(NEW YORK) — The best-laid plans of politicians and pollsters often go awry. Thursday night was supposed to be the sixth debate of the Republican presidential primary, and three candidates were originally lined up to participate: former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. But Christie dropped out of the race last week, and on Tuesday, Haley announced she would not participate in any more debates unless they were against former President Donald Trump or President Joe Biden. With only one candidate left to take the stage, the debate was scrubbed.
But we still have a poll to share! Before each of the first four GOP debates this cycle, 538 partnered with Ipsos to take the temperature of likely Republican primary voters heading into the event. We did the same with this one, and even though there will be no post-debate poll to compare them to, the results still shed some interesting light on the state of the GOP presidential contest as we head into New Hampshire’s primary next week. Click here for the full results of the poll.
(NEW YORK) — A scathing Justice Department report into the 2022 mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, described “cascading failures of leadership” during the attack and an “unprecedented” level of misinformation in its aftermath that crippled the community’s attempts to recover.
A review team empowered by the department to investigate the shooting “identified several critical failures and other breakdowns prior to, during, and after the Robb Elementary School response,” the report found.
An 18-year-old gunman entered Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022, killing 19 students and two teachers before law enforcement breached the classroom and killed the shooter. Responding officers from state and local outfits waited some 77 minutes before breaching a classroom and killing the shooter.
The police response came under scrutiny almost immediately, and a series of misstatements by officials in its aftermath compounded frustration within the tightly knit community. After initially lauding the bravery of first responders, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw called their performance an “abject failure.”
“The extent of misinformation, misguided and misleading narratives, leaks, and lack of communication about what happened on May 24 is unprecedented and has had an extensive, negative impact on the mental health and recovery of the family members and other victims, as well as the entire community of Uvalde,” according to the Justice Department report.
Within weeks of the shooting, the Justice Department announced plans to launch a “Critical Incident Review” to examine the police response. Attorney General Merrick Garland commissioned 9 law enforcement experts to conduct interviews and review evidence to craft a “complete incident reconstruction,” a department official said at the time.
That work culminated this week in a searing 575-page report that includes gut-wrenching new details about law enforcement’s lack of preparation for an active shooter, failures in the police response, and the toll of misinformation and chaos in its aftermath.
The school and the school district were woefully unprepared, the report found. Most officers “lacked specialized, advanced training and preparation to handle such situations” and the school district had cultivated “a culture of complacency regarding locked-door policies” – both of which contributed to the challenges in responding to the incident.
“[Some] families received incorrect information suggesting their family members had survived when they had not,” the report noted. “And others were notified of the deaths of their family members by personnel untrained in delivering such news.”
The review team reserved its most critical commentary for the officers who arrived first on scene, who retreated from the classroom and treated the gunman as a barricaded subject, not an active shooter. The review team described this as “the most significant failure.”
“The most significant failure was that responding officers should have immediately recognized the incident as an active shooter situation, using the resources and equipment that were sufficient to push forward immediately and continuously toward the threat until entry was made into classrooms 111/112 and the threat was eliminated,” according to the report.
Lt. Mariano Pargas, Uvalde’s acting police chief at the time, was among the first officers to arrive at Robb. He was deemed by the review team to be “the person best positioned to direct command and control” the law enforcement response, but “failed to do so.”
After the initial failure to pursue and confront the shooter, communications breakdowns compounded the confusion on-scene – even after the arrival of Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, whom the report identified as the de-facto on-scene commander. Arredondo “lacked a radio,” the report found, “having discarded his radios during his arrival thinking they were unnecessary.”
“Leadership … demonstrated no urgency for establishing a command and control structure, which led to challenges related to information sharing, lack of situational statuses, and limited-to-no direction for personnel in the hallway or on the perimeter,” the report found.
Counter to well-established active-shooter training methods, Arredondo “directed officers intending to gain entry into the classrooms to stop.”
The failures continued after the shooting. As parents flocked to a chaotic reunification center, “[some] families received incorrect information suggesting their family members had survived when they had not,” the report noted.
And in the days that followed, investigators struggled to preserve evidence from the crime scene “when non-investigatory personnel entered the hallway and classrooms 111/112 for the purpose of viewing the scene.”
The Justice Department assessment builds on a report issued in July 2022 by a special committee of the Texas state legislature which described a series of “shortcomings and failures” in the law enforcement response.
Members of the DOJ team visited Uvalde 9 times, spending a total of 54 days on site and conducting more than 260 interviews with individuals from more than 30 organizations with knowledge of the response.
Garland visited family members of the victims on Wednesday. Afterwards, members of the community expressed gratitude to the department for pursuing the truth.
“I think it’s a step in the right direction,” Kim Rubio, whose daughter Lexi Rubio was killed in the shooting, told ABC News. “I think for the first time we felt respected – we felt treated with respect, and I believe we’re going to get the answers we’re looking for.”
(NEW YORK) — Despite having a very effective and easily available vaccine, measles outbreaks have continued to pop up in the United States over the last two decades.
Most recently, there have been eight cases confirmed in Philadelphia since December 2023, all among unvaccinated individuals. Additionally, a person with measles traveled through D.C.-area airports and cases have been identified in Delaware, New Jersey and Washington state, according to local reports.
In 2023, there were 41 confirmed cases of measles, according to incomplete data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
While the number of measles cases in the past few years are not at record highs and the 2023 numbers are lower than recent years, the fact that outbreaks are still occurring is a trend that concerns health officials and experts.
Measles was declared eliminated in 2000 — meaning the disease “is no longer constantly present in this country.” However, the dip in routine childhood vaccinations in recent years as well as travelers bringing measles into the country has resulted in outbreaks.
“The fact that we’re seeing sporadic measles cases, to me, says that we probably have pockets in the United States where we’re not doing a good job vaccinating and I’m worried that this is a trend that’s been getting worse over the years,” Dr. Peter Hotez, professor of pediatrics and molecular virology at Baylor College of Medicine, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, told ABC News.
Lagging vaccination rates
A CDC report in November found that exemptions for routine childhood vaccination among U.S. kindergartners are at their highest levels ever.
About 93% of kindergarteners received select routine childhood vaccines, including the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine, which protects against measles, for the 2022-23 school year, according to the CDC report.
This is about the same as the previous school year but lower than the 94% seen in 2020-21 school year and the 95% seen in the 2019-20, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The latter percentage had been the standard for about 10 years.
Hotez said there may be areas of the U.S. where the vaccination exemption rates, both for medical and non-medical reasons, are higher.
“For instance, when we studied this in 2018, looking at the states that allow vaccine exemptions for non-medical reasons, we would find counties that maybe 10 to 20% of the kids were not getting their childhood immunizations and that’s what measles exploits,” Hotez said. “So, if were uniformly 93%, it’s not ideal, but probably that wouldn’t be enough to stimulate measles outbreaks.”
About one in five people in the U.S. who get measles will be hospitalized. Measles can cause serious health complications especially in children younger than age 5 including ear infections, diarrhea, pneumonia, encephalitis (swelling of the brain) and even death, according to the CDC.
The first measles vaccine, a single-dose vaccine, was introduced in the U.S. in 1963. In the decade prior, there were three to four million cases annually, which led to 48,000 hospitalizations and 400 to 500 deaths.
The CDC recommends that people get two doses with the first dose at 12 to 15 months old and the second dose between ages 4 and 6. One dose is 93% effective and two doses are 97% effective.
Since then, hospitalizations and deaths have dropped dramatically. There were three deaths in the Americas in 2000 and just one in 2022, according to a November 2023 CDC report.
“We can prevent this, we can stop this. Parents should be scared of measles,” Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician in the division of infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told ABC News. “They should be scared of this virus as my parents were. The difference was [my parents] couldn’t do anything about it.”
“Now you can do something about it, which makes it all the more unconscionable when you see children come into our hospital who could have gotten vaccinated and didn’t,” he added.
Rise in vaccine misinformation
There are a few reasons for a drop in vaccination rates, according to experts. One is a 1998 paper published in The Lancet by Andrew Wakefield claiming the MMR shot caused autism. The paper has since been debunked, subsequent studies have found no link and the journal retracted the paper, but fears still exist.
During an outbreak in Columbus, Ohio that lasted from November 2022 to February 2023, public health officials said many parents of the unvaccinated children infected with measles had chosen not to have their kids receive the MMR shot due to misconceptions that it causes autism.
“Ever since that Anfrew Wakefield article, people have developed important misconceptions from that misinformation and continuing disinformation about the MMR vaccine,” Dr. Gregory Poland, head of the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group, told ABC News. “He claimed there was an association with autism. Some 24 studies have subsequently found none. Not one indicate a hint of autism risk.”
“Once you scare people, it’s hard to unscare them, so people then then sort of started to back away from that vaccine,” Offit added. “So we saw cases again.”
Experts said the COVID pandemic caused another problem. Firstly, during the early days of the pandemic, people were scared to go to doctor’s’ offices, which led to a delay in children being up to date on vaccinations.
Then, after COVID vaccines became politicized, this may have caused a decrease in confidence in vaccination overall.
There has been “an acceleration of anti-vaccine sentiments that we’ve seen during the COVID 19 pandemic,” Hotez said, “And I think what we may be seeing also was a spillover that extended beyond COVID vaccines to all childhood immunizations.”
Another reason for the decline in vaccination rates may be that, because the diseases have been circulating at low rates due to vaccines, people have forgotten how serious they were before the advent of vaccines, according to the experts.
It’s not just a problem in the U.S. Global cases of measles have been on the rise in recent years, increasing 18% from 2021 to 2022, following a drop in vaccinations over the past few years, according to a report from the WHO and CDC released last year.
Deaths also increased globally by 43% from during the same period with a total of 37 countries experiencing large outbreaks in 2022 compared to 22 countries in 2021.
Experts say they are continuing to educate parents about the safety of vaccines and even advocate for starting vaccine education in adolescence.
“It’s a dangerous game we’re playing by leaving a critical percentage of children unvaccinated,” Offit said. “It is a dangerous and unnecessary game we’re playing. This is a safe and effective vaccine. This is a virus that can cause considerable suffering and hospitalization and occasional death. Don’t play around with this virus or we will pay an even bigger price than we’re paying now.”
(NEW YORK) — There have been at least 37 weather-related deaths across the United States since Sunday, as an arctic blast continues to unleash heavy snow and icy temperatures from coast to coast.
The state with the most fatalities so far was Tennessee, where Nashville got more than 9 inches of snow since Sunday — nearly twice the annual average. The Tennessee Department of Health confirmed 14 weather-related deaths.
As of Thursday morning, more than 92 million Americans were on alert for cold or snowy weather. Winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories issued by the National Weather Service stretch from Montana all the way to the New Jersey shoreline as a fast-moving storm system takes aim.
While the chilly weather was expected to stick around for most of the Midwest, temperatures won’t be quite as low as they were earlier in the week. Still, there was more snow in the forecast for Thursday as a storm system moves from the Plains into the Midwest and Great Lakes regions, potentially creating treacherous road conditions.
Intense bands of lake-effect snow were forecast to continue in the western part of New York state, while the rest of the Northeast region could see a few scattered snow showers on Thursday as temperatures remain cold.
In general, the snowfall amounts will likely be on the lower end with states like Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey forecast to get between 1 and 3 inches. Snow was expected to be heavier — more than 6 inches — in parts of West Virginia with the Appalachian Mountains.
After an unprecedented streak of 701 days with less than an inch of snow, New York City could see more than 1 inch for the second day this week.
Heavy snow and gusty winds are expected to continue causing problems in the Northwest, especially in higher elevations. Meanwhile, pouring rain will drench much of the West Coast by the end of the week and into the weekend. Extreme heavy snowfall has been coming down across the Rocky Mountains over the past few days, prompting avalanche warnings for several mountains in Colorado.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at his caucus night event at the Iowa Events Center, Jan. 15, 2024 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is on trial this week in New York City to determine whether he will have to pay former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll additional damages for defaming her in 2019 when he denied her allegations of sexual assault.
Last year, in a separate trial, a jury determined that Trump was liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the 1990s, and that he defamed her in a 2022 social media post by calling her allegations “a Hoax and a lie” and saying “This woman is not my type!”
Trump has denied all wrongdoing and has said he doesn’t know who Carroll is.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jan 18, 8:21 AM
Cross-examination of Carroll to resume
E. Jean Carroll will return to the witness stand this morning to resume her cross-examination — this time without Donald Trump in the courtroom.
After attending the first two days of the trial, Trump will be absent today to attend the funeral of former first lady Melania Trump’s mother, Amalija Knavs, who died last week after a long health battle.
During yesterday’s proceedings, Judge Lewis Kaplan, for a third time, denied a request from Trump’s legal team to pause the trial so Trump could attend the funeral.
“We would have assumed that for a trial like this, it’s not an emergency in terms of timing, the judge would have been very nice, and they would let me go because I want to be at every trial day,” Trump told reporters after court yesterday, calling Kaplan a “radical Trump hater.”
Trump’s attorney Alina Habba told Judge Kaplan she intends to question Carroll for less than an hour today, after which Carroll’s lawyers plan to call to the stand an expert on reputational harm, as well as Robbie Myers, the former editor of the magazine where Carroll worked as an advice columnist.
Jan 17, 4:53 PM
Carroll agrees she did not shy away from publicity
E. Jean Carroll conceded on cross-examination that she anticipated “blowback” would follow the publication of her rape allegation against then-President Trump, and that she did not shy away from publicity that she now says has shattered her reputation.
“You’ve continued to publicize every lawsuit you had against President Trump?” defense attorney Alina Habba asked.
“Yes,” Carroll responded. “Because I wanted people to know that a woman can speak up and win a trial. I wanted people to know. I’m 80. I don’t want to be quiet. It’s not right to make a woman be quiet. It has gone on for too long.”
The defense has been trying to portray Carroll as an attention-loving woman who is overplaying her emotional accounts of how the backlash following her rape accusation affected her.
Carroll also said under questioning that she hosted watch parties in her lawyer’s office that were attended by comedian Kathy Griffin and Trump’s niece Mary Trump, both of whom are critics of the former president.
“Isn’t Kathy Griffin known for holding up a severed head of President Trump?” Habba asked.
“Yes,” Carroll said.
Court subsequently adjourned for the day, with Carroll scheduled to return to the witness stand on Thursday for additional cross-examination.
Trump indicated he would be making remarks to the press later this afternoon.
Jan 17, 4:24 PM
Judge promptly rejects defense request for mistrial
In the middle of E. Jean Carroll’s cross-examination, former President Trump’s defense attorney Alina Habba sought a mistrial, which the judge promptly denied.
Habba was questioning Carroll about threatening emails she said she received. Carroll said she deleted many of those messages because “I didn’t know how to handle death threats. I thought deleting them was the easiest way to get them out of my life.”
When Carroll said she had deleted some messages around the time of her earlier trial involving Trump, Habba asked for a mistrial, saying, “The witness has just admitted to deleting evidence herself.”
Judge Kaplan immediately denied the request and said, “The jury will disregard everything Ms. Habba just said.”
Habba also questioned whether Carroll received disparaging messages after publishing her account of the sexual assault at Bergdorf Goodman, but before Trump issued his denial.
“Some of the slime happened before the president issued his statement?” Habba asked.
“No,” Carroll responded. “Because they were reacting to the White House statement.”
Asked how she knew, Carroll said, “Because of the wording,” prompting Habba to say, “So a denial from the White House would mean that any statement echoing it would be President Trump’s fault?”
Jan 17, 2:46 PM
Cross-examination of Carroll stumbles at the start
The direct examination of E. Jean Carroll ended with her telling the jury she would “never get used to attacks” like the ones she has continued to endure from former President Trump and his followers.
“Was he posting about you as recently as yesterday? Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan asked regarding Trump.
“That’s what I’ve been told,” Carroll answered before she was shown a Truth Social post from Tuesday, during the lunch break, in which Trump called the trial a “fake case from a woman I’ve never met, seen or touched.”
The cross-examination of Carroll began on a discordant note when defense attorney Alina Habba tried to confront Carroll with some of her testimony from an earlier deposition.
There was a dispute over whether Habba had properly told the judge which part of the deposition she intended to introduce.
“We’re going to do it my way, Ms. Habba,” Judge Kaplan said.
“Sure,” Habba replied, abandoning that line of questioning.
Jan 17, 2:01 PM
Judge denies defense motion for him to recuse himself
Following the a lunch break, the defense team made an immediate motion for Judge Kaplan to recuse himself from the trial because of the “general hostility” defense attorney Michael Madaio said the judge has shown toward Trump’s side.
Kaplan responded with a single word: “Denied.”
Carroll is now returning to the witness stand to continue her testimony.
Jan 17, 1:17 PM
‘You can’t control yourself,’ judge admonishes Trump
At the lunch break, Judge Lewis Kaplan threatened to boot former President Trump from the courtroom if he continues to make side comments within earshot of the jury.
The warning came after E. Jean Carroll’s attorney Shawn Crowley complained for a second time about Trump’s comments.
“The defendant has been making statements that we can hear at counsel table,” she said, quoting Trump as saying, “It is a witch hunt” and “It really is a con job.”
When a video of Trump disparaging E. Jean Carroll was played for the court, Crowley said Trump remarked, “It’s true.”
Judge Kaplan, in response, addressed the defense from the bench.
“Mr. Trump has the right to be present here. That right can be forfeited and it can be forfeited if he is disruptive, which is what has been reported to me,” the judge said. “Mr. Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you from the trial.”
“I understand you are probably very eager for me to do that,” the judge added, to which Trump threw his up his arms and said, “I would love it, I would love it.”
“I know you would, because you can’t control yourself in this circumstance,” Kaplan replied. “You just can’t.”
Jan 17, 12:38 PM
Carroll says she’s always on ‘hyper alert’ due to threats
Ever since then-President Trump defamed her in June of 2019, E. Jean Carroll told the jury, she has been inundated with threats of physical and sexual violence.
In one message, Carroll said of the sender: “He wants me to stick a gun in my mouth in pull the trigger.”
Another message said, “I hope someone really does attack, rape and murder you.”
When another message was displayed for the jury, Carroll said, “I’m sorry people in the courtroom have to see this.” Her attorney, Roberta Kaplan, replied, “I’m sorry to have to ask you about it, Ms. Carroll.”
The message said, “i will rape u e jean carroll.”
Carroll described her visceral reaction to these messages. “The body believes it’s going to happen,” she said. “It feels like it’s going to happen.”
Carroll said she now lives her life on “hyper alert” for potential threats in and around her home in upstate New York.
“I have a pit bull rescue. He’s a great dog, but I never, never had him off the leash. When the first threats came in, I let him off the leash and he now patrols,” Carroll said. “I alerted the neighbors to be on the watch and I bought bullets for the gun I had inherited from my father.”
“Where do you keep that gun?” Kaplan asked. “By my bed,” Carroll responded.
Jan 17, 12:00 PM
Judge instructs Trump to keep his voice down
Former President Trump has been making side commentary during E. Jean Carroll’s testimony within earshot of the jury, Carroll’s lawyer complained during a break in the proceedings, outside the jury’s presence.
“Mr. Trump is sitting at the back table and has been loudly saying things” like “‘Carroll’s statements are false’ and ‘she now seems to have gotten her memory back,'” the attorney, Shawn Crowley, told Judge Kaplan.
Sitting at the defense table, Trump has been seen scoffing, chuckling, and encouraging his attorney, Alina Habba, to interject during the proceedings. He has been visibly shaking his head at some of what Carroll asserts on the witness stand.
When, earlier, Judge Kaplan denied the defense’s request for an adjournment and instructed Habba to “sit down,” Trump was heard saying, “He is a very nasty guy.”
During Carroll’s testimony in which she said she interpreted Trump’s remark that “she’s not my type” to mean “I’m too ugly to assault,” Trump was heard laughing after the judge overruled a defense objection.
Before the jury returned to the courtroom, Judge Kaplan addressed Trump’s side comments and instructed him to “take special care” to keep his voice down when conferring with counsel, “so that the jury does not overhear it.”
Jan 17, 11:35 AM
Trump ‘ended the world that I had been living in,’ Carroll says
Recounting her response when Trump denied her rape claim in 2019, Carroll said that when Trump said “she’s not my type,” she interpreted it to mean “I’m too ugly to assault.”
“What did it feel like to have the President of the United States say those things about you?” her attorney Roberta Kaplan asked.
“To have the President of the United States, one of the most powerful persons on Earth, calling me a liar for three days and saying I’m a liar 26 times — I counted them — it ended the world that I had been living in. And I entered a new world,” Carroll responded as Trump sat at the defense table. “I was attacked. I was attacked on Twitter, I was attacked on Facebook, I was attacked in news blogs, I was attacked, brutally attacked, in messages.”
The jury saw some of those messages, which mimicked Trump’s statements, calling her “lying old hag” or saying “shame on you and your lying I-hate-Trump story.”
Carroll testified that the messages started instantly and have not stopped. She said she sometimes receives “scores and scores, sometimes hundreds a day.”
Jan 17, 11:25 AM
Carroll says she’s paid ‘as dearly as is possible to pay’
“I’ve paid just about as dearly as is possible to pay,” E. Jean Carroll testified about her life after then-President Trump fiercely denied her rape claim in a series of defamatory statements in 2019.
When New York magazine, on June 21, 2019, published an excerpt of Carroll’s book that included her allegation that Trump raped her in a department store dressing room, she testified that she expected him to respond.
“I expected him to deny it but to say it was consensual, which it was not, but that’s what I expected him to say,” Carroll testified.
“Is that what he did?” her attorney Roberta Kaplan asked. “No,” Carroll answered.
According to a reporter’s Tweet from 5:17 p.m. on June 21, 2019, which was shown in court, Trump responded to the allegation by saying, “I’ve never met this person in my life.”
“That is a lie,” Carroll said. “He said I made up an accusation to sell a book. That is a lie. He said I made up the accusation for publicity’s sake. That is a lie. He said my accusation damaged the real victims of sexual assault. That is a lie.”
Carroll read additional statements by Trump reacting to her allegation.
“He said people like me, who make false accusations, are very dangerous, in very dangerous territory, that I shouldn’t have done it for the sake of publicity. That is also a lie,” Carroll said.
Jan 17, 10:32 AM
Carroll takes the stand as Trump looks on
Eight months after a jury determined that former President Trump was liable for sexually assaulting and defaming E. Jean Carroll, the former magazine columnist is back on the witness stand this morning — this time with Trump in attendance.
“I’m here because Donald Trump assaulted me and, when I wrote about it, he lied and he shattered my reputation,” Carroll told the jury after taking the stand. “Yesterday I opened up Twitter and it said ‘Hey lady, you’re a fraud.'”
The courtroom seating arrangement, with Carroll on the witness stand and Trump looking on from the defense table, brings the two of them face-to-face after they appeared to avoid eye contact during the trial’s first day Tuesday.
Jan 17, 10:24 AM
‘I said sit down,’ judge admonishes Trump attorney
The start of former President Trump’s defamation trial this morning was delayed briefly by a juror transportation issue.
As proceedings got underway, outside the jury’s presence, a tense exchange unfolded between the judge and defense attorney Alina Habba, who again repeated a request to adjourn the trial on Thursday so Trump can attend the funeral of former first lady Melania Trump’s mother, Amalija Knavs.
“I am asking your honor to have the kindness that my client deserves,” Habba said to Judge Lewis Kaplan, who has already twice denied the defense’s request to postpone the trial due to Thursday’s funeral.
Kaplan, interrupting Habba, said, “Indeed Ms. Habba, the right that he has according to the Supreme Court of the United States is to be present either in person or through counsel.”
Habba persisted, with Trump looking on, prompting the judge to instruct her to “sit down” and make no further argument.
“I said sit down,” Kaplan said.
“I don’t like to be spoken to that way,” Habba responded. “I am asking your honor to please refrain from speaking to me that way. I am asking for an adjournment.”
“It’s denied. Sit down,” Kaplan said.
Jan 17, 9:32 AM
Trump arrives at courthouse
Former President Trump has arrived at Manhattan federal court for Day 2 of his defamation damages trial.
His motorcade pulled up to the courthouse at around 9:15 a.m. ET.
Jan 17, 7:37 AM
Carroll set to testify as first witness
Donald Trump is expected to be in the courtroom this morning when E. Jean Carroll takes the stand to testify about how the then-president’s defamatory denial of her sexual assault allegations in 2019 upended her life.
Trump “unleashed his followers to go after her online” after Carroll went public with her allegations, damaging her reputation as a writer and making her feel unsafe in her own home, Carroll’s attorney Shawn Crowley told the jury in her opening statement yesterday.
“Ms. Carroll bought bullets for the gun that she inherited from her father, and she now sleeps with it right beside her bed. She checks her surroundings every time she leaves her house or gets out of her car,” Crowley said. “She’s afraid — afraid that someday, somebody is going to make good on their threats and come after her in person.”
Despite sitting feet from each other in the courtroom yesterday, Carroll and Trump avoided eye contact and never interacted during the first day of the trial. However, when Carroll takes the stand to testify this morning, she will speak directly in front of the counsel table where Trump is seated.
Jan 16, 8:30 PM
Trump expected to attend trial Wednesday, sources say
Former President Trump, who was campaigning in New Hampshire Tuesday evening, is expected to return to New York to attend the second day of his defamation trial on Wednesday, sources tell ABC News.
Trump is then scheduled to return to New Hampshire later Wednesday.
Jan 16, 6:02 PM
Trial is ‘straight out of banana republic,’ says Trump attorney
Donald Trump’s legal counsel Boris Epshteyn briefly spoke to reporters outside court at the conclusion of Tuesday’s proceedings, calling the trial “straight out of [a] banana republic.”
“Manhattan is 90-95% Democrat,” Epshteyn said, despite voter registration records showing the borough is about 70% Democratic. “Does anybody think the President will get a fair trial here? Absolutely not,” he said.
Despite a jury last year finding Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll, Epshteyn alleged that Carroll is making “false accusations.”
“President Trump has consistently stated that he did not commit the allegation and did not commit the acts that the plaintiff alleges. He has been steadfast in that. And it is right to defend himself from false accusations,” Epshteyn said.
Epshteyn declined to comment on whether Trump plans to attend court tomorrow.
Carroll did not speak to reporters when she left court.
Jan 16, 4:52 PM
Carroll seeking a ‘windfall’ over ‘mean Tweets,’ Trump attorney says
E. Jean Carroll is looking for a “windfall” over a series of “mean Tweets from Twitter trolls,” Trump attorney Alina Habba said during the defense’s opening statement, in which Habba sought to cast doubt on the severity of the alleged harm Carroll said she endured.
Habba told the jury they do not have to believe Carroll’s account of how she has suffered as a result of Trump’s defamatory statements.
“Her career has prospered and she has been thrust back into the limelight like she has always wanted,” Habba said, accusing Carroll of using her story “to obtain as much fame and notoriety as possible.”
The defense framed Carroll’s lawsuit as nothing more than an attempt to shake down Trump for money over scores of critical Tweets that have nothing to do with the defamatory statements by Trump that are at issue in the trial.
“She expects you as the jury to give her an award for every negative comment that was thrown her way,” Habba said. “She is looking for you to give her a windfall because some people on social media said mean things about her.”
Habba showed a photo of Carroll in the company of Trump critic Kathy Griffin and said Carroll is close with another critic of the former president, his niece Mary Trump.
“This is someone who craves fame and seeks fame wherever she can get it,” Habba said. “She got what she wanted.”
The proceedings were dismissed for the day after both sides concluded their opening statements. The trial will resume Wednesday with the first witness in the case.
Jan 16, 4:00 PM
Trump ‘unleashed his followers,’ Carroll’s attorney says
Donald Trump’s lies about E. Jean Carroll “unleashed his followers to go after her,” and as Trump campaigns for president he “continues to lie about Ms. Carroll,” Carroll’s attorney said in her opening statement.
“How much money will it take to make him stop?” Carroll’s attorney, Shawn Crowley, said. “He kept up those very same lies even after a federal jury sat in this courtroom and unanimously found that he sexually assaulted her and defamed her.”
Crowley reminded the jury that Trump “was president when he made those statements and he used the world’s biggest microphone to humiliate her” — the result of which was that he “wrecked” Carroll’s reputation in a matter of days, Crowley said.
“Donald Trump’s response was swift and brutal,” Crowley said. “Donald Trump did not just deny the assault. He went much, much further.”
She quoted Trump’s statements from June 22, 2019: “‘People should pay dearly for making up accusations” about him.
Crowley also quoted Trump saying “she’s not my type” on that day in 2019. “In other words, she was too ugly to assault. She must have been lying because she was too unattractive for Mr. Trump to sexually assault,” Crowley said.
Carroll, who is now 80, sat at the plaintiff’s table as her attorney showed the jury messages Trump’s followers posted calling her ugly and urging her to kill herself.
“When Donald Trump called Ms. Carroll a fraud and a liar, they listened and they believed and they decided to go after her,” Crowley said. “Donald Trump knew exactly what he was unleashing.”
Jan 16, 3:40 PM
‘This is not a do-over,’ judge instructs jury
Judge Lewis Kaplan told the nine jurors that they must accept as true that Trump forcibly sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll and defamed her when he denied it.
“Ms. Carroll did not make up her claim of forcible sexual abuse,” Judge Kaplan told the panel. “His false statements tended to disparage Ms. Carroll or tended to expose her to hatred or to induce an unsavory opinion of her.”
The judge made it clear the jury was only determining damages related to two defamatory statements Trump made in June 2019 when he denied Carroll’s rape allegation. He said the trial was not an opportunity to re-litigate the prior trial, in which a jury found Trump liable for defamation and sexual assault.
“This trial is not a do-over of the previous trial which determined those facts,” Kaplan said.
Jan 16, 3:18 PM
Trump departs before opening statements
Former President Trump has departed Manhattan federal court prior to the delivery of opening statements in his defamation damages trial.
Trump voluntarily showed up to court for jury selection this morning, and did not return after the lunch break. He has a campaign event scheduled later today in New Hampshire.
His attorney suggested Trump would return to court for at least part of tomorrow’s proceedings, when E. Jean Carroll is expected to be the first witness.
The jury has been sworn in, with opening statements to begin following instructions from the judge.
Jan 16, 2:08 PM
2 election deniers don’t make cut as jury is seated
A jury of nine has been selected to hear the evidence in the case.
One juror is a married father of two grown children who works in the subway system. and said he is an avid local news viewer. Another juror is a German native who emigrated to the United States and said she does not watch the news.
The jury also includes a newlywed who works in property management and gets his news from social media, a woman with a master’s degree who works as a publicist for a tech firm, and a single man who works in television.
Two people who said they believed that the election was stolen from Donald Trump by President Joe Biden did not make the jury. Nor did a man who said he believed Trump was being treated unfairly by the United States court system.
Opening arguments will begin follow the lunch break. As they exited the courtroom, Trump and Carroll came within feet of each other but appeared to ignore one another.
Jan 16, 12:11 PM
Prospective jurors questioned about political leanings
Former President Trump has been twisting and turning in his seat at the defense table as prospective jurors answer the judge’s questions about their political affiliations, voting habits, campaign donations, and any experience with sexual assault — and whether they ever watched The Apprentice or read E. Jean Carroll’s advice column in Elle magazine.
As another columnist was known to say, “Only in New York, kids.”
One prospective juror, number 68, affirmed that he donated to Trump’s campaign, followed him on social media, and believed that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump by President Joe Biden.
Prospective juror 63 was excused after he said that his knowledge of Trump’s criminal indictments — of which there are four that the former president is currently facing — would impact his ability to be fair and impartial.
The majority of prospective jurors signaled they were registered to vote, prompting the judge to ask if they had voted in 2016 and 2020. Trump turned to look at those who answered in the affirmative.
Three prospective jurors said they had donated to Trump’s campaign. Eleven said they donated to either the Obama, Clinton or Biden campaigns. At least ten watched The Apprentice.
Jan 16, 11:32 AM
Judge explains case to prospective jurors
Judge Kaplan explained the case to prospective jurors, saying, “Ms. Carroll sued Mr. Trump for defamation for certain statements he made” shortly after she publicly accused him of raping her.
“This trial is limited to the issue of the money damages, if any, that Ms. Carroll should receive for those publications. The reason that’s so is that the court determined in a previous decision that Mr. Trump is liable,” Kaplan said. “It has been determined already that Mr. Trump did sexually assault Ms. Carroll.”
To whittle down the jury pool, Kaplan began with this question: “Having heard what you have heard about this case so far, would you be unable to give both sides a fair trial and to decide this case solely on the basis of the evidence you hear during this trial and the instructions I give you?”
Three prospective jurors were immediately excused for signaling they could not be fair.
One woman said she worked for Ivanka Trump’s company from 2017 to 2018. “Would that experience have any effect on your ability to be fair and impartial to both sides in this case?” Judge Kaplan asked regarding her connection to Trump’s eldest daughter. “No,” the woman replied.
After the judge asked if anyone else had worked for Trump or his family, a man indicated he was an officer in the U.S. Navy while Trump was commander in chief. The man said it would have no impact on his ability to be fair.
Jan 16, 11:23 AM
Prospective jurors enter courtroom to begin selection process
As prospective jurors filed into the courtroom for jury selection, Donald Trump surveyed the group. One woman appeared to smile upon recognizing Trump. A man leaned forward and appeared to stare for several seconds.
“You’ve been summoned for possible service in a civil case,” Judge Kaplan said before introducing the plaintiff and defendant. “This case is between a writer, advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, and former President Donald Trump,” he said.
Jurors were told the case is expected to last three to five days and that they would sit through Thursday and, if necessary, return on Monday. They were also told they will be anonymous.
“That means neither your names nor the names of the jurors who are ultimately selected will be made public,” Judge Kaplan said. He had earlier cited Trump’s rhetoric as among the reasons for the anonymous jury.
Jurors will assemble daily at an off-site location and be driven to court under guard, the judge said.
“This is for your own protection. As you may understand, this case has attracted media attention and that’s likely to continue,” Kaplan said.
Jan 16, 10:40 AM
Layout of courtroom has Trump sitting 2 tables behind Carroll
Unlike courtrooms where the counsel tables are arranged side by side, the counsel tables in the courtroom this morning are arranged behind one another, with Trump and his attorneys seated two tables behind Carroll and her counsel.
Trump appeared to take note of that arrangement when he entered the courtroom.
He appeared to point at Carroll, then he and his team asked a man seated at the table between them to slide over — possibly to block Trump’s view of Carroll, or to provide a better view of the proceedings.
Jan 16, 10:27 AM
Judge again declines to delay trial
On Friday, Judge Kaplan denied a request from Trump’s attorneys to postpone the trial for a week so Trump could attend Thursday’s funeral of Amalija Knavs, the mother of former first lady Melania Trump, who died last Tuesday after a long health battle.
In court this morning, Trump attorney Alina Habba repeated her request for an adjournment so Trump can attend Knavs’ funeral.
“You asked me for a week’s adjournment and I denied it,” Judge Kaplan said. “The repetition is not accomplishing anything.”
The judge said Friday that he would grant a continuance so the trial, which was initially scheduled to conclude this week, would be extended so Trump could testify on Monday, Jan. 22.
Jan 16, 10:12 AM
Defense lodges several objections as court gets underway
“The court has made a number of rulings precluding evidence and argument,” said Judge Lewis Kaplan as court got underway, asking each side’s lead attorney to affirm that the parties understood the rules.
The defense objected, arguing that the court lacked jurisdiction. Kaplan quickly dispensed with the objection, saying, “Overruled.” Kaplan, who has a reputation as a no-nonsense judge, also overruled several other defense objections.
“I do think these are issues that will become an issue on appeal. We still don’t know what witnesses are coming in and which aren’t,” Trump attorney Alina Habba said, before Kaplan interrupted, saying, “Ms. Habba you have had a witness list for months.”
Habba pressed on, with Kaplan noting her objections.
“I have heard you, I have considered what you have to say and I have ruled,” Judge Kaplan said.
Jan 16, 9:56 AM
Trump seated in courtroom
Donald Trump has taken a seat in court, where jury selection in his defamation trial is scheduled to get underway this morning.
His decision to attend this trial is a clear shift for the former president, whose lawyers portrayed his absence from last year’s defamation and battery trial as a service to New York City, saying the city would not have to suffer the “logistical and financial burdens” of Trump’s attendance.
Carroll’s attorneys, however, pounced on Trump’s absence.
“He didn’t even bother to show up here in person,” attorney Roberta Kaplan told the jury.
Writing on social media last month, Trump blamed his absence at the trial on “not good advice” from his then-lawyer Joe Tacopina.
“I was asked by my lawyer not to attend–‘It was beneath me, and they have no case.’ That was not good advice,” Trump wrote.
Trump attorney Alina Habba is serving as Trump’s lead defense attorney for this week’s trial.
Jan 16, 9:21 AM
Carroll arrives for trial
E. Jean Carroll has arrived at the courthouse for the first day of the trial.
She smiled to reporters as she entered court.
Jan 16, 9:03 AM
Trump arrives at courthouse
Following his victory in Iowa, former President Trump landed at 3:30 a.m. in New York and just arrived at his civil defamation trial in lower Manhattan.
Trump is not required to attend the trial, though his decision not to attend last year’s defamation and battery trial by the same plaintiff, writer E. Jean Carroll, was mocked by Carroll’s attorney.
Trump’s motorcade pulled up to the courthouse this morning at at 8:50 a.m. ET.
Jan 16, 8:51 AM
On heels of Iowa victory, Trump is back on trial
When Donald Trump’s federal defamation trial gets underway in lower Manhattan this morning, it will be only about 11 hours since the former president claimed victory in the Iowa caucuses.
The trial is expected to take about a week, which could take Trump right to the doorstep of the New Hampshire Primary, scheduled for next Tuesday.
Trump has said that he plans to attend the trial at some point during the week, but has not indicted when.
The former president did not attend last year’s trial, held at the same courthouse, where a New York jury found him liable for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll and defaming her when he denied her accusation in a 2022 social media post.
(NEW YORK) — U.S. economic activity changed little in recent weeks as hiring stalled, prices grew modestly and the private sector feared uncertainty tied to the 2024 election, a Federal Reserve report released on Wednesday showed.
A rosy outlook nevertheless pervaded the findings, since industry officials anticipated interest rate cuts this year, the report said.
On the whole, the report depicts an economy that has downshifted from blistering growth in the middle of last year, slowing hiring and putting the brakes on price increases.
The report, known as the Beige Book, detailed economic conditions in 12 different regions — known as “districts” — based on the results of interviews with businesses by local Fed officials.
The fresh information suggests that a prolonged period of high interest rates has succeeded in cooling the economy, which could reinforce the Fed’s plans to cut rates in the coming months.
Private sector officials nationwide drew hope from the prospect of such an outcome, the Fed report said.
“Districts continued to note that high interest rates were limiting auto sales and real estate deals; however, the prospect of falling interest rates was cited by numerous contacts in various sectors as a source of optimism,” the report said.
The fresh report appeared to contradict some economic data from recent weeks indicating robust performance.
A stronger-than-expected jobs report demonstrated solid hiring growth in December, rebuking fears of an economic downturn anytime soon.
Consumer prices, meanwhile, rose 3.4% in December compared to a year ago, accelerating markedly from the previous month and defying a smooth path down to normal levels, a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics last week showed.
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said Tuesday the central bank expects to cut rates this year, but that it won’t be “rushed” to make the decision soon.
Those remarks helped send treasury yields soaring and major stock indexes tumbling on Wednesday.
The Fed risks a rebound of inflation if it cuts interest rates too quickly. An additional burst of economic activity for an already robust economy could hike demand and raise prices once again.
While the vast majority of districts reported little or no change in economic conditions, three districts reported modest growth and one reported moderate decline, the Fed report said.
Similarly, the report added, most districts described little or no change in overall employment levels. The slow hiring gave businesses in many districts confidence that wage growth would ease in the coming months, the Fed said.
Those expectations align with forecasts at the Fed of continued progress in the inflation fight over the course of this year.
When facing high inflation, policymakers fear what’s referred to as a price-wage spiral, in which a rise in prices prompts workers to demand raises that help them afford goods, which in turn pushes up prices, leading to a self-perpetuating cycle of runaway inflation.
If wage growth slows, however, policymakers gain assurance the economy will avert a spike in prices.
Inflation stands well below last summer’s peak of over 9%, but remains more than a percentage point higher than the Fed’s target rate of 2%.
Many market observers are expecting interest rate cuts as soon as a Fed meeting in March. As of last week, markets put the probability of a rate cut in March at 75%, said Ellen Zentner, chief U.S. economist and managing director at Morgan Stanley.
However, observers holding such expectations “may be in for a disappointment,” Zentner wrote earlier this month, citing strong job gains that allow the Fed to keep rates high without fear of an imminent recession.
The cushion affords Fed policymakers “room to watch and wait,” Zentner added.
(NEW YORK) — A suspect is in custody in connection with five unprovoked stabbings that occurred in the Queens borough of New York City in recent days, police said.
The suspect — identified as 27-year-old Jermain Rigueur of Queens — was arrested Wednesday evening and charged with three counts of attempted murder, four counts of assault, one count of attempted assault and four counts of criminal possession of a weapon, according to the New York City Police Department (NYPD). An investigation is ongoing.
The development came hours after police said they were searching for a suspect in the assaults.
NYPD Police Commissioner Edward Caban called the assaults “senseless, unprovoked attacks” during a press briefing earlier on Wednesday.
The victims in the random attacks were unconnected, and the suspect was captured on surveillance footage moments after one of the attacks wielding a hunting knife, police said. None of the injuries were life-threatening, police said.
The first assault occurred on Jan. 8 around 6:20 p.m. ET, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny. A 61-year-old man walking by himself in the Springfield Gardens neighborhood was stabbed in the lower back, Kenny said.
“The suspect actually laughed in the victim’s face after he stabbed him,” Kenny told reporters.
A good Samaritan called 911 and the victim was transported to an area hospital, Kenny said.
The second incident occurred about a week later, shortly after midnight on Tuesday in Springfield Gardens, police said. A 34-year-old woman was walking home when a man approached her from behind and stabbed her in her right side with a knife, police said. The attacker appeared to be speaking “jibberish” to himself, Kenny said.
The assailant fled on foot and the victim was transported to an area hospital in stable condition, police said.
Three stabbings occurred on Wednesday morning within an hour of each other, police said.
Two victims were attacked around 7:30 a.m. in Springfield Gardens, police said. A 74-year-old man escorting his wife to work was stabbed in the back, Kenny said. The assailant ran down the street and then stabbed a 41-year-old man in the abdomen “without saying a word,” Kenny said.
About 25 minutes later, a 36-year-old man on his way to work got into an altercation with the suspect over a seat on a bus, Kenny said. When they both exited the bus in Jamaica, the perpetrator stabbed the victim, Kenny said.
“We have confirmed that the perpetrator in all of these incidents is connected,” Kenny said.
Police said they’re also investigating whether the male suspect is linked to a stabbing that occurred on a subway train in Brooklyn Wednesday morning.
A 28-year-old man was riding a northbound J subway train in Williamsburg around 9:20 a.m. when another man walked up to him and stabbed him in the abdomen in an unprovoked attack, police said.
The victim got off at the Myrtle Avenue station and was taken to Kings County Hospital Center in stable condition, while the suspect got off a stop later at the Flushing Avenue station, police said.
The NYPD had surged officers into the subway system and increased officers in the 113th Precinct in Queens following Wednesday’s stabbings.
The suspect had been described by authorities as a man wearing a green jacket, a black hoodie and either white Converse or black and white Adidas sneakers. In some of the incidents he was seen wearing a lanyard and a surgical mask, police said.
(NEW YORK) — A shark experience in the Bahamas has temporarily closed after a 10-year-old boy from the United States was attacked by a shark during a recent excursion, the operator said.
The incident occurred shortly before 4 p.m. local time Monday on Paradise Island, the Royal Bahamas Police Force said in a news release.
The boy was bitten on the right leg by a shark “while participating in an expedition in a Shark Tank at a local resort on Paradise Island,” the release said.
The boy — who was visiting from Maryland — was transported to a hospital and was in serious but stable condition, police told ABC News’ Good Morning America.
The boy left the hospital at 10:40 pm local time Wednesday and was airlifted back to Maryland for continued care, a hospital spokesperson told ABC News.
The incident occurred at the Atlantis Bahamas resort on Paradise Island, which is known for its marine lagoons. The resort, which appears to have removed references to its shark activities on its website, did not respond to requests for comment.
Blue Adventures by Stuart Cove, which operated the experience, said Wednesday they are “deeply saddened” that “a child suffered a shark bite during their in-water experience.”
“We have begun a thorough internal investigation and are fully cooperating with the authorities,” Stuard Cove said in the statement obtained by ABC News. “Incidents like this involving interactions with marine life, even with the species of sharks included in this experience, are rare and never acceptable.”
A dive instructor and dive guide were with the child in the water when the incident occurred, according to Cove. The experience will remain closed during the company’s investigation “and as we review the findings,” he said.
Monday’s attack marked the first time there has been a “guest-related incident” during the experience since the company began offering it in 2006, according to Cove.
Kim Darden, a guest at the Atlantis resort, told Eyewitness News Bahamas that she saw the child’s mother “running and screaming” afterward and his father carrying him. There was a towel wrapped around his leg “tourniquet-style,” she said.
“Everyone was frantic trying to figure out what was going on,” Darden told Eyewitness News Bahamas. “It was very chaotic right then.”
Police said the incident remains under investigation.
In December, a 44-year-old woman from Massachusetts was killed by a shark while paddleboarding in the Bahamas, according to the Royal Bahamas Police Force.
Five people were killed worldwide in unprovoked shark attacks in 2022 — one in the U.S., two in Egypt and two in South Africa — according to the most recent data available from the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File.
(NEW YORK) — As dangerously low temperatures paralyze parts of the country from Chicago to Tennessee, the West and the Northeast are bracing for more snow.
The latest
More than 30 weather-related fatalities were confirmed nationwide this week, with deaths reported in 10 states including Oregon, New York, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Mississippi and Tennessee, according to authorities.
A 40-year-old male was pronounced dead from probable hypothermia in the 4400 block of W. Woolworth Avenue after being found on a heating mechanism near railroad tracks, according to authorities in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin.
One person was also found dead following a fatal the crash on a snowy road on Jan. 14, on Highway 13 near Collins Road in rural White County, Arkansas State Police said.
Two additional weather-related deaths were also confirmed in Mississippi.
Over 1,000 flights have been canceled Wednesday amid the rough winter weather.
Dangerous cold
On Wednesday, the wind chill — what the temperature feels like — plunged to minus 14 degrees in Chicago and minus 13 degrees in Nashville, Tennessee.
Typically warm Tampa, Florida, was also under a wind chill advisory Wednesday.
And the brutal cold isn’t letting up this weekend. On Saturday, the wind chill is forecast to reach minus 14 degrees in Chicago, minus 24 degrees in Kansas City, Missouri, and minus 1 in Memphis, Tennessee.
More snow
Lake-effect snow warnings have been issued in Buffalo and Watertown, New York, where snowfall totals could reach 3 feet by Thursday night. Residents should be prepared for whiteout conditions and snowfall rates reaching 2 inches per hour.
Buffalo officials issued a travel ban from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday, forcing the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres to postpone their game against the Chicago Blackhawks to Thursday.
Buffalo Public Schools are closed Wednesday and Thursday.
Another storm is also heading toward the Pacific Northwest. Ice storm warnings are in effect for parts of Washington and Oregon.
In the Colorado Rockies, the avalanche danger is very high on Wednesday.
Up to 2 feet of heavy snow will move from the Cascade mountains to the northern and central Rockies Wednesday into Thursday.
By Thursday, the snow will reach South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri.
Thursday night into Friday, heavy snow will strike parts of the Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.
On Friday, the snow will reach Washington, D.C., and New York City. One to 3 inches of snow is likely for the Interstate 95 corridor from D.C. to New York to Connecticut.
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Homeland Security’s cyber agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are warning that Chinese-manufactured drones “pose a significant risk to critical infrastructure and U.S. national security,” and could steal American data, according to a public service announcement released on Wednesday.
DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI say that because of Chinese law that allows for the government to access data held by private firms, American data that’s connected to drones could be at risk.
“The use of Chinese-manufactured UAS requires careful consideration and potential mitigation to reduce risk to networks and sensitive information,” the document read.
China is the country’s most “advanced, active, and persistent cyber threat,” according to the White House, and one of the reasons why is that they can exploit data that is used by American consumers.
“Central to this strategy is the acquisition and collection of data – which the PRC views as a strategic resource and growing arena of geopolitical competition,” the release said. “The use of Chinese-manufactured UAS in critical infrastructure operations risks exposing sensitive information to PRC authorities, jeopardizing U.S. national security, economic security, and public health and safety.”
The agencies said a 2021 law expanded China’s access “and control of companies and data within China and imposes strict penalties on China-based businesses for non-compliance.”
“The data collected by such companies is essential to the PRC’s Military-Civil Fusion strategy, which seeks to gain a strategic advantage over the United States by facilitating access to advanced technologies and expertise,” the release said.
More and more critical infrastructure companies are relying on drones or as the government identifies them, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) because it is more cost-effective.
“Our nation’s critical infrastructure sectors, such as energy, chemical and communications, are increasingly relying on UAS for various missions that ultimately reduce operating costs and improve staff safety. However, the use of Chinese-manufactured UAS risks exposing sensitive information that jeopardizes U.S. national security, economic security, and public health and safety,” said CISA Executive Assistant Director for Infrastructure Security, Dr. David Mussington.
According to the press release, Chinese drones are “capable of receiving and transmitting data.”
Some ways the Chinese could exploit drones are by transferring data and collecting it, through software updates, and by utilizing the docking stations as data collectors. For example, plugging in a docking station into an outlet shared on a network could give the device access to other data including “sensitive imagery, surveying data, facility layouts.”
The consequences of this data harvesting could “result in significant consequences to critical infrastructure security and resilience,” the agencies warn.
Those include exposing intellectual property to Chinese companies, providing details of critical infrastructure operations, compromising cybersecurity and physical security controls, and exposing network details to make it easier for Chinese hackers to get into a system.
CISA and the FBI urge companies and individuals to isolate Chinese-made drones from their network and get regular maintenance to maintain adequate security measures.
