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(MONTEREY PARK, Calif.) — The suspected gunman who allegedly shot 20 people, 10 fatally, at a dance studio near a Lunar New Year celebration in the Los Angeles suburb of Monterey Park is believed to be connected to a van law enforcement officers surrounded Sunday and forced their way into about 30 miles from there the massacre occurred, authorities said.

SWAT officers broke the driver’s side window of the van around 1 p.m. local time, about two hours after police made a traffic stop in the Los Angeles County city of Torrance and heard a loud noise coming from inside the vehicle, sources told ABC News.

The suspect, whose name has not been released, is believed to have been inside a white cargo van, police officials told ABC station KABC. Live aerial footage shows the van sandwiched between two police armored vehicles, Torrance police officials told ABC station KABC.

But Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said it has not been confirmed that the suspect in the mass shooting suspect hold up inside the van in Torrance.

“We don’t know,” Luna said at a news conference Sunday afternoon as the incident in Torrance continued to unfold. “We believe there is a person inside of that vehicle. Could it be our suspect? Possibly.”

Asked if the person inside the van could be dead, Luna said, “that is a possibility.”

In addition to the armored police vehicles, the van was surrounded by numerous police officers, including SWAT members, many with their guns drawn and trained on the van.

Monterey Park shooting suspect’s photo released

The standoff in Torrance came as the sheriff’s department released surveillance images of the homicide suspect, saying he was wearing a beanie cap and glasses and is about 5-foot-10 and 150 pounds.

“He should be considered armed and dangerous,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement.

On Saturday January 21, 2023 at 10:22 PM the suspect male/adult/Asian pictured above was involved in a shooting. Investigators have identified him as a Homicide suspect and he should be considered armed and dangerous.
Contact LASD Homicide with any information at 323-890-5000. pic.twitter.com/2gPUBBybvv

— Robert Luna (@LACoSheriff) January 22, 2023

Some of those injured in the Monterey Park rampage were in critical condition, while others were reported as stable, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said at a news conference Sunday morning.

Luna said five women and five men were killed in the rampage.

The gunman was only described as an Asian male 30 to 50 years old, Luna said.

“We’re going to use every resource available to us because we need to get this person off the street as soon as possible,” Luna said.

‘Everything is on the table’

Luna declined to comment on a possible motive, but said, “everything is on the table.”

“We don’t know that this was a hate crime as defined by law, but who walks into a dance hall and guns down 20 people?” Luna said.

President Joe Biden has been briefed on the shooting by his Homeland Security advisor, according to the White House, and the FBI has joined the investigation.

“Jill and I are praying for those killed and injured in last night’s deadly mass shooting in Monterey Park. I’m monitoring this situation closely as it develops, and urge the community to follow guidance from local officials and law enforcement in the hours ahead,” Biden said in a statement.

In early alerts sent to Washington, investigators said “they had no idea who the suspect was,” Pierre Thomas, ABC News’ chief justice correspondent, said on ABC’s “This Week.”

U.S. Attorney General ‎Merrick Garland has also been briefed on the shooting, according to a statement from the Department of Justice.

Monterey Park had been hosting the Monterey Park Lunar New Year Festival this weekend, marking the beginning of the Chinese lunar calendar. The annual two-day street festival is widely attended, with previous celebrations drawing as many as 100,000 daily visitors, according to the city. More than 65% of Monterey Park’s about 60,000 residents identify as Asian American, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Sheriff’s Department said the shooting erupted around 10:22 p.m. on West Garvey Avenue, near the downtown less than a block from where the festival was being held.

The gunman opened fire shortly after entering a dance hall, where people had been celebrating the holiday, police said. It was unclear what type of weapon he used, but Luna said detectives do not believe an assault weapon was involved.

Chaotic crime scene

Monterey Park Police Scott Wiese said his officers responded to reports of shots fired at the dance studio and described a chaotic scene with panicked people running out of the dance hall and gunshot victims lying in the parking lot.

Police in the nearby city of Alhambra were investigating an incident, which also occurred at a dance studio, that might be connected to the shooting, Luna said.

In the Alhambra incident, which occurred 17 minutes after the Monterey Park shooting, an Asian man entered the dance studio with a gun, and several people there wrestled the weapon away from him before he fled the scene. Luna said a white cargo van witnesses spotted at the Alhambra incident is a “van of interest” in the investigation.

“To have this tragedy occur on Lunar New Year weekend, makes this especially painful,” Alhambra Mayor Sasha Renée Pérez said in a Twitter post Sunday. “Monterey Park is home to one of the largest #AAPI communities in the country. This is a time when residents should be celebrating with family, friends and loved ones – not fearing gun violence.”

In a statement Sunday morning, the city of Monterey Park clarified that the shooting did not occur at the Lunar New Year Festival but at the dance studio near the festival that was not connected to the festivities. Officials said Saturday’s festival events were scheduled to finish at 9 p.m.

City officials said all festival activities for Sunday have been canceled.

“Even though the incident did not occur at the 2023 Lunar New Year Festival, an active investigation is currently underway and the area near and around the festival is affected. As a precaution and for the safety of everyone, the City regrets to announce the cancellation of the second day of the festival,” city officials said in a statement.

The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department said it would lead the investigation, after earlier saying it would assist Monterey Park Police. The FBI said it had responded to the scene to assist.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom released a statement on Twitter condemning the attack.

“Monterey Park should have had a night of joyful celebration of the Lunar New Year. Instead, they were the victims of a horrific and heartless act of gun violence,” Newsom tweeted. “Our hearts mourn as we learn more about the devastating acts of last night. We are monitoring the situation closely.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. ABC News’ Vanessa Navarrete contributed to this report.

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(FLORIDA) — Police are “currently negotiating” with a woman who allegedly shot her terminally ill husband in his Florida hospital room on Saturday, authorities said.

The Daytona Beach Police Department said midday Saturday that it had responded to a shooting at Advent Health Hospital.

Staff and patients have been removed from the area, our shooter is contained. https://t.co/iShIobchOu

— Daytona Beach Police (@DaytonaBchPD) January 21, 2023

“Staff and patients have been removed from the area, our shooter is contained,” the department tweeted.

Officers are now negotiating with the woman, who had confined herself to the hospital room, police said in a news release.

No one else has been injured and the woman is “not seen as a threat to staff or patients,” police said.

Authorities asked the public to avoid the area.

Daytona Beach police did not provide an update on the condition of the woman’s husband.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(NEW YORK) — Massachusetts man Brian Walshe appeared in court this week on charges he allegedly killed and dismembered his missing wife, Ana Walshe. The case echoes other high-profile cases in recent years involving husbands allegedly killing their wives.

Prosecutors accused Walshe of making incriminating Google searches including “10 ways to dispose of a dead body if you really need to” and “can you be charged with murder without a body.”

Walshe’s alleged Google searches also included, “what’s the best state to divorce.”

Walshe has pleaded not guilty to murder and improper transport of a body.

About 34% of the women killed in the U.S. in 2021 died at the hands of an intimate partner, according to the Bureau of Justice statistics. Only about 6% of the men killed in the U.S. in 2021 died from intimate partner homicide.

What are the reasons behind why some husbands kill their wives?

Premeditated vs. spontaneous
Former FBI agent and ABC News contributor Brad Garrett notes two types of domestic homicide: premeditated and spontaneous.

“The spontaneous ones are people who probably have a history of abusing their spouse,” Garrett said. They “may have alcohol or drug dependency issues [or] raging jealousy issues” and end up killing their spouse in a “fit of rage,” he said.

As for the premeditated homicides, motives are often jealousy or greed. For example, they may “become enraged because their wives have become so successful,” Garrett said.

Premeditated homicides are often poorly planned, Garrett said, because “they’re so driven by getting rid of their partner, that they actually don’t even think through the logical things like, ‘My cellphone can be tracked.'”

Control

To Kiersten Stewart, director of public policy and advocacy at nonprofit Futures Without Violence, the core of domestic violence is power and control.

And domestic violence also includes emotional abuse and sexual abuse, she noted.

“If your partner is really possessive…wants to control who you talk to, what you wear, where you go…that’s a red flag,” she said.

If the husband feels like he’s losing control — for example, if he lost his job or his spouse is giving attention to someone else — the wife may feel like he is trying to control her and start to pull away. That’s often when domestic violence will start, Garrett warned.

Domestic homicide remains a threat if the couple has separated, according to Garrett and Stewart.

After a separation, “the abuser is still carrying all of this anger, revenge, resentment baggage,” Garrett explained.

“If possession and control is one of your triggers,” he said, during a divorce “you see even more things disappearing and you have even less control over what happens.”

Personality

When it comes to domestic homicide offenders’ personalities, they are usually narcissistic and anti-social, according to Garrett.

“In particular, with the ones that are planned, you’re really talking about anti-social personalities,” he said. “It’s all about fulfilling their needs and nothing else matters.”

Walshe, for instance, is accused of dismembering his missing wife; dismembering the mother of his three children would be “such a huge step beyond just killing somebody,” Garrett said.

Walshe’s defense attorney, Tracy Miner, told ABC News in a statement Friday: “It is easy to charge a crime and even easier to say a person committed that crime. It is a much more difficult thing to prove it, which we will see if the prosecution can do. I am not going to comment on the evidence, first because I am going to try this case in the court and not in the media. Second, because I haven’t been provided with any evidence by the prosecution. We shall see what they have and what evidence is admissible in court, where the case will ultimately be decided.”

The personality of domestic homicide suspects is also a “complicated mix of how they were raised and their relationship with women,” Garrett said. “Do they view women as their property? Did they get really no emotional support growing up?”

For example, he said, a wife achieving success in her career or finding a new partner can “drive these guys into a fit — that either can be spontaneous or planned.”

But psychological reasons behind a domestic homicide are still complex, Garrett noted, stressing that mental health and drug use can be factors.

‘Take care of yourself first’
Domestic homicides also extend to dating relationships.

After a nationwide search for missing travel blogger Gabby Petito in 2021, her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, admitted in a notebook that he killed her.

Petito, who was killed by strangulation, was found in a national park in Wyoming. Laundrie later died by suicide in Florida.

Petito’s father, Joseph Petito said at her funeral, “If there is a relationship that you’re in that might not be the best thing for you, leave it now. Take care of yourself first.”

How to get help

“Some people don’t always know it’s abuse at first,” Stewart explained. “Usually abusers don’t come with a giant sign.”

“It’s usually somebody you cared about…and the behavior starts to escalate,” she said.

“We know that many men who abuse their partners may themselves have grown up in abusive homes,” Stewart said. In those cases, she said, the victim may show them sympathy, excuse the behavior and not view it as dangerous.

Domestic violence overall is “unbelievably underreported,” Garrett noted. “The person being abused has to figure out a way to report what’s going on.”

Stewart encourages domestic violence victims to contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline for help developing a safety plan and finding local resources.

And Garrett stressed that anyone in an abusive domestic situation should notify police and friends if there are guns in the house. An average of 70 women in the U.S. are shot and killed by an intimate partner each month, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.

Stewart believes preventing domestic violence is everyone’s responsibility.

“When we think about domestic violence, it really starts in adulthood,” she said. “So we’re really asking…everybody in the community to start talking to younger people in your lives about how to build healthy relationships. And when you see behavior that’s not OK, to speak up.”

She added, “We’d so much rather have a conversation with a 14-year-old than be burying a 34-year-old.”

The National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24/7 for confidential support at 1-800-799-SAFE. You can click here for more information on identifying abuse, click here for help creating a safety plan, and click here to find local resources.

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(NEW YORK) — They were designed to help people keep track of their valuables, devices and other products – but some claim that Apple AirTags have been used to track people.

Reports of people using the quarter-size tracking device to allegedly stalk others have arisen since AirTags’s product launch in April 2021 and have led to calls for the tech giant to review its security measures.

“When you’re selling a cheap, ubiquitous tracking device, the product is the problem. It really is a question of are you going to stop selling this before more people get hurt?” Albert Fox Cahn, the executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, told “Nightline.”

When AirTags have been paired to a user’s iOS device, that user can track the location of their own AirTag using their phone. In June 2021, Apple updated their existing security measures so that a user’s phone would more precisely notify them if an unknown AirTag was moving with them, emitting a sound within 24 hours, updated from three days.

There have been reports of people finding someone else’s AirTags in their purses, backpacks, coats and other belongings. In December of 2022, two women filed a class-action lawsuit in California, claiming the product made it easier for them to be stalked and harassed by abusers.

In June 2022, an Indianapolis man was allegedly killed by an ex-girlfriend who police say used an AirTag to track him down. The family of Andre Smith, 26, has called for reform, citing the incident; Marion County police say Smith’s ex-girlfriend, Gaylyn Morris, placed an AirTag in the back of Smith’s car and followed him without his knowledge. Morris has pled not guilty to a murder charge and is awaiting trial.

LaPrecia Sanders, Smith’s mother, told “Nightline,” that after police let them take Smith’s car home, the family’s older son ripped out the seat of the car and found the tracker.

“That night of his murder, the young lady that was in the car with him, she told me and my family that Andre had told her, ‘Somebody’s following us,’ and he kept lookin’ at his phone,” Sanders told “Nightline.” “They were looking around the car, but they just couldn’t find the Apple AirTag.”

Smith’s story is one of many cases of former partners allegedly using the tracker on unsuspecting victims.

Lauren Hughes told “Nightline” that she too found an AirTag in her car after she broke up with a boyfriend.

“Even though my phone told me when it was moving with me, I had no idea how long it had been there. And if he knew the neighborhood I lived in, or was looking at moving to, and that’s the scariest part about it,” she told “Nightline.”

Hughes is one of two named victims in the class action lawsuit that has been filed against Apple in California. The suit claims AirTags have been “the weapon of choice for stalkers and abusers” and charges the tech company with negligence, intrusion-upon-seclusion and product liability.

Apple told “Nightline” it couldn’t comment on the ongoing litigation. Last February it issued a statement that said “incidents of AirTag misuse are rare; however, each instance is one too many.”

“AirTag was designed to help people locate their personal belongings, not to track people or another person’s property, and we condemn in the strongest possible terms any malicious use of our products,” the statement said.

Gillian Wade, one of the attorneys who filed the suit, told “Nightline” that one of her clients found an AirTag placed under the wheel of her car and colored to match the vehicle’s color.

“If you get a notification that an AirTag traveling with you that isn’t yours, it is delayed. So it doesn’t happen immediately,” she told “Nightline.”

Although there are many AirTag users who have said the device has helped them track and recover lost valuables, Cahn and other tech safety watchdogs have reiterated that the device comes with a huge risk.

“To me, the convenience of being able to track your luggage isn’t worth putting other people at risk of potentially being assaulted or stalked,” he said.

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(HARTFORD, Conn.) — A state representative wants to restore a piece of Connecticut’s pre-colonial history to one of its major water streams.

State Rep. Anthony Nolan introduced a bill this week in the state that would restore the Thames River to the Pequot River, named after the tribe that lived on the land for thousands of years.

Nolan told ABC News that his bill came as a request from constituents who were seeking more ways to honor the history of the state’s indigenous population in a bold way.

“It think it’s a big step forward. It’s an opportunity to see a visual of what they had,” Nolan told ABC News. “It will be on our signs [and] in our literature instead of things you have to seek out.”

The 15-mile river runs through several towns in eastern Connecticut including New London and Groton.

European colonists renamed the river in the 17th century, during the time when the Pequot tribe was being forced out of their lands.

“It wasn’t right,” Nolan said of the colonial name change. “And this is what I’m fighting for with them in mind.”

“Prior to European contact, the Pequots had approximately 8,000 members and inhabited 250 square miles,” according to the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation’s website. “By 1774, a Colonial census indicated that there were 151 tribal members in residence at Mashantucket. By the early 1800s, there were between 30 and 40 as members moved away from the reservation seeking work.”

Nolan said he has spoken to members of the tribe and they were supportive of the project as were some of his state assembly colleagues.

He said he is planning on hosting a town hall to discuss the measure with constituents and others. Although Nolan said he’s seen some opposition in online postings, he reiterated that the bill isn’t aimed at taking away the history of the river, rather expanding on it by highlighting the state’s rich indigenous origins.

“We want it returned back to the people of the river,” he said.

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(AURORA, Colo.) — Five Aurora, Colorado, first responders pleaded not guilty in an arraignment Friday on charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, among other counts, in the death of Elijah McClain.

McClain died in 2019 after being stopped by police, placed in a chokehold and injected with ketamine as a sedative.

The five defendants’ cases will be split into three separate proceedings, according to a Wednesday court order from Adams County District Court Judge Mark Douglas Warner.

Aurora police officers Nathan Woodyard and Randy Roedema, former officer Jason Rosenblatt and paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Lt. Peter Cichuniec were indicted on a total of 32 counts related to McClain’s violent arrest and death in August 2019.

Cooper and Cichuniec, who injected the ketamine, will be tried together.

“The paramedics, Cichuniec and Cooper, generally assert that the actions of the law enforcement officers occurring prior to their arrival were factually unrelated to their actions implicated in their cases,” Warner wrote in the court order.

Rosenblatt and Roedema, who helped to restrain McClain, will also be tried together. Woodyard will be tried separately because he was first on the scene and allegedly placed McClain in the carotid hold, according to the court order.

“The Court well understands the legal theory of complicity. Nonetheless, the Court finds that under the particular facts as alleged in this case warrant severance of trials,” the order read.

McClain, a Black 23-year-old massage therapist, died following an encounter with police in August 2019 while he was walking home from a convenience store.

A passerby had called 911 to report McClain was acting “sketchy” since he was wearing a ski mask on a warm night. The lawyer for the McClain family attributed this to the fact that McClain was anemic, which made him feel cold more easily.

Aurora police officers responded to the scene and confronted McClain.

An officer can be heard saying in body camera footage that they put him into a carotid chokehold, which restricts the carotid artery and cuts off blood to the brain, according to the Department of Justice.

McClain can be heard saying, “I can’t breathe,” in police body camera footage.

Paramedics arrived, giving McClain an “excessive” dose of ketamine, according to McCain’s lawyer, and McClain suffered from cardiac arrest in an ambulance shortly afterward, according to officials. McClain was pronounced dead three days later.

The cause of death was listed in an amended autopsy report as “complications of ketamine administration following forcible restraint.”

“The investigation suggests that [McClain] received an intramuscular dose of ketamine that was higher than recommended for his weight,” according to the report from Adams County Chief Coroner Monica Broncucia-Jordan.

It continued, “Further, my review of all the body camera footage shows that Mr. McClain was extremely sedated within minutes of receiving a shot of ketamine. When he was placed on a stretcher, I believe he was displaying agonal breathing and respiratory arrest was imminent.”

“I believe that Mr. McClain would most likely be alive but for the administration of ketamine,” the report read.

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(SPRINGFIELD, Ill.) — Two Illinois paramedics accused of killing a patient last month pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges on Friday, court records show.

Peter J. Cadigan, 50, and Peggy Jill Finley, 45, appeared in the Sangamon County Courthouse in Springfield Friday for a preliminary hearing. They entered their pleas after the judge found probable cause exists for the charges. A pre-trial hearing was set for Feb. 6 and the two were remanded to custody. They are being held in the Sangamon County Jail on $1 million bonds.

The court proceedings come a day after the family of the victim — 35-year-old Earl Moore Jr. — filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Cadigan, Finley and their employer, LifeStar Ambulance Service, over what the family’s attorney described as “barbaric” actions.

“We filed a wrongful death lawsuit this morning because we want to make sure this family gets whole justice, not just partial justice,” prominent civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who is representing Moore’s family, told reporters during a press conference on Thursday. “They treated him so inhumanely. I guess they said Earl didn’t matter. But Earl matters.”

The paramedics were responding to a call for assistance with a man “suffering from hallucinations due to alcohol withdrawal” at a residence in Springfield on Dec. 18, 2022, just after 2 a.m. local time, according to a press release from the Springfield Police Department. The police officers on scene were wearing body cameras, and video from that night was released last week by the Sangamon County States Attorney’s Office.

In the video, Finley can be heard yelling at a Black man on the floor — who identified himself as Moore — to “sit up” and “quit acting stupid.” She is also heard telling Moore, “We ain’t carrying you,” and, “I am seriously not in the mood for this dumb [stuff],” using an expletive in her remark. Eventually, as the video shows, the officers on scene help Moore walk outside to where an ambulance and a stretcher await him. Finley and Cadigan are then seen strapping the patient onto the stretcher in what police called “a prone position,” or lying facedown.

The officers attempted to provide Moore care after the paramedics “acted indifferently to the patient’s condition,” according to police.

“The officers took steps to assist the patient, to get him the care he needed, even waiting on the scene to ensure the medical personnel loaded the patient into the ambulance,” the Springfield Police Department said in its press release last week. “The officers, who are not emergency medical professionals, are not trained nor equipped to provide the necessary medical treatment or to transport patients in this type of situation.”

Moore died after he was transported to a local hospital, according to police.

The wrongful death lawsuit alleges that Moore suffered as he “slowly suffocated,” according to personal injury lawyer Bob Hilliard, who is also representing Moore’s family.

“He was not suffering from a life-threatening medical condition — he was suffering from a medical condition. The life-threatening part was during the transportation,” Hilliard told reporters at Thursday’s press conference. “Earl truly did, for those three minutes as his life faded away, suffered unimaginably.”

ABC News has reached out to the respective attorneys for Cadigan and Finley for comment.

A representative for LifeStar Ambulance Service told ABC News last week that the company had “no comment” regrading the ongoing investigation into the incident. ABC News has since reached out again for comment.

Moore’s family — including his mother, three sisters and niece — spoke out during Thursday’s press conference, wearing shirts and pins in his honor.

“Since my brother was killed it’s like a piece of me has gone with him,” Moore’s sister, Chatara Moore, told reporters. “Siblings are usually the people in life that understand each other best. His joy was my joy, and his pain was also mine.”

Moore’s young niece, Astar Wright, also spoke, saying: “I miss him and I love him so much.”

Moore’s mother, Rose Washington, said she hopes they can prevent another family from going through what they have endured.

“These workers treated him like he wasn’t even human. They tied him down like some kind of animal,” Washington told reporters. “My baby suffocated because of their actions.”

Teresa Haley, president of the Springfield branch of the NAACP, said watching the body camera footage reminded her of George Floyd, the unarmed 46-year-old Black man who died in handcuffs while being pinned under the knee of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25, 2020.

“They literally threw his hands behind and strapped him down. He couldn’t move if he wanted to and he’s facedown,” Haley said at a press conference last week. “They did not show any compassion whatsoever to this individual. He should be alive today.”

ABC News’ Victoria Arancio, Matt Foster, Teddy Grant and Ben Stein contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it has seen an increase in eggs being brought across the border — a practice it said is technically illegal.

The price of eggs has been skyrocketing — up 60% in December the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says, with the average price of a dozen at $4.25.

Much of that increase is due to widespread bird flu — and CBP said people are attempting to transport eggs “because they are significantly less expensive in Mexico than the U.S.”

“The San Diego Field Office has recently noticed an increase in the number of eggs intercepted at our ports of entry,” Director of Field Operations for the San Diego Sector, Jennifer De La O said. “As a reminder, uncooked eggs are prohibited entry from Mexico into the U.S. Failure to declare agriculture items can result in penalties of up to $10,000.”

CBP spokesperson Roger Maier said this is being seen at other locations as well.

“This is also occurring with added frequency at other southwest border locations as well,” he said.

CBP said that when people declare eggs at the southwest border the eggs are confiscated but the people are not charged.

“CBP agriculture specialists will collect and then then destroy the eggs (and other prohibited food/ag products) as is the routine course of action,” Maier said in a statement to ABC News. “There have been a very small number of cases in the last week or so where the eggs were not declared and then discovered during an inspection. When that happens the eggs are seized and the individual is assessed a $300 civil penalty. Penalties can be higher for repeat offenders or commercial size imports.”

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(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump momentarily mistook a woman who has accused him of rape for his second wife during a legal deposition, a newly released transcript shows, raising possible questions about the viability of Trump’s defense in a defamation lawsuit brought by the accuser.

Trump has denied knowing the accuser, former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll, who alleges that Trump attacked her in the dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman luxury department store in the 1990s.

Carroll claims Trump defamed her in 2019 when, during his presidency, he denied her rape claim by calling her a liar and saying “she’s not my type.” However, when Trump was shown a black and white photograph during an October deposition by Carroll’s attorney, a newly unsealed transcript shows that he mistook Carroll for his second wife, Marla Maples.

“I don’t even know the woman. I don’t know who — it’s Marla,” Trump said upon seeing the 1990s photo of him and Carroll, according to the transcript.

“You’re saying Marla is in this photo?” asked Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan.

“That’s Marla, yeah. That’s my wife,” replied Trump.

Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, quickly corrected him, saying “No, that’s Carroll,” according to the transcript.

“Oh, I see,” Trump said.

A different portion of the transcript shows Trump called Carroll a “whack job,” among other insults, as he vehemently denied the rape accusation.

“She made up the story. It’s a total lie. She knows it. She did it to sell a book, I guess, or something,” Trump said during the October 2022 deposition.

Trump has sought to have the U.S. government substitute for him as the defendant, a position that the Justice Department under President Joe Biden has continued to support. However for that to occur, the D.C. Court of Appeals must decide that Trump was acting within the bounds of his employment as president when he allegedly defamed Carroll.

The substitution of the United States for Trump would end the case since the federal government cannot be sued for defamation.

Carroll filed a second lawsuit against Trump in November alleging defamation and battery.

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(NEW YORK) — Victims of Jen Shah’s telemarketing scam are speaking out publicly for the first time after the “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison.

Trisha, a 75-year-old retiree who lives in North Carolina and who asked not to use her last name, told “Nightline” she was “shell-shocked” after the Federal Trade Commission told her she may have been a victim of the scam.

“But it turned out to be true,” she said.

The decades long scheme involved telemarketers calling potential victims and claiming to offer services like website building and business coaching. Shah and her team specifically targeted older and vulnerable people, according to prosecutors. Shah pleaded guilty to wire fraud last July and was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison by a federal judge on Jan. 6 for defrauding thousands of people.

In 2016, Trisha created a website while attempting to start an online business. About three weeks later, she says she got a phone call from someone who gave her a business pitch.

“He did a sales speech about all of the perks if I went with them that they could teach me,” Trisha said. She paid the telemarketer $12,000 in that first transaction.

Over the course of several months, Trisha would finish a program, then immediately get a phone call to start a new one. The sales pitches were good, but full of empty promises.

“I invested more than half of the savings I had for retirement. I gave them directly about $47,000,” Trisha said.

It was Trisha’s story, and others like her, that would help bring down Shah’s network.

The FTC also found 44-year-old Iowa resident Molly McLaughlin, who said she went into bankruptcy after spending putting $44,000 on credit cards for the courses. “I couldn’t pay bills. I couldn’t make my rent. I really just couldn’t do anything,” she said.

Ralph Hallock, a World War II veteran, lost more than $100,000 dollars in the scam. He took his own life at the age of 92. His family told “Impact” they believe the scam contributed to his death.

There could be thousands of victims like them, according to prosecutors.

Trisha said she was hesitant to speak to the media, because she felt ashamed for falling for the scheme.

“I did feel shame. This is not easy for me, this interview, everything, because I’m telling the world I was stupid enough to get caught in a scam, and I’m not stupid person. But I did make a big mistake. Do I want to tell the world that? No, I really don’t. But I don’t want other people to have to go through that shame that I went through,” Trisha said.

As “Real Housewives” viewers watched the excessive wealth on display every episode, they had no idea that federal investigators were already on Shah’s trail. Even before the show debuted, the feds had been arresting suspects connected to Shah’s telemarketing scheme.

After Shah pleaded guilty, a trove of evidence against her was released. In text messages, Shah and her co-conspirators, including Stuart Smith, discussed ways to keep customers hooked and spending more money.

“[Shah] often joked about the victims’ suffering and her employees’ ability to victimize them,” stated a sentencing memo from federal prosecutors.

Trisha was one of several victims who submitted victim impact statements to the judge before sentencing. Others included a man who said he became homeless after the scheme.

For years, Trisha says she didn’t have any idea who was behind the scam that stole her retirement money. It wasn’t until months after Shah pleaded guilty that Trisha found out a “Real Housewives” star was linked to her case. Trisha said she is not a big TV watcher and had never seen the show.

Most people in Trisha’s life had no idea it happened to her — not even her family knows just how bad it got.

“I am just recovering from being in deep depression. And I’m gonna cry. You get to the point where there is no way out. That started when I was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. I saw my mother and my brother both die that way,” Trisha said.

Trisha now says she’s on a mission to help potential scam victims.

“Anyone that we can stop is a gift to the families,” she said.

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