(WASHINGTON) — On Jan. 6, 2021, two police officers who nicknamed each other “dad” and “son” loaded their car with meals and a wooden stick, met with a neighbor and drove from Rocky Mount, Virginia, to Washington, D.C. They allegedly stormed the Capitol with gas masks, took a picture next to a statue and drove home discussing the “next civil war.”
On Wednesday afternoon, they both showed up at D.C. Federal Court, yards away from the Capitol. One took the stand as a witness for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The other was the defendant.
As part of Jacob Fracker’s plea deal for storming the Capitol, he testified on Wednesday against the U.S. Attorney’s Office in a case against his longtime friend and former colleague Thomas Robertson. He hopes to gain a more lenient sentence for cooperating with the trial, he confirmed during his testimony.
“Could you tell us how you’re feeling about being here today?” a U.S. attorney asked Fracker at the beginning of testimony.
“I absolutely hate this,” Fracker said in a shaky voice, adding he “never thought it would be like this.”
“Why did you never think this is what it would be like?” the attorney asked.
“I’ve always been on the other side of things,” Fracker responded. “The good guy side, so to speak.”
The testimony came on day two of the trial for Robertson, who faces five felonies and one misdemeanor after allegedly storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 and destroying his cellphone. Witnesses, including police officers and FBI agents, have pointed to footage from that day, at times identifying Robertson in brief skirmishes.
Robertson’s lawyer has said he was invited into the Capitol by an officer, stayed for only 10 minutes and didn’t assault anyone or cause any damage.
Fracker talked extensively about the buildup and aftermath of the trip with Robertson. Robertson, who is 17 years older, served as a mentor on the force for Fracker, both of whom had military ties.
“Is this relationship you have with him part of why you’re nervous today?” a U.S. attorney asked.
“Absolutely,” Fracker said.
The two stayed close after they were both fired from the Rocky Mount Police Department following their arrests a week after the riot.
Fracker said he gave his phone to Robertson in the days following the riot to “get rid of it.” He said Wednesday he does not know what happened to it.
Fracker identified Robertson as having a wooden stick, which has become a key component of the trial. The prosecution says that he used it as a weapon, while Robertson’s counsel has argued that he used it as a walking stick due to injuries sustained during his military duty. Video shows him using it in a “port arms” position, a military and police defensive tactic used to push past others, several witnesses said.
The two decided to go to the Capitol just a few days before after Robertson extended a “casual invite” to Fracker, he said. The two believed that the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump, and they wanted to mount pressure to overturn the results.
The two packed guns and their police badges in the car they drove through Virginia, but ultimately decided to leave them in the vehicle. They were wary about identifying themselves as police officers due to hostility toward those in the profession, Fracker said.
Recalling one brief interaction from Jan. 6, Fracker said he attempted to place himself in between officers that he believed were separated from their group and a crowd of rioters. One of them was missing head protection, he said, and the crowd was “wildly getting out of hand.” The attorney asked him if he tried to help police once he entered the Capitol, and he said he did not. He then walked through the Capitol, past broken glass, flipped furniture and alarms, and took pictures once he reunited with Robertson, he said during testimony.
The two both made social media posts that were used as exhibits in court.
“CNN and the Left are just mad because we attacked the government who is the problem and not some random small business,” Robertson wrote.
On Facebook, Fracker posted, “Lol to anyone who’s possibly concerned about the picture of me going around… Sorry I hate freedom? …Not like I did anything illegal…y’all do what you feel you need to…”
Referencing his social media posts, the U.S. attorney asked: Do you still feel that way today, and how do you feel sitting here?
“The person in those videos, the photos that day, at the time it was all fun and games,” Fracker said. “Here lately, I’ve had it presented to me or shown to me for what it is. That’s not the person I am. That’s not how I act.”
“I know for a fact my mom would slap me in the face if she saw what I was doing that day,” he added. “So I sit here today just ashamed of my actions. I didn’t have to do all that stuff. But I did.”
Fracker is set to be cross-examined by Robertson’s counsel on Thursday morning.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with troops crossing the border from Belarus and Russia. Moscow’s forces have since been met with “stiff resistance” from Ukrainians, according to U.S. officials.
Russian forces retreated last week from the Kyiv suburbs, leaving behind a trail of destruction. After graphic images emerged of civilians lying dead in the streets of Bucha, U.S. and European officials accused Russian troops of committing war crimes.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Apr 06, 8:05 pm
Obama calls war in Ukraine ‘tragedy of historic proportions’
Former President Barack Obama weighed in on the Ukraine-Russia conflict Wednesday during his appearance at the Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy conference and called the war a “tragedy of historic proportions.”
“It is a bracing reminder for democracies that have gotten flabby, and confused and feckless around the stakes of things that we tended to take for granted: rule of law, freedom of press and conscience … that you have to fight for that information,” he said.
Obama said Russian President Vladimir Putin was “always ruthless.”
“For him to bet the farm in this way, I would have not necessarily predicted by him five years ago,” he said.
Obama added he sees some hope given the response of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the country’s residents.
“He has the potential of preventing a maximalist victory for Putin and over the long term may allow for an independent Ukraine,” Obama said.
-ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd
Apr 06, 7:36 pm
Zelenskyy vows that Russia won’t succeed in hiding evidence of atrocities
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during his daily address Russia’s leadership is now afraid after photos and videos of their army’s atrocities in Bucha, and are trying to cover up their actions.
But the president vowed that the country won’t succeed in hiding their violence.
“If the world has started a debate about whether it is permissible to call what the Russian military did on the territory of Ukraine genocide, the search for truth can no longer be stopped. You can’t roll it back in any way,” he said.
Zelenskyy praised the new U.S. sanctions that suspend Russia’s ability to use U.S. bank accounts and related assets to pay its debt.
“This package has a spectacular look, but this is not enough,” he said.
Zelenskyy added, “we will continue to insist on a complete blockade of the Russian banking system from international finance.”
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Apr 06, 4:37 pm
White House will focus on mitigating cost on Americans: Psaki
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told ABC News Wednesday that the administration is focused on mitigating the war’s cost for the American people, including by releasing restricted petroleum reserves.
She said the administration will “take steps to reduce the impact on the American people over time.”
Psaki was also asked by ABC News if the rate of financial assistance the U.S. has provided to Ukraine is sustainable for a long-term war.
Psaki acknowledged that with Putin consolidating his troops, “We’re entering a new phase of the conflict that could last for some time.”
“It doesn’t mean it will look exactly the same or the needs or the resources will be exactly the same, and that is something we will continue to assess in our conversations with the Ukrainians, as well as with our allies and partners around the world,” she added.
Psaki noted that the administration’s current goal is to continue to amp up military and humanitarian aid.
“There will be different needs that will come about over the course of time,” she said. “And that’s something we are of course committed to continuing to support their recovery from this their continued fight from this, but I can’t make an assessment about sustaining because obviously this war, and the needs, will change over the course of time”
-ABC News’ Armando Tonatiuh Torres-García, Mary Bruce
Apr 06, 4:20 pm
UN special adviser on genocide warns war is worsening tensions elsewhere
Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the United Nations’ special adviser for the prevention of genocide, said the scenes of dead civilians in the Ukrainian city of Bucha indicate “hundreds of victims [were] deliberately targeted, which point to very serious signs of possible commission of war crimes.”
Wairimu Nderitu in a statement said Russia’s war is exacerbating existing tensions elsewhere, particularly in the western Balkans, where Bosnian Muslims were killed in the Srebrenica genocide less than 30 years ago.
“In the last six weeks, the conflict in Ukraine has deteriorated some of these dynamics,” she said. “Open vindication of violence against members of one national group, appeal to religion as a source of legitimacy for violence, or alignment of national pursuits to the cause of warrying parties in the Ukraine conflict do not only constitutes symptoms of insufficient healing in a region where conflict was present — they are also signs that the risk of recurrence is real and serious.”
Tensions in Bosnia were increasing long before the war, despite efforts from a U.S.-brokered peace deal to patch up the wounds of war and genocide. Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has threatened to tear apart the country’s ethnically-divided federal institutions and the country itself, which has brought him under tighter U.S. sanctions.
Along with protests from Peru to Sri Lanka over fuel and food prices, and humanitarian crises in Yemen and Afghanistan with funding and food aid drying up, it’s another reminder of how Russia’s war is sending shockwaves around the world.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Apr 06, 2:15 pm
Biden addresses Bucha in-depth for 1st time, calling it ‘major war crimes’
President Joe Biden on Wednesday spoke in-depth for the first time about the horrific images of civilian deaths in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.
“I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures from Bucha and just outside of Kyiv, bodies left in streets as Russian troops withdrew. Some shot … with their hands tied behind their backs. Civilians executed in cold blood,” Biden said at the North America’s Building Trade Union legislative conference in Washington, D.C.
“Bodies dumped into mass graves… There is nothing less happening than major war crimes,” he said.
Biden called on responsible nations to “come together to hold these perpetrators accountable.”
“The steps we’re already taken are predicted to shrink Russia’s gross domestic product by double-digits this year alone. Just in one year, our sanctions are likely to wipe out the last 15 years of Russia’s economic gains and because we’ve cut Russia off from important technologies like semiconductors and encryption security and critical components of quantum technology that they need to compete in the 21st century. We’re going to stifle Russia’s ability in its economy to grow for years to come,” Biden said.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Apr 06, 1:43 pm
All Russian troops have left Kyiv and Chernihiv: US official
All Russian troops have left the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Chernihiv, withdrawing north toward the borders of Belarus and Russia to consolidate before likely redeploying to the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters Wednesday.
But even with the Russians gone, the territory remains treacherous.
“There are some indications that they left behind mines and things like that, so the Ukrainians are being somewhat careful in some areas north of Kyiv as they begin to clear the ground and clear the territory and re-occupy it,” the official said.
While the U.S. hasn’t yet seen these troops redeploy elsewhere in Ukraine, it’ll likely happen soon, according to the official. Ukrainian forces are preparing for a major fight in Donbas, the official said.
The official also said the Pentagon is “monitoring” an apparent nitric acid explosion in Ukraine’s Luhansk region, which Russia blamed on Ukraine.
“We’ve seen the Russians claim that this was a Ukrainian attack on this. We do not believe that is true,” the official said. “We do believe that the Russians are responsible, but exactly what they used when they did it, why they did it, what the damage is, we just don’t have that level of detail,” the official said.
The official also noted that a small number of Ukrainians currently in the U.S. for “professional military education” were pulled aside for a couple days of training on Switchblade drones, which the U.S. is sending overseas as part of its military aid, according to the official.
“Although it’s not a very difficult system to operate, we took advantage of having them in the country to give them some rudimentary training on that,” the official said.
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
Apr 06, 1:03 pm
Yellen says goal of sanctions is to ‘impose maximum pain on Russia’ while shielding allies from economic harm
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testified before the House Committee on Financial Services that the Treasury would continue to take steps to prevent Russia from participating in the international financial system.
“Russia’s actions, including the atrocities committed against innocent Ukrainians in Bucha, are reprehensible, represent an unacceptable affront the rules based global order and will have enormous economic repercussions in Ukraine and beyond,” she said.
Yellen said the International Monetary Fund and World Bank have assisted Ukraine, allowing the country “fiscal space to pay salaries for civilians, soldiers, doctors and nurses.”
Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., asked Yellen why the U.S. continues to provide licenses that permit certain bank transactions related to Russian energy despite a ban on Russian oil imports. Yellen said that although the sanctions aim to cripple Russia’s economy, some of the U.S.’s European allies are still dependent on Russian gas.
“Our goal from the outset has been to impose maximum pain on Russia while, to the best of our ability, shielding the United States and our partners of undue economic harm,” she said. “Unfortunately, many of our European partners remain heavily dependent on Russian natural gas as well as oil.”
-ABC News’ Armando Tonatiuh Torres-García
Apr 06, 12:05 pm
Human Rights Watch racing to document war crimes
Hugh Williamson, director of the Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia division, wrote in an OpEd in the Telegraph that the HRW is racing to document war crimes in Ukraine.
Williamson said one apparent war crime was when seven Ukrainian civilians were allegedly executed by Russian soldiers.
Regarding the images of civilian bodies in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, Williamson said they’re concerned many of the deaths may be the result of war crimes, but “it’s too early to say for certain now, and legal proceedings are still at a nascent stage.”
This comes as a spokesperson for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs doubled down on Russian claims that civilian killings in Bucha were staged.
“On April 3, the world witnessed another crime by the Ukrainian authorities, this time in the town of Bucha, where a criminal false flag operation [showing] the alleged killing of civilians by Russian troops had been staged,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Wednesday according to state-run TASS. Zakharova claimed that when Bucha was controlled by the Russian Armed Forces, not a single local resident was affected by acts of violence.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Apr 06, 11:25 am
New US sanctions target Putin’s children, largest Russian bank
New U.S. sanctions are targeting “the key architects of the war” and their family members, including Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adult children, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s wife and daughter and members of Russia’s security council, a senior administration official told reporters.
“We believe that many of Putin’s assets are hidden with family members and that’s why we’re targeting them,” the official said.
The new sanctions are also the most severe sanctions yet on Russia’s largest private bank, Alfa Bank, and its largest financial institution, Sherbank, the official said.
This will “generate a financial shock” to Russia’s economy,” the official said. “[Sherbank] holds nearly one-third of Russia’s total banking sector assets. That’s over $500 billion. That’s roughly twice the size of the second largest Russian bank, which we previously fully blocked. And in total, we’ve now fully blocked more than two thirds of the Russian banking sector, which before the invasion held about $1.4 trillion in assets.”
The official warned that “Russia will very likely lose its status as a major economy.”
The official noted how these sanctions will hurt everyday Russians.
“It means their debit cards may not work. They may only have the option to buy knockoff phones and knockoff clothes. The shelves at stores may be empty. The reality is the country’s descending into economic and financial and technological isolation. And at this rate, it will go back to Soviet style living standards from the 1980s,” the official said.
Apr 06, 11:14 am
DOJ charges Russian oligarch with sanctions violations, announces disruption of global botnet
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it has charged Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev with sanctions violations, alleging Malofeyev was one of the main sources of financing for Russians promoting separatism in Crimea and for providing material support for the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic.
These actions are part of the KleptoCapture Task force, which is a Justice Department task force established last month aimed at seizing Russian oligarch assets from around the country.
“After being sanctioned by the United States, Malofeyev attempted to evade the sanctions by using co-conspirators to surreptitiously acquire and run media outlets across Europe,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters. “We are also announcing the seizure of millions of dollars from an account at a U.S. financial institution, which the indictment alleges constitutes proceeds traceable to Malofeyev’s sanctions violations.”
One of Malofeyev’s co-conspirators, according to the DOJ, is former U.S. TV producer Jack Hanick, who was arrested last month in the United Kingdom, where he had been living for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions stemming from Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
The Justice Department also on Wednesday announced the disruption of a global botnet run by the GRU, Russia’s Chief Intelligence Office. FBI Director Christopher Wray told reporters the team behind the global botnet was responsible for some of the most infectious cyberattacks in recent memory, including the cyberattacks against the Winter Olympics in 2018, attacks on Ukrainian power grid in 2015 and the attack on the country of Georgia in 2019.
The Justice Department seized a yacht that belongs to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg in Marina Real in the Spanish port of Palma de Mallorca, according to court documents unsealed Monday.
In addition to the seizure of Vekselberg’s yacht, U.S. authorities also obtained seizure warrants unsealed in Washington, D.C., Monday that target roughly $625,000 associated with sanctioned parties at nine U.S. financial institutions, the Justice Department said.
At the news conference, Garland also expressed outrage over the images of civilian bodies in Ukraine.
“We have seen the dead bodies of civilians, some with bound hands, scattered in the streets. We have seen the mass graves. We have seen the bombed hospital, theater, and residential apartment buildings. The world sees what is happening in Ukraine. The Justice Department sees what is happening in Ukraine,” Garland said.
Garland said the DOJ is in the “collection of evidence” stage of any war crime prosecution.
-ABC News’ Alex Mallin, Luke Barr
Apr 06, 11:12 am
School-turned-shelter attacked in Donetsk region, governor says
A school-turned-shelter in eastern Ukraine’s war-torn Donetsk region came under attack on Wednesday, according to Donetsk Oblast Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko.
Kyrylenko released images showing several wounded people lying on the ground among debris outside the school, which is currently being used as a humanitarian aid center. First responders were seen helping the victims. Another image showed the inside of a classroom that was damaged during the attack, with the windows shattered and some desks broken.
ABC News’ Visual Verification team confirmed that the photos were taken at a school in Vugledar, a small village about 40 miles from Donetsk city.
-ABC News’ Fergal Gallagher
Apr 06, 11:00 am
UN vote scheduled for Thursday to suspend Russia from UN Human Rights Council
The U.N. General Assembly has scheduled a Thursday vote on suspending Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council.
A two-thirds majority is needed to suspend Russia, which would become only the second country to face this censure after Libya was suspended in 2011 for Muammar Gaddafi’s forces firing on protesters.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Tuesday that she “know[s] we’re going to get” the two-thirds majority, pointing to two previous U.N. General Assembly resolutions that passed with 141 and 140 votes each.
(WASHINGTON) — With North Korea set to celebrate its most important holiday next week, the U.S. is concerned that Pyongyang “may be tempted to take another provocative action,” including a possible nuclear test.
“We, in cooperation and coordination with our allies and partners, are prepared to deal with whatever they may undertake, and I want to emphasize that we obviously hope that they will refrain from further provocation,” U.S. Special Envoy for North Korea Sung Kim said.
North Korea will celebrate the birth of the country’s founder, Kim Il Sung, on April 15. Kim is the grandfather of current dictator Kim Jong Un.
The isolated country has not conducted a nuclear test since September 2017, its sixth on record.
As Russia’s war in Ukraine exacerbates tensions between the Kremlin and the West, Kim said Russian and Chinese diplomats at the United Nations have obstructed any U.S. effort to condemn North Korea’s recent spate of missile launches — including the kind of long-range one that Russia and China used to condemn back in 2017.
“Unfortunately, I cannot report that we have had productive discussions with” China or Russia about a new U.N. Security Council resolution, Kim told reporters during a briefing Wednesday.
The two countries have blocked even a public statement from the U.N. Security Council condemning the 13 recent launches, per Kim, even though they violate multiple U.N. resolutions.
Still, the U.S. and its allies are pursuing a new resolution to condemn North Korea’s launches because “the Security Council needs to respond to these blatant violations of multiple Security Council resolutions,” Kim said. “This is about the credibility of the United Nations.”
Kim, who also serves as the U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, traveled to Washington this week, including to meet his Chinese counterpart Tuesday for a “very long and detailed discussion.”
He said despite Chinese opposition, he remains “convinced that Beijing shares our goal of the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
Part of the U.S. outreach to China on this issue is because North Korea has rejected all U.S. entreaties under the Biden administration.
“We have sent several messages, both public and private, inviting them to a dialogue without any conditions,” Kim told reporters, but North Korea has yet to respond, which Kim called “very disappointing.”
He declined to speculate on why, but said the COVID-19 pandemic could be one reason. North Korea “finds itself isolated in unprecedented ways and has shut itself off during the COVID pandemic. Only the resumption of diplomacy can break this isolation,” he said.
Instead, the U.S. has heard more fiery rhetoric from Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, who this week warned of a nuclear response if South Korea prepared to strike. Kim said the U.S. was “concerned” by the “provocative” comments.
With Biden’s North Korea policy going nowhere fast, Kim argued it is still having an important effect. While Pyongyang remains committed to perfecting its nuclear weapons program, U.S. sanctions and pressure “are constraining their progress,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — Four members of the United States Secret Service, including one member who was on first lady Jill Biden’s protective detail, were suspended after they allegedly associated with and were provided gifts from two men who are accused of pretending to be Homeland Security Investigations agents.
The two men, Arian Taherzadeh and Haider Ali, were charged with impersonating federal law enforcement officers and allegedly provided members of the Secret Service gifts such as rent-free apartments totaling $40,000, surveillance systems, a drone, law enforcement paraphernalia and more, court documents said.
“All personnel involved in this matter are on administrative leave and are restricted from accessing Secret Service facilities, equipment and systems. The Secret Service adheres to the highest levels of professional standards and conduct and will remain in active coordination with the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security,” the Secret Service said in a statement Wednesday night.
Taherzadeh and Ali allegedly posed as “Special Police,” claiming “to be involved in undercover gang-related investigations as well as conducting investigations related to the violence at the United States Capitol on January 6,” according to court documents unsealed Wednesday night.
Taherzadeh went so far as to show someone who is identified in court documents as “Witness 1” an “HSI casefile” they were “working on” that was marked “confidential.” They even went so far as to have identical Chevy Tahoes fitted with police lights.
“TAHERZADEH told Witness 1 that as part of the recruiting process, TAHERZADEH would have to shoot Witness 1 with an air rifle in order to evaluate Witness 1’s reaction and pain tolerance. According to Witness 1, because he/she believed this was part of the DHS/HSI recruiting process, he/she agreed to be shot and subsequently was shot by TAHERZADEH. During the shooting, ALI was present,” court documents revealed.
Another witness who was interviewed in court documents, and is on the first lady’s detail, was told by Taherzadeh that he was on a “covert task force” and he provided many favors to residents who were members of law enforcement. He also offered to gift the unnamed witness an AR-style rifle.
Additionally, the unnamed Secret Service agent on the first lady’s detail was told by Taherzadeh that he had the same agency gun the witness did.
“TAHERZADEH came to Witness 2’s apartment carrying a Glock 19 Generation 5 in an Ayin Tactical Holster. TAHERZADEH stated that he had an extra holster and wanted to give Witness 2 the Ayin Tactical Holster for Witness 2’s newly issued Glock 19 Generation 5. Witness 2 is still in possession of this holster,” according to court documents.
Another witness, who is not named, allegedly saw Taherzadeh’s fraudulent Department of Homeland Security computer and Federal Training Center certificate.
The men told residents of the Navy Yard apartment complex where they lived that they were renting out apartments paid for by the DHS and set up a surveillance system around the apartment complex in which residents could access it at any time from their mobile device.
“These residents stated that they believe that TAHERZADEH and ALI had access to personal information of all the residents at the apartment complex,” court documents said.
One witness believed the two men had access codes to everywhere in the building due to them posing as law enforcement.
Taherzadeh allegedly walked up to another DHS employee who worked for HSI. However, when the employee looked him up in the database, he could not be found.
The investigation began when the suspects were witnesses to an assault involving a letter carrier and Postal Inspection Agents interviewed them.
“The USPIS Inspector provided this information to the DHS Office of Inspector General, which then referred the information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for further investigation. It was at this point that the FBI began its investigation, which corroborated the statements of residents obtained by the USPIS Inspector,” court documents said.
The names of the suspended Secret Service members have not been released. The court documents did not say when these alleged interactions occurred.
(NEW YORK) — At the end of this school year, a family of four from Austin, Texas, plans to uproot their lives and move over 2,000 miles away to Portland, Oregon.
The family, native Texans, say they are moving because they fear for the safety of their 10-year-old transgender daughter in the wake of Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision in February to direct the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate reports of gender-affirming care as child abuse.
“Our house is halfway packed in boxes,” said the mom, whom ABC News is identifying under the pseudonym, Marin, because she asked that her name not be used for privacy reasons. “[My kids] are sad to leave their friends … but they know where we’re moving, my daughter will be able to play on the sports team of her choice, with the girls. She will never have a problem using the girls’ restroom.”
“We want our kids to have the opportunity to grow up in a place where they can just focus on being kids, and that’s something that Portland can provide,” she said.
Marin was among a group of moms who publicly advocated for transgender rights during the Texas legislature’s last session, testifying at the Texas Capitol and ultimately helping to defeat dozens of bills targeting transgender people. When Abbott announced the directive in February, she thought her family would stay put and continue to fight in Texas, but she said the threat became too great.
“With the situation as it is, I’m not fighting effectively,” said Marin. “You can’t fight when you’re down on the ground, just trying to fend people off of your children.”
According to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, at least nine investigations have been opened on families since February, when Abbott and state Attorney General Ken Paxton issued their opinion on transgender care, calling gender-transitioning or affirming procedures for minors “child abuse.”
The Texas Supreme Court is expected to rule soon whether the state can resume the investigations. In March, a district judge blocked state agencies from investigating gender-confirming care as child abuse, issuing a temporary injunction after hearing from the parents of a 16-year-old transgender girl who were under investigation.
Gender affirmation is when transgender people make changes to their lives in accordance with their gender identity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That can be done through a change of clothing, hairstyles, mannerisms, names and pronouns.
Gender affirmation can also come in the form of hormone therapy or surgeries to alter one’s physical characteristics.
Abbott’s directive on gender-affirming care is contrary to guidance from the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association, all of which classify gender-affirming care as medically necessary.
In anticipation of a regulation like Abbott’s, Camille Rey said she made the decision to leave Texas last summer in an effort to protect her 9-year-old son Leon, who is transgender.
During the past legislative session, Rey said both she and Leon testified against anti-transgender legislation. She said she saw Leon begin to suffer mentally and then physically, becoming withdrawn and experiencing stomachaches severe enough to go to the emergency room.
“Unfortunately, he was exposed to a lot of hate in listening to the testimony of people who were for the bills and also just hearing us talk at the dinner table like, ‘what are we going to do?'” said Rey. “The teachers from his school called me and were worried about him because they said he used to be the one who made everyone else laugh and now he doesn’t really talk.”
In August, the family moved to Maryland where Camille said Leon is “much happier.”
“Our move was all about being in a place where Leon could just be Leon, so, yeah, we feel protected because there’s laws on the books, but honestly, we just need a normal environment and that’s what we have here,” she said. “It’s not that we need anything special for him, just the absence of attack and the absence of threats to our family. That’s all we need.”
Rey said that while her family has been met with support in their new home, she worries about families still in Texas.
“I’m heartbroken over these directives coming out of Texas and I know people that I testified with and protested with last year … some of them leaving, some of them being investigated for child abuse,” she said. “And that was my nightmare.”
John Pachankis, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and professor at the Yale School of Public Health who has studied the mental health of gay and bisexual men who move from a country with high LGTBQ stigma to one more accepting, said his research shows that feeling forced to move can be traumatic, but ultimately result in improved mental health.
“Movement away from states with discriminatory laws and policies might lead to improved mental health over the long-term, but in the short term, moving can be highly stressful because of the disruptions and uncertainties associated with moving,” Pachankis told ABC News by email. “Our research conducted across 44 countries shows that for gay men who move from homophobic countries to more supportive countries, it takes at least five years before the negative mental health impact of moving from a homophobic country dissipates.”
“But thereafter, our research shows that individuals who move to a more supportive location experience lower odds of depression and suicidality because they are less likely to hide their identities and are less socially isolated,” he said.
Families staying behind in Texas
Many families of transgender children who remain in Texas may be doing so without a choice due to family or career obligations or because a move out of state is too big a financial burden.
“Most families in the U.S. don’t have the financial and job flexibility necessary to move,” said Pachankis. “Families with higher income have more ability to move, but when families do move, they likely relinquish the social capital, and possibly even some of the economic capital, that they’ve accumulated in their hometowns.”
Anne, a mom of two daughters in Austin, for whom a pseudonym is also being used because she wants her name to remain private, said she and her family plan to stay put in Texas for the time being despite their fears for their 8-year-old daughter, who is transgender.
Anne shares custody of her older daughter with her ex-husband and said that by moving for her one daughter, she would have to forgo seeing her other daughter for much of the year. A move would also be a daunting financial burden for the family, likely costing them tens of thousands of dollars in addition to she and her husband having to find new jobs and the family having to find a new, supportive community and new medical care, according to Anne.
“I’m having to balance keeping both of my kids safe and happy,” she said. “And it takes so much to even consider like, ‘Okay, let’s go do this all over again.'”
While they remain in Texas, Anne and her husband say they have retained an attorney for their family, and have prepared a safe folder, which contains their daughter’s medical records and documentation from health care professionals, family and friends, in case they would be investigated.
“I don’t know anybody in this community that’s okay right now,” Anne said of the fear she sees among friends in the transgender community.
Ricardo Martinez, CEO of Equality Texas, an advocacy organization focused on LGBTQ rights, told ABC News there are additional challenges that families of transgender children who remain in Texas could face.
“For people who don’t have the means to leave, what does that mean? That they might be incurring additional costs for homeschooling; that they might have to pay more for childcare; that they may have to either quit their job or work a third-shift so that there’s always a parent or caretaker at home,” he said.
Martinez also said there is also a mental health impact that comes with the fear of investigations for parents and transgender children.
“We are talking about kids not disclosing their identities at school and navigating the world secretly, which is pushing people back into the closet, which we know isn’t really great for mental health,” he said. “These kids have heard their humanity debated every single day for almost two years.”
In Houston, Lisa Stanton, a mom of 11-year-old twins, one of whom is transgender, said she and her husband have decided to stay put for now, but at the same time they are planning an “emergency escape plan” and putting out feelers for job opportunities in states with more protections for transgender children.
“We shouldn’t have to leave. This is our home,” she said. “We have a network and have built a lot of relationships in this community and we’re established in our careers here and our children are established and have friends.”
Stanton said she and her husband are closely watching the Texas Supreme Court’s decision on the judge’s injunction before making a decision about their family’s future.
“Our hope is that we will be able to stay and not face any emergent issue where we need to go, but if things don’t go the right way with this case, then we may have to reevaluate,” she said. “It’s really hard because we are just trying to get through life and do all the things you have to do to take care of your family, and it should not be a concern of mine that I would have the government intervening or getting involved in private, personal family medical decisions.”
If Stanton and her family decide to move, one of the states they are considering is Colorado, one of the top LGBTQ-friendly states, according to the Human Rights Committee’s 2021 State Equality Index.
Nadine Bridges, executive director of One Colorado, the state’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, said she and other leaders are working on a resource guide for parents of transgender children in preparation for the influx of families they anticipate could move to the state.
She said that even with protections for transgender youth, there are currently not enough providers in Colorado to meet the demand of kids seeking gender-affirming care.
“That’s the other area we’re working on, to connect with those providers that are supporting transgender, non-binary and gender-expansive youth to make sure they also know they can reach out to us,” said Bridges. “Hopefully we’ll be able to find a pipeline to provide support [for parents and providers].”
In California, a major LGBTQ advocacy organization there, Equality California, is working to advance legislation that would make the state a refuge for transgender kids and families.
The legislation, which will soon be introduced, would prevent the implementation of other states’ laws and policies that “would deny trans people life-saving, gender-affirming care” within the state’s borders, according to Tony Hoang, executive director of Equality California.
“For us, California has always led the fight for LGBTQ+ equality, including ensuring that trans kids are protected from discrimination and have access to life-saving, gender-affirming care,” said Hoang. “We have served as a beacon of hope to LGBTQ+ people everywhere, and we have a responsibility to stand up to hate and injustice no matter where it occurs.”
Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Images emerging out of Borodyanka, a small town on the outskirts of Kyiv, show how much devastation has been left in the wake of Russian occupation.
Buildings are seen burned and completely destroyed, surrounded by rubble left behind by Russian forces that failed to overtake the Ukrainian capital. Widespread destruction was seen in the suburbs surrounding Kyiv, including Bucha, Irpin and Borodyanka. Burned-out cars litter the roadways.
ABC News foreign correspondent James Longman, who reported from Borodyanka on Wednesday, described an apartment complex “cut in half” and another building that had so much of its exterior blown off that it’s possible to “see right into people’s homes.”
BREAKING OVERNIGHT: New images this morning of Russian atrocities in Ukraine, as Ukrainian president Zelenskyy blasts the U.N. in a fiery address.@JamesAALongman reports live from the war zone this morning.
The town of Borodyanka, about 30 miles northwest of Kyiv, “is almost destroyed,” Oleksiy Kuleba, the governor of Kyiv Oblast, said Tuesday after visiting the Borodyanka.
After Ukrainian officials began to discover the atrocities committed in Bucha, Ukrainian prosecutor-general Iryna Venediktova said the situation in Borodyanka, about 50 miles northwest of Kyiv, could be worse.
“In fact, the worst situation, when we talk about civilian casualties in Kyiv region, is in Borodyanka,” Venediktova said Monday on Ukrainian TV.
The death toll in Borodyanka and other liberated cities may be even higher than in Bucha, where at least 300 people were killed or tortured, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an address on Monday. Russian troops occupied Borodyanka even longer than Bucha.
“We are already doing everything possible to identify all the Russian military involved in these crimes as soon as possible — everything to punish them,” Zelenskyy said. “This will be a joint work of our state with the European Union and international institutions, in particular with the International Criminal Court.”
Drone video filmed in early March showed the extent of devastation and destruction in residential areas of Borodyanka after strikes from Russian forces began.
Humanitarian corridors from Borodyanka had been established as Ukrainian nationalists moved into residential areas of the town, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on March 3. It is unclear how many were able to flee the small town of about 13,000.
Zelenskyy began recounting the annihilation of Borodyanka as early as March 5, detailing destroyed schools and the Kharkiv Assumption Cathedral, which had been badly damaged in the air raids.
“Look what Russia has done,” Zelenskyy said in a March 5 address. “It did it right in front of your eyes. Protect yourself!”
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with troops crossing the border from Belarus and Russia. Moscow’s forces have since been met with “stiff resistance” from Ukrainians, according to U.S. officials.
Russian forces retreated last week from the Kyiv suburbs, leaving behind a trail of destruction. After graphic images emerged of civilians lying dead in the streets of Bucha, U.S. and European officials accused Russian troops of committing war crimes.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Apr 07, 5:21 am
Ukraine’s NATO agenda: ‘Weapons, weapons and weapons’
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dymtro Kuleba said his country had a “simple” agenda for Thursday’s NATO meeting.
“It has only three items on it. It’s weapons, weapons and weapons,” Kuleba told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday.
NATO foreign ministers are meeting this week to discuss the situation in Ukraine, including whether to implement new sanctions and supply additional weapons, said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who spoke alongside Kuleba.
“So we are providing support, but, at the same time, working hard to prevent the escalation of the conflict,” Stoltenberg said.
Kuleba called on “all allies to put aside their hesitations” in aiding Ukraine.
“We are confident that the best way to help Ukraine now is to provide it with all necessary to contain [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, and to defeat Russian army in Ukraine, in the territory of Ukraine, so that the war does not spill over further,” Kuleba said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to meet with Kuleba on Thursday, according to his office.
“The G7 is committed to holding President Putin to account for his unprovoked war of choice and ensuring he endures a strategic defeat in Ukraine,” Blinken said on Twitter on Thursday.
(NEW YORK) — Being infected with COVID-19 raises the risk of developing serious blood clots, a new study suggests.
An international team of researchers from Sweden, the United Kingdom and Finland compared more than 1 million people in Sweden with a confirmed case of the virus between February 2020 and May 2021 to 4 million control patients who tested negative.
They found three to six months after contracting COVID-19, patients were at increased risk of being diagnosed with blood clots in their legs or lungs, according to results published in the journal BMJ on Wednesday.
Specifically, patients had a 4% raised risk of deep vein thrombosis, a blood clot that forms deep in the thigh or the lower leg, up to three months after a COVID-19 infection.
Patients also had a 17% heightened risk of developing a pulmonary embolism, a clot that develops in a blood vessel and travels to a lung artery, up to six months after having the virus.
The team said its results add to a growing body of evidence about the link between COVID-19 and serious blood clots, while adding new information about how long the risk might last.
“The present findings have major policy implications,” the authors wrote, adding that the report “strengthens the importance of vaccination against COVID-19.”
They also said the findings suggest that COVID-19 patients — “especially high-risk patients” — should take anticoagulation medicine, which are medications to help prevent these clots.
During the course of the study period, the team saw 401 cases of DVT among the COVID-19 patients, compared to 267 cases among the negative patients.
Meanwhile, there were 1,761 cases of PE among virus patients in comparison with 171 cases among the control patients.
COVID-19 patients were at higher risk of blood clots if they had underlying conditions, had a severe case of the virus or if they were infected during the first wave of the pandemic in early 2020.
However, there wasn’t just a risk of blood clots. The study also found an increased risk of any kind of bleeding up to two months after a COVID-19 infection.
The team noted there were limitations, including that the study was observational rather than a randomized controlled trial.
Additionally, the researchers recognized that clotting in COVID-19 patients may be underdiagnosed and information about patients’ vaccination status was not available.
Despite the risk of blood clots following COVID-19 infections being well-documented, it’s unknown what biological mechanisms are at play. However, there are theories.
One study from Michigan Medicine and the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute suggested “rogue” antibodies from a COVID-19 infection cause blood cells to lose their anti-clotting properties.
Another study from Yale School of Medicine suggested specific proteins are produced by endothelial cells — cells that line blood vessels — due to inflammation from the virus and lead to blood clots.
“It remains to be established whether SARS-CoV-2 infection increases the risk of venous thromboembolism or bleeding more than it does for respiratory infections, such as influenza, but also whether the period of [anticoagulation medicine] after COVID-19 should be extended,” the authors wrote.
(WASHINGTON) — The House of Representatives has voted to hold Trump White House officials Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with subpoenas for records and testimony from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Following two failed attempts, a new effort got underway on Wednesday to dislodge a 130-ton, fully-loaded cargo ship that has been mired in the mud of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland for more than three weeks.
U.S. Coast Guard officials said two large cranes and two barges were being moved to where the Ever Forward container ship ran aground in shallow water and crews are expected to begin off-loading a portion of the 5,000 cargo containers aboard, hoping that will give the vessel the buoyancy required to free it.
“They’re still staging the equipment so that they can remove the containers. It’s going to take a few days to get that set up,” Petty Officer Cynthia Oldham, a spokesperson for the Coast Guard, told ABC News on Wednesday afternoon.
She said once the cranes and barges are in place, crews could start removing containers by this weekend or early next week.
“Hopefully, it’s going to be wrapped up around April 15, but that, of course, is dependent on a lot of different variables,” Oldham said.
The 1,095-foot ship belongs to Evergreen Marine Corp., the same company that owns the Ever Given cargo ship that got stuck in Egypt’s Suez Canal in March 2021, blocking the world-famous waterway for six days and causing massive delays in global shipping.
The Coast Guard said the Ever Forward is stranded in mud in about 23 feet of water off Downs Park in Pasadena, Maryland, about 20 miles south of Baltimore. The ship is outside of the deep-water shipping channel so it’s not blocking boat traffic on the Chesapeake Bay.
“The ship is grounded from bow to stern,” Oldham said.
Two previous attempts to free the vessel were not successful. Crews tried to move the ship with multiple tugboats, but it wouldn’t budge. Crews have also dredged around the hull of the big boat, but that effort was in vain, too.
The latest plan calls for removing some of the containers, which weigh 8,000 pounds each empty, from both the starboard and port side to maintain the stability of the ship, Oldham said.
“A few hundred containers are expected to be removed, not all of them,” Oldham said.
The refloating situation has gone so bad that the Evergreen Marine has notified anyone with a container on board that they will need to share in the cost of freeing the ship under the law of general average, a principal of maritime law dating back to 1890.
“Evergreen Line urges all cargo interests involved, and joint venture slot users to provide security bonds and necessary documents according to the adjusting rules that govern GA in order to take delivery of cargo after the vessel is freed and arrives at its future ports of discharge,” the company said in a statement released this week.
John Martino of the Annapolis School of Seamanship told ABC affiliate station WMAR in Baltimore that the new plan to free the ship is fraught with danger.
“They have to be careful the order they take the containers off,” said Martino, who visited the ship on Tuesday. “So, they have to make sure everything stays balanced as they go along.”
As a precaution, the Coast Guard is only allowing the work to unload the vessel to occur during daylight hours.
The container vessel ran aground March 13 after leaving the Seagirt marine terminal in Baltimore. The Hong Kong-flagged ship was headed to Norfolk, Virginia, when the mishap occurred.
There were no reports of injuries or damage to the ship or its cargo.
Following the incident, Evergreen immediately activated its emergency response plan and appointed a salvor to conduct underwater inspections of the ship and come up with refloating plan.
Evergreen reported that an inspection showed that no fuel or pollution have leaked from the ship into the Chesapeake Bay.
