pulling up next to a fifth-grader walking to school. Seconds later, the driver gets out of the car and appears to try to grab the girl as she sprints away and screams for help.

“In that moment, this male jumped out and started running towards her with his arms extended towards her as if trying to grab her, which caused her obviously to flee,” Glendale Police Public Information Officer Moroni Mendez explained.

With the help of the video and the girl’s description, authorities identified the suspect as 37-year-old Joseph Leroy Ruiz, who they said lives in the same apartment complex as the girl.

Ruiz was arrested on charges of attempted kidnapping and custodial interference. He is currently being held under $250,000 bond.

According to court documents, the girl said she first spotted Ruiz outside her home and claimed he gave her an “odd look.” She said she then ran towards her school, where police say Ruiz pulled up in his car, got out and lunged at her.

“We just want to praise her and congratulate her for doing such a good job and protecting her own life,” Mendez said. “She was aware of everything that was going on around her and observed that the male was actively trying to grab her.”

Mendez shared tips for parents who may be concerned about letting their kids walk to school, including getting to know one’s surroundings, letting kids know it’s OK to run away and scream if they feel uncomfortable and to use codewords if necessary.

“Walk with your child, walk with your student on the path they’re going to take to school so that they’re aware of it, so that they know where they can run to if need be,” Mendez said.

“Make sure the child knows the parent’s phone number or ways of contacting them,” Mendez added. “Also let them know that at school, there’s a lot of great people, that they’re going to want the best for them and their well-being and their safety, so they can confide in those teachers and upper management staff.”

 

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(NEW YORK) — Two brothers have been arrested after police found homemade explosives along with a hit list and an arsenal of ghost guns in the apartment they shared with their mother and another brother, authorities say.

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that two New York City residents — 39-year-old Andrew Hatziagelis and 51-year-old Angelo Hatziagelis — have been indicted on 130 counts of criminal possession of a weapon and related charges stemming from the discovery of “an arsenal of improvised explosive devices and ghost guns, including assault rifles, was found inside an Astoria apartment they shared with their mother and another brother.”

“Instructions for making a variety of bombs, anarchist propaganda and a ‘hit list,’ with ‘cops, judges, politicians, celebrities’ and ‘banker scum’ scrawled on it, were also found during a search of the home,” Katz said in her statement announcing details of the case against the Hatziagelis brothers.

The defendants are now awaiting arraignment on the litany 130-count indictment, including “eight counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the first degree, nine counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, 47 counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, six counts of criminal possession of a firearm, eight counts of reckless endangerment in the second degree, 14 counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, six counts of criminal sale of a firearm in the third degree, 15 counts of make/transport/dispose/deface weapons and dangerous weapons, three counts of unlawful purchase of body armor, one count of attempted criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, one count of attempted criminal possession of a firearm, and three counts of unlawful possession of a pistol or revolver ammunition, and nine counts of unlawfully dealing with fireworks and dangerous fireworks,” according to the Queens district attorney.

“Today’s charges underscore the harsh reality that our communities contain a small number of people who conceivably harbor evil intent. This cache of weapons – including explosives and untraceable, 3D-printed ghost guns – had the potential to wreak horrendous carnage,” said NYPD Commissioner Edward A. Caban. “Along with our NYPD investigators, I thank all of our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners for their persistence in identifying, investigating, and holding fully accountable anyone who poses a risk to New Yorkers’ safety and well-being.”

Once inside the property, police ended up seizing eight operational improvised explosive devices (IEDs), one partially constructed trip-wire IED, two loaded AR-15 style ghost gun assault weapons, each with a detachable magazine, muzzle compensator and threaded barrel, two loaded 9 mm semiautomatic ghost gun pistols, two loaded 9 mm semiautomatic 3D-printed ghost gun pistols, a partially constructed AK-47 style ghost gun, more than 600 rounds of ammunition for each of the firearms above, a 3D printer, three sets of body armor, along with a radio set to the frequency of the 114th Precinct in Astoria and notebooks and manuals on how to build explosive devices, officials said.

“The city is safer today. My Crime Strategies and Intelligence Bureau launches investigations every day so that we find illegal weapons, including guns and in this case explosive devices,” District Attorney Katz said in her statement. “We cannot measure the number of lives that were saved, but we do know that these weapons will never hurt anyone. My Crime Strategies and Intelligence Bureau launched this investigation. Upon securing a search warrant we worked with the NYPD, Homeland Security, State Police and uncovered eight fully operable bombs, several guns and numerous other weapons.”

The defendants’ next court date is Feb. 15 and, if convicted, they each face up to 25 years in prison.

Said Homeland Security Investigations New York Acting Special Agent in Charge Erin Keegan: “HSI New York is committed to supporting our law enforcement partners when they call. In this case, the collaboration among various law enforcement agencies led to a discovery that most certainly could have saved lives. I thank the members of the HSI Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST) and the Queens District Attorney’s Office, along with the NYPD, ATF, and the New York State Police, for their outstanding efforts to resolve a potentially dangerous situation.”

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(LOS ANGELES) — Authorities say they have arrested five suspects after six people were found shot to death last week in a desert community in San Bernardino County, California.

At a press conference Monday night, authorities said multiple search warrants were served on Sunday in the case. Five suspects, whom authorities identified as Toniel Baez-Duarte, Mateo Baez-Duarte, Jose Nicolas Hernandez Sarabia, Jose Gregorio Hernandez Sarabia, and Jose Manuel Burgos Parra, were arrested, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s officials said.

All suspects are being held without bail. Eight guns were recovered during the arrests, authorities said Monday night.

Following an investigation, investigators believe the victims had arranged to meet for a marijuana transaction, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s officials said. The victims appear to have been involved in criminal activity, authorities said Monday night.

The victims were shot to death, and four of the six bodies were burned, according to officials. Only three of the victims have been identified by authorities: Baldemar Mondragon-Albarran, Franklin Noel Bonilla and Kevin Dariel Bonilla.

An official said there is a large, illegally grown marijuana problem in the area.

Last Tuesday night, Sheriff’s Dispatch received a 911 call around 8:16 p.m. PT from Franklin Noel Bonilla, who said he had been shot, authorities said Monday. He was unable to give his location.

Authorities were able to determine the call came from the area of Lessing Avenue and Shadow Mountain Road in Adelanto, California. Sheriff’s personnel responded and found five dead. A short while later, the caller — Bonilla — was also found deceased nearby.

The FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had offered assistance to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department in the investigation into the bodies found in the desert about 50 miles outside of Los Angeles, but local investigators are handling the case themselves.

A blue Chevy SUV was also seen riddled with bullet holes in the area where some of the bodies were found.

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(NEW YORK) — A judge denied Alex Murdaugh’s request for a new trial Monday in the homicides of his wife and son.

Judge Jean Toal dismissed a motion filed by Murdaugh’s attorneys last year that claimed the jury for the murder trial was tampered with by Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill, who they allege was protecting a book deal. Hill, who testified during the hearings over the motion, denied she tampered with the jury.

Murdaugh was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences in prison after a jury convicted him last March of murdering his wife, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, 52, and son, Paul Murdaugh, 22.

They were found dead from multiple gunshot wounds near the dog kennels at the family’s hunting estate in 2021.

Prosecutors argued that Murdaugh killed his wife and son to gain sympathy and distract from his financial wrongdoings.

Murdaugh was sentenced to 27 years in prison in November after he pleaded guilty to 22 counts for charges including fraud and money laundering after being accused of scheming to steal millions of dollars from his law firm and clients.

Murdaugh’s attorneys filed their motion for a retrial in September, contending Hill “tampered with the jury by advising them not to believe Murdaugh’s testimony and other evidence presented by the defense, pressuring them to reach a quick guilty verdict, and even misrepresenting critical and material information to the trial judge in her campaign to remove a juror she believed to be favorable to the defense.”

Hill and several jurors testified Monday during a hearing about the motion.

A few jurors have claimed that Hill told them to watch Murdaugh’s demeanor and actions when he testified in his trial and to pay attention to him. Hill denied the allegations testifying that at most she gave the jurors a pep talk on the day Murdaugh took the stand, saying, “Pay attention, it’s going to be a big day today.”

Hill, who cowrote the book Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders, which was pulled from publication over accusations of plagiarism, admitted that she wrote things in the book that were not true.

All of the jurors testified they stood by their verdict and were not swayed by anything Hill may have done.

In her ruling, Toal admonished Hill for her actions, arguing that she was “attracted by the siren call of celebrity,” but concluded they had no effect on the jury.

Toal also told the court that she read the trial’s entire lengthy transcript and found the verdict just.

“Each member of this jury took their involuntary assignment very seriously. They obeyed the instructions of the court. They obeyed the oath,” the judge said.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a statement that it was “time to move on and forward.”

“As with all cases, the Attorney General’s office and SLED’s (South Carolina Law Enforcement Division) only mission is to seek the truth and deliver justice, wherever the facts lead,” he said in his statement.

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(WASHINGTON) — A former IRS contractor who pleaded guilty to leaking tax documents belonging to former President Donald Trump and other wealthy Americans was sentenced Monday to five years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of $5,000.

Charles Littlejohn pleaded guilty in October to one count of taking tax return information without authorization, for leaking the documents to media outlets in 2019 and 2020.

“The scope and scale [is] unparalleled in the IRS’s history,” U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said regarding Littlejohn’s crime as she handed down his sentence Monday in Washington, D.C. “You have caused and have risked causing immense harm to thousands of Americans.”

According to a sentencing memo filed by prosecutors, Littlejohn “abused his position by unlawfully disclosing thousands of Americans’ federal tax returns and other private financial information to multiple news organizations” that sources said included the New York Times.

“In the case of Mr. Trump’s tax returns, he was under no legal obligation to disclose them,” Reyes told Littlejohn Monday. “What you did in targeting a sitting president of the United States is an attack on our constitutional democracy.”

Littlejohn testified that he acted out of a “sincere belief” that he was serving a cause, but acknowledged that his actions caused “significant harm.”

The former contractor said he felt that taxpayers “deserved to know” how easy it is for the wealthiest Americans to avoid paying taxes.

His attorney, Lisa Manning, said Littlejohn was deeply sorry for his actions.

“He has very deep remorse, he has deep remorse for the victims,” Manning told the judge. “And if he would, he would take it back.”

Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who read a victim impact statement at the hearing, asked the judge to sentence Littlejohn to the maximum amount, saying Littlejohn “abused his position of trust” to “harm Americans,” including Scott and his family.

“Donald Trump, Elon Musk … all attacked for political purposes,” Scott said.

Republic members of the House Ways and Means Committee had asked Judge Reyes, in a letter last week, to sentence Littlejohn to the statutory maximum of five years in prison.

“In our view, the seriousness of the crimes and the context surrounding them justify an upward variance. So that similar conduct is deterred in the future, we respectfully ask that you sentence Mr. Littlejohn to the maximum sentence of five years,” the letter said.

Before handing down the sentence, Judge Reyes said that because only 152 victims had their information published, the scope of the harm is not “necessarily known or done,” pointing out that Littlejohn admitted to leaking tax records belonging to “over a thousand” wealthy taxpayers.

The judge compared Littlejohn’s actions to the actions of some of the Jan 6. defendants she has sentenced.

“It cannot be open season on our elected officials,” Judge Reyes said.

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