(NEW YORK) — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Monday asked a judge to impose a gag order on former President Donald Trump, who is charged in New York with falsifying business records related to hush money he paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
Trump is already under a limited gag order in his federal election interference case in Washington, D.C., and prosecutors in Manhattan sought a similarly “narrowly tailored order restricting certain prejudicial extrajudicial statements by defendant.”
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts in the hush money case and has criticized Bragg and Judge Juan Merchan, as well as witnesses that include Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — A historic, billion-dollar donation to a medical school in New York City has provided students with free tuition moving forward.
Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx received a $1 billion donation from Dr. Ruth Gottesman, former professor and chair of the school’s board of trustees, the institution announced in a press release Monday.
The massive donation — a “transformational gift,” the school said — is among the largest ever made to a university in the United States and seemingly the largest made to an American medical school, according to the institution.
The $1 billion donation will ensure that no student at Einstein will have to pay tuition again, Dr. Philip Ozuah, president and CEO of Montefiore Einstein, the umbrella organization for Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System, said in the announcement.
All current, fourth-year students will be reimbursed their spring 2024 semester tuition and, beginning at the start of the next term, all students moving forward will receive free tuition at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the school said.
Tuition and fees for one year at the medical school total over $63,000, and more than half the medical students owe upward of $200,000 in student debt after graduating, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine says on its website.
Almost half of students are New Yorkers and nearly 60% of students at the university are women, according to the institution.
“This donation radically revolutionizes our ability to continue attracting students who are committed to our mission, not just those who can afford it,” Dr. Yaron Tomer, the Marilyn and Stanley Katz dean at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, said in the release.
“Additionally, it will free up and lift our students, enabling them to pursue projects and ideas that might otherwise be prohibitive. We will be reminded of the legacy this historic gift represents each spring as we send another diverse class of physicians out across the Bronx and around the world to provide compassionate care and transform their communities,” Tomer said.
The donation comes from Gottesman and her late husband, David “Sandy” Gottesman, who was the founder of First Manhattan Co. and an early investor in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, before he died in 2022 at 96 years old.
Ruth Gottesman, 93, began her work at Einstein’s Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center more than 55 years ago.
“I am very thankful to my late husband, Sandy, for leaving these funds in my care, and l feel blessed to be given the great privilege of making this gift to such a worthy cause,” Ruth Gottesman said in the press release.
“Each year, well over 100 students enter Albert Einstein College of Medicine in their quest for degrees in medicine and science. They leave as superbly trained scientists and compassionate and knowledgeable physicians, with the expertise to find new ways to prevent diseases and provide the finest health care to communities here in the Bronx and all over the world,” she said.
(EAGLE PASS, TEXAS) — President Joe Biden will make his second visit to the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday to make another push for Congress to pass a bipartisan border deal, the White House announced Monday.
Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, will also deliver remarks at the border on Thursday, sources familiar with his trip told ABC News. Trump will visit Eagle Pass, Texas — a flashpoint for immigration confrontation.
Biden will visit Brownsville, Texas. He last visited the border in January 2023 when he stopped in El Paso. He faced immense criticism from Republicans for not going to the border as migrant encounters reached a record high in December.
In Brownsville, Biden will meet with Border Patrol agents, law enforcement and local leaders, according to a White House official.
“He will discuss the urgent need to pass the Senate bipartisan border security agreement, the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border in decades,” the official said. “He will reiterate his calls for congressional Republicans to stop playing politics and to provide the funding needed for additional U.S. Border Patrol agents, more asylum officers, fentanyl detection technology and more.”
Biden has been urging Congress to pass the bipartisan immigration deal, which includes changes to asylum protocols, funding to bolster immigration review and hire additional Border Patrol agents as well as new emergency powers for officials.
The deal was the result of months of negotiations after House Republicans demanded foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel be tied to immigration reform. However, Speaker Mike Johnson called the proposal “dead on arrival” and contends it doesn’t do enough to enhance border security.
Republicans remain under pressure from Trump to reject it as he looks to make immigration a key campaign issue.
Biden on Friday pressed Republicans to “show a little spine” and pass the bill even if they “reap the wrath” their colleagues to get this bill to his desk.
“Folks, doing nothing is not an option. Compromise is part of the process,” Biden said about the deal when speaking to governors at the White House. “I didn’t get everything I wanted in that deal. We didn’t deal with DREAMers. We didn’t do a number of things I think we should do. But you know it’s a positive step, a significant step.”
Amid the impasse on Capitol Hill, Biden is considering executive action to tighten asylum restrictions, an administration official told ABC News. Speaker Johnson criticized the potential action as “election year gimmicks.”
Biden is not expected to announce any new executive actions on Thursday, according to a source familiar with the plans.
Biden faces headwinds on immigration, which has emerged as a top 2024 election concern for voters. An ABC News poll conducted earlier this year found Biden’s approval rating on his handling of the border stood at just 18%.
In a post on his social media platform on Monday, Trump — who has ramped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric this cycle — continued his claim that foreign countries are sending criminals to the U.S. and attacked the Biden administration as being unable to handle migrants.
(NEW YORK) — Lawyers for former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants are appealing their $464 million civil fraud case.
In a filing Monday, the defendants signaled their plans to appeal the ruling to New York’s Appellate Division, First Department.
“This appeal is taken from each and every part of the Order insofar as Defendants are aggrieved,” defense lawyers Alina Habba and Clifford Robert wrote in the notice.
In an informational statement filed with the Appellate Division, the defense lawyers asked the court to determine whether the judge in the case “committed errors of law and/or fact, abused its discretion, and/or acted in excess of its jurisdiction.”
“We trust that the Appellate Division will overturn this egregious fine and take the necessary steps to restore the public faith in New York’s legal system,” Habba said in a statement.
Judge Arthur Engoron earlier this month found Trump, his adults, and two former Trump Organization executives liable for a decade of fraudulent business activity, ordering the defendants to pay a total of $464 million in disgorgement and pre-judgment interest. Of that amount, Trump owes $355 million in fines plus approximately $100 million in interest.
Trump has denied all wrongdoing.
On Friday, the clerk for New York County’s Supreme Court signed and entered the judgment order in the case, giving Trump 30 days to file his appeal. In order to pause the execution of the fine in the case, the former president needs to post a bond or put cash into an escrow account to cover the fines plus interest.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the case against Trump and his co-defendants, told ABC News last week that she is prepared to seize the former president’s assets if he is unable to find the cash to cover the fine.
(WASHINGTON) — New home sales ticked up in January, despite a twin burden imposed by elevated mortgage rates and expensive housing prices, according to U.S. Census data released on Monday.
Sales of new single-family homes rose 1.8% in January compared to the previous year, data showed. The survey found an estimated 661,000 homes were sold in January.
On a monthly basis, sales climbed 1.5% from December.
The fresh data offers a glimmer of optimism for an otherwise sluggish housing market.
By contrast, existing-home sales declined in January compared to the previous year, the National Association of Realtors said last week.
Mortgage-purchase applications fell 10% from a week earlier, data from the Mortgage Bankers Association on Wednesday showed.
The divergent trends for new and existing home sales trace back to elevated mortgage rates. The average interest rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage has soared to 6.9%, rebounding after a steady decline at the end of last year, according to a report from Freddie Mac on Thursday.
Homeowners are largely opting to stay in their current residences because they would rather stick with comparatively low-rate mortgages than shift to high-rate ones.
Mortgage rates track yields on 10-year Treasury bonds, which are highly sensitive to the benchmark interest rate set by the Federal Reserve.
The Fed says it expects to cut interest rates this year but so far has kept the rates at high levels, since inflation has resisted downward pressure in recent months.
The supply of new homes, on the other hand, is garnering interest from prospective buyers unable to find homeowners willing to sell.
The median sales price of new houses sold in January was $420,700.
(WASHINGTON) — An active-duty airman has died after authorities say he set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C.
The man was identified by the Metropolitan Police Department as 25-year-old Aaron Bushnell of San Antonio.
The incident unfolded just before 1 p.m. ET outside the gates of the Israeli Embassy in northwest Washington, according to statements from the city’s Metropolitan Police Department and Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department.
“We arrived to find an apparent adult male who had been on fire,” the Fire and EMS Department said in its statement.
Members of the U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division extinguished the flames before fire crews arrived, officials said. Later Sunday, the U.S. Air Force confirmed the man involved was an active duty airman.
Bushnell was unconscious when he was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, according to police.
Police officials did not comment on why the man set himself ablaze.
Police detectives, the Secret Service Uniformed Division and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating the incident.
The police department’s Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit was also called to the scene as police investigated a suspicious vehicle in the area that authorities believe is linked to Bushnell. The vehicle was searched, but no hazardous material was found, police said.
The Israeli Embassy released a statement saying the man was “unknown” to embassy staff.
No embassy workers were injured in the incident, and all were reported safe, embassy officials said.
A similar incident occurred on Dec. 1 outside an Israeli Consulate office in Atlanta, where a woman wrapped in a Palestinian flag intentionally set herself on fire in an apparent political protest, according to police. The woman, who was critically injured, ignited herself after dousing herself with gasoline, police said. A security guard suffered burns when he attempted to put the fire out, according to police.
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
ABC News’ Luke Barr, Sinead Hawkins and Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
Inmate Leon Ruffin in a mugshot from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office
(HARVEY, La.) — A convicted felon who had been in custody on a second-degree murder charge escaped on Sunday after pepper spraying his transporting deputy and stealing her car, authorities said.
The inmate, Leon Ruffin, should be considered “armed and dangerous,” Sheriff Joseph Lopinto of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana, told the media Sunday night at a press briefing.
Lopinto said he doesn’t believe the man “has anything to lose” as he could be facing life in prison if convicted on the second-degree murder charge.
Ruffin had been transferred from the medical facility in the corrections center to a local hospital around noon on Sunday on the advice of the medical team after suffering from a possible seizure. After being treated at the hospital, Ruffin created some type of disturbance as he was being driven out of the hospital parking lot, Lopinto said. The female deputy got out of the car and he pepper sprayed her, the official said. The suspect then took the deputy’s vehicle, he added.
The deputy fired shots at the car but does not know if Ruffin was hit.
At present, authorities do not know where the suspect got the pepper spray. The deputy still had her pepper spray, taser and weapon following his escape.
Authorities have contacted the family of the victim in Ruffin’s alleged second-degree murder case.
Prior to his trip to the hospital, Ruffin had been in the medical unit at the corrections facility, but Lopinto said they believed he was faking his injuries.
(WASHINGTON) — A man identified by the Air Force as an active-duty airman was hospitalized in critical condition Sunday after authorities say he set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C.
The incident unfolded just before 1 p.m. ET outside the gates of the Israeli Embassy in northwest Washington, according to statements from the city’s Metropolitan Police Department and Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department.
“We arrived to find an apparent adult male who had been on fire,” the Fire and EMS Department said in its statement.
Members of the U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division extinguished the flames before fire crews arrived, officials said. Later Sunday, the U.S. Airforce confirmed the man involved was an active duty airman.
The man, whose name was not immediately released, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries and is listed in critical condition, according to police.
It was not immediately clear why the man set himself ablaze.
Police detectives, the Secret Service Uniformed Division and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating the incident.
The police department’s Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit was also called to the scene as police investigated a suspicious vehicle in the area that authorities believe is linked to the man. The vehicle was searched, but no hazardous material was found, police said.
The Israeli Embassy released a statement saying the man was “unknown” to embassy staff.
No embassy workers were injured in the incident, and all were reported safe, embassy officials said.
A similar incident occurred on Dec. 1 outside an Israeli Consulate office in Atlanta, where a woman wrapped in a Palestinian flag intentionally set herself on fire in an apparent political protest, according to police. The woman, who was critically injured, ignited herself after dousing herself with gasoline, police said. A security guard suffered burns when he attempted to put the fire out, according to police.
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
ABC News’ Luke Barr, Sinead Hawkins and Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Judge Lewis Kaplan has declined to grant a stay of Donald Trump’s $83.3 million judgment in his defamation case and requested a written response from columnist E. Jean Carroll’s lawyers.
“The Court declines to grant any stay, much less an unsecured stay, without first having afforded plaintiff a meaningful opportunity to be heard,” Kaplan wrote in an order filed Sunday morning. Kaplan set a Thursday deadline for Carroll’s response and a March 2 deadline for Trump’s reply.
A lawyer for the former president requested last week that Kaplan temporarily delay the judgment or permit Trump to post a bond for “an appropriate fraction” of the total damages.
Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba filed the motion on Friday, requesting a stay until 30 days after the resolution of his post-trial motions filed in early March, or grant a partially secured stay while Trump posts a reduced bond.
“There is a strong probability that the disposition of post-trial motions will substantially reduce, if not eliminate, the amount of the judgment,” Habba argued in the motion.
“Plaintiff failed to offer any evidence that her alleged distress was of any significant severity or duration, or that it resulted in any medical, physical, or clinical consequences—or even any extreme emotional effects,” Habba wrote about the emotional damage suffered by Carroll, who described living in a state of fear following Trump’s statements.
Habba suggested that the court should project a reduction of the total judgment to $22.25 million, for which Trump could post a $24.475 million bond.
“The figure awarded to Ms. Carroll is egregiously excessive,” Habba said in a statement to ABC News. “The Court must exercise its authority to prevent Ms. Carroll from enforcing this absurd judgment, which will not withstand appeal.”
The request comes amid a renewed spotlight on the former president’s finances following two costly New York civil trials. On Friday, New York’s Supreme Court entered the judgment in Trump’s civil fraud case, in which he owes $355 million in fines plus approximately $100 million in interest.
Trump has denied all wrongdoing and has said he doesn’t know who Carroll is.
(WASHINGTON) — A man was hospitalized in critical condition Sunday after authorities say he set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C.
The incident unfolded just before 1 p.m. ET outside the gates of the Israeli Embassy in northwest Washington, according to statements from the city’s Metropolitan Police Department and Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department.
“We arrived to find an apparent adult male who had been on fire,” the Fire and EMS Department said in its statement.
Members of the U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division extinguished the flames before fire crews arrived, officials said.
The man, whose name was not immediately released, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries and is listed in critical condition, according to police.
It was not immediately clear why the man set himself ablaze.
Police detectives, the Secret Service Uniformed Division and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating the incident.
The police department’s Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit was also called to the scene as police investigated a suspicious vehicle in the area that authorities believe is linked to the man. The vehicle was searched, but no hazardous material was found, police said.
The Israeli Embassy released a statement saying the man was “unknown” to embassy staff.
No embassy workers were injured in the incident, and all were reported safe, embassy officials said.
A similar incident occurred on Dec. 1 outside an Israeli Consulate office in Atlanta, where a woman wrapped in a Palestinian flag intentionally set herself on fire in an apparent political protest, according to police. The woman, who was critically injured, ignited herself after dousing herself with gasoline, police said. A security guard suffered burns when he attempted to put the fire out, according to police.
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
ABC News’ Luke Barr and Sinead Hawkins contributed to this report.
