(ORLANDO, Fla.) — One person has been injured and another is missing after an apparent lightning strike during rowing practice at Lake Fairview in Orlando, Florida, on Thursday night, the fire department said.
Members of the nonprofit group North Orlando Rowing Club were practicing in the water around 5:50 p.m. when the incident took place, the Orlando Fire Department told ABC News in a statement.
“Preliminary reports indicate lightning struck the area,” the department said.
Five people were onboard a vessel at the time, it said, adding that one person has been transported to AdventHealth Orlando and a rescue mission is underway to locate another person.
“We believe the students were from various schools in Central Florida,” the department said.
Orlando’s dive team, the Orlando Police Department and the Orange County Fire and Rescue Department are also on the scene.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday denied the Department of Justice’s request for a partial stay of her ruling that enjoined the FBI from using roughly 100 documents seized from Mar-a-Lago with classification markings in its ongoing criminal investigation of Donald Trump — and mandated they be handed over to a special master for review.
Cannon has also appointed Raymond Dearie, senior district judge for the Eastern District of New York, as special master.
In a filing last week that amounted to a line-by-line rebuke of Cannon’s ruling, DOJ prosecutors wrote that they would seek intervention by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals if she declined to act on their request for a partial stay by the end of Thursday.
Prosecutors cited the potential for “irreparable harm” to national security — not just from the FBI having to halt their criminal investigation of the recovered records but from the uncertainty her ruling had separately caused, leading the intelligence community to pause its own separate review of whether the classified records, or any intel sources or methods, have been compromised.
“In order to assess the full scope of potential harms to national security resulting from the improper retention of the classified records, the government must assess the likelihood that improperly stored classified information may have been accessed by others and compromised,” the DOJ counterintelligence chief, Jay Bratt, wrote in the filing, specifically referencing the dozens of empty folders with classified banners on them taken from Trump’s estate and the need to assess whether documents that were previously in them were compromised or remain missing.
This is a developing story. Please return for updates.
(LONDON) — The life of Queen Elizabeth II, who died Sept. 8 at age 96, will be celebrated in a funeral service Monday after more than a week of tributes honoring the long-reigning monarch.
The queen’s funeral — which she played a large role in planning — will take place at Westminster Abbey.
Here are all the details we know so far.
When and where the funeral will take place?
A state funeral for the queen will begin at 11 a.m. local time (6 a.m. ET) on Monday, Sept. 19.
The funeral will be held at Westminster Abbey, making the queen the first sovereign to have a funeral there since 1760.
Westminster Abbey normally holds 2,200 congregants, but extra seating can be arranged to accommodate more than 8,000 people, as it did at the queen’s coronation.
The day of the queen’s funeral will be a public holiday in the U.K.
How the queen’s coffin will arrive at Westminster Abbey
Just after 10:30 a.m. local time on the day of the funeral, a procession will begin to transport the coffin from Westminster Hall to Westminster Abbey for the funeral.
The queen’s coffin will travel on the State Gun Carriage, which was also used for the funeral of the queen’s father, King George VI, as well as the funerals for King Edward VII, King George V and Winston Churchill.
The vast procession will include musicians, members of the military and members of the royal family, including King Charles III; Anne, the Princess Royal; Princes Edward, Andrew, Harry and William; and Peter Phillips, who will all walk behind the coffin.
Who is expected to attend the funeral?
Members of the royal family will all be in attendance at the funeral, including the queen’s four children, her eight grandchildren and their spouses.
It is not yet known whether the queen’s great-grandchildren, such as Princes George and Louis and Princess Charlotte, will attend with their parents.
Other mourners at the queen’s funeral will include heads of state and dignitaries from around the world, including President Joe Biden, who has confirmed that he plans to attend.
Also in the audience at Westminster Abbey will be some of the 15 U.K. prime ministers who served during the queen’s reign, including current Prime Minister Liz Truss, who was the last public official to meet with the queen in person before her death.
How the queen’s coffin will be adorned
The queen’s coffin is draped with the Royal Standard, the flag representing the sovereign and the U.K. During her reign, the Royal Standard was flown on her car and aircraft on official journeys and at royal palaces when the queen was in residence.
The wreath atop the coffin is a collection of white roses, white dahlias and foliage from the gardens at Balmoral and Windsor.
Also atop the coffin, on a velvet cushion, lies the Imperial State Crown, the crown the monarch wears upon leaving Westminster Abbey after the coronation.
The crown — which contains 2,868 diamonds, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, 269 pearls and four rubies — was made in 1937 for the coronation of the queen’s father, according to Historic Royal Palaces, the organization that oversees the Tower of London, where the crown jewels are held.
The 317-carat Second Star of Africa, also known as the Cullinan II, is the most valuable stone in the crown, which the queen wore at her 1953 coronation, along with the St. Edward’s Crown.
The queen’s coffin is also adorned with the Sovereign’s Sceptre with Cross and the Sovereign’s Orb, both part of the coronation regalia.
The sceptre has been used at every coronation since 1661 and features the 530-carat Cullinan I diamond, the largest gem-quality uncut diamond ever found. The diamond was discovered in a South African mine in 1905 owned by its namesake, Thomas Cullinan.
The orb, described as a “golden globe surmounted by a cross,” is given to the monarch when they are crowned to remind them “that their power is derived from God,” according to Historic Royal Palaces.
With the crown jewels back in the spotlight following the queen’s death, there have been renewed calls for some of them to be returned to their countries of origin.
The Cullinan diamond was purchased by the government in Transvaal, South Africa, where it was found, and “presented (1907) to the reigning British monarch, King Edward VII,” according to Encyclopedia Britannica
The Royal Collection Trust states that the diamond was presented to the king “as a symbolic gesture to heal the rift between Britain and South Africa after the Boer War.”
How long will the funeral last?
The tightly choreographed service is expected to last just over one hour. The service will be led by the Very Reverend Dr. David Hoyle, the dean of Westminster.
Among those reading and saying prayers at the service are the archbishop of York, the U.K. prime minister and the secretary general of the Commonwealth, and the cardinal archbishop of Westminster.
Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, will deliver the sermon.
Near the end of the service, at around 11:55 a.m. local time, two minutes of silence will be observed inside Westminster Abbey and throughout the U.K.
The service will end with the singing of the national anthem.
How to watch the funeral
The queen’s funeral will be broadcast by television networks around the world and livestreamed online.
What members of the royal family will wear at the funeral
As working members of the royal family, Charles, Anne, Edward and William will be dressed in military uniform at the queen’s funeral, according to Buckingham Palace.
Andrew and Harry, the queen’s son and grandson, respectively, will not be in uniform as they are no longer working royals.
Other members of the royal family, including Camilla, the Queen Consort; Kate, the Princess of Wales; Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex; and Sophie, the Countess of Sussex, will wear black, as they have since the queen’s death was announced.
Female family members will also likely follow tradition in wearing black veils, known as mourning veils, covering all or some of their faces.
Where the queen’s coffin will be taken after the funeral
Following the funeral, the queen’s coffin will travel in a procession from Westminster Abbey to Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner.
Charles will again join his siblings Anne, Andrew and Edward, and his sons William and Harry, as well as his nephew Peter Phillips, in walking in the procession.
From Wellington Arch, the state hearse will drive the queen’s coffin to Windsor, with members of the royal family following by car.
Once in Windsor, the state hearse will carry the coffin along the Long Walk, with Charles and royal family members joining the procession by foot at the Quadrangle.
The procession will take the coffin to the queen’s final resting place at St. George’s Chapel, on the grounds of Windsor Castle.
What the queen will be buried with
At St. George’s Chapel, a committal service will be held, attended by members of the royal family and personal staff who work or have worked for the queen.
During the final hymn of the service, the Imperial State Crown, orb and sceptre will be removed from the queen’s coffin and placed on the altar.
Charles will place the Grenadier Guards’ Queen’s Company Camp Colour — a smaller version of the Royal Standard — on the coffin.
Before the coffin is lowered into the royal vault, Lord Chamberlain Andrew Parker — the most senior official in the queen’s royal household – will “break” his Wand of Office and place it on the coffin, signifying the end of the reign.
Where the queen will be buried
The queen will be buried at the King George VI Memorial Chapel at St. George’s Chapel, alongside Prince Philip, her beloved husband, who died last year at the age of 99.
The burial service will be private, attended only by members of the royal family.
(JACKSON, Miss.) — Mississippi ended its boil water notice for all of Jackson’s residents on Thursday, the state’s health department announced.
The news comes nearly two weeks after water pressure returned to the state capital’s residents after days of a water shortage crisis that impacted thousands of Jacksonians.
A boil water notice was in effect in Jackson since July 29, with the city saying that it needed “two rounds of clear samples” before it could lift the notice, adding: “We will alert residents as soon as this happens.”
“On Tuesday, the Mississippi State Department of Health began officially conducting tests of the water quality. They collected 120 samples for two consecutive days,” Gov. Tate Reeves said at a press conference on Thursday. “We can now announce we have restored clean water to the city of Jackson.”
Last month, at least 180,000 people went without reliable drinking water in Jackson after pumps at the main water treatment plant failed.
Reeves declared a state of emergency on Aug. 30 to address the issue.
At Thursday’s press conference, Reeves touted Mississippi’s efforts in fixing the water issues in Jackson, including increasing how much water is produced, restoring water pressure and installing an emergency pump at the water treatment facility.
City and state officials have been helping to distribute drinkable and non-drinkable water to residents.
The state distributed nearly 12 million bottles of water, but distribution will end soon since the boil water notice has been lifted, Stephen McCraney, the executive director of the state Emergency Management Agency, said at the press conference.
(WASHINGTON) — The Biden White House on Thursday condemned Republican governors who this week escalated their strategy of busing — and now flying — migrants to Democratic cities in protest of the administration’s border policies.
Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis sent two planes of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard late Wednesday evening, surprising state and local officials. Two buses sent by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott carrying roughly 100 migrants were dropped off in front of Vice President Kamala Harris’s Naval Observatory residence early Thursday morning.
DeSantis said the confrontational moves were a message to President Joe Biden and Harris to do their “damn job” and secure the border.
The White House and Democrats are calling the moves cruel, accusing the GOP leaders of creating “chaos.”
“There’s a legal way of doing this — for managing migrants,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during Thursday’s briefing with reporters. “Republican governors interfering in that process and using migrants as political pawns is shameful, is reckless, and just plain wrong.”
Jean-Pierre criticized the governors for appearing to give no notice to leaders on the ground.
“The fact that Fox News and not the Department of Homeland Security, the city or local NGOs (non-governmental organizations) were alerted about a plan to leave migrants, including children, on the side of a busy D.C. street makes clear that this is just a cruel premeditated political stunt,” Jean-Pierre said.
Two buses carrying roughly 100 migrants were dropped off in front of Harris’ official Naval Observatory residence early Thursday morning. They were met by immigration advocates from the SAMU First Response, a humanitarian nonprofit foundation in Washington, which said the migrants are receiving food, clothing and hygiene care.
Tatiana Laborde, the managing director of SAMU, told ABC News the migrants were “extremely confused and disoriented ” when they landed on the sidewalk of the residential drop-off location.
Geoff Freeman, the director of Martha’s Vineyard airport, told ABC News in a phone call “nobody on the island was informed” of the planes’ arrivals.
“No local officials knew of this event until after it happened,” Freeman said.
Lack of coordination between communities regarding bussing of migrants “can wreak havoc and do harm, to individuals and those communities” said a Homeland Security spokesperson.
“That is the case here,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson explained migrants encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border continue to be expelled under Title 42. Anyone not expelled under Title 42 are either given expedited removal proceedings or are issued a notice to appear before an immigration judge and monitored through ICE alternatives to detention. DHS continues to work closely with nonprofit organizations and local governments on efforts to facilitate voluntary migrant transportation, the spokesperson said.
“Failure to coordinate is irresponsible and creates unsafe conditions for vulnerable migrants as well as the receiving jurisdictions,” they added.
DeSantis said sending migrants to Democrat-led states was a response to their previous “virtue signaling” by declaring themselves sanctuary jurisdictions during former President Donald Trump’s years in office.
“We’re not a sanctuary state,” he said at Florida at a news conference.
Border state Republicans praised the migrant vans, arguing the crisis at the border is a problem that should be shouldered by the entire country.
“This is a national responsibility, it should be a national burden,” said Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
Border crossings reached a peak in May as U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered 239,416 migrants along the southern border — the largest number of migrants ever.
Encounters dropped slightly in June and July, but experts estimate the agency will cross 2 million apprehensions by the end of the fiscal year ending this month.
Harris was tapped by President Joe Biden last year to lead the administration’s effort to tackle challenges at the border and work with Central American countries to address the root causes of the problem. Republicans have long criticized Harris’s absence at the southern border since taking on the role.
Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, tweeted: “If our “Border Czar” won’t visit the border, the border will visit her.” Several GOP members of Congress on Thursday posted similar sentiments on social media Thursday.
Harris declined to comment when asked by ABC News’ Justin Gomez if she had any reaction to the migrants that were dropped off in front of her residence.
The White House defended its immigration policies on Thursday while also acknowledging there’s more work to be done.
Jean-Pierre pointed to steps to advance border technology, add more immigration judges and provide record funding to the Department of Homeland Security as proof the administration is committed to fixing what she described as a “decimated” immigration system left behind by the Trump administration.
“We are fixing a broken system,” she told ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Mary Bruce when asked about the influx of migrants at the border. “It is not like turning the light switch on. It is going to take some time.”
Jean-Pierre said Republicans in Congress should instead focus on passing a long-term, comprehensive legislation to reform the immigration system.
“They deserve better than being left on the streets of D.C. or being left in Martha’s Vineyard,” the press secretary said of the migrants who’ve been transported. “They deserve a lot better than that.”
ABC News’ Allison Pecorin, Briana Stewart, Miles Cohen and Luke Barr contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge on Thursday sentenced Robert Packer, the Jan. 6 rioter seen in photos wearing a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt, to 75 days in prison.
Packer had previously pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of demonstrating inside the U.S. Capitol building.
The black-hooded sweatshirt Packer donned during the riot, prosecutors said, showed “Camp Auschwitz” and “Work Means Freedom” with a skull image on the front, and “STAFF” written on the back. Underneath his sweatshirt, he wore another Nazi-inspired t-shirt, they said.
The prosecution argued that although Packer did not post on social media, he broadcasted his beliefs on his clothes.
The defense countered that if Packer had short hair, no beard, and was wearing a different shirt, he might be viewed differently.
When Judge Carl Nichols asked why Packer was wearing the shirt, the defense said he “cannot explain” why he was wearing it, but that it was a “free speech” issue.
“I just don’t think it is appropriate to make him serve more time because he is wearing that shirt, because he is allowed to wear it,” his lawyer said.
Packer’s attorney further claimed Packer takes offense to being called a white supremacist, because he “does not see himself that way at all.”
In delivering his sentencing decision, Nichols said “although he did not carry a sign, he wore a distinctive and incredibly offensive shirt.”
The judge said he can infer Packer wore the shirt for a reason, although he does not know that reason, because Packer has not told the court.
While Packer was charged with a misdemeanor, the prosecution requested 75 days of incarceration, followed by three years of probation and 60 hours of community service.
The prosecution noted that Packer’s actions should be considered within the context of the violence of Jan. 6. Although he himself did not perpetuate any acts of violence, they said, the mob would not have succeeded in overwhelming the police, breaching the Capitol, and disrupting the proceedings without his actions, alongside others who did the same.
The judge stated that Packer’s presence, although not inherently violent, “prevents police from dealing with people who are.”
Prosecutors added that the sentencing should deter crime generally, “the most compelling reason to impose a sentence of incarceration.” Because the Jan. 6 rioters directly interfered with democracy, they said, “the gravity of these offenses demands deterrence.”
They said they were justified asking for prison time because Packer ignored police barricades, ignored police officers telling rioters to stop, watched assaults on police officers and Capitol property without leaving or trying to stop them, entered the speaker’s hallway and Statuary Hall, and has not expressed remorse for his actions.
“He was just walking around, looking, to me,” the defense countered. “He is as close to a bystander as you can get in this case.”
“He shouldn’t have stayed there for as long as he did; the question is does he need to go to jail for it,” his defense lawyer said.
Prosecutors added that Packer has been a “habitual criminal offender for 25 years with 21 convictions for mostly drunk driving, but also for larceny, drug possession, and forgery.” He was incarcerated for several previous offenses, they said.
The defense said that his record does not stem from an “evil mind” but a “disease” of alcoholism.
Packer did not make any comments to the court during his sentencing.
(NEW YORK) — The New York attorney general’s office rejected an offer this month to resolve a civil investigation into former President Donald Trump and his family real estate business, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.
For more than three years, New York Attorney General Letitia James has been investigating whether Trump fraudulently adjusted the value of his assets to secure loans or tax breaks.
James had already said in court filings she has found evidence of possible fraud. The rejection of the Trump Organization’s settlement offer is a possible sign she intends to file a civil lawsuit which, if successful, could result in financial penalties or restrictions on the company’s ability to operate in New York.
A spokesperson for the AG’s declined to comment. The Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment by ABC News.
James had already said in court filings she has found evidence of possible fraud. The rejection of the Trump Organization’s settlement offer is a possible sign she intends to file a civil lawsuit which, if successful, could result in financial penalties or restrictions on the company’s ability to operate in New York.
A spokesperson for the AG’s declined to comment. The Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment by ABC News.
News of the rejected settlement offer was first reported by The New York Times.
Trump, who has denied wrongdoing, has called the investigation a politically motivated witch hunt. He repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a deposition last month in James’ office.
In a January court filing, James accused Trump of misstating objective facts, overstating his liquidity, and failing to use fundamental techniques of asset valuation. The filing mentioned financial statements associated with seven different Trump properties, including 40 Wall Street, the apartment in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, and golf clubs in Scotland and in Westchester County, New York.
Last month, in a separate case, longtime Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty to charges of running a yearslong scheme to avoid paying taxes on nearly $2 million in income, including fringe benefits like rent, luxury cars and private school tuition for his grandchildren.
He also agreed to testify against the Trump Organization when the company goes on trial in connection with the alleged compensation scheme beginning in October. The plea agreement contains no requirement for him to cooperate in the related criminal case against Trump himself.
(EL DORADO, CA) –A wildfire that has destroyed dozens of homes in California is now the largest in the state this year.
The Mosquito Fire has burned through nearly 64,000 acres and gutted 70 structures in El Dorado and Placer counties since it sparked on Sept. 6, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Of the structures that were destroyed, at least 25 have been single-occupancy residences, fire officials said.
The fast-moving fire has exploded by more than 15,000 acres since Monday and is just 20% contained, according to Cal Fire. It has now surpassed the McKinney Fire as the largest in the state in 2022.
The smoke is so intense that it has produced hazardous air quality in states farther north and east, such as Oregon and Wyoming, and it is billowing farther east toward the Midwest. Combined with other wildfires in the West, heavy smoke is causing poor air quality as far east as Billings, Montana, and moderate air quality as far east as Rapid City, South Dakota — and the smoke is expected to continuing traveling toward the East Coast.
This is not the first time smoke from wildfires in the West has traveled to cities more than 1,000 miles away.
Last year, smoke from more than 100 large wildfires from California to Montana drifted toward Denver and the Rocky Mountains.
However, humidity is on the rise for the majority of the area covered by the Mosquito Fire, which will assist firefighters in containing the blaze, fire officials said.
Nationwide, more than 6.7 million acres of land have burned this year, with most of the fires concentrated in the Northwest, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. More than 43,000 of those fires were sparked by people, while just 6,341 were sparked by lightning, according to the agency.
Bone-dry landscapes as a result of a decades long megadrought in the West is exacerbating the fire danger, causing dehydrated vegetation to act as fuel for the flames.
(NEW YORK) — The New York City Parks Department has again rejected calls by members of the city council to terminate the Trump Organization’s license to operate a city-owned golf course in the Bronx.
Council members on Thursday called for the “immediate termination” of the Trump Organization’s license to operate the golf course at Ferry Point Park, a month before it’s scheduled to host a women’s tournament underwritten by Saudi Arabia.
City officials previously said they could not “unreasonably withhold approval” for the course to host the October event.
“The Trump-operated golf course hosting a golf tournament sponsored by the Saudi government just weeks after the 21st anniversary of this country’s most devastating event ever is insensitive to say the least,” Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said Thursday.
The tournament, part of the women’s Aramco Team Series, has close ties to the Saudi government but is separate from the LIV Golf tour that has poached players from the PGA Tour.
Council member Shekar Krishnan called the tournament “so offensive to the families of 9/11.”
But a New York City Parks Department representative said the city would continue to honor its contract with former President Donald Trump’s namesake company.
“As we’ve told Chair Krishnan and his colleagues in the City Council, ending the contract we inherited would require the city to pay up to tens of millions of dollars to the Trump Organization, an outcome no one wants,” a department spokesperson said in a statement. “We agree with the chairman on the desired outcome to cancel both this tournament and the overarching license agreement, and hope in the future he seeks a productive partnership on the issue.”
In April, a New York state judge upheld Trump’s right to continue to operate the course after former Mayor Bill de Blasio attempted to terminate Trump’s operating license following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The Trump Organization called the effort to terminate the company’s operating license “nothing more than a political vendetta.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden will meet Friday at the White House with the families of Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, two American citizens who remain detained in Russia.
“The president wants to make sure their families know they remain front of mind and that his team is working on this every day,” said a senior administration official, who confirmed the meeting to ABC News.
The president will meet with Griner’s wife, Cherelle, and with Whelan’s sister, Elizabeth, who both spoke with Biden in July, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre detailed at a later briefing with reporters.
The Biden administration said in July that it had made a “substantial proposal” to Russia to have Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan returned to the U.S. but Jean-Pierre said no breakthroughs were expected at Biden’s meeting.
“So, while I would love to say that the purpose of this meeting is to inform the families that the Russians have accepted our offer, and we are bringing their loved ones home, that is not what we’re seeing in these negotiations at this time,” she said.
“Look, as we have said, the Russians should accept our offer. They should accept our offer today. We will keep working diligently until the day we get to share that good news,” she added.
Still Jean-Pierre said Biden wanted to let the families know they remain “front of mind” for the administration.
“So one of the things that the president wanted to — to make clear is and one of the reasons he’s — he is meeting with families is that he wanted to let them know that they remain front of mind and that his team is working on this every day on making sure that Brittney and Paul return home safely. One family member was already scheduled to be in town and the president wanted to meet with both of the families on the same day,” Jean-Pierre said.
Griner, the famous WNBA player, was arrested in February on drug charges and sentences to nine years in prison. Whelan, a corporate security executive, is currently serving a 16-year sentence for espionage charges that his family says are trumped up. The U.S. declared both to be wrongfully detained, a legal clarification that mobilizes federal resources to free Americans imprisoned abroad.
The talks between Washington and Moscow have been complicated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
There have been few public signs of progress since Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a rare announcement in late July, revealed the U.S. had made the “substantial proposal” to secure the release of both Americans.
Sources told ABC News that offer included a prisoner swap that would exchange Viktor Bout — a convicted Russian arms dealer currently serving a 25-year sentence in a federal penitentiary in Illinois — for Griner and Whelan.
While U.S. officials say direct communication with the Kremlin continues at a regular clip, they acknowledge the slow pace is frustrating.
“Why this process has taken so long is a better question for Moscow,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Thursday.
“I wouldn’t characterize the process as stalled, he said. “It certainly hasn’t moved with the speed we would like.”
Some observers speculate Russia will demand parity, demanding two prisoners for the American detainees. Others within the State Department have questioned whether the Kremlin is negotiating in good faith and genuinely interested in reaching an agreement.
As talks continue behind the scenes, the Biden administration has bristled at any outside influence. After former New Mexico governor and hostage negotiator Bill Richardson traveled to Moscow this week, officials warned such interference could jeopardize the delicate diplomacy underway.
“Our message is that private citizens should not be in Moscow at all right now and that private citizens cannot negotiate on behalf of the United States government,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Wednesday.
Richardson became involved in Griner’s case at her family’s request back in May and over many years has been involved in multiple successful efforts to free detained Americans.
“Of course, families are perfectly free to engage in to consult with outside voices, with outside entities,” Price said Wednesday. “But again, we want to make sure that any outside effort is fully and transparently coordinated with us.”
Price said the U.S. embassy is Moscow had not been involved in Richardson’s trip.
ABC News reached out to the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, but a spokesperson declined to comment or answer questions.
