(FLA.) — Florida’s Department of Education announced on Monday that it would withhold school board members’ salaries in Alachua and Broward counties because of their school mask mandates.
Both counties’ school districts said on Tuesday they still plan on requiring masks because of the COVID-19 pandemic and are exploring legal action.
The department’s announcement came after a circuit court judge in Florida ruled on Friday that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ recent executive order banning school mask mandates overstepped his authority. The Florida Department of Education did not mention the ruling in its announcement.
“We’re going to fight to protect parent’s (sic) rights to make health care decisions for their children. They know what is best for their children. What’s unacceptable is the politicians who have raised their right hands and pledged, under oath, to uphold the Constitution but are not doing so,” Florida Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran said in the department’s announcement.
DeSantis had also initially threatened to withhold superintendent’s salaries, before admitting that he did not have the ability to do so.
On Aug. 11, DeSantis’ press secretary, Christina Pushaw, said the state “could move to withhold the salary of the district superintendent or school board members” as punishment.
“I’m very troubled by the state’s action,” Alachua County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Carlee Simon said in a statement to ABC News on Tuesday. “Our School Board members made a courageous decision to protect the health and lives of students, staff and the people of this community, and a court has already ruled they had the legal right to do so. They deserve praise, not penalties.”
Simon said that the district has already begun exploring legal action in tandem with other districts.
Broward County Public Schools interim Superintendent Dr. Vickie Cartwright said in a video statement shared by the district on Tuesday that they have consulted with legal advisers and believe they are still complying with state rules even with the mandate.
“The health and the safety of our students, teachers, and staff continues to be our highest priority. As such, we will continue to mandate the mask, knowing that our data … is demonstrating that the use of the mask is helping to minimize the spread of COVID-19,” Cartwright said.
Rosalind Osgood, the chair of the Broward County school board, confirmed on Tuesday to ABC News that Broward County is one of the districts working with Alachua to file a lawsuit.
The state and the counties have fought over mask mandates for weeks. On Aug. 20, Florida’s Board of Education gave both counties 48 hours to reverse mask mandates, but both districts refused.
Nationwide debates around mask mandates have escalated recently as the school year begins.
On Monday, the federal Department of Education announced civil rights investigations into five states banning mask mandates. Florida is not one of those states, “because those states’ bans on universal indoor masking are not currently being enforced as a result of court orders or other state actions,” according to the Education Department.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is set to address the nation Tuesday, defending his self-imposed deadline to withdraw the U.S. military from Afghanistan — a day after the last troops left the country, bringing America’s longest war to a close — but only after a chaotic and deadly exit.
Biden is scheduled to deliver remarks in the State Dining Room of the White House at 2:45 p.m. — nearly 24 hours after the last military plane cleared airspace above Afghanistan but without more than 100 Americans on board who still wanted to get out of the country.
It was not Biden, who has long opposed the war, and who carries a card in his pocket with the number of casualties from Afghanistan and Iraq, to mark the 20-year conclusion of the war on Monday but Pentagon and State officials.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki offered a preview of Biden’s remarks, saying that he would express his thanks to the service members who executed the “dangerous mission” as well as the veterans and volunteers who offered support.
“He will lay out his decision to end the war in Afghanistan after 20 years, including the tough decisions he made over the last seven months since he took office to bring the war to a close,” her statement said. “He will make clear that as President, he will approach our foreign policy through the prism of what is in our national interests, including how best to continue to keep the American people safe.”
Biden did release a written statement thanking commanders and service members for completing the withdrawal on schedule “with no further loss of American lives,” praising the evacuation effort as “the largest airlift in US history,” and teasing his defense not to stay beyond Aug. 31.
“For now, I will report that it was the unanimous recommendation of the Joint Chiefs and of all of our commanders on the ground to end our airlift mission as planned,” he said in the statement, although military leaders had lobbied Biden earlier this year to leave a residual U.S. force in Afghanistan to support the Afghan army and government.
With the U.S. military and diplomatic withdrawal now complete as the U.S. approaches 20 years since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Taliban has again taken over the country, including the Kabul airport, the site of an often-desperate evacuation effort the past two weeks. Shots were fired into the air to celebrate the withdrawal in Kabul on Monday night.
The Pentagon said Tuesday that 2,461 troops were lost in the war, which started as it began: under Taliban rule. Since the evacuation mission began, 6,000 citizens and more than 123,000 people — Afghans “friends and allies” — were airlifted out by the U.S. and partners, but alarms are being raised over those left behind.
Biden told ABC News’ George Stephanopolous in an exclusive interview on Aug. 18, “If there’s American citizens left, we’re gonna stay to get them all out.”
His poll numbers, too, showed uncommon cross-partisan agreement among Americans that withdrawing all U.S. troops by Biden’s deadline could be a grave mistake, according to an ABC/Ipsos poll conducted after Thursday’s suicide attack in Kabul which killed 13 service members and wounded 20. The survey found the percentage of Americans who think U.S. troops should stay until all Americans are out of Afghanistan is 86% among Democrats, 87% among Republicans and 86% among Independents.
Tuesday’s speech comes amid outrage expressed by some family members of those service members killed in last week’s airport attack over his handling of the withdrawal.
Some have criticized the president following Sunday’s dignified transfer ceremony at Dover Air Force Base, where he met with families. White House press secretary Jen Psaki wouldn’t respond directly to criticism from one family but said that the president feels responsible for their loss at a briefing on Monday.
Republican lawmakers have also blasted Biden for his handling of the withdrawal, with Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., calling the withdrawal a “national disgrace” and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., claiming Biden has armed the Taliban by leaving behind equipment.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, in an exclusive interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” defended the withdrawal and contended that only the president, as commander in chief, knows what it is to make these hard decisions.
“Those criticizing are not the ones who have to sit in the Situation Room and make the hard calls about the threats that we face and the objectives we’re trying to obtain and President Biden made that hard call and it is a call he believes will ultimately serve the interests of our people, all of our citizens and our country,” he said on Tuesday.
Perhaps foreshadowing Biden’s remarks, Sullivan also claimed the U.S. and the international community have “enormous leverage” on the Taliban to ensure those Americans and Afghans who want to get out can do so.
But the administration hasn’t provided a clear plan for those evacuations beyond saying it’s relying on a Taliban commitment to provide “safe passage.”
The 100 to 200 Americans that Secretary of State Antony Blinken said still wanted to be evacuated weren’t able to reach the airport in Kabul on Monday before the last U.S. plane left. Of the five final flights, no American civilians made it on board.
Thousands of Afghans who worked with the U.S., who fear reprisal from the Taliban, also did not make it out and are forced to rely on Afghanistan’s new rulers for departure — of which there is no guarantee.
It’s unclear what the evacuation picture will look like from now that the U.S. military is gone.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden addressed the nation Tuesday and continued to defend his self-imposed deadline to withdraw the U.S. military from Afghanistan — a day after the last troops left the country, bringing America’s longest war to a close — but only after a chaotic and deadly exit.
“Last night in Kabul, the United States ended 20 years of war in Afghanistan, the longest war in American history,” Biden began, going on to tout the historic evacuation numbers. “No nation, no nation has ever done anything like it in all of history. Only the United States had the capacity and will and ability to do it.”
“The real choice was between leaving or escalating,” he claimed.
The president’s prepared remarks from the State Dining Room of the White House come 24 hours after the last military plane cleared airspace above Afghanistan but without more than 100 Americans on board who still wanted to get out of the country.
“There is no deadline” for Americans who want to leave, he said, at the same time saying “90% of Americans who wanted to leave were able to leave,” adding the U.S. would continue efforts to help those who wanted to get out.
Biden said that when he made the decision in April to end the war and set the Aug. 31 deadline, “The assumption was that more than 300,000 Afghan national security forces that we had trained over the past two decades and equipped would be a strong adversary in their civil wars with the Taliban.”
“That assumption, that the Afghan government would be able to hold on for a period of time beyond military drawdown, turned out not to be accurate,” Biden said.
His speech did not focus on the operational miscues that have marred the past week in Afghanistan but instead homed in on why the U.S. entered the war 20 years and why he didn’t want to pass the war on to another president.
“I was not going to extend this Forever War,” he said.
As Americans still remain in the country, Biden repeated an administration line that “there is no deadline” on getting Americans out, but did not offer operational details for retrieving remaining Americans with the airport under Taliban control.
On Monday, it was not Biden, who has long opposed the war, who marked its conclusion after 20 years on Monday, but Pentagon and State Department officials.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki offered a preview of Biden’s remarks earlier, saying that he would express his thanks to the service members who executed the “dangerous mission” as well as the veterans and volunteers who offered support.
“He will lay out his decision to end the war in Afghanistan after 20 years, including the tough decisions he made over the last seven months since he took office to bring the war to a close,” her statement said. “He will make clear that as President, he will approach our foreign policy through the prism of what is in our national interests, including how best to continue to keep the American people safe.”
Biden on Monday did release a written statement thanking commanders and service members for completing the withdrawal on schedule “with no further loss of American lives,” praising the evacuation effort as “the largest airlift in US history,” and teasing his defense not to stay beyond Aug. 31.
“For now, I will report that it was the unanimous recommendation of the Joint Chiefs and of all of our commanders on the ground to end our airlift mission as planned,” he said in the statement, although military leaders had lobbied Biden earlier this year to leave a residual U.S. force in Afghanistan to support the Afghan army and government.
With the U.S. military and diplomatic withdrawal now complete as the U.S. approaches 20 years since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Taliban has again taken over the country, including the Kabul airport, the site of an often-desperate evacuation effort the past two weeks. Shots were fired into the air to celebrate the withdrawal in Kabul on Monday night.
The Pentagon said Monday that 2,461 troops were lost in the war, which started as it began: under Taliban rule. Since the evacuation mission began, 6,000 citizens and more than 123,000 people — Afghans “friends and allies” — were airlifted out by the U.S. and partners, but alarms are being raised over those left behind.
Biden told ABC News’ George Stephanopolous in an exclusive interview on Aug. 18, “If there’s American citizens left, we’re gonna stay to get them all out.”
His poll numbers, too, showed uncommon cross-partisan agreement among Americans that withdrawing all U.S. troops by Biden’s deadline could be a grave mistake, according to an ABC/Ipsos poll conducted after Thursday’s suicide attack in Kabul which killed 13 service members and wounded 20. The survey found the percentage of Americans who think U.S. troops should stay until all Americans are out of Afghanistan is 86% among Democrats, 87% among Republicans and 86% among Independents.
Tuesday’s speech comes amid outrage expressed by some family members of those service members killed in last week’s airport attack over his handling of the withdrawal.
Some have criticized the president following Sunday’s dignified transfer ceremony at Dover Air Force Base, where he met with families. White House press secretary Jen Psaki wouldn’t respond directly to criticism from one family but said that the president feels responsible for their loss at a briefing on Monday.
Republican lawmakers have also blasted Biden for his handling of the withdrawal, with Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., calling the withdrawal a “national disgrace” and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., claiming Biden has armed the Taliban by leaving behind equipment.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, in an exclusive interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” defended the withdrawal and contended that only the president, as commander in chief, knows what it is to make these hard decisions.
“Those criticizing are not the ones who have to sit in the Situation Room and make the hard calls about the threats that we face and the objectives we’re trying to obtain and President Biden made that hard call and it is a call he believes will ultimately serve the interests of our people, all of our citizens and our country,” he said on Tuesday.
Perhaps foreshadowing Biden’s remarks, Sullivan also claimed the U.S. and the international community have “enormous leverage” on the Taliban to ensure those Americans and Afghans who want to get out can do so.
But the administration hasn’t provided a clear plan for those evacuations beyond saying it’s relying on a Taliban commitment to provide “safe passage.”
The 100 to 200 Americans that Secretary of State Antony Blinken said still wanted to be evacuated weren’t able to reach the airport in Kabul on Monday before the last U.S. plane left. Of the five final flights, no American civilians made it on board.
Thousands of Afghans who worked with the U.S., who fear reprisal from the Taliban, also did not make it out and are forced to rely on Afghanistan’s new rulers for departure — of which there is no guarantee.
It’s unclear what the evacuation picture will look like now that the U.S. military is gone.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden, speaking to the nation Tuesday, gave his fiercest defense yet of his self-imposed deadline to withdraw the U.S. military from Afghanistan — a day after the last troops left the country, bringing America’s longest war to a close — but only after a chaotic and deadly exit.
“Let me be clear, leaving August the 31st, is not due to an arbitrary deadline. It was designed to save American lives,” a defiant Biden said, responding to harsh criticism both of his decision to leave and how it was handled.
After praising what he called the “extraordinary success” U.S. troops had in conducting the rushed and dangerous evacuation, he bluntly blamed both the Afghan army and the Afghan government for collapsing so quickly and the Trump administration for making a deal with the Taliban, that he said inherited, that would have withdrawn all ground troops by May 1.
“So, we were left with a simple decision. Either follow through on the commitment made by the last administration and leave Afghanistan or say we weren’t leaving and commit to another tens of thousands more troops going back to war,” he claimed. “That was the choice, the real choice. Between leaving or escalating. I was not going to extend this forever war. And I was not extending a forever exit.”
His voice rising in anger at times, Biden continued, “It was time to be honest with the American people again. We no longer had a clear purpose in an open-ended mission in Afghanistan. After 20 years of war in Afghanistan, I refuse to send another generation of America’s sons and daughters to fight a war that should’ve ended long ago.”
The president’s prepared remarks from the State Dining Room of the White House came 24 hours after the last military plane cleared airspace above Afghanistan but without more than 100 Americans on board who still wanted to get out of the country, something Republicans and other critics have blasted as “leaving Americans behind.”
Biden downplayed that part of the foreign policy crisis, saying the U.S. had reached out to the remaining Americans 19 times.
“The bottom line, 90% of Americans in Afghanistan who wanted to leave were able to leave. And for those remaining Americans, there is no deadline. We remain committed to get them out if they want to come out,” Biden said, without detailing out how that could happen.
Biden had told ABC News’ George Stephanopolous in an exclusive interview on Aug. 18, “If there’s American citizens left, we’re gonna stay to get them all out.”
On Tuesday, he said that when he made the decision in April to end the war and set the Aug. 31 deadline, U.S. officials had assumed that the more than 300,000 Afghan national security forces that they had trained over the past two decades would stand up to a Taliban takeover.
“That assumption, that the Afghan government would be able to hold on for a period of time beyond military drawdown, turned out not to be accurate,” Biden said. “But I still instructed our national security team to prepare for every eventuality. Even that one. And that’s what we did.”
He did not mention the problems that have marred the past week in Afghanistan.
“The decision to end the military lift operation at Kabul airport was based on unanimous recommendation of my civilian and military advisers,” he said.
“I take responsibility for the decision. Now some say we should have started mass evacuations sooner, and couldn’t this have been done — been done in a more orderly manner? I respectfully disagree,” he said. “The bottom line is, there is no evacuation from the end of a war that you can run without the kinds of complexities, challenges, threats we faced. None.”
Biden also used the national spotlight to fire back at critics who say the U.S. could have maintained a limited military presence.
“Those asking for the third decade of war in Afghanistan, I ask, what is the vital national interest?” Biden said. “The fundamental obligation of a president in my opinion is to defend and protect America. Not against threats of 2001 but against the threats of 2021 and tomorrow.”
Pres. Biden: “We succeeded in what we set out to do in Afghanistan over a decade ago. Then we stayed for another decade. It was time to end this war.” https://t.co/TQIuZzC8oGpic.twitter.com/uu2YDmXKTa
“My fellow Americans, the war in Afghanistan is now over. I’m the fourth president that must face the issue of whether and when to end this war. When I was running for president, I made a commitment to the American people that I would end this war. Today I’ve honored that commitment,” he said.
With the military and diplomatic withdrawal now complete as the U.S. approaches 20 years since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Taliban has again taken over the country, including the Kabul airport, the site of an often-desperate evacuation effort the past two weeks. Shots were fired into the air to celebrate the withdrawal in Kabul on Monday night.
The Pentagon said that 2,461 troops were lost in the war, which started as it began: under Taliban rule. Since the evacuation mission began, 6,000 citizens and more than 123,000 people — Afghans “friends and allies” — were airlifted out by the U.S. and partners, but alarms are being raised over those left behind.
The president’s poll numbers, too, showed uncommon cross-partisan agreement among Americans that withdrawing all U.S. troops by Biden’s deadline could be a grave mistake, according to an ABC/Ipsos poll conducted after Thursday’s suicide attack in Kabul which killed 13 service members and wounded 20. The survey found the percentage of Americans who think U.S. troops should stay until all Americans are out of Afghanistan is 86% among Democrats, 87% among Republicans and 86% among Independents.
“I give you my word with all of my heart,” Biden said Tuesday. “I believe this is the right decision, a wise decision, and the best decision for America.”
(LA.) — Hurricane Ida battered Louisiana as a fierce Category 4 storm on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, bringing a new wave of devastation to the South.
Ida made landfall in Louisiana twice, first near Port Fourchon before noon local time and again two hours later in Lafourche Parish, obliterating neighborhoods and turning clear roads into rivers.
Ida appears to be less lethal than Katrina, which hit as a Category 3, claimed more than 1,800 lives and caused more than $100 billion in damage.
So far, three deaths have been attributed to Ida: a 60-year-old man in Ascension Parish died Sunday when a tree fell on a home, a motorist drowned in New Orleans, and a third person died in Jefferson Parish.
In Mississippi, two people died and at least 10 others were injured when a part of a highway near Lucedale gave out and sent vehicles plunging into a hole. Mississippi Highway Patrol Cp. Cal Robertson said the inundating rain may have caused the collapse.
The storm dumped up to 15 inches of rain in some places like Rigolets-Slidell, Louisiana, and 13 inches in New Orleans. Ida also brought powerful winds gusts of over 100 mph in some regions.
Ida also knocked out power to more than 1 million homes and businesses in Louisiana and Mississippi — including all of New Orleans — and temporarily halted the city’s 911 emergency response system.
Over 1 million customers remain without power in Louisiana, as of Tuesday morning, according to poweroutage.us, as well as 55,000 in Mississippi and 7,000 in Alabama.
Officials in Jefferson Parish, home to 400,000 residents, warned it could be 21 days before power is restored.
Communities reeling from the destruction are now stranded without water. Some 18 water system outages have impacted over 312,000 customers and 14 boil water advisories are in place impacting over 329,000 people, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a press conference Monday evening.
Heat advisories are active in parts of Louisiana, threatening communities grappling with no electricity or access to air conditioning. The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for southern Louisiana and Mississippi from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Another element Katrina didn’t have is the COVID-19 crisis. Some Louisiana hospitals pushed to the brink with an influx of coronavirus cases were forced to evacuate due to physical damage, water and electrical issues.
The Louisiana Department of Health told ABC News at least 11 hospitals had evacuations on some level and Terrebonne General Health System’s evacuation is still underway.
At least 39 medical facilities were operating on generator power, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said, Associated Press reported.
The state fire marshal office’s leading task force of about 900 individuals from 15 different states is conducting search and rescue missions with local responders. Some 5,000 National Guard members are also on the ground.
Edwards said at least 671 were rescued by Monday afternoon, with some desperate locals fleeing to their attics or roofs to wait for help.
Over 2,200 evacuees are staying in 41 shelters, Edwards said.
Jaclyn Hotard, the president of St. John the Baptist Parish, called Ida, “one of the worst natural disasters I’ve ever seen in St. John,” noting that “almost 800 people” have been rescued due to extreme flooding.
Entergy New Orleans, a major electricity company in the region, said a storm team of more than 20,000 and growing is assessing the vast damage and destruction across New Orleans and southeast Louisiana that toppled power poles and other equipment.
Over 3,600 FEMA employees have been deployed to Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas to help with meals, water and generators for power, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.
Ida, now a tropical depression, is centered on the border of Missouri and Tennessee and threatens to bring deadly flash flooding to the Gulf coast overnight as it continues to move north and east. Almost 80 million in 17 states are on flash flood alert from Mississippi to Massachusetts.
(NEW YORK) — Ida is barreling through Louisiana after making landfall in the state as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on Sunday afternoon.
It was one of the strongest hurricanes on record — by both wind speed and pressure — to roar ashore in Louisiana.
Ida, now a tropical storm, is hitting on the 16-year anniversary of Katrina, a Category 3 hurricane that ravaged the Gulf Coast. Hurricane Katrina unleashed a series of events, taking the lives of more than 1,800 people and leaving more than $100 billion worth of damage in its wake.
Here are the latest developments. All times Eastern:
Aug 30, 10:13 pm
Almost 800 rescued in St. John the Baptist Parish
Officials with St. John the Baptist Parish held a press conference Monday night, saying, “almost 800 people” have been rescued after extreme flooding due to Hurricane Ida.
“This is one of the worst natural disasters I’ve ever seen in St. John,” Parish President Jaclyn Hotard said.
Remarkably, Hotard said there have been no reported fatalities in the parish from the storm.
“All of the missions were successful,” Hotard said. “Every call that came in for someone to be rescued out of their home, they have been rescued out of their home.”
The hard-hit town of Laplace is in St John the Baptist Parish.
Aug 30, 8:55 pm
Tulane cancels in-person learning until October, sets up Houston hub for students
Tulane University announced Monday night that it would cancel all in-person classes until Oct. 6.
The campus is closed and all classes will be canceled until Sept. 13, the university tweeted. The semester began last week.
The school is establishing a hub in Houston to provide food and lodging at Tulane’s expense for students until they can get flights home.
“Beginning tomorrow at 10AM, we will evacuate all remaining students (undergraduate & graduate; in-residence & off-campus) to Houston via bus,” the school tweeted.
Emergency funds will also be available for students, according to Tulane.
Aug 30, 8:18 pm
3rd storm-related death confirmed
Deano Bonano, a councilman for District 2 in Jefferson Parish, told ABC News that there has been one confirmed fatality in his parish from Hurricane Ida.
Details about the death and the identity of the victim weren’t immediately available.
Aug 30, 8:08 pm
20,000 workers out assessing damage, restoring power
An anticipated storm team of more than 20,000 and growing has begun assessing Ida’s damage and restoring power, according to Louisiana’s utility companies.
Damage assessment could take several days, since many areas are currently inaccessible either by roadways, officials at Entergy Louisiana said Monday afternoon.
While 90% of customers will be restored sooner, customers in the hardest-hit areas should plan for the possibility of experiencing extended power outages, according to Entergy.
“This will be a marathon, not a sprint,” Deanna Rodriguez, Entergy New Orleans’ president and CEO said in a statement.
Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department on Monday alerted several federal judges that an outspoken attorney representing at least 17 alleged rioters charged in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection is reportedly hospitalized and possibly incapacitated after testing positive for COVID-19, leaving the bulk of his cases effectively at a “standstill” and his clients “without counsel.”
The California-based attorney, John Pierce, currently represents more defendants charged in the riot than any other defense lawyer — including multiple alleged members of the Proud Boys group and a number of individuals accused of assaulting law enforcement officers.
Pierce, whose firm has previously represented former President Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani and Trump’s former campaign adviser George Papadapoulos, had been fundraising for his efforts defending accused rioters through a new organization he set up.
But in a filing made Monday in multiple Jan. 6 cases in which Pierce is involved, the Justice Department said that Pierce has been unresponsive to the government for a week, and that phone numbers for his practice have been disconnected.
In recent weeks, an associate at Pierce’s law firm, Ryan Marshall, has appeared in Pierce’s place during multiple hearings, where he offered conflicting reports about the status of Pierce’s health.
Marshall told a judge during an Aug. 25 hearing that Pierce was on a ventilator suffering from COVID-19 and was nonresponsive, a statement later contradicted by another colleague of Pierce’s who said he was hospitalized but had not contracted COVID-19. The next day Marshall told that same judge that he had not had any direct contact with Pierce, but that one of Pierce’s friends had told him Pierce was sick with COVID-19 while another one said he was not.
With Pierce’s condition unclear, some of his clients have begun to worry. Paul Rae, an alleged Proud Boy from Florida who has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts related to the riot, told ABC News on Monday he was “a bit concerned” about the situation after he learned of the government’s filing from the news. Pierce’s associate, however, subsequently reassured him on Monday evening that Pierce was not on a ventilator and was on the mend, Rae said.
“Unless I’m being lied to, I’m hearing ‘Don’t be concerned,'” Rae told ABC News. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
Prosecutors in Monday’s filing took issue with Marshall stepping in for Pierce, noting that Marshall is not a licensed attorney and is currently facing felony criminal fraud charges in a state court in Pennsylvania. Prosecutors told the judge they would no longer be corresponding with Marshall.
Earlier this month, one of Pierce’s clients had removed Pierce from his case. Ryan Samsel, who is charged with assaulting an officer on Jan. 6, directly called the judges’ chambers in July, according to his case docket, to say that he was removing Pierce. A person familiar with the call said Samsel expressed that he had been unable to get in contact with Pierce regarding his case.
ABC News repeatedly tried to reach Pierce, with no response. The office number listed on his website is disconnected, and a message on the cellphone number listed on his website says the number no longer belongs to him.
Pierce, 49, is a civil litigator from California with a degree from Harvard Law and partnerships at three white-shoe law firms on his resume. He first came to national prominence last summer after signing on to represent Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager accused of homicide during a violent night of protests following the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
“[Rittenhouse] did nothing wrong. He defended himself, which is a fundamental right of all Americans given by God and protected by law,” Pierce wrote in an August 2020 press release trumpeting his hiring by the Rittenhouse family. “Kyle now has the best legal representation in the country.”
Although Pierce appeared to have little known criminal trial experience, he helped galvanize public support for Rittenhouse, a high-school senior who quickly became a cause célèbre among conservatives, by heralding Rittenhouse as a modern-day militiaman at the start of a “Second American Revolution against Tyranny.”
“Kyle Rittenhouse will go down in American history alongside that brave unknown patriot who fired ‘The Shot Heard Round the World’ on Lexington Green on April 19, 1775,” Pierce proclaimed last summer in a since-deleted tweet.
Pierce has also espoused conspiratorial views related to the Jan. 6 riot, according to two emails obtained by ABC News. “THIS WHOLE THING WAS A … SET UP,” Pierce wrote in an email that was sent to a Listserv of D.C. lawyers representing Jan. 6 defendants and obtained by ABC News. “AND WE NEED TO WORK TOGETHER TO PROVE IT.”
Prior to his reported health issues, Pierce pushed conspiracy theories surrounding the insurrection on his Twitter account, where he also espoused anti-vaccination conspiracy theories.
Pierce’s emergence in the politically charged Rittenhouse case came just a few months after his previous law firm, Pierce Bainbridge, faced accusations of financial misconduct.
Pierce boasted to The American Lawyer in 2018 that the firm was “the fastest-growing law firm in the history of the world.”
“We’re looking for Navy Seal, Army Ranger types — really aggressive litigators who want to be on a great platform and litigate great cases,” Pierce told the publication of his efforts to challenge the dominance of the traditional titans of business litigation.
But after three years, nearly all of the firm’s roughly 70 attorneys had left as several lawsuits against Pierce and his firm brought accusations of financial misconduct and debts exceeding $60 million, according to court records.
Over the past two years, at least ten lawsuits have been filed against Pierce and his former firm, according to records from courts in Massachusetts, Texas, Arkansas, California and New York. The plaintiffs included a digital marketing company, legal support vendors, lenders, and a former law partner.
Last year, Pierce signed a “confession of judgment” in a New York court, acknowledging a debt of nearly $4 million to a merchant lender on a high-interest loan against his law firm’s assets and personally guaranteed by Pierce.
Pierce’s early representation of Rittenhouse earned him guest spots on conservative media outlets, which Pierce used to raise money for Rittenhouse’s legal defense and the teen’s $2 million bail. He assailed the charges against his client as a politically motivated rush to judgment.
“I think we’ve reached a watershed moment here in America,” Pierce told Breitbart Radio last year. “If this is not self-defense under these circumstances for Kyle Rittenhouse, then no one can defend themselves, and no one can defend this country.”
Last December, after Pierce filed a notice of appearance in Rittenhouse’s criminal case in Wisconsin, Kenosha County prosecutor Thomas Binger took the highly unusual step of advocating against Pierce’s request for admission to the criminal case, a procedural measure required of out-of-state lawyers that would typically be granted without objection.
In his seven-page filing, Binger cited numerous public statements by Pierce that Binger claimed could “materially prejudic[e]” the case, along with reports of the collapse of Pierce’s law firm earlier this year “under a cloud of debt,” and several lawsuits alleging Pierce defaulted on hundreds of thousands of dollars in business and personal loans.
Pierce’s “personal financial difficulties raise significant ethical concerns,” Binger wrote in the filing, contending that Pierce could “personally benefit” from his close ties to the “#FightBack Foundation,” a Texas organization co-founded by Pierce and lawyer Lin Wood. The organization raised money for Rittenhouse’s defense until last fall, when Pierce posted $2 million raised by the foundation to bail the teenager out of jail.
Though Pierce stepped down from the foundation board in September, Binger noted in his court filing that Pierce continued to urge his 32,500 Twitter followers to send donations for Rittenhouse.
“This creates a potential conflict of interest for Attorney Pierce,” Binger alleged in the court filing. “Given his own substantial personal debts, his involvement with an unregulated and opaque ‘slush fund’ provides ample opportunity for self-dealing and fraud. Money that should be held in trust for the defendant may instead be used to repay Attorney Pierce’s numerous creditors.”
In the wake of the opposition from the prosecutor, Pierce withdrew his application to represent Rittenhouse in the criminal case, without responding to the allegations raised in the prosecutor’s filing.
“So that it does not take Kyle’s supporters by surprise, effective immediately I am taking over all civil matters for Kyle including his future defamation claims,” Pierce wrote on Twitter after filing his notice of withdrawal. “I will also be orchestrating all fundraising for defense costs.”
A Wisconsin-based criminal defense attorney, Mark Richards, took over Rittenhouse’s criminal case, which is scheduled for trial in November.
Pierce was ultimately let go in February by Rittenhouse, whose family has since replaced Pierce with Robert Barnes, another California lawyer, to handle possible civil litigation after Rittenhouse’s trial concludes. Prior to joining the case, Barnes had publicly criticized virtually every move Pierce had made, including a failed attempt to challenge Rittenhouse’s extradition from Illinois to face the charges in Wisconsin.
“He created the narrative of this second American Revolution against tyranny, and that the Constitution allows for a 17-year-old to serve in a militia,” Barnes told ABC News. “Those things all seem to be things that came out of Pierce’s head rather than being based on any kind of conversations or consultation with the client. Kyle has nothing to do with militias.”
“Throughout the entire representation, John Pierce’s behavior elevated the interest of John Pierce over his client. And once that became crystal clear that he would just continue to do so, Kyle and his mom made the choice that they made to get rid of him,” Barnes said, adding that Pierce was “utterly unqualified for any role” in Rittenhouse’s defense.
Rittenhouse’s mother, Wendy, told ABC News earlier this year that Pierce seemed fixated on the potential for the family to shop their story and to reap a windfall from civil lawsuits.
“He would say, ‘You’re going to have a lawsuit. You’re going to be a millionaire. You’re not going to have to work anymore,'” she said. “‘And Kyle’s going to have books. He’s going to have movie deals of his life. He’s going to be a billionaire.'”
“All he did was talk about money, money, money, money,” she said. “To me, I don’t care about that. I care about Kyle’s freedom.”
Pierce’s termination from the case was made public in a Feb. 4 statement from the family-approved fundraising account, “FreeKyleUSA.” A few hours later, Pierce responded with a summation of his own performance in the high-profile case.
“John Pierce freed Kyle. John Pierce fought with every fiber of his being for Kyle,” he wrote in a tweet. “John Pierce wants nothing but for Kyle to be acquitted and live a healthy, happy life. John Pierce is ferociously loyal to all of his clients, including all former clients. Mission accomplished.”
(LA.) — Utility companies warned residents in Louisiana it may take weeks before power can be restored to their homes following the devastation caused by Hurricane Ida.
As of Monday morning, over 888,000 customers don’t have power, and that number is growing as the storm moves its way into the country.
“It will likely take days to determine the extent of damage to our power grid in metro New Orleans and far longer to restore electrical transmission to the region,” Entergy New Orleans, the city’s utility, tweeted.
The blackout is coinciding with a forecast that predicts temperatures in the high 80s.
Here are some crucial safety tips for anyone whose home doesn’t have power.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency advises people to ensure their portable devices have batteries as close to fully charged as possible.
New Orleans’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness recommends communicating via SMS text messaging, because that uses the least amount of cell phone battery power.
If you are using a generator to power appliances or your home, make sure it is positioned outside in a well-ventilated area, as fumes from the generator could result in carbon monoxide poisoning, emergency experts said.
Refrigerators and freezers should be kept closed during the outage.
“The refrigerator will keep food cold for about four hours. A full freezer will keep the temperature for about 48 hours. Use coolers with ice if necessary,” FEMA advises.
If it appears at all that a food item is spoiled, emergency management experts say it’s best to not take any chances and throw it out.
Affected residents should rely on canned food and other non-perishable food items.
If you need to cook any food, charcoal grills are more efficient for cooking during a power outage. The grills should be used outdoors to prevent any carbon monoxide poisoning.
When it comes to the heat, emergency management experts emphasize constant hydration and wearing thin and comfortable clothes.
The use of battery-powered cooling devices, such as portable fans, is encouraged to beat the heat, according to experts.
If possible, affected users should head to the closest cooling center, such as a library or public pool, to avoid heatstroke or overheating.
FEMA warns that senior citizens are most vulnerable to these conditions during a blackout.
(CALIF.) — Due to the thick smoke from the Caldor Fire, the air quality near the Lake Tahoe area is nearly 40 times what the World Health Organization deems unhealthy, according to data from IQAir.
For over two weeks, the Caldor Fire has swept across 177,260 acres of Northern California and only 14% of the fire is currently contained, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
As of Monday, over 500 structures have been damaged or destroyed and at least three first responders and two civilians have been injured, according to the state.
Statewide, over 15,000 firefighters are currently battling a total of 15 large wildfires. In total, 1.7 million acres have been burned in 2021, according to the state.
With windy conditions, firefighters are facing challenging weather this week as the Caldor Fire spreads throughout the Lake Tahoe area. The fire is threatening more than 20,000 structures in its current path.
(LA.) — Medical facilities in Louisiana are reeling from Ida, which demolished coastal regions of the state after making landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Sunday afternoon. Ida, now a tropical storm, is one of the strongest hurricanes on record to touch down in Louisiana.
Ochsner Health System, a not-for-profit health care provider, is almost completely relying on emergency power generators following the storm, according to Mike Hulefeld, the chief operating officer. Thousands of homes and businesses are also without power, and the outages may last for days, according to local utility companies Entergy and Cleco.
At Ochsner’s Kenner facility, parts of the roof came off the building as workers sheltered inside the building, and almost all of Ochsner’s facilities have suffered from roof or water damage, Hulefeld told reporters in a press conference.
Since city and parish water systems are damaged, local hospitals are also relying on their own well systems to supply water to their locations. These damages — and more — reflect regionwide issues that health care workers are having to tackle amid the Ida aftermath.
“People will get tired, and they have been challenged by COVID, but we had 100% of our staff show up … when we called essential personnel,” Hulefeld said, “and that speaks to the commitment that our people have.”
The storm and its subsequent destruction came as the state struggled to contain its fourth COVID-19 wave, putting hospitals on the brink.
About 90% of beds in Louisiana’s intensive care units are filled, according to Johns Hopkins University, and only about 41% of the population is vaccinated. New Orleans specifically is experiencing a severe outbreak, according to the mayor’s office, with a seven-day average of 220 new infections.
There were at least 2,684 people in Louisiana hospitals due to COVID-19 before the storm hit, the mayor’s office reports.
The storm has only intensified the pressure on the state’s health care system to tackle the virus.
“This fourth surge we went through was the most difficult one that we’ve experienced since COVID started in March 2020,” Hulefeld said. “Now we have a major hurricane that ends up being a little worse than we anticipated going into it …. So, I think staff are challenged.”
More than 100 patients have been evacuated from Ochsner and its partner facilities to safety — but officials remain wary about the pressure on hospitals to perform.
FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell told “Good Morning America” that most medical facilities in the region are running off generators and have seen major damage to their facilities.
Criswell said her “biggest concern is still the fragility of our health care system” following the hurricane, warning that it has been “stressed from COVID-19, and the occupancy has been full.”
With two deaths reported in the region so far, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards told MSNBC that he expects the death toll to go up as search and rescue efforts continue.
At a press conference on Monday, New Orleans Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Collin Arnold warned residents to stay away from the post-hurricane aftermath.
“There’s not a lot open right now, there’s not a lot of fuel resources. There are not a lot of reasons to come back,” Arnold said. “With COVID, if you get hurt while you’re here, from debris … Hospitals are strained right now, so it’s just not a good time, if you’re out of the area, to come back in.”
The storm hit New Orleans on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a deadly storm that highlighted the vulnerable infrastructure of the port city. More than 1,800 people died in the storm.
After Ida, Mayor LaToya Cantrell applauded the evacuation and safety efforts of New Orleans and its people.
“We did not have another Katrina, and that’s something we should all be grateful for,” Cantrell said.
