(WASHINGTON) — An Ohio man was charged with threatening to carry out a school shooting at a California middle school, the Justice Department announced this week.
Alex Jaques, 21, was charged with making interstate threats – and the FBI found out because he posted videos of his guns on YouTube, according to the Justice Department.
In the video posted on YouTube, Jaques allegedly shot a Chromebook and then made threats to Washington Middle School in Salinas, California.
“The video shows an Uzi-style weapon being discharged in rapid succession and multiple shots fired from a rifle-style weapon,” a release from DOJ says. That video was titled “Torture testing a Chromebook (Washington Middle School),” DOJ says. They say he obtained the laptop because one of his siblings allegedly went to the school.
Court documents say that Jaques made direct threats to the school.
“Hello guys, we are going to be torture testing a… Washington Middle School Chromebook, yea Washington Middle School Chromebook from Salinas, California where I plan to eventually return… uh to fill out my list of duties … that I have filled out with names and addresses of people who have wronged me throughout the years anyways … SUH SD that’s uh Salinas Union High School District,” Jaques said.
He then immediately stabbed the laptop repeatedly with a screwdriver, according to a compliant filed in federal court by DOJ.
“Jaques later stated, ‘Washington Middle School you are next,’ then fires at the Washington Middle School laptop multiple times with what appears to be three separate firearms,” the complaint continued.
Law enforcement says they found the weapon when they searched the home.
A lawyer for Jaques did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
(EL PASO, Texas) — House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday called on Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to resign over the administration’s immigration policies and raised the possibility of an impeachment inquiry if he doesn’t.
Speaking at the border in El Paso, Texas, McCarthy said Mayorkas “cannot and must not remain in that position.” He said if Mayorkas were in charge of any company, he would “have been fired by now.”
If Mayorkas does not resign, McCarthy said, “when we take power” the incoming Republican-led House will investigate whether to launch an impeachment inquiry against him, McCarthy said.
“House Republicans will investigate every order, every action and every failure will determine whether we can begin an impeachment inquiry,” McCarthy added.
McCarthy said he had spoken to GOP Reps. Jim Jordan and James Comer, the respective incoming chairs of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees, about launching investigations into Mayorkas’ handling of the border.
“They have my complete support to investigate the collapse of our border and the shutdown of ICE enforcement nationwide,” McCarthy said.
Jordan said in a statement that Republicans will hold Mayorkas accountable “for his failure to enforce immigration law and secure the border through all means necessary.”
McCarthy was at the border with six other Republican members of Congress to receive “operational briefings,” his office said, and to express gratitude to border officers serving ahead of Thanksgiving.
The White House attacked McCarthy for his visit and claims about Mayorkas, with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre calling the trip a “stunt.”
“The question that we have for Kevin McCarthy, who’s soon to be — who’s soon to be Speaker McCarthy, you know, what is — what is his plan?” Jean-Pierre said when asked about McCarthy during her daily briefing for reporters. “What is he doing to help the situation that we’re seeing? What is his plan? He goes down there and he does a political stunt, like many Republicans do, that we have seen them do, but he actually is not putting forth a plan.”
“I think the country doesn’t like impeachment used for political purposes at all,” McCarthy told Punchbowl News in an interview published Oct. 19. “If anyone ever rises to that occasion, you have to, but I think the country wants to heal and … start to see the system that actually works.”
Mayorkas told a Senate panel when asked if he was going to resign said he has no plans to do so nor has he spoken to President Joe Biden about it.
The move to threaten to impeach Mayorkas was expected, according to a Biden administration official. A Mayorkas impeachment by the GOP-led House would likely fail in the Democratic-controlled Senate because of a two-thirds vote needed for removal.
The DHS secretary has drawn the ire of Republicans on Capitol Hill as the number of migrants that crossed the border in the fiscal year 2021 was the highest on record, according to statistics released by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.
Tuesday’s announcement from McCarthy comes as more conservative Republicans say they won’t vote for him for speaker.
McCarthy will need the backing of the majority of the House to be elected speaker on Jan. 3. Nearly all Republican members, given the slim majority, would have to vote for him.
He won the House GOP’s nomination to be speaker last week in a 188-31 vote. But so far, five House Republicans are threatening to vote against McCarthy in January when the entire House votes. GOP Reps. Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Matt Rosendale, Bob Good and Ralph Norman all now have publicly said they will not support him.
Biggs said McCarthy does not have 218 votes and refuses to “assist” McCarthy in his effort to get the votes. Biggs tried to challenge McCarthy during GOP leadership elections.
“Time to make a change at the top of the House of Representatives. I cannot vote for the gentleman from California, Mr. McCarthy,” Biggs said in a statement last week.
-ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Luke Barr and Will Steakin contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Early voting in Georgia’s Dec. 6 runoff kicked off Tuesday in at least one of the state’s 159 counties as Democrat-led efforts to expand the election’s early vote options have continued.
General election vote certification on Monday by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger allowed some voters to cast their ballots for Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock or Republican candidate Herschel Walker a few days ahead of schedule.
Early voting in the runoff election could not start until the results for the Nov. 8 general election were certified, and the decision to allow early in-person voting happens at the county level. So far, only Douglas County in the greater Atlanta region was set to open polling locations Tuesday and Wednesday. Nearby DeKalb County will open up one polling location on Wednesday. Early voting must begin statewide on Nov. 28 and end on Dec. 2, though counties now have the option of offering some additional days this week.
The vote certification and the launch of the runoff election comes after Georgia shattered all past early voting turnout numbers earlier this month. Warnock and Walker’s battle for the Senate seat was sent to a runoff when neither candidate received 50% of the state’s total vote.
“Our 2022 General Election was a tremendous success,” said Raffensperger after he certified the Nov. 8 votes. “Early certification reflects that success. Georgia has struck the balance between accessibility and security, and Georgia’s election administrators worked tirelessly to get the job done. We are so thankful for their work.”
Warnock won his seat in 2021 during a runoff election against former Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, during which time the balance of power in the Senate rested on his shoulders and those of his now-Democratic Senate colleague, then-Rep. Jon Ossoff, who was also fighting in overtime for his seat against former GOP Sen. David Perdue.
comparable to general election numbers. Warnock declared victory after securing the majority of 4,484,954 votes in the runoff election in 2021, while 4,914,361 ballots cast during the general election of 2020.
Georgia secretary of state spokesperson Robert Sinners told ABC News in a statement Tuesday that the office also anticipates “strong turnout” this election.
The faceoff between Warnock and Walker will not determine who controls the U.S. Senate, but Democrats have been holding their breath for a favorable outcome because a 51-seat majority would make wielding power much easier. Republicans have also put political pressure on winning the contest, pointing to successes they’ve been able to achieve in an evenly split Senate.
“When Herschel wins, we’re gonna have a 50/50 Senate. Alright? Now it’d be better if we were at 51, 52, 53 but by him winning, we will be able to block some bad legislation because it takes 51 plus to get this stuff done,” said Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., while stumping for Walker last week in Augusta.
The beginning of early voting comes amid widespread confusion about the process of Georgia early runoff voting.
A Georgia appeals court on Monday left in place a lower court order allowing counties to offer voting on the Saturday after Thanksgiving for the upcoming runoff election, which was brought up by Warnock’s campaign and other Democrats. On Tuesday, national and statewide Republicans filed an emergency petition in the Georgia Supreme Court to block Saturday voting.
For his part, Walker has made comments in recent weeks that he was unsure early voting was even permitted during runoff elections, noting that the process should be kept on the shorter side.
“They have one day? Two days? One week! A week? We ought to cut it down from a week. Well, if they give you a week, take that week and do that. You’ve got to get out and vote,” he said during a recent campaign event when told that there will be voting before the runoff.
Ongoing legal challenges to early voting on Nov. 26
Earlier this month, Raffensperger told county election officials that early voting could not continue on the Saturday after Thanksgiving because state law says it is illegal on a Saturday if there is a holiday on the Thursday or Friday preceding it.
Warnock’s campaign, the Democratic Party of Georgia and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, sued the State of Georgia earlier this month, arguing that Raffensperger “misreads” and “cherry-picks” the state’s election law and that the state ban on opening election sites after a holiday applies to general elections and primaries, not runoffs.
On Monday, a Georgia appeals court declined a request by the state to stay a lower court’s ruling that said state law allows early voting that day.
Then, on Tuesday, the Georgia Republican Party, the Republican National Senatorial Committee, and the Republican National Committee filed an emergency petition in the Georgia Supreme Court to block that day’s voting.
The appeal comes as a growing list of counties have started to offer that date for voters — over 18 have announced they will offer early voting on Saturday, Nov. 26.
Georgia’s Senate runoff has attracted high-profile surrogates moving into the last stretch
As voting has now commenced for the contest, so too has national starpower started to schedule campaign events for their respective candidates.
On Dec. 1, former President Barack Obama will return to Atlanta to campaign for Warnock and encourage Georgians to cast their ballots during the final days of early in-person voting.
Obama also came to Georgia in the final days ahead of the general election race on Nov. 8, during which the Warnock campaign said that large swaths of rally-goers signed up to participate in door knocking shifts.
Warnock has not committed to bringing President Joe Biden down to boost his race, noting that he doesn’t “have that much time” left in the race to bring down the current Democratic standard-bearer.
“We will see, we don’t have that much time,” he said at a campaign event last week. “We’ll see who shows up.”
Walker has not answered questions from ABC News about whether his party’s former leader, Donald Trump, would be asked to come down to campaign for him, while other GOP surrogates like Sen. Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and recently reelected Gov. Brian Kemp have jumped on the trail on his behalf.
National and statewide Republican officials cautioned how a Trump 2024 announcement could upend Herschel Walker’s chances in the runoff. Still, during Trump’s 2024 presidential announcement last week, he specifically voiced his support for Walker.
“We must all work very hard for a gentleman and a great person named Herschel Walker, a fabulous human being who loves our country and will be a great United States senator,” Trump said.
Just days after those comments, Warnock– who has tried to illuminate his rival’s closeness with the former president, especially after Trump-backed candidates suffered a number of midterm losses during the general election–released an ad broadcasting those remarks with photos of the two of them together. At the end of the 30-second ad, a message appears: “Stop Donald Trump. Stop Herschel Walker.”
(LINCOLN COUNTY, Miss.) — D’Monterrio Gibson, the 24-year-old Mississippi man who authorities say escaped a racially motivated attempted murder, said he’s “satisfied” that charges were upgraded against the two men suspected of ambushing him.
A Lincoln County grand jury indicted Gregory Case, 57, and Brandon Case, 35, who are father and son, on Monday for the attempted murder of Gibson. The two previously faced aggravated assault charges.
Lincoln County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Johnny Hall told ABC News the men were arrested after a jury released the indictments for their arrests for attempted murder, conspiracy and shooting into a vehicle.
On Jan. 24 around 7 p.m. in Brookhaven, Mississippi, Gibson was attempting to deliver FedEx packages and was allegedly ambushed by Gregory Case as he was pulling out of a driveway, according to Gibson’s attorney Carlos Moore. Moore said Brandon Case shot at his client’s vehicle.
According to affidavits obtained by ABC News, Brandon Case attempted to cause bodily injury to Gibson after allegedly shooting at the FedEx rental he was driving. Gregory Case was previously charged with aggravated assault after allegedly chasing Gibson with his pickup truck and trying to block him from leaving a driveway.
“I’ll be more satisfied when we get to trial and see how everything plays out,” Gibson told ABC News on Tuesday.
Moore said he and Gibson were disappointed it took so long for the charges to be upgraded.
“Ten months, nearly 10 months from the date he was accosted, assaulted, almost killed, we finally have an indictment or indictments,” Moore said.
Moore said he’s asked the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the FBI to investigate Gibson’s case as a hate crime.
“I can see no other reason than white supremacy racial animus towards Mr. Gibson that motivated the Cases to do what they did,” Moore said.
Attorneys for the Cases did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
The Cases will be arraigned in December, according to Moore, and a trial may begin as early as May 2023.
According to the Brookhaven municipal court, attorneys for the Cases entered not guilty pleas on their behalf.
Moore said FedEx sent Gibson back on the same route after the alleged incident took place and plans to sue the company for “racial discrimination and intentional infliction of emotional distress.”
Gibson said he’s currently in therapy to heal from the alleged incident.
“I’m still trying to cope with everything … really there’s been no progress as far as therapy,” he said.
“FedEx takes this situation very seriously, and we remain both saddened and outraged by what Mr. Gibson experienced,” A FedEx spokesperson said in a statement obtained by ABC News. “At FedEx, our workforce is as diverse as the world we serve, and the safety of our team members is our top priority. We remain focused on Mr. Gibson’s wellbeing and continue to support him, including pay under our benefits policy.”
ABC News’ Kendall Ross contributed to this report.
Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(ORLANDO) — Florida officials are seeking to fine an amusement park operator at least $250,000 over the death of a 14-year-old boy who fell from a drop-tower ride earlier this year.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which inspects amusement rides in the state, filed an administrative complaint Tuesday against Orlando Eagle Drop Slingshot LLC, the operator of the Orlando FreeFall ride, alleging multiple violations of state law.
Tyre Sampson, an eighth grader who visited ICON Park in Orlando with his football team on March 24, died from blunt force trauma after slipping out of his seat while on the ride.
The department’s investigation concluded that Tyre fell “due to the changes made” by the ride’s operator, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Nikki Fried said during a press briefing Tuesday.
Tyre was seated in one of two seats on the Orlando FreeFall ride where the harness proximity sensor was manually repositioned to allow for a larger restraint opening than the ride’s other seats, Fried said. The ride’s attendants were instructed to seat larger guests in those seats, according to the department’s complaint.
“Because his seat harness proximity sensor had been improperly adjusted, the ride was allowed to commence even though the ride was unsafe and led directly to his fall,” Fried said.
The investigation also found there was “minimal training” conducted on the 430-foot-tall ride and that neither the attendants nor the operator had read or seen the manufacturer’s manual, Fried said. The manual noted that the maximum weight for the drop-tower ride was 286 pounds; Tyre weighed approximately 383 pounds, according to the complaint.
The complaint alleges the operator violated several state statutes and rules requiring that amusement park rides be operated safely and that employees are adequately trained.
“We are seeking an administrative fine exceeding $250,000, one of the largest administrative fines the department has ever sought, and a permanent revocation of the ride’s operating permit in the state of Florida,” Fried said.
Fried said she has also instructed her staff to forward their findings to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office to consider criminal charges.
ABC News did not immediately receive a response seeking comment on the complaint’s allegations from Orlando Eagle Drop Slingshot.
The attorneys for Tyre’s parents called the complaint “a significant step toward full accountability.”
“This week, Tyre’s family will experience their first holiday season without him,” personal injury attorneys Ben Crump of Ben Crump Law and Bob Hilliard of Hilliard Martinez Gonzales said in a joint statement. “His family will always have an empty seat at the table — that anguish deserves accountability in the highest sense from the entities responsible for this tragedy.”
Sampson’s parents have filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit accusing ICON Park and other defendants, including the manufacturer and the operator of the FreeFall ride, of negligence.
In the wake of Tyre’s death, state Sen. Geraldine Thompson has proposed legislation to increase ride safety based on the department’s findings. The Tyre Sampson Law proposes an increase in inspections and required training, as well as expanded signage about patron requirements.
Thompson said during Tuesday’s press event that the “significant” fine “will put on notice” other amusement park ride operators “that there are consequences to not following the laws here in the state of Florida.”
The Orlando FreeFall ride has been closed since Tyre’s death. Now that the state’s investigation is complete, Thompson said she expects the ride to be removed.
(PHILADELHPIA) — Philadelphia police are investigating a string of armed home invasions involving Temple University students at off-campus housing.
The most recent incident occurred Monday around 6:18 a.m., when police say two men dressed in all black entered a home on the 1900 block of North 18th Street, several blocks from the university. One of the suspects wore a mask and was armed with an Uzi-style weapon, police said.
The suspects made off with several iPhones, an iPad, Apple Watches, a MacBook Pro and a Glock 19 handgun before fleeing in a black 2022 Black Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross also stolen from the property, police said. No injuries were reported and the car was recovered, police said.
Four people, including two male Temple students, were inside the home at the time, according to ABC Philadelphia station WPVI.
“They woke them up and they just had guns pointed at them,” a third roommate who wasn’t home at the time told WPVI.
“My roommates kept calm and gave them what they wanted,” he said.
The home invasion was reported nearly two weeks after two similar incidents in the area also involving Temple students at off-campus housing.
On Nov. 9 at around 4:40 a.m., three masked men in dark clothing — two of whom were armed with guns — entered a home also located on the 1900 block of North 18th Street, police said. They “approached” three 19-year-old female victims and fled the scene with a laptop, backpack, car keys and identification, police said. No one was injured.
“I hear all this rummaging upstairs in the kitchen. It sounded like multiple people, so my heart started like beating. I was shaking in bed. I didn’t know what to do,” one of the victims, Kayla Barone, told WPVI.
Barone said she tried to call to warn her two roommates, but they were asleep. She then called 911. The men locked her two roommates in one room while forcing Barone to hand over her belongings, including her cellphone, she said. They fled when they realized she had called 911, she said.
Two days later, on Nov. 11, at around 6 a.m., nine women and two men between the ages of 20 and 22 were woken up, rounded up at gunpoint and locked in a basement after two masked men dressed in black entered their apartment on the 1300 block of North 15th Street, police said.
The suspects took each victim’s cellphones, debit cards and credit cards, as well as the keys to a 2015 silver Lincoln MKZ, before fleeing in the vehicle, police said. The car and two of the cellphones were ultimately recovered, police said. No one was injured.
The victims’ credit and debit cards were used shortly after the robbery, police said Tuesday while releasing surveillance footage of the two suspects.
The victims were also Temple students, school officials confirmed.
“You never think it’s going to happen to you, but when it does, it’s like a shock,” one student told WPVI.
No arrests have been made in any of the home invasion robberies.
Investigators have not ruled out the possibility that the three incidents are connected, police said.
(CHARLOTTE) — A meteorologist and a helicopter pilot for CBS Charlotte affiliate WBTV are dead after their helicopter crashed near a North Carolina interstate highway, the station confirmed.
WBTV meteorologist Jason Myers and pilot Chip Tayag were killed in the crash, which occurred midday Tuesday near Interstate 77, WBTV said.
“The WBTV family is grieving a terrible loss. Our news helicopter Sky3 crashed mid-day Tuesday with two of our colleagues on board,” the station said in a statement. “Meteorologist Jason Myers and pilot Chip Tayag lost their lives. We are working to comfort their families in this difficult time. We appreciate the outpouring of support for our staff and your continued prayers for their families.”
The two victims were pronounced dead at the scene, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Chief of Police Johnny Jennings said.
Jennings called the pilot a “hero,” as the helicopter crashed just off the interstate, missing traffic and preventing additional loss of life.
“It seems the pilot that was operating the aircraft made some diversionary moves to avoid traffic,” Jennings told reporters during a press briefing Tuesday. “That pilot is a hero in my eyes.”
The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the crash of the Robinson R44 helicopter.
Myers, a North Carolina native, grew up in the Charlotte area watching WBTV, the station said.
He started his broadcast meteorology career at KRBC in Abilene, Texas, before going on to work at ABC Richmond, Virginia, affiliate WRIC.
He was most recently the chief meteorologist for ABC Lexington, Kentucky, affiliate WTVQ before returning to the Charlotte area.
“It comes with terrible sadness to hear the news of Jason Myers’ passing,” Chris Aldridge, a general manager for WTVQ, said in a statement. “Jason was a meteorologist for our WTVQ — ABC 36 News team for six years and we enjoyed every minute of our time together.”
“At this time of Thanksgiving, please wrap your prayers and thoughts around the Myers family as we remember a man gone too soon,” he said.
Myers leaves behind his wife, Jillian, and their four children.
Tayag started working for WBTV in 2017 and had been a pilot for more than 20 years, the station said.
(NEW YORK) — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis told “The View” Tuesday that the state should take a second look at how local sheriffs are using the red flag law to protect citizens in the wake of the deadly mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs.
On the eve of Transgender Day of Remembrance on Saturday, Nov. 19, gunfire erupted at Colorado Springs’ LGBTQ nightclub, Club Q. According to police and officials briefed on the investigation, suspect Anderson Lee Aldrich allegedly walked into the club with a legally purchased assault-style rifle and began shooting, leaving five people dead and 17 injured.
Aldrich was arrested and is facing five counts of murder and five counts of bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury, which is Colorado’s hate crime law.
In June 2021, prior to the LGBTQ nightclub shooting, Aldrich allegedly threatened his mother with a homemade bomb. After his mother’s neighbors evacuated the surrounding area, bomb squad and crisis negotiators persuaded him to surrender. Still, charges against Aldrich were dropped and there were no public records that indicated police or relatives attempted to trigger Colorado’s red flag law.
“The View” co-host Joy Behar pressed Polis on Colorado’s low-rate of using the red flag law and questioned why authorities never took away Aldrich’s weapons. Noting that everyone is currently focused on the shooting victims and healing, Polis said that “if there’s one law to focus on,” it’s Colorado’s red-flag law, a bill which he signed on April 12, 2019.
Polis went on to explain that while Aldrich did allegedly make a bomb threat in the past and was apprehended at the time, charges were never pressed.
“What this should trigger is law enforcement can then seek a red flag or extreme risk protection order just to remove custody of guns from somebody who might be dangerous,” he said. “That’s what we’d like to see more of.”
“This is a new law in Colorado,” he continued. “But it’s really up to local law enforcement, and in this case it really looks like we should take a second [look] at how our local sheriffs used this law to protect people when there’s these kind of threats and danger.”
During a press conference Monday, police identified patrons Thomas James and Richard Fierro – who was in the U.S. Army for 14 years – as the heroes who stopped the suspected gunman. Polis mentioned that the two patrons who attacked the gunman are still recovering and calls their act of heroism “a tremendous thing,” adding that “they were lucky to be at the right place at the right time and make the right decision, otherwise dozens more people would be in mourning.”
After speaking with the families of the five victims who were fatally shot at Club Q, Polis said that the families “are in a complete state of shock.”
“These were people who were just out being who they are in a part of the state, a part of the country where it isn’t always easy,” he continued. “This is a somewhat conservative area. This was a refuge, this Club Q the largest LGBT club in Colorado Springs.”
Polis said that he told the owners of Club Q that he wants to be there to show solidarity.
“There’s never gonna be any motive that makes sense to any of us. It’s an act of evil,” he said of the mass shooting. “People should talk about our love and respect for one another rather than ever trying to set one group of people against another as unfortunately some do.”
“It will take time to heal and to come back from that, but we’re strong,” Polis said. “I’m committed to working with Colorado Springs and the LGBT+ community to make sure that we can heal in a good way.”
Since January 2019, Polis has been serving as Colorado’s governor, making him the first openly gay man to win a U.S. gubernatorial election. As the first openly gay man to govern a U.S. state and Colorado’s first Jewish governor, co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin asked him how it feels to be a part of groups being targeted.
Polis explained that while he usually tries to ignore hateful rhetoric directed towards him or his communities, not everything can be overlooked.
“Sometimes we need to speak out more when people cross the line, and I think that’s a lesson I’m going to take from this, just to be more outspoken,” he said.
“You can have your opinions, left, right, conservative, liberal, you know, whatever they are is fine. But there’s a line to cross when you denigrate people just based on who they love or their faith or their race, and that’s never okay,” Polis continued. “We need the to be very clear in saying that.”
(ATLANTA) — A federal appeals court on Tuesday seemed poised to grant a Justice Department request to rescind the appointment of a special master in the investigation into the handling of classified material seized in August from former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
In a hearing Tuesday afternoon, a three-judge panel from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals questioned an assertion from Trump’s attorney that “this is an extraordinary case” that warranted intervention from an outside arbiter to review all the materials seized in the August search.
“Other than the fact that this involves a former president, everything else about this is indistinguishable from any pre-indictment search warrant,” Judge Andrew Brasher said.
The attorney for Trump, Jim Trusty, insisted Trump was looking for no special treatment but asked the court to consider “a political rival has been subjected to a search warrant where thousands of personal materials have been taken.”
Arguing for the Justice Department, Sopan Joshi of the Solicitor General’s office called the appointment of a special master by a district court judge an “extraordinary judicial intrusion into a core executive branch function.”
The judges pressed Joshi and Trusty as to whether there was any similar case where a judge has exercised such jurisdiction to intervene in an ongoing criminal investigation prior to indictment with any showing of “callous disregard” for the rights of the potential defendant.
Neither could name such a case, but Trusty suggested that by having the process play out they could perhaps find evidence that Trump’s rights were violated.
Trusty also sought to take issue with how agents conducted the search, noting that in addition to presidential records and documents with classification markings they also seized items like “golf shirts and pictures of Celine Dion” which he said should have no relevance to their criminal investigation.
But Chief Judge Bill Pryor noted it wasn’t unusual for such personal items to be swept up in a court-authorized search.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily the fault of the government. If, if someone has intermingled classified documents in all kinds of other personal property,” Pryor said.
DOJ is urging the appeals court to overturn special master Raymond Dearie’s appointment and have the roughly 13,000 documents returned to investigators examining whether Trump unlawfully retained highly sensitive documents involving national defense information after leaving the presidency, and potentially obstructed justice in resisting the government’s efforts to retrieve them.
The appeals court previously granted a request from DOJ to stay portions of a ruling by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that had blocked the government from using roughly 100 documents with classification markings recovered from Mar-a-Lago in its investigation and demanded they be handed over to special master Dearie.
The Justice Department then moved for an expedited appeal to end Dearie’s review in its entirety, saying its inability to access the non-classified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago was also significantly hampering its ongoing criminal investigation.
It was the first in-person meeting between top department officials and Trump’s legal team since Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith last Friday, which Garland said was warranted in part because of Trump’s announcement he would again run for president in 2024.
Smith has been tasked with overseeing the continuing criminal investigation of classified records seized from Trump’s estate in August as well as the separate probe into efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn his election loss to President Joe Biden.
In a filing Monday afternoon, the Justice Department formally notified the court of Smith’s appointment and stated he had reviewed the filings in DOJ’s case and that he “approves all of the arguments that have been presented in the briefs and will be discussed at the oral argument.”
Last week, officials said Smith was preparing to make his return to the U.S. from the Netherlands where he was serving as a chief prosecutor of war crimes at the Hague.
In a filing last week, officials from the department accused Trump and his legal team of engaging in “gamesmanship” in their fight to retain the roughly 13,000 documents in Dearie’s possession by asserting that when he ordered the packing of materials in the White House that were then transported to Mar-a-Lago, they were in effect automatically designated as his own “personal” records.
But at the same time, his attorneys said if Dearie rejected that argument for certain documents, they should have the opportunity to claim they are covered by executive privilege and should be shielded from the government.
They argued Trump’s legal team has put forward a “sweeping and baseless theory” to support their claims over the documents under a reading of the Presidential Records Act, saying Trump “appears to be claiming that he can unilaterally ‘deem’ otherwise Presidential records to be personal records by fiat.”
And even if Trump were correct in his claims, DOJ says, it would amount to a “red herring” regarding their right to access the documents as part of their ongoing criminal investigation.
“Documents commingled or collectively stored with the classified materials located at Plaintiff’s premises were lawfully seized by the FBI in accordance with the terms of the court-authorized search warrant because of their relevance to the government’s ongoing investigation,” top DOJ counterintelligence official Jay Bratt said. “That relevance exists irrespective of whether they were personal papers or government records. In the absence of a valid and substantiated claim of privilege, all such documents must now be made available to the investigative team.”
(PORTLAND, Ore.) — An Oregon family is overjoyed after welcoming twins born from embryos that were frozen 30 years ago.
“They’ve been a joy to have to us and to their siblings,” dad Philip Ridgeway told Knoxville, Tennessee, ABC affiliate WATE of his new twins, Lydia and Timothy, who now make the Ridgeways a family of six.
The 30-year-old embryos have broken the record for the longest-frozen embryos to ever result in a successful live birth, according to research staff at the University of Tennessee Preston Medical Library. The embryos, which were donated by an anonymous married couple using in vitro fertilization, had originally been frozen in April 1992.
They were successfully thawed, transferred and then delivered, with assistance from the National Embryo Donation Center and Dr. John Gordon, a medical director at Southeastern Fertility in Knoxville, who was the couple’s doctor.
Lydia and Timothy were born on Oct. 31.
“We wanted to be able to go in and find embryos that had been overlooked for reasons beyond their control, that have been waiting so long for a mom and a dad,” Rachel Ridgeway, the twins’ mom, said.
Gordon told WATE, “They specifically requested the embryos that had been waiting the longest. They actually felt called to specifically say, ‘We want the embryos that everybody else has taken a pass on.'”
Scientists have estimated that there are five frozen embryos for every IVF-related live birth in the U.S. According to Gordon, there are more than 1.4 million frozen embryos waiting to be thawed and transferred.
“We just want them to always know that they were chosen, that they are loved,” Rachel Ridgeway added.
