(ATLANTA) — The Georgia Court of Appeals on Thursday disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump and his co-defendants in their election interference case.
“After carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office” over what the appeals court called “a significant appearance of impropriety,” the ruling said.
The criminal indictment against Trump and his co-defendants still stands, the court said.
Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty last year to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.
Defendants Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and Scott Hall subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.
Following the ruling, the Fulton County DA’s office filed notice that they intend to appeal the decision to the Georgia Supreme Court. A spokesperson for the DA’s office declined to comment further to ABC News.
Thursday’s ruling leaves the question of who takes over the case — and whether it continues — to the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia. That decision may be delayed if Trump or Willis continues their appeal to the state’s highest court, Georgia’s Supreme Court.
The case has been on pause after Trump and his co-defendants launched an effort to have Willis disqualified from the case over her relationship with fellow prosecutor Nathan Wade. Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee declined to disqualify Willis, leading Trump to appeal that decision.
The appeals court ruled to disqualify Willis and her entire office from the case because “no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings,” the ruling said.
“The remedy crafted by the trial court to prevent an ongoing appearance of impropriety did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when DA Willis was exercising her broad pretrial discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring,” the order said, reversing Judge McAfee’s original decision.
Wade, who had been the lead prosecutor in the case, resigned as special prosecutor in March after McAfee issued his ruling that either Willis or Wade must step aside from the case due to a “significant appearance of impropriety” stemming from a romantic relationship between the DA and the prosecutor.
While the appeals court disqualified Willis and her office, it did not find enough evidence to justify “the extreme sanction” of tossing the entire indictment against Trump and his co-defendants, as Trump had sought in his appeal.
“While this is the rare case in which DA Willis and her office must be disqualified due to a significant appearance of impropriety, we cannot conclude that the record also supports the imposition of the extreme sanction of dismissal of the indictment under the appropriate standard,” the ruling said.
“The Georgia Court Of Appeals in a well-reasoned and just decision has held that DA Fani Willis’ misconduct in the case against President Trump requires the disqualification of Willis and her office,” Trump attorney Steve Sadow said in response to the ruling. “The Court highlighted that Willis’ misconduct created an ‘odor of mendacity’ and an appearance of impropriety that could only be cured by the disqualification of her and her entire office. As the Court rightfully noted, only the remedy of disqualification will suffice to restore public confidence.”
Judge Clay Land — one of the three judges on the appeals panel — dissented from the decision, arguing that reversing the trial court “violates well-established precedent, threatens the discretion given to trial courts, and blurs the distinction between our respective courts.”
Land argued that the appearance of impropriety — rather than a true conflict of interest — is not enough to reverse Judge McAfee’s decision not to disqualify Willis.
“For at least the last 43 years, our appellate courts have held that an appearance of impropriety, without an actual conflict of interest or actual impropriety, provides no basis for the reversal of a trial court’s denial of a motion to disqualify,” he wrote.
In his dissent, Land emphasized that the trial court found that Willis did not have a conflict of interest and rejected the allegations of impropriety stemming from her relationship with Wade, including the allegation that she received a financial benefit from his hiring.
“It was certainly critical of her choices and chastised her for making them. I take no issue with that criticism, and if the trial court had chosen, in its discretion, to disqualify her and her office, this would be a different case,” he wrote. “But that is not the remedy the trial court chose, and I believe our case law prohibits us from rejecting that remedy just because we don’t like it or just because we might have gone further had we been the trial judge.”
The Georgia election interference case is one of four criminal cases that were brought against Trump after he left the White House in 2021. His two federal cases, on charges of interfering with the 2020 election and refusing to return classified documents, were dropped following Trump’s reelection last month, due to a longstanding Justice Department policy prohibiting the criminal prosecution of a sitting president.
Trump’s sentencing in New York, following his conviction on charges of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 election, was postponed indefinitely following Trump’s reelection last month.
This illustration shows the locations where ABC News tested abandoned oil and gas wells for leaks; ABC News
(WEST TEXAS, Texas) — Rancher Laura Briggs rises early to care for the livestock scattered across her homestead on the arid plains of West Texas. Briggs and her husband saved up for years to purchase the land and build their family’s dream home near the Pecos River.
“It was a lifestyle choice to raise our kids rurally in the hopes that they would appreciate nature and where their food comes from and hard work and the other side of life that’s not so easy,” Briggs, a mother of four, told ABC News. “It could have been so much better without the fight.”
The “fight” that Briggs says has come to dominate her life in recent years centers around the 30-plus abandoned oil and gas wells littered across her ranch and left to rot by their former operators. She knew the inactive wells were on the land when she bought it, but what she didn’t expect to find was that some were leaking and no one was taking responsibility for the cleanup.
“I thought the state regulated this stuff. I never thought that this would be allowed to go on,” Briggs said.
As a result, Briggs’ dream of a bucolic ranch life has instead been marred by animals found covered in oil, concerns for her groundwater and air quality, and even the looming threat of a random explosion.
“My biggest fear is that I have a catastrophe close to my house. We have some wells close to the house and we don’t know what’s going on underground,” she said.
More than 3.5 million abandoned oil and gas wells are littered across the United States and an estimated 14 million Americans live within a mile of one of the wells. Those that leak are known in West Texas as “zombie wells” and can contaminate groundwater and spew carcinogenic chemicals and potent greenhouse gases into the environment, according to the Department of the Interior. In some cases, the wells have been blamed for home explosions.
“These wells are a threat to people and livelihoods, and especially kids and older people and people with health problems,” said Adam Peltz, director and senior attorney of the energy program at the Environmental Defense Fund. “We need to go find them because they’re a problem, not just for the people who live nearby, but for everyone on the planet,” Peltz said.
Despite the potential risks, few abandoned wells are ever regularly checked for leaks. ABC News, after weeks of research and calls with multiple leading experts in the field, identified the datasets, technology and learned the recommended safety practices before fanning out across the nation with gas detectors to locate and test more than 70 abandoned wells for leaks.
ABC News partnered with six owned and affiliated stations as part of the reporting project: KABC, KAKE, KFSN, KMGH, KTRK, and WRTV.
The device used in the investigation can detect hundreds of combustible gases and whether a well is leaking while the test is being conducted, several leading experts confirmed. The device is unable to determine the exact gas type and full scope of any leak over time.
Studies have shown that leaking abandoned wells typically emit methane — a highly combustible and potent greenhouse gas. But they can also leak carcinogenic benzene, as well as hydrogen sulfide or H2S, an extremely deadly gas that can kill humans even during short exposures.
In all, 40 out of the 76 wells tested by ABC News across five states were leaking oil or combustible gas when they were tested. Leaking wells were discovered on Kansas farms, beside New York streams, near Colorado schools and along hiking trails just outside of Los Angeles. The team also looked for leaks in the Gulf of Mexico, where more than 14,000 offshore abandoned wells are located. During a boat ride into Trinity Bay, just outside of Houston, the team carefully tested 10 decaying offshore wells and found seven to be leaking combustible gas at the time.
Billions in Costs to Taxpayers
While abandoned wells have been documented in more than 26 states, no place has more decaying underground pipes than Texas. More than 600,000 of the pipes exist in the state and they are particularly common in the Permian Basin, a prolific oil producing region where Laura Briggs lives.
ABC News tested five of the abandoned wells closest to Briggs’ home and found two to be leaking oil and combustible gas at the time.
The wells’ latest operators declared bankruptcy years ago, making them what’s often called an “orphan well.” With no viable owner, it’s now left up to the state — and ultimately taxpayers — to pay to plug the abandoned wells, permanently sealing off the holes to stop potential contamination from leaks. Despite years of complaints, Briggs says only three of the 30-plus orphan wells on her land have been plugged by the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state agency responsible for regulating the oil and gas industry.
“They’ve been plugged because they leaked so bad, the Railroad Commission literally had to come out and do something,” Briggs said, arguing that the commission often waits until a well suffers a major blowout before committing to plugging the well. Briggs says one of the wells on her property has been leaking oil above ground for nearly 10 years, but the state has so far refused to plug it according to its priority level.
Texas has more than 8,500 documented “orphan” wells and more are added to the list every year. Texas Railroad Commissioner Jim Wright told KTRK in Houston that “we do not have the money” to plug all of Texas orphan wells but that the agency had “developed a very good system” to prioritize plugging operations for those that leak — adding the commission had plugged 730 wells in 2023.
Properly plugging a single abandoned orphan well can cost hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of taxpayer dollars in part because the bonds oil and gas companies are required to post before drilling a well are rarely enough to cover the actual cost of plugging it, leaving taxpayers to pick up the rest of the tab. There have been numerous attempts on both the state and federal level to pass laws raising the bonds required by companies to cover plugging costs, but few have passed as they repeatedly face strong opposition from industry trade groups.
“Industry associations will go to legislators and regulators and say you can’t raise these bond amounts. It’ll put us out of business. Don’t make any changes,” Peltz told ABC News.
“And the problem with that is, well, are we supposed to live with orphan wells? Then why is the public subsidizing this activity? The current arrangement isn’t working so we need to come up with something new,” Peltz said.
The American Petroleum Institute declined to be interviewed for this report and did not respond to written questions. The institute wrote in a statement to ABC News that “the proper sealing of oil and natural gas wells is paramount to ensure safety, sustainability, and environmental protection, and API and our member companies are committed to responsible development of our nation’s energy resources from start to finish.”
In 2021, Congress set aside an unprecedented $4.7 billion for plugging abandoned wells nationwide and the money has begun to flow to qualifying state agencies. However, an ABC News data analysis of multiple sources estimates that the cost of plugging most of the nation’s abandoned and unplugged wells could be more than $250 billion and current government funding will only cover plugging costs for about 6% of the nation’s wells.
‘This ground is dead forever’
Just a few miles from Briggs’ ranch lies one of the most notorious abandoned wells in the nation and a striking example of what can happen if a well is neglected for decades.
Formed by a leaking well that was drilled in the 1950s, the 60-acre Lake Boehmer can seem like a surreal mirage from a distance: its turquoise waters and salt crusted shores standing in stark contrast to the harsh desert plains it has been flooding with toxic water for decades. The well leaks up to 600 gallons a minute of water that contains arsenic, benzene, hydrogen sulfide and at times has even proven radioactive, according to studies by the local water district.
Even before coming within sight of the “lake,” a visitor is greeted by the potent stench of rotten eggs — a tell-tale sign of deadly hydrogen sulfide gas that ABC News detected during its visit.
According to state records, the leaking well that created Lake Boehmer was drilled looking for oil in 1951, but the operators later converted it into a water well before abandoning it. As a result, the Texas Railroad Commission has refused to plug it, claiming the responsibility — and hefty price tag — lies with the county water district. The water district argues only the Railroad Commission has the responsibility and the funds required. As the dispute plays out in court the well continues to leak and some worry it could eventually contaminate local aquifers – the underground rock or sediment that stores water.
“There’s bones all around here, because the birds come and there’s H2S in this water and eventually the gas kills ’em. And so this is where they come to die,” local rancher Schuyler Wight told ABC News.
Wight’s ranch borders Lake Boehmer and is home to more than 200 orphan wells — many of which are leaking. One abandoned well on his land that he showed ABC News had formed a toxic pool of produced water that stretched down nearby dirt roads. While there, ABC News also detected the presence of deadly H2S gas.
“This ground is dead forever,” Wight said while looking out over the site. “This ground will never grow anything on it.”
Shortly after ABC News visited the site, state authorities stopped the leak aboveground but Wight worries they haven’t done enough to protect his groundwater or to prevent another blowout from happening again.
The Wells Buried Beneath America’s Cities
Most abandoned wells are in rural areas like Wight’s, but a surprising number can be found buried beneath America’s cities. Perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than in Los Angeles. Built atop one of the nation’s oldest and most productive oil fields, thousands of abandoned wells lie buried beneath the city’s development, their presence often only revealed by historic photographs and by those who know where to look.
In the working-class neighborhood of Vista Hermosa, fence posts lining an athletic field are actually methane vents designed to mitigate the risks of more than a dozen abandoned wells buried beneath the field. Three of the wells beneath the field remain unplugged and the vents are designed to discharge potentially harmful gases they can emit away from nearby school buildings into open areas.
“They’re actually a part of the fence. So they’re camouflaged a little bit,” lifelong resident Danny Luna told ABC News on a tour of the area. For years, Luna and Rosalinda Morales, another lifelong resident, have been advocating for authorities to plug the more than 800 documented abandoned wells located beneath their community — which they believe pose a serious public health threat.
“We have a lot of medical conditions here. We have people with autoimmune conditions, cancers,” Morales told ABC News. It is difficult to prove exactly what is causing residents’ health issues in the area, but studies show those living near oil and gas wells are more prone to such illnesses.
Brenda Valdivia says she has been dealing with illnesses she believes are tied to the area’s wells since she was 10 years old. As a child, Valdivia spent time at the home of a baby-sitter that was directly beside an active oil well. By age 10, she was “getting really sick. I had high fevers, rash on my face.” Eventually, she says doctors diagnosed her with lupus and told her it was likely caused by environmental factors after testing failed to show she was genetically predisposed to the disease. She suffered two strokes in one night and has spent most of her life in and out of hospitals.
“I’m still recovering. And I take it day by day,” she said.
Rosalinda Morales, an asthma survivor, grew up beside an active well that was later abandoned and says she spent her “whole life smelling rotten eggs.” For years, Morales’ next-door neighbor complained to authorities of a similar odor emanating from under his front steps. After nothing was done, he ultimately took a jackhammer to the steps and made a startling discovery — an oil well that was emitting potentially deadly H2S gas.
“Pretty scary, because that’s what we’re breathing here,” Morales said. That well, along with another across the street, was eventually plugged by state authorities after it was discovered, but hundreds in the area remain unplugged and mostly buried out of sight.
On the outskirts of the city, however, some of Los Angeles’ abandoned wells can still be seen up close. ABC News located and tested three abandoned wells found alongside a popular hiking trail in El Escorpion Park and found two to be leaking oil and/or combustible gas at the time. One of the wells maxed out ABC News’ gas detector with a reading of 10,000 parts per million.
The device ABC News used does not distinguish which combustible gas it detects and more prolonged testing is required to determine the exact size of the leak. But the New Jersey Department of Health says that exposure to anything over 2,000 parts per million of methane is “immediately dangerous to life and health.” CalGem, the state agency responsible for regulating the oil and gas industry in California, wrote to ABC News that the department “does not permit leaks at any level” from abandoned wells.
Inspection records show state authorities know that these wells have been leaking for years and, while they are on the state’s latest list for plugging, they are behind dozens of other wells deemed a higher priority for plugging by the agency.
CalGem, the state agency responsible for regulating the oil and gas industry, wrote to ABC News that they are currently working through a list of 378 wells for plugging and that the wells we tested in El Escorpion Park are a “top priority” and “will be plugged and sealed soon to protect the environment and ensure public safety.”
Still, for residents living near the abandoned wells, plugging them cannot come soon enough.
“The solution is to make enough noise that maybe we’ll get some of this stuff fixed,” Wight told ABC News.
ABC News’ Timmy Truong, Kate Holland and Alex Myers contributed to this report.
(ATLANTA, Ga.) — The Georgia Court of Appeals has disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump and his co-defendants in their election interference case.
“After carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office,” the court ruled.
The indictment against Trump and his co-defendants still stands, the court said.
Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty last year to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.
Defendants Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and Scott Hall subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.
Thursday’s ruling leaves the question of who takes over the case — and whether it continues — to the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia. That decision may be delayed if Trump or Willis continues their appeal to the state’s highest court, Georgia’s Supreme Court.
The case has been on pause after Trump and his co-defendants launched an effort to have Willis disqualified from the case over her relationship with fellow prosecutor Nathan Wade. Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee declined to disqualify Willis, leading Trump to appeal that decision.
The appeals court ruled to disqualify Willis and her entire office from the case because “no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings,” the ruling said.
“The remedy crafted by the trial court to prevent an ongoing appearance of impropriety did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when DA Willis was exercising her broad pretrial discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring,” the order said, reversing Judge McAfee’s original decision.
Wade, who had been the lead prosecutor in the case, resigned as special prosecutor in March after McAfee issued his ruling that either Willis or Wade must step aside from the case due to a “significant appearance of impropriety” stemming from a romantic relationship between the DA and the prosecutor.
While the appeals court disqualified Willis and her office, it did not find enough evidence to justify “the extreme sanction” of tossing the entire indictment against Trump and his co-defendants, as Trump had sought in his appeal.
“While this is the rare case in which DA Willis and her office must be disqualified due to a significant appearance of impropriety, we cannot conclude that the record also supports the imposition of the extreme sanction of dismissal of the indictment under the appropriate standard,” the ruling said.
Judge Clay Land — one of the three judges on the appeals panel — dissented from the decision, arguing that reversing the trial court “violates well-established precedent, threatens the discretion given to trial courts, and blurs the distinction between our respective courts.”
Land argued that the appearance of impropriety — rather than a true conflict of interest — is not enough to reverse Judge McAfee’s decision not to disqualify Willis.
“For at least the last 43 years, our appellate courts have held that an appearance of impropriety, without an actual conflict of interest or actual impropriety, provides no basis for the reversal of a trial court’s denial of a motion to disqualify,” he wrote.
In his dissent, Land emphasized that the trial court found that Willis did not have a conflict of interest and rejected the allegations of impropriety stemming from her relationship with Wade, including the allegation that she received a financial benefit from his hiring.
“It was certainly critical of her choices and chastised her for making them. I take no issue with that criticism, and if the trial court had chosen, in its discretion, to disqualify her and her office, this would be a different case,” he wrote. “But that is not the remedy the trial court chose, and I believe our case law prohibits us from rejecting that remedy just because we don’t like it or just because we might have gone further had we been the trial judge.”
(NEW YORK) — Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is waiving extradition and will be transported to New York in short order.
Mangione was remanded to the custody of the NYPD, said his Pennsylvania defense attorney, Thomas Dickey.
“This is in his best interest, and we’re moving forward,” Dickey said.
A special edition of “20/20” airing Dec. 19 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC looks at the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the manhunt that led to the arrest of Luigi Mangione, who went from the Ivy League to alleged killer.
The news comes after Mangione appeared in court in Blair County, Pennsylvania, on Thursday morning.
Spectators gathered outside the Blair County courthouse on Thursday ahead of Mangione’s appearance.
One held a sign reading “Deny, Defend, Depose,” echoing the words written on shell casings and a bullet at the murder scene.
Adam Giesseman, who had a sign that said “Free Luigi” and “Murder for Profit is Terrorism,” told ABC News, “Our country is broken.”
Another waiting spectator, who only gave her first name, Natalie, voiced frustration that the insurance system is “set up for profit over people’s health.”
“It’s unfortunate that this happened, and I’m not glorifying it in any way — but it’s brought attention to the issue that affects all Americans,” she said.
Mangione faces an 11-count indictment by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and is also expected to face federal charges out of the Southern District of New York, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
SDNY and the FBI’s New York field office both declined to comment.
Federal charges could make Mangione eligible for the death penalty. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted of the state charges.
Mangione’s New York lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said in a statement, “The federal government’s reported decision to pile on top of an already overcharged first-degree murder and state terror case is highly unusual and raises serious constitutional and statutory double jeopardy concerns.”
“We are ready to fight these charges in whatever court they are brought,” Agnifilo added.
Danielle Filson, a spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, said, “The state case will proceed in parallel with any federal case.”
Mangione, 26, is accused of gunning down Thompson outside a Hilton hotel on Dec. 4 as the UnitedHealthcare CEO headed to an investors conference. Prosecutors alleged Mangione waited nearly an hour for Thompson to arrive.
A Manhattan grand jury upgraded charges against Mangione to include first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
The killing in the heart of Midtown Manhattan was “intended to evoke terror,” Bragg said.
In New York, Mangione is also charged with two counts of second-degree murder, one of which is charged as killing as an act of terrorism; two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree; four counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree; one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree; and one count of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree.
In Pennsylvania, where Mangione was arrested on Dec. 9 after nearly a week on the run, he faces charges including allegedly possessing an untraceable ghost gun. Mangione had a 9 mm handgun with a 3D-printed receiver, a homemade silencer, two ammunition magazines and live cartridges when apprehended, prosecutors said.
ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, arrived Thursday morning to court in Blair County, Pennsylvania, where he is expected to waive extradition to New York, according to his attorney.
A Pennsylvania judge must accept the extradition waiver or go forward with a scheduled hearing immediately following a separate hearing on Mangione’s local charges.
If the extradition paperwork is in order, the New York Police Department would then transport Mangione from Pennsylvania to New York. Mangione could be arraigned in New York as soon as Thursday.
A special edition of “20/20” airing Dec. 19 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC looks at the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the manhunt that led to the arrest of Luigi Mangione, who went from the Ivy League to alleged killer.
Spectators gathered outside the Blair County courthouse on Thursday ahead of Mangione’s appearance.
One held a sign reading “Deny, Defend, Depose,” echoing the words written on shell casings and a bullet at the murder scene.
Adam Giesseman, who had a sign that said “Free Luigi” and “Murder for Profit is Terrorism,” told ABC News, “Our country is broken.”
Another waiting spectator, who only gave her first name, Natalie, voiced frustration that the insurance system is “set up for profit over people’s health.”
“It’s unfortunate that this happened, and I’m not glorifying it in any way — but it’s brought attention to the issue that affects all Americans,” she said.
Mangione faces an 11-count indictment by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and is also expected to face federal charges out of the Southern District of New York, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
SDNY and the FBI’s New York field office both declined to comment.
Federal charges could make Mangione eligible for the death penalty. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted of the state charges.
Mangione’s New York lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said in a statement, “The federal government’s reported decision to pile on top of an already overcharged first-degree murder and state terror case is highly unusual and raises serious constitutional and statutory double jeopardy concerns.”
“We are ready to fight these charges in whatever court they are brought,” Agnifilo added.
Danielle Filson, a spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, said, “The state case will proceed in parallel with any federal case.”
Mangione, 26, is accused of gunning down Thompson outside a Hilton hotel on Dec. 4 as the UnitedHealthcare CEO headed to an investors conference. Prosecutors alleged Mangione waited nearly an hour for Thompson to arrive.
A Manhattan grand jury upgraded charges against Mangione to include first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
The killing in the heart of Midtown Manhattan was “intended to evoke terror,” Bragg said.
In New York, Mangione is also charged with two counts of second-degree murder, one of which is charged as killing as an act of terrorism; two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree; four counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree; one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree; and one count of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree.
In Pennsylvania, where Mangione was arrested on Dec. 9 after nearly a week on the run, he faces charges including allegedly possessing an untraceable ghost gun. Mangione had a 9 mm handgun with a 3D-printed receiver, a homemade silencer, two ammunition magazines and live cartridges when apprehended, prosecutors said.
ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — The Christmas and New Year’s holiday period is expected to be the busiest on record for both air and road travel, according to AAA — continuing this year’s trend where every major travel period has set new records.
Here’s what you need to know before you head to the airport or hit the highway:
Air travel
The Transportation Security Administration said it expects to screen nearly 40 million travelers from Dec. 19 to Jan. 2 — a 6.2% increase from 2023.
The Federal Aviation Administration predicts Thursday, Dec. 19, will be the most crowded day to fly, followed by Friday, Dec. 27, and Friday, Dec. 20.
United is planning for its busiest holiday travel period ever, with 9.9 million passengers expected between Dec. 19 and Jan. 6. The airline said it’s adding almost 500 more flights per day during its holiday travel period.
United said it anticipates its busiest days to be: Friday, Dec. 20; Friday, Dec. 27; and Saturday, Dec. 28.
American Airlines said Friday, Dec. 27, and Friday, Dec. 20, are expected to be its busiest and second-busiest days respectively during its holiday period, which runs from Dec. 18 to Jan. 6.
American said it’ll serve more than 6.6 million bags of pretzels during its holiday travel period.
The cheapest days to fly are Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, according to Expedia. The busiest and most expensive days will be from Friday, Dec. 20, through Sunday, Dec. 22.
The most popular Christmas destinations in the U.S. are Las Vegas, New York City and Orlando, Florida, according to Hopper.
Airports in major cities are expected to be the most crowded in the mornings, between 8 a.m. and noon, according to Hopper.
Road travel
About 107 million people are forecast to drive to their holiday destinations between Dec. 21 and Jan. 1 — approximately 2.5 million more people than last year, according to AAA.
The busiest days to pick up a rental car will be Friday, Dec. 20, and Saturday, Dec. 21, according to AAA.
If you’re heading out the door on Dec. 20, the worst travel time is between 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. and the best time is before 11 a.m., according to analytics company INRIX. On Dec. 21, the worst time to be on the road is between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.; the best time is before 2 p.m.
Traffic will be minimal on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, INRIX said.
(WASHINGTON) — The largest pharmacy chain in America is accused of “unlawfully dispensing massive quantities of opioids and other controlled substances to fuel its own profits at the expense of public health and safety,” according to a civil lawsuit filed by the Justice Department, which was unsealed Wednesday.
The DOJ lawsuit alleges that CVS has, for more than a decade, knowingly filled sometimes-dubious prescriptions for controlled substances that lacked a legitimate medical purpose, or were not valid.
Those prescriptions included “dangerous and excessive quantities of opioids” and “trinity cocktails” — a blend of “especially dangerous and abused combination of drugs made up of an opioid, a benzodiazepine and a muscle relaxant,” the suit stated.
The suit also accuses the company of filling “at least thousands of controlled substance prescriptions” penned by “known ‘pill mills.'”
In a statement to ABC News, CVS spokesperson Amy Thibault called the suit “misguided” and said company officials “strongly disagree with the allegations and false narrative” described in the DOJ suit and will “defend ourselves vigorously.”
DOJ’s lawsuit says CVS “contributed to the opioid crisis, a national public health emergency with devastating effects in the United States.” The suit went on to say: “These included illegitimate prescriptions for extremely high doses and excessive quantities of potent opioids that fed dependence and addiction, as well as illegitimate prescriptions for dangerous combinations of opioids and other drugs.”
The suit accuses CVS of ignoring sometimes “egregious red flags” about prescriptions “bearing the hallmarks of abuse and diversion.” The lawsuit points to performance metrics and incentive compensation policies that allegedly pressured pharmacists to “fill prescriptions as quickly as possible, without assessing their legitimacy” and corporate policies that allegedly prioritized speed over safety.
The suit claims CVS refused to implement compliance measures recommended by its own experts to reduce the number of invalid prescriptions with red flags “primarily due to fear that they would slow the speed of prescription filling and increase labor costs,” according to the suit.
The government is seeking civil penalties, injunctive relief and damages to address what it called CVS’ unlawful practices and to prevent future violations.
In her statement, Thibault, the CVS spokesperson, said the company has been an industry leader in fighting opioid misuse.
“Each of the prescriptions in question was for an FDA-approved opioid medication prescribed by a practitioner who the government itself licensed, authorized, and empowered to write controlled-substance prescriptions,” Thibault’s statement said.
She said the DOJ lawsuit “intensifies a serious dilemma for pharmacists, who are simultaneously second-guessed for dispensing too many opioids, and too few.”
(NEW YORK) — The Federal Aviation Administration says it has found no safety issues with Southwest Airlines following several monthslong investigations launched in July after multiple close-call incidents.
The most notable incident occurred in April when a Southwest plane came within 400 feet from slamming into the ocean off the coast of Hawaii.
However, several other incidents were investigated, including a flight to Phoenix, Arizona, in May experiencing a “dutch roll,” a Southwest flight from Ohio to Florida that came within 150 feet of the water before performing a go-around and a flight in June when a Southwest plane dropped to 525 feet over Oklahoma.
Southwest, in a statement to ABC about the agency’s completion of the review, said it “appreciates the opportunity to engage with the FAA as part of our mutual dedication to safety. Nothing is more important to Southwest than the Safety of our Customers and Employees.”
The FAA also issued a statement in the aftermath of the investigations, saying they “finished its Certificate Holder Evaluation Program (CHEP) of Southwest Airlines. The review did not identify any significant safety issues.”
(LOS ANGELES) — The FBI is investigating an incident aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship allegedly involving an unruly passenger.
The incident took place Friday aboard the Navigator of the Seas, which was sailing from Ensenada, Baja California, to Los Angeles, officials said.
The unidentified passenger allegedly became unruly and crew members were called in, according to witnesses.
A video of the incident showed crew members restraining the man on the floor with towels.
It is unclear when the man died after being restrained.
“The FBI responded to a Royal Caribbean cruise on Monday when it docked in Los Angeles and is investigating an incident on board that resulted in death,” the FBI said in a statement.
Royal Caribbean Cruises released a statement after the incident, saying, “We are saddened by the passing of one of our guests. We offered support to the family and are working with authorities on their investigation.”
(NEW YORK) — Active shooter drills have become the norm in schools across the U.S., but experts warn they have the potential to cause more harm than good.
Though the exercises seek to prepare students to respond to gun violence in their schools, little evidence exists proving their efficacy, experts told ABC News, days after two people were killed during a shooting at a Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin.
They can, however, cause marked damage to mental health and even serve as an instruction manual for potential school shooters, according to some experts.
“There’s too little research confirming the value of [drills] involving students — but evidence is absolutely mounting on their lasting harms,” Sarah Burd-Sharps, the senior research director at the anti-gun violence advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, told ABC News.
Over 95% of public schools in the U.S. have trained students on lockdown procedures to be used in the event of an active shooter incident, a number that has risen significantly since the early 2000s, according to a 2017 U.S. Department of Education report. At least 40 states have laws requiring these drills, according to data collected by Everytown.
Despite their ubiquity, few standards exist regulating how these drills should be conducted, Burd-Sharps said. As a result, the practices can range widely, she said. In some schools, training may consist of basic education on lockdown procedures. Others, however, have taken it further, simulating a real life active shooting scenario with sounds of gunfire or even school staff members posing as shooters.
Trainings of this kind can be deeply traumatizing to students and have a negative impact on mental health. A 2021 study by Burd-Sharps and others, which examined 114 schools across 33 states, found an approximate 40% increase in anxiety and depression in the three months after drills.
The effects can be especially pronounced among students with preexisting mental health struggles and those who have personal experience with gun violence, such as those who regularly hear gunfire in their communities or who have survived a prior shooting, Burd-Sharps said.
Rebekah Schuler, a 19-year-old Students Demand Action leader who survived the 2021 Oxford High School shooting in Michigan, said she and her classmates hadn’t taken active shooter drills very seriously until the attack that killed four students and injured seven others.
After the shooting, many of her classmates transferred, going on to schools that held their own active shooter trainings, she said. Many found these drills retraumatizing, she said, and some would have panic attacks.
“I hadn’t known the seriousness of it, but after the shooting, they were traumatizing to a different level,” Schuler told ABC News of the drills.
Advocacy groups like Everytown, as well as Sandy Hook Promise — the nonprofit formed by the families of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting — are pushing for stricter guidelines for active shooter drills that serve to better prepare school communities while avoiding negative effects.
In a report, Sandy Hook Promise recommended guidelines for these trainings, including requiring that they are announced in advance, allowing students to opt out and requiring regular reviews of practices.
The organization urged strongly against simulated gunfire, which they say can traumatize participants and risk physical injuries, without improving the exercises’ effectiveness. It’s a stance Burd-Sharps and other experts said is crucial for conducting safer trainings.
“No fake bullets, fake blood, janitors dressed as gunmen. That is deeply traumatizing,” she said. “And it’s not just traumatizing for the kids, it’s traumatizing for the teachers as well.”
Though few laws govern how these trainings are run, some states have begun taking steps to limit the most hyperrealistic practices. In July, New York banned drills that seek to realistically simulate shootings, and guidelines released by the Kentucky Department of Education recommend avoiding “dramatic crisis simulations.”
Active shooter drills also can come with another grim risk: serving as a blueprint for would-be school shooters on how to circumvent safety measures in planning their own attack. For instance, Natalie Rupnow, the alleged shooter at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, was a student at the school.
“Because 3 in 4 school shooters are a current or former student, by drilling multiple times a year, you are giving the roadmap of what’s going to happen during an active shooter incident to a potential shooter,” Burd-Sharps said, citing a 2016 New York Police Department report.
Experts recommend focusing training efforts more on teachers than on students, and concentrating more efforts around prevention strategies — particularly convincing parents to lock up their guns and teaching students who they can safely go to if they observe concerning behavior among their peers.
“When you compound actual shootings that kids see on TV all the time with these drills, and with lockdowns in response to new incidents, it’s actually not surprising that many American school kids are in crisis. The last thing they need is additional trauma from drills multiple times a year,” Burd-Sharps said.
