(NEW YORK) — Two people were stabbed inside the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan Saturday afternoon, police said.
The unidentified victims were transported to Bellevue Hospital and listed in stable condition, according to the New York Police Department.
Preliminarily, per a source familiar, authorities believe a former employee came back to the museum and stabbed two people who work there. It is not believed to be a random attack.
Officers were still looking for a suspect and the investigation was ongoing, according to police.
This is a developing story. Check back for details.
Courtesy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NEW YORK) — The East Coast is getting hit with a major late-winter storm this weekend that is bringing severe weather from Florida to Maine, as tens of millions are under winter weather alerts.
After dumping several inches of snow in the Southeast, the storm is intensifying as it moves up the East Coast, with states on alert for wintry conditions, strong wind gusts, freezing temperatures, damaging winds and heavy snow and rain.
The storm triggered severe thunderstorms in parts of Florida and the Carolina coast earlier Saturday. Wind gusts over 70 mph were reported in parts of northern Florida and along the North Carolina coast, bringing reports of wind damage. There was one reported tornado in northern Florida, though no significant damage has been reported at this time.
The heaviest snowfall is expected from Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey into Maine. As of early Saturday afternoon, the biggest totals so far have been across the central Appalachians into central New York, where over half foot of snow has been reported in some areas.
Up to a foot of snow is forecasted for inland areas from West Virginia to Maine, with the highest amounts expected in the Green and White Mountains of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
The latest Key Messages for the impending eastern U.S. winter storm. Heavy snow and gusty winds are anticipated today from the Central Appalachians into the interior Northeast, followed by record cold in the Southeast Sunday morning. More information ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/Ul09j0hIsm
— NWS Weather Prediction Center (@NWSWPC) March 12, 2022
Snowfall along the I-95 corridor is expected to be lighter — between 1 to 3 inches from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia and into New York City. Boston is expected to see heavy rain ending as a few snow showers.
By this evening, lingering precipitation will be focused mostly into northern New England. Strong gusty winds, blustery conditions and lingering scattered snow showers will persist across the region into the night.
Behind this storm system will be a bitter cold blast across the East. Wind chills are forecasted to be in the single digits Sunday morning from New York to Boston and feeling like the teens from Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., down to Raleigh, North Carolina, and Atlanta. Wind chills could be in the 20s in northern Florida Sunday morning.
Daily record lows will be challenged in multiple cities in the South over the next 24 hours, with temperatures running more than 20 degrees below average for this time of the year in parts of the region. A freezing warning has been issued for most of the Gulf Coast, including Florida, for Saturday night.
Thousands are without power amid the winter storm. As of noon ET, more than 183,000 customers were without power in Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania and Virginia, according to PowerOutage.us.
Several St. Patrick’s Day parades were postponed due to the late-winter storm, including in Albany, New York, and Erie, Pennsylvania. In Knoxville, Tennessee, the parade was canceled due to the road conditions after several inches fell.
ABC News’ Alexandra Puri contributed to this report.
(ORLANDO, Fla.) — Nearly six months after college student Miya Marcano was allegedly murdered by a man who worked in her apartment building, Florida lawmakers have passed a bill mandating stronger protections for tenants.
“Miya’s Law,” which passed Friday in the state legislature, now mandates landlords and building managers require background checks for all prospective employees, reinforces requirements regarding access to individual units and requires landlords to give tenants 24 hours notice if a repairs need to take place.
State Sen. Linda Stewart, the bill’s lead sponsor, said she and her colleagues worked to ensure that what happened to the 19-year-old Valencia College student doesn’t happen again.
“I do hope with the passing of Miya’s Law, this will bring some peace to the family and knowing that their daughter’s death was not in vain,” she said in a statement.
On Sept. 25, Marcano went missing from her apartment in the Arden Villas complex in Orlando, Florida, and was found dead a week later in the woods. Investigators said Armando Caballero, a maintenance worker at Arden Villas, kidnapped and killed Marcano after gaining access to her apartment using his master key.
Investigators found Caballero dead in his apartment on Sept. 27 from an apparent suicide. They said there are no other suspects involved in the killing.
Marcano’s family said she rebuffed romantic advances from Caballero and they accused the apartment complex’s management of failing to address complaints against Caballero. The management company said in a statement in October that “all employees are vetted using a national background check service” and that Caballero had “no record of burglary or sexual assault.”
Marcano’s family has called for stronger tenant protections and more scrutiny of prospective apartment maintenance employees.
If Miya’s Law is signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, landlords who violate the new rules could be hit with a felony or first-degree misdemeanor charge.
“I urge Gov. DeSantis to honor Miya’s name and sign this potentially lifesaving legislation into law,” Florida state Rep. Robin Bartleman, who was the lead sponsor of the house version of the bill, said in a statement.
(NEW YORK) — The beginning of daylight saving time marks the arrival of spring every year. For some, the time difference can cause feelings of fatigue or more serious health symptoms.
First proposed over 200 years ago as an economical suggestion to maximize daylight hours and conserve candles, we continue to “spring forward” with one 23-hour day to transition our clocks.
According to the American Heart Association, in addition to the fatigue, the transition can also affect your heart and brain. Hospital admissions for an irregular heartbeat pattern known as atrial fibrillation, as well as heart attacks and strokes, increase in the first few days of daylight saving time.
“Daylight saving time feels kind of like jetlag from traveling across time zones,” said Dr. Angela Holliday-Bell, a pediatrician and certified clinical sleep specialist.
“Your body needs time to readjust to a new light/dark cycle, so it can be hard on the body and hard on sleep,” Holliday-Bell said.
This cycle, also known as the circadian rhythm, is a fine-tuned system that our bodies use to regulate time, she said. For most people, that cycle is about 24 hours and 15 minutes.
“It dictates all the processes that occur in your body — including sleep, wake and digestion,” said Holliday-Bell. Even the immune system is controlled by your circadian rhythm, meaning “when you lose an hour, you’re losing some immune function as well,” she explains.
Sleep deprivation can also slow the executive function of the brain, which explains the increase in car accidents seen with the time transition of daylight savings. Mood can suffer too.
Experts agree that there are several strategies to prepare your body all year round and for the days leading up to daylight savings time.
Start to wind down earlier in the evening.
Even for a few days, adjusting your sleep-wake cycle can help you feel more well-rested. Try moving your bedtime up in fifteen minute increments in the days before the clock sets back, until you’ve reached the one hour you’ll lose on Sunday.
Maximize natural light.
“Light is the strongest influence on circadian rhythms,” says Dr. Holliday Bell. “Getting natural light as soon as you can when you first wake up helps to reinforce your circadian rhythm.”
Limit caffeine.
The extra coffee might feel necessary to get through the fatigue, but too much caffeine is not heart healthy. It also lasts in the body for a long time, which can affect the ability to fall asleep or sleep restfully in the evening.
Gradual lifestyle improvements all year long and a concerted effort in the days leading up to the transition can help to soften the disruption to your circadian rhythm, so you can save daylight without losing anything else.
Chidimma J. Acholonu is a pediatric resident physician at the University of Chicago and a contributor to the ABC Medical Unit.
(NEW YORK) — Volkswagen has pulled the wraps off its ID Buzz: a van the company is billing as a spiritual successor to its iconic Microbus. But while the original “hippie bus” was powered by a tiny four-cylinder engine behind the rear axle, the new one runs entirely on electric power.
Chad Kirchner, editor-in-chief EV Pulse, says despite the retro looks and EV powertrain, the Buzz’s main focus is practicality.
“It’s designed to be kind of a mainstream people-hauler first. Just with cues to play into that retro appeal of the Microbus,” Kirchner said.
Volkswagen introduced the first Microbus, the T1, in 1950. Over the next few decades, the vehicle became synonymous with the “counterculture” movement. Microbuses were often given bright, psychedelic paint jobs, replete with flowers and peace symbols. Type 2s are featured prominently on album covers from Bob Dylan and The Beach Boys, and can easily be spotted in footage from Woodstock. Early Microbuses shared an engine with the VW Beetle of the era. The new Buzz, similarly, shares a powertrain with another VW stablemate.
The Buzz sits on VW’s “MEB” electric architecture, which also underpins the brand’s electric crossover, the ID4. The company hasn’t yet released specifications for the American-market Buzz, but did reveal the European model will come with a 201-horsepower electric motor powering the rear wheels. As for electric range, Kirchner says he’s expecting it to be close to the ID4’s 268-mile figure. The Buzz is about five inches longer than the ID4, and according to VW, the European version has 138 cubic feet of cargo area.
“If you want a little more space you’re going to want the ID Buzz,” said Kirchner.
Numbers aside, Kirchner says car buyers’ fond memories of classic VW buses could prove to be the Buzz’s main selling point.
“There is definitely a large group of people out there who are nostalgic for the old Microbus,” he added.
Todd Olson is the co-founder of Buses By The Beach, a car club for Microbus enthusiasts. He says he first became interested in buses after attending a Grateful Dead concert in 1992.
“That’s when it all made sense,” he told ABC Audio. “I saw all these Volkswagen vans, where people can live in them… so that started the bug.”
Olson says he’s now owned, restored, and sold over fifty different Volkswagen buses, and says he’s discovered a vibrant enthusiast community in the process.
“Buyers of Volkswagen [buses], they’re counterculture people, they’re a little different,” he says. “They dance to a different beat.”
As for whether the new Buzz can dance to that rhythm, Olson says his initial impressions are positive.
“I think it’s a very cool concept,” said Olsen. “I’m excited to see the vehicle.”
But he has concerns that the limited range of an electric vehicle could put a damper on its appeal.
“The owners of those vans — they want to roll, they want to travel and follow the Grateful Dead … follow Phish,” said Olson. “That pure-EV vehicle unfortunately just doesn’t have the range yet.”
The Buzz is set to go on sale in Europe later this year. It hits US dealerships in 2024. Olson says despite his reservations, he still wants to take it for a test drive.
“When the new one hits the showroom floors, we’re definitely going to go give it a try,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — Attorneys for the estate of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein told a judge in the U.S. Virgin Islands this week that they are “extraordinarily close” to resolving a civil case filed by the government of the island territory against the late financier’s estate, once valued at over $650 million.
“We’ve been having intense negotiations and talks for settlement. We are very, very, very close,” said Gordon Rhea, a lawyer for Richard Kahn, a former accountant for Epstein and one of the estate’s co-executors. “And I think one more push … and we could be at the finish line.”
The news of a potential deal came on Wednesday during a virtual conference in Superior Court in St. Thomas, where the parties continued to spar over the estate’s legal fees and other expenses. The hearing was the first since the case was filed more than two years ago by Denise George, the attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Carol Thomas-Jacobs, a deputy attorney general, acknowledged talks are ongoing and that progress is being made, but said there were a few “sticky issues” that remain.
“We remain open to engaging in settlement discussions until there is some resolution,” Thomas-Jacobs told Superior Court Judge Harold Willocks. “We hope we can reach a resolution.”
Epstein died by suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial in New York on conspiracy and child sex trafficking charges.
The government’s case against the estate, filed in January 2020 under the U.S. Virgin Islands’ racketeering statute, alleged that Epstein created a network of shell companies, charitable organizations and individuals that participated in and conspired with him in a decadeslong pattern of criminal activity tied to alleged sex trafficking of minor girls and young women.
“Epstein, through and in association with defendants, trafficked, raped, sexually assaulted and held captive underage girls and young women at his properties in the Virgin Islands,” the complaint said.
The government also contends that one of Epstein’s U.S. Virgin Islands-based businesses, Southern Trust Company, misrepresented the nature of its work to fraudulently obtain more than $73 million in tax incentives.
After filing the lawsuit, George placed liens on all of Epstein’s properties, including two private islands off the coast of St. Thomas, as well as the estate’s bank accounts, which effectively gave her office control over the estate’s money.
The government has since sent dozens of subpoenas to financial institutions and individuals around the world previously associated with Epstein, including billionaire investors Leon Black and Glenn Dubin, as well as Epstein’s former paramour Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of sex trafficking in federal court late last year. Maxwell has a pending motion for a new trial based on alleged juror misconduct.
The estate, which filed a motion to dismiss the government’s lawsuit in 2020, has so far refused to engage in any pretrial exchanges of documents with the government, arguing that it would be wasteful and unnecessary to do so until a court rules on its motion to dismiss the claims.
The government filed an amended complaint last year that added the estate’s co-executors, Khan and Epstein’s long-time attorney Darren Indyke, as individual defendants, alleging that the pair were “indispensable captains” in Epstein’s criminal organization, who had “profited substantially from their relationship with Epstein.”
“This includes their direct participation in virtually all of the business operations and financial activities of Epstein’s trafficking network, including facilitating forced marriages among Epstein’s victims to secure their immigration status,” George said in a statement early last year.
Indyke and Kahn were selected by Epstein as co-executors in a will he updated two days before his death. The documents stipulate that each of them be paid $250,000 annually for their management of the estate. The two men, through their attorneys, have denied the allegations in the lawsuit and deny any involvement in misconduct by Epstein.
Daniel Weiner, an attorney for the co-executors, told ABC News by email in 2021 that Indyke and Kahn “categorically reject the allegations of misconduct made for the first time today by the Attorney General of the Virgin Islands regarding their purported roles in the so-called ‘Epstein Enterprise.'”
“Neither Mr. Indyke nor Mr. Kahn had any involvement in any misconduct by Mr. Epstein of any kind, at any time,” Weiner wrote. “It is enormously regrettable that the Attorney General chose to level false allegations and to unfairly malign the Co-Executors’ reputation without any proof or factual basis to do so.”
The government’s attorney, Thomas-Jacobs, expressed concern during the hearing that the estate’s value had been greatly diminished over the last two years, and described some of the expenses of the estate, including more than $15 million in legal fees to date, as “extremely outrageous.” Since its initial valuation of $656 million, the estate’s coffers have dwindled to $166 million, according to the estate’s most recent accounting in probate court.
“We are absolutely concerned that in the end, there will be no money left for the people of the Virgin Islands,” she said.
Those comments drew a sharp rebuke from estate attorney Marc Weinstein, who noted that the estate had paid $175 million in taxes and $150 million to Epstein’s victims, which he said accounted for the bulk of the estate’s expenses over the last two years.
“I assume nobody on the government side is saying we shouldn’t pay the taxes and we shouldn’t pay out to the victims,” Weinstein said. “They just keep throwing out the numbers to make it sound bad.”
The estate recently filed an emergency motion for a release of $1.3 million in legal fees incurred primarily for mediation with Epstein’s victims, that the government has thus far declined to pay, according to court records.
In a statement to ABC News, George declined to comment on the status of negotiations, but said the government is “determined, among other things, to address tax benefits that Epstein fraudulently obtained from the Government and People of the Virgin Islands and to protect assets for Epstein victims who may not have resolved their civil claims.”
George’s statement noted that the estate has also refused to disclose the details of several trusts established by Epstein, including the “1953 Trust,” the sole entity listed in Epstein’s last will and testament. The beneficiaries of that trust have not been publicly disclosed.
“These concerns, along with the alleged conduct of the co-executors … in facilitating Epstein’s conduct, including through marriages allegedly forced upon his victims, raise significant concerns about the appropriateness of their management of the Estate,” George wrote.
Given the reported progress in settlement talks, Willocks placed the case on hold for at least 90 days to allow for the parties to try to reach a negotiated resolution. He set a hearing for early May on the dispute over the legal fees.
Weinstein, however, predicted that the case could be resolved without the need to be in court again.
“This case is unbelievably close to resolution,” he told the judge. “I think if the parties focus on that effort, this will be done, and you probably won’t see us again — unless they don’t pay our fees and our expenses. That’s the only reason we’re going to be before you.”
(KENOSHA, Wis.) — An off-duty police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, is under fire after a video went viral appearing to show him putting his knee on the neck of a 12-year-old girl at Lincoln Middle School on March 4, while trying to stop a fight that the girl was involved in.
A video of the incident taken by one of the students at the school was obtained by ABC News and shows the officer responding to a reported fight between two students.
The 12 year-old girl, whose name has not been revealed as she is a minor, appears to push the officer and then he pins her to the ground and appears to kneel on her neck, according to the video. It is unclear what happened before or after.
Black teen handcuffed in viral video of mall fight speaks out on police treatment
Attorney Drew DeVinney, who represents the girl and her father, Jerrel Perez, told ABC News that the girl “suffered injuries to her head and neck and is currently receiving medical treatment.”
Perez shared videos of the incident on his Facebook account and expressed outrage over the police officer’s tactics, comparing the image to George Floyd — the Minnesota man who was killed in May 2020 after a police officer placed a knee on his neck for nine minutes.
Amid a national push for police reform after Floyd’s death, Wisconsin banned the use of police chokeholds in June 2021 except in life threatening situations or in situations where a police officer had to defend themselves. Chokeholds include various police neck restraints.
“Mr. Perez was saddened and upset when he saw videos of an officer using a chokehold against his twelve-year-old daughter at school,” DeVinney said. “He then felt his world collapse as he listened to his child describe how she could not breath under the weight of an adult’s knee against the back of her neck.”
DeVinney said that since chokeholds have been banned in the state, the “incident should never have occurred.”
“The family hopes to find out why this happened, so that it does not happen again to anyone else’s child,” he added.
Perez told Milwaukee ABC affiliate WISN in an interview published Tuesday that his daughter was arrested for disorderly conduct.
The Kenosha Police Department released a statement on Monday addressing the incident.
According to KPD, after a fight broke out between two students in the cafeteria during lunch, Kenosha Unified School District employees, including the off duty officer, intervened and one staff member was injured.
“K.P.D. has watched the video clip and has seen the photo which has been widely shared on social media over the weekend. We are keenly aware of the significant sensitivity surrounding the photo. K.P.D., together with K.U.S.D. is investigating the incident in its entirety while being cautious not to make conclusions based off of a small piece of information shared on social media,” police said. “Both agencies will look to our respective policies and procedures for guidance in this circumstance. It is the highest priority of those officers who work in our schools to provide a safe and secure learning environment for our children and staff.”
The officer is a 37-year-old male with four years of service at KPD, police said, but when asked by ABC News whether the officer’s identity will be revealed, a KPD spokesman declined to comment. Police did not comment when asked if there were any updates on the investigation and would not confirm if the 12 year-old girl was arrested for disorderly conduct.
Tanya Ruder, chief communications officer for the Kenosha Unified School District, told ABC News on Tuesday that the officer is a “part-time KUSD employee, who was hired as an off-duty Kenosha police officer,” and is “currently on a paid leave from the district.”
“We appreciate your patience as we work with the Kenosha Police Department to investigate the facts surrounding this incident,” she added.
DeVinney said that he is working to obtain security footage of the incident from the school.
Ruder told ABC News that they cannot release the footage as this is a pending investigation.
ABC News’ Keara Shannon contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The Pentagon has been providing daily updates on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Ukraine’s efforts to resist.
Here are highlights of what a senior U.S. defense official told reporters on Friday:
Russia flying 20 times as many sorties as Ukraine
Russian military planes are flying an average of 200 sorties per day, compared to only about 10 per day flown by Ukraine, according to the official.
Much of the airspace above Ukraine is heavily guarded by both Ukrainian and Russian surface-to-air missiles, making air operations risky for both sides.
But Russian aircraft don’t have to enter Ukrainian airspace to do damage.
“You can launch cruise missiles from aircraft from a great distance away. And if your target is relatively close, you don’t need to enter the airspace,” the official said.
For the first time, the official gave details on the total number of functioning Ukrainian fighter jets and how much they’re being used.
“They have 56 available to them now, fully operational, and they’re only flying them five to 10 hours a day,” the official said.
Ukraine needs drones, not jets: Official
Noting Russia’s vast umbrella of anti-aircraft capability over Ukraine and its larger air force, the official repeated some of the arguments we heard from the Pentagon earlier this week about the relative ineffectiveness of sending more aircraft to Ukraine.
“It makes little sense to us that additional fixed-wing aircraft is going to have somehow solve all these problems. What they need are surface-to-air missile systems, they need MANPADS, they need anti-armor, and they need small arms and ammunition, and they need these drones, because that’s what they’re using with great effect. And so, that’s what we’re focused on,” the official said.
Ukrainian forces are making “terrific” use of drones, especially against Russian ground movements, according to the official. The drones can be also used both for reconnaissance and surveillance.
“They’re trained on how to use them, they can fly below radar coverage by the Russians,” the official said.
They are also much cheaper than fighter aircraft, and being unmanned, don’t risk pilots being killed or captured.
Chemical weapons and false flags
The official said that despite claims from China and Russia, the U.S. is not helping Ukraine create or use any chemical or biological weapons.
“This is bio research with regard to two things: One, helping Ukraine over the years decrease the pathogen inventory that they had under Soviet years, and then to develop strategies to defeat pathogens going forward,” the official said. “It’s scientific research, it’s not bio-weapons capabilities.”
The official said the U.S. has nothing to hide, and that information on its role in scientific work in Ukraine was already publicly available.
“The only reason why we elevated the discussion is because the Russians and the Chinese decided to lie about it — just flat out lie,” the official said.
The official would not offer any U.S. intelligence assessment of the likelihood of Russian President Vladimir Putin deploying chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine.
“We know that the Russians have had — and we assess that they still have — a sophisticated chemical and biological weapons program. I’m not going to talk about intelligence assessments about what they may do with that program or what, if any, designs they might have on Ukraine in that regard,” the official said.
The official said Russia’s “ridiculous narrative” could possibly “be building a pretext for some sort of false flag event.”
State of the invasion
The push to Kyiv: Russians have not moved any closer to Kyiv from the northwest since yesterday, still approximately 9 miles from city center. But the U.S. has seen rear elements move up closer to those advance troops. Russians advancing on the capital from northeast now 12-19 miles out.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters Friday that the Russians coming from the east, while further from Kyiv, are gaining more ground than those to the northwest near the Hostomel Airport.
“We do assess that the Russians are beginning to make more momentum on the ground towards Kyiv, particularly from the east, not quite so much from the north,” Kirby said.
Kharkiv: Russians are “closing in,” but the city is well defended and hasn’t been taken yet.
Mariupol: The port city is under increasing pressure today. It is surrounded from northeast and southwest, under heavy bombardment, but Ukrainians are fighting back there.
Kherson: The city remains under Russian control: “We continue to assess that they have Kherson,” the official said.
Mykolayiv: Russian forces remain to the northeast of the city, though it is under increasing pressure. “We’ve observed the Ukrainians are continuing to defend the city, and the Russians are just outside the city,” the official said.
Lutsk and Ivano-Frankovsk: The Russians struck airfields in each city Friday.
“Obviously, they wanted to eliminate the Ukrainians’ ability to use these airfields,” the official said.
The official did not know how much the Ukrainians were using these two airfields or how extensive the damage was.
“What’s unusual about it is that [the Russians] haven’t been striking in western Ukraine,” the official said of the strikes.
Russian missile strikes
The Russians have now launched nearly 810 missiles against Ukraine — almost half have been fired from within Ukraine using mobile platforms. The rest have been fired from Russia, Belarus, and a small number from the Black Sea. This is up from an estimate of 775 missiles offered by the official Thursday.
Majority of combat power intact
Russia still has roughly 90% of its invading combat power still viable, with Ukraine falling just under 90%, the official said.
(WILTON MANORS, Fla.) — Four spring breakers who overdosed Thursday night in Wilton Manors, Florida, are cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point public affairs told ABC News Friday.
One of the cadets is on the West Point football team, according to the academy, which is located in Orange County, New York.
“The U.S. Military Academy is aware of the situation involving West Point cadets, which occurred Thursday night in Wilton Manors, FL,” a West Point statement said.
Miami ABC affiliate WPLG reported the cadets were part of a group of college students from New York state at a short-term rental home where cocaine laced with fentanyl caused seven people to overdose.
Three people remained hospitalized Friday with two in critical condition. It’s unclear if that includes any of the cadets.
West Point public affairs told ABC News that no more details are available at this time, and the incident is under investigation.
(WASHINGTON) — As the war in Ukraine continues, one office inside the Commerce Department in Washington is at the crossroads of innovation and national security when it comes to sanctions on Russia.
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has been controlling and enforcing export and imports from the United States, and when Russia invaded Ukraine, the bureau jumped in.
Export controls, according to Thea D. Rozman Kendler, assistant secretary of commerce for export administration, are a “national security tool” to keep “sensitive American technology” from countries that would otherwise use it maliciously. Some examples, she said, are goods, technology and software.
“Russia relies on foreign technology for most of its high-technology production,” she explained. “They need our parts and components, our technologies to make and repair weapons, planes, tanks, communications equipment, whatever they need to wage war when Russia attacks Ukraine we were ready with our allies and partners to impose tough restrictions on what could be sold to Russia. With a common goal of degrading Russia’s military capabilities.”
Kendler said as Russia’s military equipment runs out, it will need software updates and won’t get them due to the export and import controls the BIS placed on goods.
“Russia cannot make those weapons of war without us and partner country technology,” she explained. “And if we cut off that technologies, which is what we have tried to do in the last two weeks, we are directly limiting their ability to wage war.”
Matthew Axelrod, assistant secretary for export enforcement, said that China will not be an option for Russia because of the U.S. strict ban on goods to Russia.
“If there is a plant in China that’s making semiconductors and sending them to Russia, that in some type of semiconductors that aren’t allowed, they’re not able to do that without us, technological help, including software updates, including like on site teams that will help with the software and the tooling,” he explained.
Axlerod said that if U.S. companies willfully violate some of the export and import bans placed on Russia there could be serious consequences, even jail time.
“If we find that people are willfully violating a law and shipping items to Russia that are prohibited by the rules, that’s a criminal violation. And people I work with every day our federal criminal law enforcement agents, right like so,” he said. “We bring cases in connection with the Justice Department … across the country against companies that that criminally violate the export control rules.”
Both Axelrod and Kendler served as prosecutors in the National Security Division at the Justice Department and they say that experience has aided them in this job.
“I prosecuted export controls cases, I looked at how we can take regulations and support them through enforcement if you have willful violators,” Kendler said. “So I certainly take that into account as I craft regulations. I think about the enforceability and the clarity of rules for industry, also, so that industry doesn’t inadvertently stumble into a violation. I think we have excellent partnerships with industry who want to comply with the rules and who want to be on the side of democratic values, particularly during the situation we’re facing in the world right now.”
