Kevin Faux, 24, is charged with murder for the death of the mother of his unborn baby, police said. (Houston Police)
(HOUSTON) — A man is at large after allegedly killing a woman who was 8 months pregnant with his baby, according to authorities.
Ashanti Allen, a 23-year-old Houston woman, was reported missing on April 10, Houston police said. Allen’s pregnancy was considered high-risk, according to the search and recovery organization Texas EquuSearch, whose members helped in the search.
On Thursday, police said a 23-year-old woman was found dead near a Houston community center. Police did not confirm the identity, but the family confirmed the victim was Allen, and Texas EquuSearch said the victim is believed to be Allen and her unborn child, Jackson.
The father of her baby, 24-year-old Kevin Faux, is charged with murder, police said, noting that Faux is not in custody.
Faux has a history of assault charges, according to court records obtained by Houston ABC station KTRK, including a September 2025 case when he allegedly assaulted Allen.
Allen’s cause of death is pending an autopsy, police said.
“My body’s been numb ever since I received the phone call,” Allen’s father, Edward Allen, told reporters. “We was hoping for the best. But now we’ve heard the worst.”
“Being pregnant, eight months, with my first grandson… I can’t even tell you how I feel,” Edward Allen said. “… I love my baby girl. She’s my only girl.”
He said the 23-year-old was excited to be a mother.
“Her life was going somewhere,” he said.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends as they navigate through this very difficult time,” Texas EquuSearch said in a statement. “Thank you for all who were involved and members who showed up each day, giving it their all.”
Houston police ask anyone with information about the case or information on Faux’s whereabouts to call the department at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.
In this June 16, 2016, file photo, CIA Director John Brennan testifies during a Senate Committee hearing on national security on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Evy Mages/Getty Images, FILE)
(MIAMI) — A top career prosecutor in Miami has been removed from overseeing the Justice Department’s investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan after she allegedly expressed doubts about the viability of the probe, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.
Attorneys for several subjects involved in the probe were informed Friday that Maria Medetis Long would not longer be handling the case moving forward, sources said.
The news, according to sources, took some attorneys by surprise as there were additional interviews scheduled in the coming days as the department moves closer toward deciding whether to bring charges against Brennan.
News of Medetis Long’s departure was first reported by CNN. An attorney for Brennan did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. A DOJ spokesperson also did not immediately respond.
The investigation is believed to center around congressional testimony from Brennan about his role in crafting a 2017 assessment by the intelligence community that detailed Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election to the benefit of President Donald Trump.
Trump has long singled out Brennan, a vocal critic, as among those he believes was involved in illegally conspiring to accuse him of colluding with Russia, resulting in the special counsel probe that cast a cloud over much of Trump’s first term in office.
Brennan has denied wrongdoing and said he continues to stand by the 2017 intelligence community assessment that determined Russia’s interference in the 2016 election was aimed at denigrating Hillary Clinton to the benefit of Trump’s candidacy. A separate bipartisan report from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence largely affirmed the findings of the 2017 assessment.
The probe of Brennan is part of a larger investigation being run out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida that sources say is examining whether former officials engaged in a “grand conspiracy” to violate Trump’s rights dating back to his 2016 campaign for the presidency.
Scores of subpoenas have been issued by the office in recent months to former officials previously involved in the Russia investigation, though the effort has yet to result in any criminal charges or other allegations of wrongdoing.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise speaks alongside House Republican leadership during a news conference on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, on April 15, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — In the dead of night at 2:09 a.m. on Friday, the House passed a bill to extend FISA through April 30 by unanimous consent, after Republicans tanked procedural votes on the controversial warrantless surveillance law.
The short-term extension buys GOP leaders more time to continue negotiations amid Republican infighting over the program that was set to expire on Monday.
The program allows the federal government to collect communications of foreigners abroad without a warrant, including when those people are interacting with Americans.
According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the U.S. government believes it’s a vital tool for protecting the country against “hostile foreign adversaries, including terrorists, proliferators, and spies, and to inform cybersecurity efforts.”
The Senate approved a 10-day extension of FISA by voice vote Friday morning, giving Congress more time to negotiate reforms on the bill.
President Donald Trump has urged Republicans to back the measure and hosted a group of hardliners at the White House Tuesday night to find a path forward as the law is set to expire on Monday.
“I am asking Republicans to UNIFY, and vote together on the test vote to bring a clean Bill to the floor. We need to stick together when this Bill comes before the House Rules Committee today to keep it CLEAN!” Trump wrote on social media on Wednesday.
“Our Military Patriots desperately need FISA 702, and it is one of the reasons we have had such tremendous SUCCESS on the battlefield,” Trump added. “It has already prevented MANY such Attacks, and it is very important that it remain in full force and effect.”
Despite opposition from some GOP hardliners, House Speaker Mike Johnson was this week still trying to determine a path forward to muscle through an 18-month clean extension of the program.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Friday that Congress can no longer afford to “go dark” on the issue, amid the pushback from some Democrats and hardline Republicans.
“We can’t wait around for long,” he said. “We’ve got to pivot and figure out what can pass.”
CIA Director John Ratcliffe attended the House Republican closed-door conference meeting on Wednesday and also advocated for a clean extension of the program.
Some Republicans, who oppose a clean extension of the surveillance tool and demand reforms like a warrant requirement, were not convinced to change their position following the meeting.
Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris of Maryland said “no” when asked if progress was made on FISA during the meeting.
“They have to deal with the FISA court’s objection to the warrantless searches,” Harris said.
There has been a continued debate over Section 702 because it sometimes allows the government to collect Americans’ communications without a warrant.
“Discussions are ongoing still,” Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona said leaving.
Rep. Keith Self of Texas, who attended the White House meeting on Tuesday night, said he does not believe a clean extension will pass.
“We’ll see … but, I don’t think the clean extension will pass,” he said.
After the meeting, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise suggested some “minor changes” could be made to the legislation to appease the holdouts but did not divulge specifics.
“FISA has been important for our country’s national security,” Scalise said. “We’ve put some important much needed reforms in place the last time it was up for reauthorization and what President Trump has asked is that now we reauthorize it with those reforms in place, and that’s what we’re working to do. So, we’re having some final conversations. Not all of our members are quite there yet.”
Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said several Republicans “want to see further reforms” to the program.
“We feel like we need improvements. Obviously, we want greater protections for citizens with respect to warrants,” he said. “We want to make sure that there’s greater penalties, for example, for government officials who abuse their authority and power.”
Scalise said Ratcliffe explained to Republicans how FISA is being “used in the real world to stop bad things from happening.”
As he was leaving, Ratcliffe said the meeting “went great.”
: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on April 17, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Stocks surged and oil prices plunged in early trading on Friday after a senior Iranian official declared the Strait of Hormuz “completely open” for commercial traffic for the duration of the 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1,005 points, or 2%, while the S&P 500 jumped 1.2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq increased 1.5%.
In a post on X on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said: “In line with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the passage for all commercial vessels through Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire.”
President Donald Trump appeared to confirm the reopening of the strait in a message posted on social media on Friday morning.
“IRAN HAS JUST ANNOUNCED THAT THE STRAIT OF IRAN IS FULLY OPEN AND READY FOR FULL PASSAGE,” Trump said.
West Texas Intermediate futures, the benchmark index for U.S. oil prices, plunged more than 10%, registering at about $83 a barrel. The reading marked the index’s lowest level since mid-March.
Even so, U.S. oil prices remain about 30% higher than pre-war levels.
The U.S.-Israeli war prompted Iran’s effective closure of the strait, a critical waterway that facilitates the transport of 20 million barrels of oil per day, or about one-fifth of the global supply.
The move set off the “most severe oil supply shock in history,” the International Energy Agency said in a report this week. Oil prices notched their largest one-month rise ever in March, the Paris-based group said.
Gasoline prices in the U.S. registered at $4.07 on average per gallon on Friday, standing more than 30% higher than before the war, AAA data showed.
Cadaver dogs in the Bahamas to help search for missing American Lynette Hooker, April 16, 2026. (ABC News)
(NEW YORK) — The daughter of Lynette Hooker, an American woman who is missing in the Bahamas, has arrived on the islands with her boyfriend to help with the search after her stepfather, Brian Hooker, left the country.
Karli Aylesworth and her boyfriend, Steve Hansen, said they gave a statement to Bahamian police and plan on retracing her mother’s last steps.
“They’re just not releasing information because it’s an ongoing investigation, which we understand,” Hansen told ABC News.
“We seem frustrated because of the fact that we haven’t found her yet, and we would hope by now we would have,” he added.
Aylesworth’s mother, Lynette Hooker, has been missing since the evening of April 4 when Brian Hooker said she went overboard. The couple had departed Hope Town on the Abaco Islands for their yacht, Soulmate, in Elbow Cay, when bad weather caused her to fall off their dinghy, Brian Hooker told authorities.
Brian Hooker, 58, was arrested on April 8 and questioned by police. He was released on Monday without charges.
Brian Hooker told ABC News on Tuesday that he was staying in the Bahamas with a “sole focus” of finding his wife, “no matter how likely or unlikely that is.”
He said at the time that he planned “to go back to the boat, and then hire or beg people to help me go find some areas to search.”
But Brian Hooker then left the Bahamas, his attorney said on Wednesday, noting that his mother is not well.
Hansen said he and Aylesworth were surprised to learn her stepfather left.
“We’re not gonna say that he doesn’t deserve to see his mother before she dies, but we’re just saying Karli didn’t get that option. Karli didn’t get the option to see her mother before she died,” Hansen said.
The Royal Bahamas Defence Force said in a statement Thursday that the search and recovery work is ongoing, with operations involving “extensive shoreline patrols, sea patrols, aerial drone surveillance, and submersible drone operations.”
ABC News’ Brian Andrews contributed to this report.
Former President Barack Obama during a campaign event for Representative Mikie Sherrill, Democratic gubernatorial candidate for New Jersey, Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. (Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Barack Obama, in a video shared exclusively with ABC News, called on Virginians to vote in favor of a redistricting measure that could give Democrats a boost in the 2026 midterms if it passes.
“By voting yes, you can push back against the Republicans trying to give themselves an unfair advantage in the midterms,” Obama said in the video shared with ABC News. “By voting yes, you can take a temporary step to level the playing field. And we’re counting on you.”
Over a million Virginians have voted early already, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, in an April 21 statewide referendum that will decide if the Democratic-controlled legislature should be allowed to redraw the state’s congressional map.
That would allow the legislature to implement a map it already advanced that would reconfigure four congressional seats to favor Democrats, which could be decisive in the midterm elections for the U.S. House of Representatives given Republicans’ current slim majority.
Democrats — including Obama, who previously starred in an advertisement for the “yes” side — have argued that it’s a necessary counterweight to mid-decade redistricting in 2025 that redrew nine seats to favor Republicans.
Republicans and other opponents of the redistricting gambit, which is also still facing a court challenge even as the election was allowed to proceed, have slammed the move as unfair to a large swath of Virginia voters. President Donald Trump received 46% of the vote in Virginia in the 2024 election.
“Virginia is a very purple state, and there’s a wide variety of voices in Virginia,” U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans, a Republican whose district is redrawn by the proposed new map, told ABC News. “And for one political party to come in and assume that it’s their way or the highway, and to force that down Virginians’ throats — this will come back to bite them.”
The “Yes” side has fundraised and spent millions more on advertisements than the “No” side, according to campaign finance filings and an analysis by AdImpact. It’s also been bolstered by celeb power from figures such as Kerry Washington, John Legend and Pusha T.
Yet polling has still shown a close race, despite the seeming momentum behind the “Yes” efforts. A Washington Post-Schar School poll conducted in late March, after early voting had begun in the state, found that 52% of likely voters in the referendum supported the move, while 47% were opposed — a result just outside the poll’s margin of error.
Why does it appear so close? J. Miles Coleman, a political expert and analyst at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, told ABC News that could be in part because for Democrats, the stakes may not seem as high as they are for Republicans.
“For Democrats, it would be nice to have these four extra seats out of Virginia if this map gets passed,” he said. “But I just think probably something driving enthusiasm on the Republican side is that, from their point of view, this vote probably seems more existential … they lost their statewide seats last year in a drubbing. They could very well stand to lose a lot of their federal representation.”
But Obama, in the video shared with ABC News, framed the stakes as having national importance.
“By voting yes, you have the chance to do something important — not just for the Commonwealth, but for our entire country,” Obama said in the video.
(The video also serves as a way for Obama to reaffirm his support for the ballot measure, after allies of his harshly criticized mailers that used old quotes from Obama about redistricting to portray him as against the initiative.)
Some Democrats are not onboard.
Outside of an early polling site in Virginia on Thursday, Geoff Warrington, who works in tech and identified himself as a Democrat, told ABC News he had chosen to vote no because he believes it is “relatively unfair to essentially have redistricting temporarily to reallocate seats to sway an election.”
But for some Democratic “yes” voters, the referendum is a way for Democrats to be able to strike back while being locked out of power in the White House and Congress.
“I mean, the Republicans have been playing dirty, so I think the Democrats are good to play dirty,” Adan Hernandez, an engineer, told ABC News at a separate early voting site in Virginia on Thursday.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise speaks alongside House Republican leadership during a news conference on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, on April 15, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — In the dead of night at 2:09 a.m., the House passed a bill to extend FISA through April 30 by unanimous consent, after Republicans tanked procedural votes on the controversial warrantless surveillance law.
The short-term extension buys GOP leaders more time to continue negotiations amid Republican infighting over the program that was set to expire on Monday.
Despite opposition from some GOP hardliners, Speaker Mike Johnson was this week still trying to determine a path forward to muscle through an 18-month clean extension of the program known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
The program allows the federal government to collect communications of foreigners abroad without a warrant, including when those people are interacting with Americans.
According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the U.S. government believes it’s a vital tool for protecting the country against “hostile foreign adversaries, including terrorists, proliferators, and spies, and to inform cybersecurity efforts.”
House Republican leaders postponed a debate and a procedural vote on FISA that had been scheduled for 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday. The Senate now will need to consider the legislation.
President Donald Trump has urged Republicans to back the measure and hosted a group of hardliners at the White House Tuesday night to find a path forward as the law is set to expire on Monday.
“I am asking Republicans to UNIFY, and vote together on the test vote to bring a clean Bill to the floor. We need to stick together when this Bill comes before the House Rules Committee today to keep it CLEAN!” Trump wrote on social media on Wednesday.
“Our Military Patriots desperately need FISA 702, and it is one of the reasons we have had such tremendous SUCCESS on the battlefield,” Trump added. “It has already prevented MANY such Attacks, and it is very important that it remain in full force and effect.”
CIA Director John Ratcliffe attended the House Republican closed-door conference meeting on Wednesday and also advocated for a clean extension of the program.
Hardline Republicans, who oppose a clean extension of the surveillance tool and demand reforms like a warrant requirement, were not convinced to change their position following the meeting.
Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris of Maryland said “no” when asked if progress was made on FISA during the meeting.
“They have to deal with the FISA court’s objection to the warrantless searches,” Harris said.
There has been a continued debate over Section 702 because it sometimes allows the government to collect Americans’ communications without a warrant.
“Discussions are ongoing still,” Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona said leaving.
Rep. Keith Self of Texas, who attended the White House meeting on Tuesday night, said he does not believe a clean extension will pass.
“We’ll see … but, I don’t think the clean extension will pass,” he said.
After the meeting, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise suggested some “minor changes” could be made to the legislation to appease the holdouts but did not divulge specifics.
“FISA has been important for our country’s national security,” Scalise said. “We’ve put some important much needed reforms in place the last time it was up for reauthorization and what President Trump has asked is that now we reauthorize it with those reforms in place, and that’s what we’re working to do. So, we’re having some final conversations. Not all of our members are quite there yet.”
Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said several Republicans “want to see further reforms” to the program.
“We feel like we need improvements. Obviously, we want greater protections for citizens with respect to warrants,” he said. “We want to make sure that there’s greater penalties, for example, for government officials who abuse their authority and power.”
Scalise said Ratcliffe explained to Republicans how FISA is being “used in the real world to stop bad things from happening.”
As he was leaving, Ratcliffe said the meeting “went great.”
Todd Lyons, acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), speaks during a news conference in Nogales, Arizona, US, on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (Ash Ponders/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Todd Lyons, who presided over the agency amid President Donald Trump’s controversial immigration crackdown, is planning to leave his post later this spring.
Lyons said he was leaving his role to spend more time with his family, according to his resignation letter reviewed by ABC News.
“My sons are both reaching a pivotal point in their lives and my wife and I wish to spend as much time as possible with them,” the letter reads. “This was not an easy decision, but I believe it is the right one for me and my family at this time. I am confident that ICE will continue to fulfill its vital responsibilities with integrity and professionalism.”
Lyons thanked the president for allowing him to serve.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced the move in a statement on Thursday and said Lyons’ last day would be May 31.
“Director Lyons has been a great leader of ICE and key player in helping the Trump administration remove murderers, rapists, pedophiles, terrorists, and gang members from American communities,” Mullin said in the statement. “He jumpstarted an agency that had not been allowed to do its job for four years. Thanks to his leadership, American communities are safer.”
The statement went on to say: “We wish him luck on his next opportunity in the private sector.”
As acting director, Lyons oversaw the largest expansion of ICE in U.S. history with funding through the massive tax and policy bill Trump championed last year, known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
During Lyons’ tenure, the Trump administration sent ICE officers into cities across the U.S., including Chicago, Los Angeles and Minneapolis, as part of stepped-up federal immigration enforcement efforts that aimed to fulfill one of Trump’s key campaign pledges.
Democrats, immigration advocates and local officials decried ICE tactics, including allegations of racial profiling and aggressive tactics. Scrutiny of ICE intensified after the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, in Minneapolis in January at the hands of immigration officers.
Members of the Trump administration praised Lyons’ leadership of the agency. In a statement, Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, said: “Todd has served selflessly as a highly respected and effective acting Director of ICE,” pointing to what he called a “record number of removals” in the first year of Trump’s second term, “despite unprecedented challenges.”
In appearances on Capitol Hill before lawmakers, Lyons has faced fierce criticism from Democrats, who have denounced the agency’s tactics and a rising number of deaths of detainees held in ICE custody.
The announcement of Lyons’ departure came the same day he appeared before a House subcommittee for a budget hearing, requesting $5.4 billion to sustain enforcement operations around the country and another $2.8 billion for Homeland Security Investigations.
“Despite routine villainization, ICE personnel are working around the clock to carry out President Trump’s commonsense agenda to make Americans safe again, restore order to our communities, and implement law-and-order policies,” Lyons said in his prepared testimony.
DHS funding remains snarled amid an ongoing partial government shutdown stemming from a dispute on Capitol Hill between Democrats and Republicans over changes to ICE tactics and policies.
Lyons started his service in the Air Force, then with a local police department in Florida before then joining what would become ICE in the late 1990s. He previously served as the head of the Boston ICE field office before becoming acting director.
The announcement of Lyons’ departure comes more than a month after Trump fired former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
NASA’s Artemis II mission astronauts commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen appear at a press conference on April 16, 2026. (NASA)
(HOUSTON, Texas) — Less than a week after returning from their historic 10-day, 694,481-mile journey to the moon and back, the Artemis II crew answered questions on Thursday about their successful mission.
During a news conference at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, home of the Mission Control Center, the three NASA astronauts and one Canadian Space Agency astronaut spoke fondly of their time aboard the Orion spacecraft, Integrity, and recalled how they came together as a crew during the first mission to the moon in more than 50 years.
Reid Wiseman, who served as the Artemis II commander, said, “What an amazing journey that was. First and foremost, Victor, Christina, Jeremy, just thank you. This was an unbelievable adventure, and it was made possible by this crew and the support of each other throughout the whole thing.”
He added, “We are bonded forever. I mean, that’s the closest four humans can be and not be a family.”
“I am here to tell the world: we launched as friends, and we came back as best friends,” he added.
When asked by ABC13 reporter Nick Natario whether the gravity of what they’ve accomplished has hit them and how it may have changed them, the crew said they were focused on completing the mission.
Victor Glover, the pilot for the mission, added, “We did what we said we were going to do, and now we’ve got to step out and just face that reality.”
Christina Koch, one of the flight’s mission specialists, said, “When my husband looked me in the eye on that video call and said, ‘No, really, you’ve made a difference.’ It brought tears to my eyes, and I said, that’s all we ever wanted.”
She added, “When we come before you now, we’ve done this together. We took your hearts with us and your hearts lifted our hearts.”
Jeremy Hansen, the first Canadian to travel into deep space, said, “I found it really refreshing to find out how people have followed the mission and been creative with the mission and there’s lots of funny stuff online. And that really resonates with me a lot, and it just reinforces something I already knew, but humans are just great people in general. We don’t always do great things. We’re not always in our integrity, but our default is to be good and to be good to one another.”
When asked if the experience of traveling to deep space created a “sense of universal connectedness,” Wiseman said, “I turned to Victor, and I said, I don’t think humanity has evolved to the point of being able to comprehend what we’re looking at right now, because it was other worldly and it was amazing.”
In terms of their sleep about Orion, Koch said that “space sleep is the best sleep ever,” and now that she’s back on Earth, she said, unlike after her International Space Station mission, this time, “every time I’ve been waking up or in the first few days, I thought I was floating. I truly thought I was floating and I had to convince myself I wasn’t.”
Wiseman complimented the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System and said it’s ready for the Artemis III mission, scheduled for 2027.
“My own personal opinion, they could put the Artemis III Orion on the Space Launch System tomorrow and launch it, and the crew would be in great shape,” said Wiseman. “This vehicle really handled very well.”
When asked what they brought with them on the trip, Wiseman said he took some notes from friends, some great quotes and a bracelet that his daughter had made for him a few years prior.
The crew was asked what advice they would give to younger people “who are looking skywards.”
Wiseman said one thing that he thinks society has lost is the pursuit of challenging goals.
“You have to go do really hard, really challenging things and you have to go move the needle,” said Wiseman. “We have to get our hands out there and engaged. Our hands and our minds have got to be engaged.”
Glover encouraged young people to “really get comfortable asking questions and then listening to their peers, but also their mentors. I think that’s been a game-changer for all of us.”
Koch added that people should “find your fulfillment,” “do what scares you,” and “support those around you.”
Hansen said people should “just follow the example that people saw here, don’t do it alone, and share what you’re trying to accomplish with others, because you need the support of others to do big things, and so share your goals. Be brave enough to share them.”
With the next Artemis mission scheduled for as early as next year, the crew discussed their contributions to what comes next for NASA and its pursuit of a moon base.
“We were very much lifted up by the notion that we would get to contribute to astronauts doing this all over again, much sooner than we thought that we were going to be focused on the moon base, on surface operations,” said Koch. “And I would say, if nothing else, we are feeling even more excited and just ready to take that on as an agency.”
Wiseman added that “if we had a first flight lander on board that thing, I know at least three of my crewmates would have been in it, trying to land on the moon.”
“We have to be willing to accept a little more risk than we were willing to accept in the past, and to just trust that we will figure it out in real time. We’re not going to be able to pound everything flat before we go. We’re going to have to trust each other and crews and Mission Control to work through real problems,” Hansen added.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a rendering of the proposed East Wing of the White House while speaking to members of the media onboard Air Force One on March 29, 2026, while en route to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, from West Palm Beach Florida. President Trump returned to Washington D.C. on Sunday following a weekend trip to Florida. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The federal judge presiding over the White House ballroom case on Thursday clarified his ruling to say that security-related work can go on, particularly below ground, but that work on the ballroom itself still cannot proceed without authorization from lawmakers.
Judge Richard Leon ruled on March 31 that President Donald Trump can’t build the planned ballroom without authorization from Congress.
In addition to issuing Thursday’s clarification, Judge Leon stayed his ruling by another seven days to allow the White House to pursue further appeals.
The revised decision came at the direction of a D.C. Circuit appeals court panel, which ruled 2 to 1 last Saturday that Leon’s initial ruling needed to be clarified.
But in elaborating on the exceptions in his order, Leon also warned the Trump administration that security concerns are not a “blank check to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity,” saying that it is “neither a reasonable nor a correct reading” of his order for the White House to claim that the ballroom is itself part of a security upgrade, as it did in a recent court filing.
“It is, to say the least, incredible, if not disingenuous, that Defendants now argue that my Order does not stop ballroom construction because of the safety-and-security exception!” Leon wrote.
Leon said his revised order would allow for “below-ground construction of national security facilities, work necessary to provide for presidential security, and construction necessary to protect and secure the White House and the construction site itself.”
Trump officials argued that items such as bulletproof windows, missile-resistant columns and drone-proof roofs — features of the planned ballroom — were necessary to enhance security of the executive mansion.
“While these features may well be beneficial, Defendants have not provided any national security justification for why these features must be installed immediately such that they should be excluded from the scope of the injunction,” Leon said, noting the appeals court panel’s own presumption that it would likely take months, if not years, for those upgrades to be completed.
Leon concluded his opinion by saying he has “no desire or intention to be dragooned into the role of construction manager,” and trusts that Trump and his aides will implement his ruling “in good faith and with the benefit of this clarification.”
Pointing to his latest stay, which is now set to expire next Thursday, Leon warned in a footnote that “any above-ground construction over the next seven days that is not in compliance with my Amended Order is at risk of being taken down pending the resolution of this case.”
The Trump administration filed a notice of appeal to the D.C. Circuit court following the judge’s revised order Thursday.
Trump also blasted Leon’s clarification in a social media post Thursday afternoon.
“This highly political Judge, and his illegal overreach, is out of control, and costing our Nation greatly,” Trump wrote.
Saying that the ballroom project will include “Bomb Shelters, a State of the Art Hospital and Medical Facilities, Protective Partitioning, Top Secret Military Installations, Structures, and Equipment, Protective Missile Resistant Steel, Columns, Roofs, and Beams, Drone Proof Ceilings and Roofs, Military Grade Venting, and Bullet, Ballistic, and Blast Proof Glass,” Trump claimed that Judge Leon’s ruling means that “no future President, living in the White House without this Ballroom, can ever be Safe and Secure at Events, Future Inaugurations, or Global Summits.”
The White House announced the construction of a 90,000-square foot ballroom in late July, and demolition began suddenly on the East Wing in late October when workers were spotted tearing down the wing of the White House.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit in December seeking to stop the ballroom construction until the project completes the standard federal review process and the administration seeks public comment on the proposed changes to the White House.
