(BRISTOL, Conn.) — Two police officers have been shot and killed and one left with serious injuries in a shooting that took place overnight in Bristol, Connecticut.
Connecticut State Police personnel have been requested to assist the Bristol Police Department with an investigation of a shooting involving three police officers that reportedly took place on Redstone Hill Road, authorities said.
“There were 3 officers involved in this OIS. We are still working on gathering info & providing a press conference. Once we have a location & time we will update everyone. Please be patient as we are working with investors & all that are involved to gather accurate info,” Connecticut State Police said in a statement released on social media.
“We ask your thoughts and prayers be with the families, the officer and all those impacted,” Connecticut State Police said.
(WASHINGTON) — A Treasury Department watchdog will probe whether Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis improperly used COVID-19 relief funding to pay for migrant flights, ABC News confirmed Wednesday.
In a letter obtained by ABC News, the agency’s inspector general’s office said it has audit work “planned,” based on DeSantis’ recent transport of undocumented immigrants to to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, among other places.
The letter was sent in response to members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation’s Sept. 16 request that Treasury look into DeSantis’ compliance with parameters placed on funding use from the Coronavirus Relief Fund established by the CARES Act and the Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, created under the American Rescue Plan Act. Politico first reported on the letter.
“We have already sought information from Florida about appropriate use of that fund,” Richard K. Delmar, deputy inspector general for the Treasury Department said in the letter, sent to Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., and five Massachusetts Democratic House members.
“We plan to get this work underway as quickly as possible, consistent with meeting our other oversight mandates and priorities, both in pandemic recovery programs as well as the other Treasury programs and operations for which we have responsibility.”
DeSantis Communications Director Taryn Fenske said that the Florida Office of Policy and Budget spoke with the Treasury inspector general’s office “weeks ago” about using interest on the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. The budget office articulated to Treasury that “our use of this interest, as appropriated by the Florida Legislature, is permissible under the SLFRF Final Rule,” Fenske said.
“Reviews by Treasury are typical and, as stated by the OIG, are ‘part of its oversight responsibilities,'” she added.
Treasury’s Office of the Inspector General did not respond to multiple requests for comment from ABC News.
Florida state legislators earlier this year laid out in the state budget that $12 million in interest earned off COVID aid be used to pay for the transport of “unauthorized aliens from this state,” not that the state directly used the federal COVID funds. The DeSantis administration maintains that the $12 million put forth for migrant transportation was passed in June as part of the state’s budget.
“As you may know, in this past legislative session the Florida Legislature appropriated $12 million to implement a program to facilitate the transport of illegal immigrants from this state consistent with federal law. Florida’s immigration relocation program both targets human smugglers found in Florida and preempts others from entering,” Fenske told ABC News in September.
Treasury will “specifically confirm whether interest earned on (the) funds was utilized by Florida related to immigration activities, and if so, what conditions and limitations apply to such use,” according to the letter sent to members of Congress.
The Florida Department of Transportation disclosed in public records released by the state late Friday laid out that Vertol Systems, a charter airline company, was the vendor Florida hired to contract with airlines to fly the group of Venezuelans. Records show that the state paid the company $615,000 on Sept. 8, less than a week before the flights to Martha’s Vineyard, and another $950,000 on Sept. 19, a day before another reported flight carrying migrants to President Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware, was canceled.
On Sept. 14, DeSantis’s administration chartered two planes carrying about 50 migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, an island enclave off the coast of Massachusetts that is famed for its seasonal visitors like the Obamas.
Some of the migrants from Venezuela, including parents and children, said they thought they were being taken to communities with jobs for them and other resources, they or their attorneys later said. But local officials said they did not know about their arrival and scrambled to accommodate them.
Democrats have cast the migrant transports from Republican DeSantis as an inhumane political stunt.
Attorneys representing some of the migrants filed a class-action lawsuit in late September, claiming “material misrepresentations [were] made in furtherance of the unlawful scheme.” And a Florida lawmaker filed his own complaint on Sept. 22, arguing the state monies for the flights were illegally used.
The sheriff in San Antonio, Texas, has also opened an investigation, telling ABC News: “We have to determine what exactly happened — what was said, what was done, how were these people treated while they were here in my county? And if we can prove criminal intent, then we may be charging somebody with a crime.”
Markey responded on Wednesday to Treasury’s letter, noting that he hopes, on behalf of the migrants and Massachusetts residents who offered to help them upon their arrival, that the investigation “sheds light” on whether the Republican governor misused funds.
“I applaud the swift response from the Treasury’s Office of the Inspector General,” said Markey. “For the sake of the migrants who were lured onto charter planes under false pretenses, and for the commendable Commonwealth residents who rallied together to offer support, I hope that this investigation sheds light on whether Governor DeSantis misused funds that were intended for COVID relief for Floridians.”
Oren Sellstrom, the litigation director for Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston (LCR) told ABC News that his team welcomes news of the Treasury Department’s investigation and that he believes that at the end of their inquiry, they’ll find that DeSantis misused those funds intended for COVID relief to violate the rights of vulnerable migrants.
His team is representing many of the migrants that were flown to the Martha’s Vineyard and who are part of the class-action lawsuit against Florida officials. One of the claims in that lawsuit is that DeSantis misused those funds.
“I believe that they will find that federal funds were misused, that money that was intended for local governments to respond to a public health emergency, were instead spent to violate the constitutional rights of a very vulnerable population. That’s a misuse of federal funds and we fully expect that’s what the investigation will determine,” he said.
ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel, Miles Cohen and Armando Garcia contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York rejected for a second time on Wednesday former President Donald Trump’s attempt to have the United States government be substituted for him as a defendant in a defamation lawsuit by former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll and refused to stop a deposition by Trump scheduled for next week.
“Completing those depositions — which already have been delayed for years — would impose no undue burden on Mr. Trump,” Judge Lewis Kaplan said. “The defendant should not be permitted to run the clock out on plaintiff’s attempt to gain a remedy for what allegedly was a serious wrong.”
Trump is scheduled to sit for a deposition Oct. 19.
“We are pleased that Judge Kaplan agreed with our position not to stay discovery in this case,” Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said.
Trump had asked to put the case on pause while a different court resolves a matter that could ultimately make it go away.
Trump claimed a decision last month by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that he was an employee of the federal government meant the United States could substitute for him as the defendant. The government cannot be sued for defamation.
Kaplan said Trump’s view was premature since the appellate court left open the question of whether Trump was acting within the scope of his employment when he denied Carroll’s rape claim and, allegedly, defamed her by degrading her appearance.
The 2nd Circuit asked the D.C. Court of Appeals, whose law governs the scope of conduct by government employees, to weigh in.
“How the question ultimately will be resolved remains unknown. In the meantime, substitution would be premature,” Kaplan said.
An attorney for Trump, Alina Habba, said in a statement, “We look forward to establishing on the record that this case is, and always has been, entirely without merit.”
(WASHINGTON) — Will Americans see President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket again in 2024?
Biden, sitting down with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday night, said he won’t be making a decision on running for reelection until after the midterms — but insisted that he could defeat former President Donald Trump if they were to face off a second time.
“I believe I can beat Donald Trump again,” Biden said.
Biden, who turns 80 next month, said he intends on running for reelection. But polling has shown that many Democrats are looking elsewhere for a nominee.
The latest ABC News/Washington Post survey found just 35% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents favor Biden to be their candidate in 2024. More than half of these voters, 56%, want the party to pick someone else.
Questioned about concerns about his age, Biden said to look at his record and invited Tapper to join him for morning workouts.
“Name me a president in recent history who’s gotten as much done as I have in the first two years,” Biden said.
“It’s a matter of can you do the job,” he said. “I believe I can do the job.”
Trump also has been teasing another White House run, but has yet to formally declare his candidacy. In a head-to-head matchup, the ABC News poll found Biden and Trump to be essentially tied with 48% of Americans backing Biden and 46% backing Trump.
But first, Democrats have to make it through the midterms — a cycle historically unkind to the party in power. Forecasts from FiveThirtyEight show Republicans slightly favored to win back majority control of the House and Democrats slightly favored to maintain their advantage in the Senate.
Biden addressed hot-button topics like the economy and scrutiny of his son Hunter Biden in the interview with CNN.
Biden admits ‘slight’ recession is a possibility
Republicans have zeroed in on the administration’s handling of the economy, placing blame on Biden for the worst inflation in decades. Amid high prices, the Federal Reserve has implemented several interest rate hikes in hopes of bringing down costs but at the risk of causing a recession.
Biden at first downplayed recession fears, telling Tapper “no” when asked if Americans should prepare for a downturn. But then he slightly amended his answer, saying a recession is “possible.”
“Every six months they look down the next six months and say what’s going to happen. It hasn’t happened yet,” the president said. “I don’t think there will be a recession. If it is, it will be a very slight recession.”
Biden touted his administration’s work on the economy, citing the passage of the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act.
“It’s possible,” Biden said of a recession. “I don’t anticipate it.”
Biden responds to Hunter Biden reports
House Republicans are promising a congressional investigation of Hunter Biden if they retake the chamber this cycle.
Biden’s son is under scrutiny amid reports that federal prosecutors believe they have enough evidence to charge him with tax crimes and lying on a federal form when purchasing a gun. Sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News that federal agents believe there is enough to charge Hunter Biden with tax violations and with illegally obtaining a firearm.
The president came to his son’s defense, saying he’s “confident” Hunter Biden is being straightforward about what happened.
“First of all, I’m proud of my son,” Biden said. “This is a kid who got — not a kid, he’s a grown man — he got hooked on, like many families have had happened, hooked on drugs. He’s overcome that and established a new life.”
Biden continued, “I didn’t know anything about it, but turns out that when he made [the] application to purchase a gun, what happened was — I guess you get asked the question are you on drugs or use drugs, he said no. And he wrote about saying no in his book. I have great confidence in my son.”
(LONDON) — Ukraine’s nuclear energy company has accused Russia of “kidnapping” a top official at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant for the second time this month, amid growing concerns about the safety and security of the Russian-controlled facility.
Energoatom claimed that Russian forces kidnapped Valery Martynyuk, the deputy general director for human resources of the plant, on Monday and “are holding him in an unknown place.”
Earlier this month, Energoatom said that Russia had seized the director general of the plant, Ihor Murashov. He was released two days later and has not returned to the facility, officials said.
The Zaporizhzhia plant has been caught in the crossfire of the war nearly from the start. Shortly after invading neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, Russian troops stormed the plant, strategically located on the banks of the Dnipro River in the country’s southeast. Russian forces gained control of the plant, though it continues to be run by Ukrainian staff as it supplies electricity to the country.
Experts and workers have raised alarms about the potential for a catastrophic nuclear disaster as it continues to come under shelling, and staff have reported that the conditions can be intimidating and stressful.
The alleged kidnappings come amid renewed tensions at the plant and increased attacks on the Zaporizhzhia region, where the plant is located. Zaporizhzhia is one of the four regions where Russia held sham “referendums” to annex the territory in violation of international laws.
On Oct. 5, the same day Russian President Vladimir Putin signed laws claiming the annexation of the regions, the Kremlin announced plans for its own personnel to supervise operations of the Zaporizhzhia plant. Energoatom chief Petro Kotin rejected the plan and said Ukraine will continue to operate the plant.
The staff at the facility have faced “enormous pressure,” including recent demands to sign a new employment contract with the Russian nuclear company Rosatom while Energoatom urges them not to, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog.
With the latest incident, Energoatom claimed in a statement on Telegram that “the Russians are trying to get the much-needed information about the personal affairs of Zaporizhzhia NPP employees in order to force Ukrainian personnel to work at Rosatom as soon as possible,” accusing the Russians of torturing staff.
Kotin has previously said he believes that Russia intends to switch power to Russian-controlled areas. If Russia is able to switch the grid to Russian-controlled areas, Ukraine could also lose a significant source of power. In August, Kotin told ABC News that nuclear power generated at the Zaporizhzhya plant supplies around 20% of Ukraine’s energy.
In demanding the release of Murashov, Kotin called on Russia to “stop immediately the acts of nuclear terrorism towards the management and personnel.”
Russia has not publicly commented on the kidnapping allegations.
The IAEA, which has staff at the plant, has also not commented on the latest kidnapping allegations, though it said Murashov’s detention had “an immediate and serious impact on decision-making in ensuring the safety and security of the plant.”
The group has also raised concerns about the ability of the staff to “fulfill their safety and security duties and have the capacity to make decisions free of undue pressure.”
The staff has been “subjected to unacceptable pressure, carrying out their crucial work tasks under increasingly difficult conditions with potentially severe consequences for nuclear safety and security,” the IAEA said.
The leaders of the Group of Seven industrial powers condemned Russia’s actions at the plant “and the pressure exerted on the personnel of the facility” in a joint statement on Tuesday.
The conditions at the plant, which include reports of staff working at gunpoint, undermine morale and the safety of the facility, said Nickolas Roth, senior director of nuclear materials security for the Nuclear Threat Initiative.
“It’s essential that there’ll be strong leaders at Zaporizhzhia who are willing to prioritize the safety and security of the facility, and I worry that by essentially terrorizing the senior management of this facility, that that has been undermined,” he told ABC News.
Ongoing shelling near the facility has disrupted its power supply in recent days and weeks. The kidnapping reports only add to the challenging conditions at the plant, Roth said.
“We need to not just protect the physical facility itself — the reactors, the spent fuel pools, the off-site power lines — but we have to protect the people there, as well,” he said. “This is not sustainable. You can’t operate a nuclear facility safely under these conditions.”
The reported kidnappings come amid continued calls for a security protection zone around the Russian-occupied facility — the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.
Military attacks increase the risk of a nuclear accident if the plant’s external power lines are damaged, according to the IAEA.
“Now more than ever, during these extremely difficult times, a protection zone must be established around ZNPP,” Rafael Grossi, the IAEA’s director general, said in a statement Wednesday, as he met with Putin to discuss a demilitarized zone around the plant. “We can’t afford to lose more time. We must do everything in our power to help ensure that a nuclear accident does not happen during this tragic conflict.”
The Kremlin has repeatedly rejected any proposals to remove its troops, with a Russian Foreign Ministry official previously saying it would “make the plant even more vulnerable.”
(LONDON) — An American citizen has been killed fighting in Ukraine, a U.S. State Department spokesperson confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday.
The State Department spokesperson did not confirm the man’s identity, but the sister of Dane Partridge confirmed he was the victim. The State Department only verified that a U.S. citizen had recently been killed in the Donbas region of Ukraine.
ABC News spoke with Dane’s sister Jenny Partridge Corry by phone who confirmed the death.
ABC News’ Amantha Cherry contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — A former member of the Oath Keepers militia group testified Wednesday about the large stash of weapons stored by the group at a hotel just outside Washington, D.C., during the Jan. 6, 2001, assault on the Capitol, as prosecutors provided more details on the group’s planning and private communications leading up to the attack.
“I had not seen that many weapons in one location since I was in the military,” said Terry Cummings, a former member of the group’s Florida chapter who was subpoenaed for his testimony and has not been charged or accused of wrongdoing in connection with Jan. 6.
Cummings testified that he traveled to D.C. with Oath Keeper Jason Dolan, one of three members of the group who earlier pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy, as well as with Oath Keeper Kenneth Harrelson, one of the five defendants — including Kelly Meggs, Jessica Watkins, Thomas Caldwell, and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes — who are currently being tried on seditious conspiracy charges. All five have pleaded not guilty.
Cummings said he stored his AR-15 style weapon at the group’s so-called “QRF” or Quick Reaction Force hotel in Virginia, and showed members of the jury the weapon as well as a canister apparently filled with ammunition magazines.
Prosecutors have previously released photos showing Harrelson in the hotel rolling what appears to be at least one rifle case down a hallway.
They displayed another surveillance photo during Wednesday’s hearing showing Cummings with Harrelson in the hallway together.
Cummings testified that his intention of bringing his weapon was not for use in an “offensive situation” but rather in a “show of force,” as a means of deterring potential attacks. Defense attorneys for the Oath Keepers currently on trial have made similar arguments, noting that at no point were members of the QRF instructed to come into the city.
Cummings said that on the morning of Jan. 6 he traveled to the Ellipse in D.C. where the “Stop the Steal” rally was taking place. He said he was told that Meggs was in touch with the organizers of the rally, and that they were given passes to the rally’s VIP area. He said he and other Oath Keepers then met with a VIP who they were supposed to escort to the Capitol — a Hispanic woman whose name he didn’t recall.
Cummings testified that the group left before Trump’s speech ended and began walking to the Capitol — at which point Meggs received word the Capitol had been “breached.”
Cummings said that when they got to the Capitol, it was like nothing he had ever seen. He said that when he heard Meggs suggest they go into the Capitol building, he didn’t think it was a good idea.
“My understanding was that Congress was in session, and I knew the vice president was going to be there, and I personally I didn’t think it was a good idea to enter,” Cummings testified.
On cross-examination from Rhodes’ attorney, Cummings testified that he was never part of a conversation in the days leading up to the attack or on Jan. 6 in which people discussed plans to storm the Capitol building. Rhodes’ attorney stressed to the jury that when the group was told during their walk to the Capitol that the building had been breached, no members began running to join the riot or otherwise discussed plans to enter the building.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, introduced texts and private messages between Rhodes and several of the Oath Keepers who have already pleaded guilty in connection with the case, including Dolan, Brian Ulrich and Joshua James.
In one message from Dec. 5, Ulrich wrote, “I seriously wonder what it would take just to get every patriot marching around the Capitol armed just to show our government how powerful they are.”
On Dec. 14, Rhodes texted a group of Georgia Oath Keepers, “Things are in the works. That’s all I can say, I am still in DC for a reason. Yes, take that as a big hint.”
He then added, “I have to try to get Trump the message on the necessity of him waging a war on the enemy NOW while he is still President and Commander in Chief.”
One day later, according to records, Rhodes told the group he passed a message to Trump “through one contact” and was working with others.
According to the messages, the group began discussing traveling to D.C. for Jan. 6 as early as Dec. 20, one day after Trump’s tweeted that Jan. 6 “Will be wild.”
The trial could last until mid-November, D.C. district judge Amit Mehta said.
(LOS ANGELES) — Former Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez announced Wednesday she has resigned her seat, amid demands for her to step down after a recording emerged of her making racist and offensive comments about fellow council members.
In a lengthy statement, Martinez, who served on the council for the past nine years, thanked her staff, saying, “I’m sorry that we’re ending it this way. This is no reflection on you. I know you all will continue to do great work and fight for our district. I’ll be cheering you on.”
“While I take the time to look inwards and reflect, I ask that you give me space and privacy,” she said.
The resignation comes hours after the Los Angeles City Council adjourned its meeting before even starting after protesters demanded the resignations of Martinez and two other council members on the recording.
Protesters chanting in the LA City Council’s chambers caused repeated delays to the start of the meeting, chanting “no resignation, no meeting” and “step down or we shut down.”
A recording posted anonymously to Reddit over the weekend captured Martinez making allegedly racist and offensive comments about a fellow council member’s son. Two other city council members were also on the recording, with protesters calling on them to resign, as well.
The three council members on the recording were not in the chamber Wednesday, according to President Pro Tempore Mitch O’Farrell.
“For Los Angeles to heal, and for its City Council to govern, there must be accountability. The resignation of Councilmember Nury Martinez is the first, necessary step in that process,” O’Farrell said in a statement, while calling on the two other council members implicated in the scandal to resign, as well.
“There is no other way forward,” he said.
Martinez resigned from her role as city council president on Monday, but remained a member of the council. On Tuesday, she announced she was taking a leave of absence from her position.
O’Farrell tried to quiet protesters several times on Wednesday, even saying the council would open the floor for public comments, but protests continued. O’Farrell called two recesses at the beginning of the meeting to quiet protesters, without success. The meeting was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and was adjourned just over an hour later after the council was unable to conduct any business.
Protesters could be heard criticizing members of the council who were in the chamber for trying to continue the meeting.
In a recording of three Latino city council members, Martinez allegedly referred to white council member Mike Bonin’s son, who is Black, as an “accessory.” The recording was first posted to Reddit and later deleted. The Los Angeles Times reviewed the recording and confirmed it was authentic.
ABC News has not independently confirmed the authenticity of the recording.
In the recording, Martinez allegedly said Bonin’s young son behaved “parece changuito,” or “like a monkey.” In a statements released on Monday and Tuesday, Martinez apologized to her colleagues, Bonin and his family.
Bonin appeared at the beginning of the meeting via video call, telling the council he tested positive for COVID-19 and would be appearing remotely.
Protesters gathered at City Hall on Tuesday, calling for Martinez and the city council members in the recording to resign from their positions. protesters even made their way into the chamber where a council meeting was being held, disrupting it from starting while chanting “resign now” and “not one more day.”
Bonin condemned the statements and called for Martinez and the two other city council members allegedly speaking with her on the recording — Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo — to resign.
The California Department of Justice announced it was launching an investigation into the Los Angeles City Council redistricting process on Wednesday as well. The recording that captured the racist comments was made while the three were discussing redistricting, offering a rare look into the bitterness surrounding those decisions.
“The leaked audio has cast doubt on a cornerstone of our political processes for Los Angeles,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “Given these unique circumstances, my office will investigate to gather the facts, work to determine the truth, and take action, as necessary, to ensure the fair application of our laws. We will endeavor to bring the truth to light as part of the sorely-needed work to restore confidence in the redistricting process for the people of our state.”
On Tuesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden was “glad to see” Martinez’s resignation, and added that all participants in the conversation “should resign.”
Jean-Pierre did not appear to recognize that Martinez only resigned as president of the council, not as a member.
“The president is glad to see that one of the participants in that conversation has resigned but they all should,” Jean-Pierre said. “He believes that they all should resign. The language that was used and tolerated during that conversation was unacceptable, and it was appalling.”
ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Pennsylvania is unlikely to have results on election night this November, the state’s top election official said Tuesday, because of a law limiting when mail votes can be processed.
That means voters may again have to wait to learn who wins key races in the battleground state, where the vote count in 2020’s presidential election lasted for days.
“We must again ask for patience,” Leigh Chapman, Pennsylvania’s acting secretary of state, told reporters over Zoom.
“Official results will be available within a few days,” she said, predicting that unofficial results also wouldn’t be available on Nov. 8. “This delay does not mean anything nefarious is happening. It simply means that the process is working as it is designed to work in Pennsylvania and that election officials are doing their job to count every vote.”
Chapman attributed the expected delay to the state’s General Assembly deciding not to pass legislation allowing counties to begin processing mail-in ballots before Election Day.
As it stands, processing cannot begin until 7 a.m. that day.
News organizations often declare a winner before an official count is issued, based on a detailed analysis of the partial results. But in the 2020 presidential race, it still took four days for ABC News to call Pennsylvania for Joe Biden, a reflection both of how thin the margins tend to be in the longtime purple state and the increased use of mail ballots.
In another election season change, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday vacated an appellate judge’s ruling that had required Pennsylvania counties to count undated ballots, though state rules require voters to date their mail-in envelopes.
But Chapman is still allowing undated ballots to be counted, saying in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon that the Supreme Court ruling “was not based on the merits of the issue and does not affect the prior decision of the Commonwealth Court in any way.”
According to Chapman, more than one million mail-in ballots have been requested, with roughly 5% having been returned. An overwhelming majority of voters requesting mail-in ballots are Democrats, she said. During the last midterm elections, in 2018, roughly 5 million total Pennsylvanians voted.
The state is taking a stronger stance on voter intimidation, Chapman told reporters, and will require county officials to report any intimidation that occurs at drop boxes. The boxes have been baselessly criticized by some Republicans for fostering fraud.
Chapman cited instances in which sheriff’s deputies in Berks County have asked voters at drop boxes if they are returning their own ballot or someone else’s (Pennsylvania law forbids people to return another person’s ballot except in certain circumstances).
“My concern is that when there is law enforcement present, when there is questioning of voters at drop boxes, there could be potential for voter intimidation,” she said. “A lot of voters might not even decide to show up and return their ballot because of that concern.”
Asked whether she worries that Doug Mastriano — the Republican gubernatorial candidate who led the effort to challenge Pennsylvania’s election results in 2020 and has organized a vast poll watcher recruitment effort this fall — may leverage this year’s expected vote count delay to question the results of his own race, Chapman declined to say.
“I don’t comment on what one candidate says or does,” she said, “but my job is to ensure that every eligible voter in Pennsylvania is registered to vote, can cast their ballot and have it counted.”
(WATERBURY, Conn.) — A Connecticut jury awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to 15 plaintiffs defamed by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones when the Infowars host called the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting a hoax staged by actors following a script written by the government to build support for gun control.
With the plaintiffs sobbing in the gallery, the clerk read out the verdict in which the jury decided compensatory damages for both slander and for emotional distress.
The compensatory damages total about a billion dollars, far exceeding the award in a prior case in Texas. He was ordered to pay just shy of $50 million in that case, which was decided in August.
The jury also awarded attorneys fees and costs Wednesday.
Jones, who was on the air with his radio program as the verdict was read, told his listeners, “This must be what hell is like — they just read out the damages, even though you don’t got the money.”
His attorney, attorney Norm Pattis, told reporters they plan to appeal the decision.
“Candidly, from start to finish, the fix was in in this case,” Pattis said outside the courthouse. “We disagree with the basis of the default, we disagree with the court’s evidentiary rulings.”
“In more than 200 trials in the course of my career, I’ve never seen a trial like this,” he continued.
The plaintiffs, relatives of victims and an FBI agent who responded to the scene, testified that they were tormented by Jones’ followers who believed his lies about the massacre. The families said they were harassed and threatened in the decade since the shooting.
One of the plaintiffs, Robbie Parker, whose 6-year-old daughter Emilie was killed in the Sandy Hook massacre, thanked his lawyers for helping him “fight and stand up to what had been happening to me for so long.”
“I’m just proud that what we were able to accomplish was just to simply tell the truth. And it shouldn’t be this hard. And it shouldn’t be this scary,” he said in an emotional statement given outside the courthouse.
Parker expressed gratitude for the jury “not just because of their verdict, but for what they had to endure, what they had to listen to,” he continued.
Jones testified he believed at the time the shooting might have been staged but he has since said he now believes it’s real. He declined to apologize to the families on the stand in this trial, saying he had already apologized enough.
A judge last year found Jones and Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, liable in the defamation lawsuit, with plaintiffs that include an FBI agent who responded to the scene and eight families of victims that Jones called actors.
The plaintiffs’ attorney had asked that Jones pay $550 million to a group of Sandy Hook parents, who claim the Infowars host spread lies about the mass shooting that killed 26 people, including 20 elementary school children.
The attorney, Chris Mattei, asked the six jurors to “think about the scale of the defamation,” citing as one example Jones’ claim the families, “faked their 6- or 7-year-old’s death.”
Pattis told jurors it was not their job to bankrupt Jones so he would stop broadcasting lies.
Pattis said he represents a “despised human being” but balked at the half-billion-dollar sum proposed by the plaintiffs’ attorney.
“It would take a person earning $100,000 a year hundreds of years to make $550 million,” Pattis said during his closing statement.
Jones faces a third, and final, trial that could result in another hefty damage award.
