(WALDORF, Md.) — The Charles County Sheriff’s Office in Maryland is investigating an incident where an elementary school student was allegedly found hanging on a hook in a school bathroom, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office told ABC News on Monday. The injuries to the student were described by his parents as severe bruising on his neck and face.
The alleged incident took place on Friday afternoon at C. Paul Barnhart Elementary School in Waldorf, Maryland.
The parents of the student, whose identity has not been disclosed because he is a minor, spoke out about the incident on the condition of anonymity to protect their son’s identity in an interview with the ABC affiliate in Washington D.C., WJLA.
They said that their son is a second grader in Charles County, Maryland, and is recovering from his injuries.
“[School officials] said that he was choking, so we’re thinking that he was at lunch and he’s choking off of food,” the boy’s mother told WJLA.
In her interview with WJLA, the mother also said that the principal told the family their son was “horseplaying” with a fourth grader in the bathroom and that his jacket accidentally got caught on a hook.
C. Paul Barnhart Elementary School Principal Carrie Burke said in a letter to the community that was obtained by ABC News that the incident occurred while two students were “reportedly horseplaying” in the bathroom when one student’s jacket “got caught on a stall door hook,” and “the student was not able to free themselves and the other student involved was also not able to help them.”
“This student left the bathroom to seek help from staff and reported the incident to administrators. Administrators responded and were able to assist, but staff called 911 for additional precautionary medical support,” Burke added.
Burke claimed misinformation was shared in the community amid confusion over the incident but said that “due to privacy reasons,” she is “not able to share any additional details.”
In her interview with WJLA, the boy’s mother cast doubt on the principal’s statement and is demanding more answers from the school.
“[The principal] said before she got him down, he was foaming out the mouth, unconscious, and it was from horse playing … That doesn’t make sense to me,” she told WJLA.
“I want someone to be held accountable for what happened to our child,” she added.
In a letter to the community, Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) Superintendent Maria Navarro said the school district is investigating the incident.
Navarro pushed back against claims that the school district is “covering up” the circumstances surrounding this incident.
“I have seen comments online stating that the school and CCPS are covering up what happened. This is not true. The principal nor the school system are hiding anything. Rather, we are sharing what information we can while we conduct a full investigation,” Navarro wrote in the letter.
“The investigation is ongoing; speculation about what did or did not happen as well as the circulation of misinformation impedes the investigation process,” Navarro said, adding that on Friday the school resource officer filed a preliminary report with the Charles County Sheriff’s Office.
Navarro said in the letter that “any student who is found to violate the CCPS Code of Student Conduct faces disciplinary consequences, and it is imperative that we have all the information so that we can adequately address consequences.”
ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The National Guardsman who in 2021 pegged Pete Hegseth as a potential “insider threat” clarified in an interview with ABC News that his complaint targeted a “Deus Vult” tattoo on the former Fox News host’s arm — not a cross on his chest, as Hegseth has repeatedly claimed.
President-elect Donald Trump last week tapped Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense. He listed Hegseth’s experience as a veteran and his media experience as his reasons for the choice.
As Reuters and The Associated Press first reported, Sgt. DeRicko Gaither sent an image of the “Deus Vult” tattoo to Maj. Gen. William Walker shortly before President Joe Biden’s inauguration. The phrase, which translates from Latin to “God wills it,” has been co-opted by white nationalist groups, experts have said.
“This information is quite disturbing, sir,” Gaither wrote in the email to Walker, who has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment. “This falls along the lines of (an) Insider Threat.”
Hegseth claimed in his book “The War on Warriors” that his “orders were revoked” ahead of Biden’s inauguration because fellow service members had flagged a tattoo of the Jerusalem Cross on his chest as a white nationalist symbol. As a result, Hegseth wrote, he resigned from the military.
But Gaither clarified in a text message to ABC News that his complaint targeted the “Deus Vult” tattoo, despite “the narrative that has been out there.”
“Just so we are clear. This has NOTHING to do with the Jerusalem Cross tattoo on his chest,” Gaither wrote in the text. “This has everything to do with the ‘DEUS VULT’ Tattoo on his inner bicep.”
Gaither’s sensitivity to what he described as the “disturbing” imagery in Hegseth’s tattoos came at a time when the military was grappling with the fact that dozens of active and former service members had participated in the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.
Gaither, who confirmed to ABC News the contents of his complaint — which he wrote just one week after Jan. 6, emphasized that “this wasn’t then and isn’t now a personal attack towards Pete Hegseth.”
“The information received and [the] email sent on January 14th was the protocol that had to be followed because of the position assignment that I was assigned to,” explained Gaither, who was at the time assigned as the Guards’ head of security. “The protocol was followed and would be followed again if this issue involved any other service member, myself included.”
As ABC News has reported, Hegseth fired back at the initial coverage of this matter in The Associated Press by claiming it was “Anti-Christian bigotry.”
“They can target me — I don’t give a damn — but this type of targeting of Christians, conservatives, patriots and everyday Americans will stop on DAY ONE at DJT’s DoD,” Hegseth wrote on X.
(LONDON) — The Israel Defense Forces continued its intense airstrike and ground campaigns in Gaza — particularly in the north of the strip — and in Lebanon, with Israeli attacks on targets nationwide including in the capital Beirut. The strikes form the backdrop for a fresh diplomatic push by the White House ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office in January.
Tensions also remain high between Israel and Iran after the former launched what it called “precise strikes on military targets” in several locations in Iran following Tehran’s Oct. 1 missile barrage.
Nearly 100 aid trucks looted: UNRWA
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said Monday their aid convoy was “violently” looted over the weekend, one of the largest such cases of looting since the war began.
The 109-truck U.N. convoy was carrying food supplies to people in Gaza when it was looted on Saturday, UNRWA said.
“The vast majority of the trucks, 97 in total, were lost and drivers were forced at gunpoint to unload aid,” UNRWA said in a statement.
UNRWA said the Israel Defense Forces made the convoy leave a day earlier than planned.
The IDF has not yet commented on this incident.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Israel’s October attack damaged some of Iran’s nuclear program: Netanyahu
Israel damaged some of Iran’s nuclear program in its October attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday.
Iran’s air defense, ballistic missile production and ability to produce “solid fuel” were impacted, Netanyahu said during remarks to Israel’s parliament.
“There is a certain element of their nuclear program that was damaged in this attack,” he said, though added that its ability to operate “has not yet been thwarted.”
Netanyahu said Iran’s nuclear threat must be dealt with.
“If we don’t deal with the nuclear program, then all the other problems will come back and resurface, both in the axis, and in armaments, and in other things,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu also said Israel is “currently talking about possible negotiations for a settlement” to be reached between Israel and Lebanon, but added, “Even if there is a cease-fire, no one says it will last.”
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
US envoy en route to Lebanon for cease-fire talks, official says
U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein is on his way to Lebanon for talks on a cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel, an official familiar with the plans confirmed to ABC News.
Hochstein left from the U.S. for Lebanon on Monday, the official said.
Israel is getting close to being ready to agree to the U.S.-backed cease-fire proposal, which is very similar to the proposal that was floated by the U.S. at the end of September. The U.S. needs to see how Hezbollah feels about this proposal, which is what Hochstein aims to do during his trip, according to the official.
-ABC News’ Shannon K. Kingston
4 killed in Israeli attack in Beirut: Health ministry
Four people were killed and at least 18 injured in an Israeli attack in Beirut, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said Monday.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman
1 killed, 10 injured in strike on residential building in Israel: Officials
A woman was killed and 10 people injured after a Hezbollah rocket directly hit a residential building in northern Israel, Israeli emergency services said Monday.
Dozens of projectiles were fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon into Israel Monday afternoon, the Israel Defense Forces said. Not all of the projectiles were intercepted, the IDF said.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
US sanctions entity, 3 individuals tied to West Bank violence
The State Department said Monday it is sanctioning three individuals and one entity for allegedly undermining “peace, security, and stability in the West Bank.”
The department accuses the entity, Eyal Hari Yehuda Company LTD, of having supported Yinon Levi, an Israeli settler who was sanctioned by the Biden administration over accusations of attacks and harassment against Palestinians earlier this year.
The three impacted individuals are Itamar Levi, Shabtai Koshlevsky and Zohar Sabah, the State Department said. Itamar Levi, the brother of Yinon Levi, is being designated for his role as the owner of the aforementioned company, while Koshlevsky is accused of holding a leadership position at Hashomer Yosh, an Israeli nongovernmental organization that provides material support to U.S.-designated outposts in the West Bank and was sanctioned in August of this year.
Sabah is accused of engaging “in threats and acts of violence against Palestinians, including in their homes” as well as “a pattern of destructiveness targeting the livestock, grazing lands and homes of local Palestinians to disrupt their means of support,” the State Department said in a press release.
-ABC News’ Shannon K. Kingston
Hamas denies that leaders relocated from Qatar to Turkey
Hamas denied reports in Israeli media that its leadership has relocated from Qatar to Turkey amid a breakdown in Doha-supported cease-fire talks earlier this month.
Hamas dismissed the news reports as “rumors” spread by Israeli authorities in a statement posted to its official website.
Qatar told Israel and Hamas earlier this month it could not continue to mediate cease-fire and hostage release talks “as long as there is a refusal to negotiate a deal in good faith.”
Doha is under U.S. pressure to expel Hamas leaders. A senior administration official told ABC News earlier this month that the group’s “continued presence in Doha is no longer viable or acceptable.”
-ABC News’ Diaa Ostaz, Shannon K. Kingston and Somayeh Malekian
Gaza death toll nears 44,000, health officials say
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Monday that 43,922 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since Oct. 7, 2023, with nearly 104,000 more injured.
Israeli airstrikes killed at least 96 people and wounded at least 60 in Gaza through the weekend, officials said. The dead included 72 people in north Gaza and more than 20 from other areas of the strip.
Most of those killed were displaced women and children sheltering in residential buildings in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, officials said.
Beit Lahiya is at the heart of the Israel Defense Forces’ recent northern offensive, which has been accompanied with sweeping evacuation orders and spiking civilian casualties.
-ABC News’ Samy Zyara and Joe Simonetti
Hezbollah positive on US cease-fire proposal, reports say
Hezbollah responded positively to the U.S.-proposed cease-fire deal between Israel and Lebanon, Israeli and Lebanese media reported Monday.
U.S. special envoy for Lebanon Amos Hochstein is expected to arrive in Beirut on Tuesday to discuss the proposal before heading to Israel to speak with leaders there.
The proposal is reportedly based on the United Nations Security Council’s resolution 1701 that sought to end the last major cross-border conflict in 2006.
That deal ordered Hezbollah to withdraw all military units and weapons north of the Litani River, which is around 18 miles north of the Israeli border. The resolution also prohibited Israeli ground and air forces from crossing into Lebanese territory.
Israeli leaders have demanded open-ended freedom to act against threats in Lebanon, a stipulation reportedly opposed by Hezbollah and Lebanese leaders.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller and Joe Simonetti
Khamenei meets with ambassador injured in pager attacks
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with the country’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, as the latter continues his recovery from injuries sustained during Israel’s detonation of Hezbollah communication devices in September.
Khamenei’s official X account posted a short video of their interaction on Monday, in which Amani told the Iranian leader he lost around half of the vision in his right eye in the attack.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Hezbollah media relations chief killed in Israeli strike
Mohammed Afif, Hezbollah’s media relations chief, was killed in an Israeli strike Sunday, Hezbollah confirmed.
The strike on central Beirut partially collapsed a building and injured three others, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
The Israel Defense Forces also confirmed Afif’s death. In a statement, the IDF said he joined Hezbollah in the 1980s and went on to become a “central and veteran figure in the organization who greatly influenced Hezbollah’s military activity.”
Citing one particular incident, the statement claimed that he had played a key role in the drone attack on Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea in October.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Pope calls for investigation to determine whether Israeli attacks on Gaza are ‘genocide’
Pope Francis, in an upcoming book to be released ahead of his 2025 jubilee, called for an investigation to determine whether Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide, according to the Vatican.
“In the Middle East, where the open doors of nations like Jordan or Lebanon continue to be a salvation for millions of people fleeing conflicts in the region: I am thinking above all of those who leave Gaza in the midst of the famine that has struck their Palestinian brothers and sisters given the difficulty of getting food and aid into their territory,” he wrote in a passage released by the Vatican.
“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” the pope wrote. “It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”
(CHICAGO) — A woman has been accused of a hate crime after she allegedly targeted a man wearing a “Palestine” sweatshirt at an Illinois Panera Bread, authorities said.
Alexandra Szustakiewicz, 64, was at a Panera in Downers Grove, a Chicago suburb, around noon on Saturday when she saw a man wearing a sweatshirt that said “Palestine” on it, the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office said. She allegedly confronted him and started yelling expletives, prosecutors said.
When a woman who was with the man started taking video of the confrontation, Szustakiewicz allegedly tried to hit the phone out of the woman’s hand, prosecutors said.
Szustakiewicz, a Darien resident, was taken into custody the next day and is accused of committing “a hate crime by reason of perceived national origin,” prosecutors said.
“This type of behavior is not and will never be tolerated in our community,” Downers Grove Chief of Police Michael DeVries said in a statement.
Downers Grove is about 23 miles west of Chicago.
“Every member of society, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation or any other individual characteristic, deserves to be treated with respect and civility,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin added.
Szustakiewicz made her first court appearance on Monday on two counts of hate crime and one count of misdemeanor disorderly conduct, authorities said.
(ATHENS, Ga.) — Police questioned the man accused of killing Laken Riley about multiple scratches on his arms a day after the 22-year-old nursing student was found murdered on the University of Georgia’s campus, body camera footage played Monday during the suspect’s bench trial showed.
Police spoke to the defendant, Jose Ibarra, who is an undocumented migrant, at his apartment in Athens on Feb. 23, while investigating Riley’s death. The Augusta University student was found beaten in a wooded area on the Athens campus on Feb. 22 after she didn’t return from a run, authorities said. Her brutal death became a rallying cry for immigration reform from many conservatives, including President-elect Donald Trump.
Special prosecutor Sheila Ross said last week that Ibarra was “hunting” for women on the campus and encountered Riley while she was on her run. Ross said the evidence shows an extended struggle ensued and Riley “fought for her life” before dying due to blunt force trauma and asphyxiation. Ibarra’s DNA was found under Riley’s fingernails, according to Ross.
Officers questioned Ibarra in connection with the murder after a suspicious jacket was found in a dumpster near his apartment, Ross said. Ring camera footage captured a man discarding the jacket, which had Riley’s hair on it, in the dumpster at 9:44 a.m. on Feb. 22, about 16 minutes after she died, Ross said.
University of Georgia Police Sgt. Joshua Epps testified Monday that he noticed a scratch on Ibarra’s right bicep while questioning him at his apartment.
“On his left arm, he had a forearm scratch that was very similar, which in my mind, looked like fingernail scratches to me,” Epps said.
Epps said he also observed a fresh “puncture” on Ibarra’s left wrist.
Prosecutors entered into evidence on Monday photos of Ibarra’s scratches on his arms and bruising on his palm.
Body camera footage of the officers’ questioning Ibarra was also played in court.
When asked about what happened to his right bicep, Ibarra told officers that he had a scratch but “didn’t exactly explain from where or how,” University of Georgia officer Rafael Sayan, who was called to translate during the questioning, testified on Monday.
When asked what happened to his left wrist, Ibarra first said he didn’t have anything there, then said, “It’s just a scratch,” according to Sayan.
When asked why his knuckle was red, Ibarra said it was because of the cold, Sayan said.
Ibarra was detained following the questioning, Epps said. He was arrested that day on murder charges in connection with Riley’s death.
During testimony on Monday, one of Ibarra’s roommates identified Ibarra as the man discarding the jacket in the dumpster, based on his cap and loafers.
Ibarra, 26, has pleaded not guilty to malice murder and felony murder.
Police have said they believe Ibarra — a migrant from Venezuela who officials said illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 — did not know Riley and that this was a “crime of opportunity.”
Additional charges in the 10-count indictment include aggravated battery, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, obstructing or hindering a person making an emergency telephone call and tampering with evidence. The latter charge alleged that he “knowingly concealed” evidence — including the jacket found in the dumpster — involving the offense of malice murder.
Ibarra waived his right to a jury trial. The case is being presented in the Athens-Clarke County courtroom to Judge H. Patrick Haggard, who will render a verdict.
(PORTLAND, Or.) — A teenager who was seriously injured in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war has arrived in the United States for treatment.
Diaa Al-Haqq, 15, was injured when an alleged Israeli missile attack hit a café in Gaza, the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) — the nongovernmental organization that arranged his evacuation — told Portland, Oregon, ABC affiliate KATU. Diaa’s arms were severely injured and he had amputations on both arms below his elbows.
Diaa and his sister, Aya, arrived at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago on Saturday, the local PCRF chapter in Portland said in a post on Instagram. After a brief layover, Diaa arrived in Portland, where he will be receiving medical care, on Sunday, according to the chapter.
Videos shared to social media showed Diaa, sitting in a wheelchair, arrive to a cheering crowd waving Palestinian flags.
“We’re really excited that he’s able to come here for treatment and be safely hosted within the Portland community in the coming months,” Niyyah Ruschaer-Haqq, a nurse practitioner in Portland, told KATU.
The PCRF said it worked with several organizations — including the World Health Organization and the nonprofits Human Concern International and FAJR Scientific — to evacuate eight critically injured children, including Diaa, and their companions from Gaza to Jordan. The children were then taken to the U.S. for medical care.
Diaa is one of two children whose medical care will be supported by the PCRF, while the remaining six children will have their medical care supported by other organizations, the PCRF said.
The organization said Diaa dreamed of becoming a professional photographer and loved documenting nature, according to KATU. It’s unclear how long Diaa will remain in the U.S. receiving care.
The PCRF did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, 2023, at least 12,000 children have been injured, equating to almost 70 every day, according to UNICEF. They are “disproportionately wearing the scars of the war in Gaza,” according to the humanitarian aid organization.
Last month, UNICEF said that between Jan. 1 and May 7 of this year, an average of 296 children were being medically evacuated from Gaza each month. However, since the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt was closed on May 7 after Israeli forces launched a ground operation, just 22 children have been medically evacuated every month.
“As a result, children in Gaza are dying — not just from the bombs, bullets and shells that strike them — but because, even when ‘miracles happen,’ even when the bombs go off and the homes collapse and the casualties mount, but the children survive, they are then prevented from leaving Gaza to receive the urgent care that would save their lives,” UNICEF said in an October press release.
Since Hamas launched its surprise terrorist attack on Israel, and Israel responded by declaring war, at least 43,800 people have been killed in Gaza and at least 103,700 have been injured, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. About 1,700 Israelis have been killed and about 8,700 have been injured, according to Israeli officials.
(WASHINGTON) — Wisconsin Republican Senate candidate Eric Hovde on Monday conceded in his race against incumbent Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin and said he would not challenge the election results by requesting a recount.
Hovde, who last week said he was weighing whether to request a recount due to “voting inconsistencies,” maintained in his statement that the ballots may lack “integrity” and “legitimacy.”
“I have heard from numerous supporters urging me to challenge the election results. However, without a detailed review of all the ballots and their legitimacy, which will be difficult to obtain in the courts, a request for a recount would serve no purpose, because you will just be recounting the same ballots, regardless of their integrity,” Hovde said in a video posted on X. “As a result, and my desire to not add to political strife, through a contentious recount, I’ve decided to concede the election.”
As of noon on Monday, with 99% of the vote counted, Baldwin led Hovde by .9%, or about 27,000 votes of the 3.3 million cast.
But Hovde on Monday also doubled down on claims of voting inconsistencies he made last week, saying there were inaccurate absentee ballot totals in the city of Milwaukee and that Democrats engaged in voter deception.
“The results from election night were disappointing, particularly in light of the last minute absentee ballots that were dropped in Milwaukee at 4 a.m. flipping the outcome. There are many troubles around these absentee ballots and their timing, which I addressed in my last statement,” he said on Monday.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Immigration advocacy groups and Democratic leaders are seeking to disrupt President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants by pre-drafting lawsuits that could be filed as soon as he takes office.
Trump has vowed carry out what he calls “the largest deportation operation” in the country’s history, and has pledged to reinstate and expand his controversial ban on people coming into the U.S. from certain majority-Muslim countries as part of his immigration policy.
On Monday, he re-emphasized on Truth Social that he is prepared to declare a national emergency and use military assets to carry out his promise of mass deportation.
Several immigration advocates and Democratic leaders told ABC News they have spent months preparing for the prospect of another Trump presidency and the expected crackdown on immigrants that Trump and his newly tapped border czar Tom Homan have promised.
Homan, who has embraced Trump’s pledge to undertake mass deportations on “Day 1” of the new administration, oversaw the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) during the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” enforcement that separated parents from their children at the border.
“In California, we’ve been thinking about the possibility of this day for months and in some cases, years, and been preparing and getting ready by looking at all of the actions Trump said he will take,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta told ABC News.
Bonta said his team has prepared briefs on several immigration issues that Trump mentioned on the campaign trail. including mass deportations, birthright citizenship, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and sanctuary cities.
“There will be pain and harm inflicted by him. It is not all avoidable, but to get to our immigrant communities in ways that are in violation of the law, they’re going to have to go through me, and we will stop them in courts using our legal tools given to us,” Bonta said.
The California attorney general claims that 80% of the state’s legal challenges against the immigration executive orders and policies from Trump’s first term were successful.
“We’re very confident that we will block major efforts by the federal administration, that we will be able to blunt some of the worst of it,” Bonta said.
The 24 Democratic state attorneys general across the United States hope to present a unified front to block the Trump administration’s immigration policy by using his first term as a blueprint, according to Sean Rankin, the president of the Democratic Attorneys General Association.
“When we look at immigration, we know that that is something that the president has talked about over and over and over again,” Rankin told ABC News. “At this point, we’re not connecting dots. We’re following flashing arrows. It’s very easy to see where they’re going to go.”
One of Homan’s targets in his mass deportation plan are sanctuary states and cities — places that have enacted laws designed at protecting undocumented immigrants. The policies, which vary by state, generally prohibit city officials from cooperating with the federal immigration authorities.
“They better get the hell out of the way,” Homan said last week, regarding the governors of sanctuary states. “Either you help us or get the hell out of the way, because ICE is going to do their job.”
Leaders in several sanctuary cities have said they are going to fight back using all the tools legally available to protect immigrant communities.
“We have been doing the work in this office to prepare for a lot of different hypotheticals and we will be prepared to face those with every tool that we have,” said Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson at a press conference last week.
Ferguson told reporters that between 2017 and 2021, his legal team defeated 55 “illegal actions” and policies from the Trump administration. But while his office has been preparing litigation for months, Ferguson said he believes the second Trump administration will also be better prepared than the first one.
“One of many reasons why we were successful with our litigation against the Trump administration was they were often sloppy in the way they rolled out and that provided openings to us to prevail,” Ferguson told reporters. “In court this time around, I anticipate that we will see less of that, and that is an important difference.”
In addition to considering the use of the military to carry out deportations, Trump and his allies have suggested using an obscure section of the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts — a set of 18th century wartime laws — to immediately deport some migrants without a hearing.
Lee Gelernt, the deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, told ABC News that they have been preparing for the potential use of the military to conduct deportations.
“They’re going to try and use the military, under the alien enemies act, to summarily deport people,” Gelernt said. “We will try and challenge it immediately.”
Gelernt, who led the ACLU’s legal response to family separations in Trump’s first term, said he expects the upcoming Trump administration to be “worse for immigrants” than the first.
“The Trump team has apparently been preparing for four years to implement anti-immigrant policies, and the rhetoric in the country has gotten so much more polarized than it was in 2016,” Gelernt said.
During Trump’s first term, Gelernt said groups like the ACLU were caught off-guard with some of his executive orders like the travel ban — but this time around, the organization has been preparing litigation for almost a year. In 2018, the Supreme Court upheld Trump’s controversial ban on travel from several predominantly Muslim countries, which the Biden administration later eliminated. Since then, Trump has appointed two Supreme Court justices.
“We are plotting out our challenges with much more advanced preparation, and we are doing our best to coordinate among all the various NGOs [non-governmental organizations] around the country,” Gelernt said.
“As litigators, we’ve been convening, we’ve been preparing, we’ve been trying to anticipate the unimaginable as we walk into the next four years,” said Alina Das, co-director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at the New York University School of Law.
(WASHINGTON) — An attorney representing two women who testified before the House Ethics Committee told ABC News in an exclusive interview former Rep. Matt Gaetz paid both his adults clients for sex.
Florida attorney Joel Leppard told ABC News’ Juju Chang that one of his clients also witnessed Gaetz having sex with a third woman — who was then 17 years old — at a house party in Florida.
“She testified [that] in July of 2017, at this house party, she was walking out to the pool area, and she looked to her right, and she saw Representative Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17,” Leppard said.
The Justice Department spent years probing the allegations against Gaetz, including allegations of obstruction of justice, before informing Gaetz last year that it would not bring charges. Gaetz has long denied any wrongdoing related to the allegations investigated during Justice Department probe.
“Matt Gaetz will be the next Attorney General. He’s the right man for the job and will end the weaponization of our justice system. These are baseless allegations intended to derail the second Trump administration. The Biden Justice Department investigated Gaetz for years and cleared him of wrongdoing. The only people who went to prison over these allegations were those lying about Matt Gaetz,” Alex Pfeiffer, Trump transition spokesman said.
Leppard, who has called for the House Ethics Committee to release its report amid Gaetz’s nomination to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general, told ABC News that the former congressman paid both of his clients for sex using Venmo.
“Just to be clear, both of your clients testified that they were paid by Representative Gaetz to have sex?” Chang asked.
“That’s correct. The House was very clear about that and went through each. They essentially put the Venmo payments on the screen and asked about them. And my clients repeatedly testified, ‘What was this payment for?’ ‘That was for sex,'” Leppard said.
Leppard’s interview with ABC News comes days after he publicly called for the House Ethics Committee to be released.
“As the Senate considers former Rep. Gaetz’s nomination for attorney general, several questions demand answers,” Leppard said. “What if multiple credible witnesses provided evidence of behavior that would constitute serious criminal violations?”
The House Ethics Committee is expected to meet on Wednesday and discuss its report of Rep. Matt Gaetz and potentially vote on its release despite the fact that the investigation ended when Gaetz resigned from the House, multiple sources tell ABC News.
The news comes after the attorney on Friday first told ABC News that one of his clients had witnessed Gaetz have sex with a minor amid mounting pressure on the House Ethics Committee to release its report on its probe into the Florida congressman.
The two witnesses, who ABC News is not naming, both allegedly attended parties with the congressman and testified in both the federal and House Ethics investigations.
Gaetz’s one-time friend Joel Greenberg is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence after reaching a deal with prosecutors in May 2021 in which he pleaded guilty to multiple federal crimes including sex trafficking of a woman when she was a minor and introducing her to other “adult men” who also had sex with her when she was underage
Attorney John Clune, who represents the former minor at the center of the probe, called for the release of the Ethics Committee’s report on Thursday.
“Mr. Gaetz’s likely nomination as Attorney General is a perverse development in a truly dark series of events. We would support the House Ethics Committee immediately releasing their report. She was a high school student and there were witnesses,” Clune said in a statement.
The woman, who is now in her 20s, according to sources, testified to the House Ethics Committee that the now-former Florida congressman had sex with her when she was 17 years old and he was in Congress, ABC News previously reported.
Gaetz faces an increasingly uphill nomination process in the Senate, with at least five Republican senators signaling skepticism that he could get enough support to be confirmed. President-elect Trump has repeatedly urged GOP leadership to bypass the traditional confirmation process through recess appointments, where Trump could appoint his cabinet while Congress is out of session.
(GATESVILLE, Tx.) — The family of Melissa Lucio, a death row inmate whose execution was delayed in 2022, expressed hope that the Texas woman would be freed after a judge concluded last month that Lucio is “actually innocent” after she was convicted of capital murder in 2008 for the death of her 2-year-old daughter.
“This is the best news we could get going into the holidays,” said her son, John Lucio, and daughter-in-law Michelle Lucio in a statement released by the Innocence Project.
“We pray our mother will be home soon,” the Lucios added, joined by Lucio’s son, Bobby Alvarez.
In a 62-page ruling that was signed on Oct. 16, 2024, and reviewed by ABC News, Senior State District Judge Arturo Nelson recommended that Lucio’s conviction and death sentence be overturned in the 2007 death of her daughter Mariah.
The judge found that prosecutors suppressed evidence and testimony – including statements from Lucio’s other children – that could support the argument that Lucio was not abusive and that her daughter’s death was accidental after a fall down the stairs.
“This Court finds (Lucio) has satisfied her burden and produced clear and convincing evidence that she is actually innocent of the offense of capital murder,” Nelson wrote in the ruling.
“(T)his Court concludes there is clear and convincing evidence that no rational juror could convict Applicant of capital murder or any lesser included offense,” Nelson added.
The judge’s recommendation was sent to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for review. ABC News reached out to the court for updates in the case.
“Melissa Lucio lived every parent’s nightmare when she lost her daughter after a tragic accident,” Vanessa Potkin, director of special litigation at the Innocence Project, and one of Lucio’s attorneys, said in a statement on Thursday.
“It became a nightmare from which she couldn’t wake up when she was sent to death row for a crime that never happened. After 16 years on death row, it’s time for the nightmare to end. Melissa should be home right now with her children and grandchildren.”
Lucio has maintained her innocence over the years.
ABC News reached out to the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted this case, but a request for comment was not immediately returned.
Lucio’s story gained national attention through filmmaker Sabrina Van Tassel’s 2020 Netflix documentary, “Melissa vs. the State of Texas,” a documentary that follows Lucio’s journey on death row as she filed her last appeal.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers backed the calls to free the Texas woman and her case was further bolstered by celebrities who called for her freedom, like Kim Kardashian and Helen Prejean, the Catholic nun who wrote the book “Dead Man Walking.”
Abraham Bonowitz, coordinator of the #FreeMelissaLucio Campaign and executive director of Death Penalty Action, told ABC News in a statement on Thursday that Lucio credits the film with bringing attention to her case.
“Melissa Lucio was once two days from execution. It took a film viewed by millions and a massive public relations campaign just to halt her execution and get the courts to order a fresh look at the evidence,” Bonowitz said.
“If it were not for the film that was created, there would never have been enough pressure to stop the execution, which should concern us all — that if you don’t have a film and you don’t have a big campaign, then you can’t be heard,” Bonowitz added in a phone interview on Monday with ABC News.
Amid growing calls for the court to review her case in 2022, Lucio was granted a stay of her scheduled April 27, 2022, execution by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on April 25, 2022 – after nearly 15 years on death row.
“I thank God for my life,” Lucio said in an April 2022 statement reacting to the stay. “I am grateful the Court has given me the chance to live and prove my innocence. Mariah is in my heart today and always. I am grateful to have more days to be a mother to my children and a grandmother to my grandchildren.”