(WASHINGTON) — Ohio Republicans introduced a House bill on Monday prohibiting “divisive or inherently racist” curriculum and banning instruction that includes sexual orientation and gender identity. The proposal is now facing backlash from local LGBTQ advocates.
The bill combines language from Florida’s controversial Parental Rights in Education law, dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, and anti-critical race theory legislation proposed by Republicans in some states.
The bill states that “curriculum or instructional materials on sexual orientation or gender identity” would be banned in classrooms starting from kindergarten through third grade.
In grades four through twelve, such instruction would be banned if presented in “any manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards,” the bill reads.
It is unclear how age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate-ness is defined and applied.
Opponents of restricting LGBTQ content have been vocal with their outcries after Florida passed its Parental Rights in Education law.
LGBTQ advocates say the legislation would make LGBTQ identities taboo again and silence LGBTQ students and teachers in the classroom.
They say they expect these policies to have negative mental health impacts on LGBTQ youth who are already vulnerable to discrimination and bullying.
More than 225 bills that target LGBTQ content or identities have been filed in the first three months of 2022, according to LGBTQ media watchdog GLAAD.
“Ohio’s Don’t Say Gay bill is yet another insidious attempt to chill and censor free speech in the classroom. Lawmakers are effectively trying to erase LGBTQ+ people and skew history in their favor,” said Equality Ohio’s executive director, Alana Jochum, in a statement.
“Attacks like these are a product of a small minority of people pushing their agenda to dismantle diversity at all costs — and in the process putting educators and families in jeopardy for political gain,” she continued.
The ban on “divisive or inherently racist concepts” includes “critical race theory, intersectional theory, the 1619 project, diversity, equity, and inclusion learning outcomes” and “inherited racial guilt.”
Critical race theory is a discipline in higher education that analyzes how racism impacts U.S legal systems. Intersectional theory analyzes how the different aspects of a person’s identity can affect how they may be impacted by discrimination.
The 1619 project is a New York Times initiative that reframes the story of America by placing “slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of the [country’s] national narrative,” according to the project’s website.
Opponents of this legislation say such laws villainize attempts to teach about race and diversity in public schools, shutting down lessons that could make students think about the history of oppression in the U.S.
Supporters of these kinds of bills, including Rep. Jean Schmidt who introduced the Ohio legislation, say that the legislation is intended to give parents more say over what their children learn.
“The classroom is a place that seeks answers for our children without political activism,” Schmidt said in a press release Tuesday. “Parents deserve and should be provided a say in what is taught to their children in schools. The intent of this bill is to provide them with the tools to be able to see what their child is being taught.”
So far, the bill only has two sponsors: Schmidt and Rep. Mike Loychik. Gov. Mike DeWine has yet to publicly announce his support for this bill.
Bills that restrict LGBTQ discussions, books, or curricula from classrooms have been introduced in Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Kansas, Indiana and other states.
However, a recent ABC News/Ipsos poll found that more than 6 in 10 Americans oppose legislation that would prohibit classroom lessons about sexual orientation or gender identity in elementary school.
Researchers from Monmouth University found in a November 2021 study on critical race theory that respondents seem to approve of education on race, but not when the question is phrased asking about “critical race theory:”
When asked about teaching “the history of racism” in schools, 75% supported the idea. However, when asked about teaching critical race theory, only 43% supported it.
(WASHINGTON) — Attorney General Merrick Garland tested positive for COVID-19 via antigen tests Wednesday afternoon, the Department of Justice said.
“He asked to be tested after learning that he may have been exposed,” the DOJ said in a statement.
The news comes hours after Garland participated in a press conference alongside multiple other top law enforcement officials, including FBI Director Chris Wray.
Garland, who is vaccinated and boosted, doesn’t have any symptoms, the statement said.
The attorney general is one of several prominent officials to test positive after attending Saturday’s Gridiron dinner in Washington, D.C.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, all attended Saturday’s event and have all tested positive for COVID-19 this week.
Garland will work virtually while isolating at home, and the DOJ will conduct contact tracing, the statement said.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with troops crossing the border from Belarus and Russia. Moscow’s forces have since been met with “stiff resistance” from Ukrainians, according to U.S. officials.
Russian forces retreated last week from the Kyiv suburbs, leaving behind a trail of destruction. After graphic images emerged of civilians lying dead in the streets of Bucha, U.S. and European officials accused Russian troops of committing war crimes.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Apr 06, 2:15 pm
Biden addresses Bucha in-depth for 1st time, calling it ‘major war crimes’
President Joe Biden on Wednesday spoke in-depth for the first time about the horrific images of civilian deaths in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.
“I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures from Bucha and just outside of Kyiv, bodies left in streets as Russian troops withdrew. Some shot … with their hands tied behind their backs. Civilians executed in cold blood,” Biden said at the North America’s Building Trade Union legislative conference in Washington, D.C.
“Bodies dumped into mass graves… There is nothing less happening than major war crimes,” he said.
Biden called on responsible nations to “come together to hold these perpetrators accountable.”
“The steps we’re already taken are predicted to shrink Russia’s gross domestic product by double-digits this year alone. Just in one year, our sanctions are likely to wipe out the last 15 years of Russia’s economic gains and because we’ve cut Russia off from important technologies like semiconductors and encryption security and critical components of quantum technology that they need to compete in the 21st century. We’re going to stifle Russia’s ability in its economy to grow for years to come,” Biden said.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Apr 06, 1:43 pm
All Russian troops have left Kyiv and Chernihiv: US official
All Russian troops have left the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Chernihiv, withdrawing north toward the borders of Belarus and Russia to consolidate before likely redeploying to the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters Wednesday.
But even with the Russians gone, the territory remains treacherous.
“There are some indications that they left behind mines and things like that, so the Ukrainians are being somewhat careful in some areas north of Kyiv as they begin to clear the ground and clear the territory and re-occupy it,” the official said.
While the U.S. hasn’t yet seen these troops redeploy elsewhere in Ukraine, it’ll likely happen soon, according to the official. Ukrainian forces are preparing for a major fight in Donbas, the official said.
The official also said the Pentagon is “monitoring” an apparent nitric acid explosion in Ukraine’s Luhansk region, which Russia blamed on Ukraine.
“We’ve seen the Russians claim that this was a Ukrainian attack on this. We do not believe that is true,” the official said. “We do believe that the Russians are responsible, but exactly what they used when they did it, why they did it, what the damage is, we just don’t have that level of detail,” the official said.
The official also noted that a small number of Ukrainians currently in the U.S. for “professional military education” were pulled aside for a couple days of training on Switchblade drones, which the U.S. is sending overseas as part of its military aid, according to the official.
“Although it’s not a very difficult system to operate, we took advantage of having them in the country to give them some rudimentary training on that,” the official said.
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
Apr 06, 1:03 pm
Yellen says goal of sanctions is to ‘impose maximum pain on Russia’ while shielding allies from economic harm
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testified before the House Committee on Financial Services that the Treasury would continue to take steps to prevent Russia from participating in the international financial system.
“Russia’s actions, including the atrocities committed against innocent Ukrainians in Bucha, are reprehensible, represent an unacceptable affront the rules based global order and will have enormous economic repercussions in Ukraine and beyond,” she said.
Yellen said the International Monetary Fund and World Bank have assisted Ukraine, allowing the country “fiscal space to pay salaries for civilians, soldiers, doctors and nurses.”
Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., asked Yellen why the U.S. continues to provide licenses that permit certain bank transactions related to Russian energy despite a ban on Russian oil imports. Yellen said that although the sanctions aim to cripple Russia’s economy, some of the U.S.’s European allies are still dependent on Russian gas.
“Our goal from the outset has been to impose maximum pain on Russia while, to the best of our ability, shielding the United States and our partners of undue economic harm,” she said. “Unfortunately, many of our European partners remain heavily dependent on Russian natural gas as well as oil.”
-ABC News’ Armando Tonatiuh Torres-García
Apr 06, 12:05 pm
Human Rights Watch racing to document war crimes
Hugh Williamson, director of the Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia division, wrote in an OpEd in the Telegraph that the HRW is racing to document war crimes in Ukraine.
Williamson said one apparent war crime was when seven Ukrainian civilians were allegedly executed by Russian soldiers.
Regarding the images of civilian bodies in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, Williamson said they’re concerned many of the deaths may be the result of war crimes, but “it’s too early to say for certain now, and legal proceedings are still at a nascent stage.”
This comes as a spokesperson for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs doubled down on Russian claims that civilian killings in Bucha were staged.
“On April 3, the world witnessed another crime by the Ukrainian authorities, this time in the town of Bucha, where a criminal false flag operation [showing] the alleged killing of civilians by Russian troops had been staged,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Wednesday according to state-run TASS. Zakharova claimed that when Bucha was controlled by the Russian Armed Forces, not a single local resident was affected by acts of violence.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Apr 06, 11:25 am
New US sanctions target Putin’s children, largest Russian bank
New U.S. sanctions are targeting “the key architects of the war” and their family members, including Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adult children, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s wife and daughter and members of Russia’s security council, a senior administration official told reporters.
“We believe that many of Putin’s assets are hidden with family members and that’s why we’re targeting them,” the official said.
The new sanctions are also the most severe sanctions yet on Russia’s largest private bank, Alfa Bank, and its largest financial institution, Sherbank, the official said.
This will “generate a financial shock” to Russia’s economy,” the official said. “[Sherbank] holds nearly one-third of Russia’s total banking sector assets. That’s over $500 billion. That’s roughly twice the size of the second largest Russian bank, which we previously fully blocked. And in total, we’ve now fully blocked more than two thirds of the Russian banking sector, which before the invasion held about $1.4 trillion in assets.”
The official warned that “Russia will very likely lose its status as a major economy.”
The official noted how these sanctions will hurt everyday Russians.
“It means their debit cards may not work. They may only have the option to buy knockoff phones and knockoff clothes. The shelves at stores may be empty. The reality is the country’s descending into economic and financial and technological isolation. And at this rate, it will go back to Soviet style living standards from the 1980s,” the official said.
Apr 06, 11:14 am
DOJ charges Russian oligarch with sanctions violations, announces disruption of global botnet
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it has charged Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev with sanctions violations, alleging Malofeyev was one of the main sources of financing for Russians promoting separatism in Crimea and for providing material support for the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic.
These actions are part of the KleptoCapture Task force, which is a Justice Department task force established last month aimed at seizing Russian oligarch assets from around the country.
“After being sanctioned by the United States, Malofeyev attempted to evade the sanctions by using co-conspirators to surreptitiously acquire and run media outlets across Europe,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters. “We are also announcing the seizure of millions of dollars from an account at a U.S. financial institution, which the indictment alleges constitutes proceeds traceable to Malofeyev’s sanctions violations.”
One of Malofeyev’s co-conspirators, according to the DOJ, is former U.S. TV producer Jack Hanick, who was arrested last month in the United Kingdom, where he had been living for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions stemming from Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
The Justice Department also on Wednesday announced the disruption of a global botnet run by the GRU, Russia’s Chief Intelligence Office. FBI Director Christopher Wray told reporters the team behind the global botnet was responsible for some of the most infectious cyberattacks in recent memory, including the cyberattacks against the Winter Olympics in 2018, attacks on Ukrainian power grid in 2015 and the attack on the country of Georgia in 2019.
The Justice Department seized a yacht that belongs to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg in Marina Real in the Spanish port of Palma de Mallorca, according to court documents unsealed Monday.
In addition to the seizure of Vekselberg’s yacht, U.S. authorities also obtained seizure warrants unsealed in Washington, D.C., Monday that target roughly $625,000 associated with sanctioned parties at nine U.S. financial institutions, the Justice Department said.
At the news conference, Garland also expressed outrage over the images of civilian bodies in Ukraine.
“We have seen the dead bodies of civilians, some with bound hands, scattered in the streets. We have seen the mass graves. We have seen the bombed hospital, theater, and residential apartment buildings. The world sees what is happening in Ukraine. The Justice Department sees what is happening in Ukraine,” Garland said.
Garland said the DOJ is in the “collection of evidence” stage of any war crime prosecution.
-ABC News’ Alex Mallin, Luke Barr
Apr 06, 11:12 am
School-turned-shelter attacked in Donetsk region, governor says
A school-turned-shelter in eastern Ukraine’s war-torn Donetsk region came under attack on Wednesday, according to Donetsk Oblast Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko.
Kyrylenko released images showing several wounded people lying on the ground among debris outside the school, which is currently being used as a humanitarian aid center. First responders were seen helping the victims. Another image showed the inside of a classroom that was damaged during the attack, with the windows shattered and some desks broken.
ABC News’ Visual Verification team confirmed that the photos were taken at a school in Vugledar, a small village about 40 miles from Donetsk city.
-ABC News’ Fergal Gallagher
Apr 06, 11:00 am
UN vote scheduled for Thursday to suspend Russia from UN Human Rights Council
The U.N. General Assembly has scheduled a Thursday vote on suspending Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council.
A two-thirds majority is needed to suspend Russia, which would become only the second country to face this censure after Libya was suspended in 2011 for Muammar Gaddafi’s forces firing on protesters.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Tuesday that she “know[s] we’re going to get” the two-thirds majority, pointing to two previous U.N. General Assembly resolutions that passed with 141 and 140 votes each.
(WASHINGTON) — Six oil company executives were grilled by lawmakers Wednesday about skyrocketing gas prices amid a political messaging battle over pain at the pump.
BP America, Chevron and ExxonMobil executives are among the “Big Oil” leaders facing questions from members of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
The hearing comes after costs for gas rose following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which prompted the U.S. to put a ban on imports of Russian oil and gas. Though the price of gas has dropped slightly in recent days, Americans were still paying an average $4.16 as of Wednesday, according to American Automobile Association data.
“While American families are forced to pay record-high prices at the pump, frankly this committee is not going to sit back and allow this system — which forces American taxpayers to pay oil companies out of both pockets, first at the pump, and then through tax breaks — to continue in its current form,” said Rep. Dianna DeGette, D-Colo., chair of the subcommittee, in her opening remarks.
Oil executives took turns defending themselves and their companies, pushing back on accusations of price gouging.
“I want to be absolutely clear: We do not control the market price of crude oil or natural gas, nor of refined products like gasoline and diesel fuel, and we have no tolerance for price gouging,” Chevron CEO Michael Wirth said.
The executives cited the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason for cost increases and promoted increasing production to offset the prices.
“While there is no quick fix, the answer in the near term, until there are more widely available and affordable alternatives, is straightforward. We need to increase the supply of oil and natural gas,” ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods said.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle continue to fight over who’s to blame for gas prices, and Democratic lawmakers on the subcommittee weren’t buying the oil company executives’ explanations.
“One bad year does not excuse the practice of ripping off American consumers,” Rep. Kuster, D-N.H., said.
“It’s a matter of patriotism,” Pallone added, “something must be done on your part.”
Democrats have worked hard to pinpoint Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as the source of the rise in gas prices, with President Joe Biden coining it “Putin’s price hike.”
Republicans, on the other hand, are quick to argue that the higher costs kicked in long before the war began and that Biden’s energy policies are what’s hurting Americans’ pocketbooks.
Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, accused House Democrats of hosting a “show trial” with the hearing.
“It’s kind of an annual right of passage bringing forward energy oil and gas executives,” he said. “You know what a show trial is, the subject of the trial being flogged for something that is usually the fault of the very officials conducting the trial.”
Senators described the increase of energy prices as “purposeful” — arguing that the Biden administration intentionally tried to raise gas prices to advance green energy policies. They balked at the administration’s finger pointing at Russia, noting that gas prices were on the rise before Putin invaded Ukraine.
“When it costs you 100 bucks to fill the tank of your truck that is Joe Biden’s fault,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said. “When it costs 100 bucks to fill the families minivan that is Joe Biden’s fault.”
Patrick De Haan, head of Petroleum Analysis at GasBuddy, told ABC News the reasons behind the cost of gas are more complex than any one of the partisan narratives suggests.
“There’s too many political games being played in too many political points trying to be won. Neither side is portraying it accurately,” he said. “There’s a lot of factors that go into this and the politicians on both sides of the aisle are, you know, just using buzzwords and phrases and they’re using regurgitated, establishment talking points by their own parties … “
De Haan also noted the “extremely volatile” situation gas companies are in with regard to fluctuating oil prices.
“Stations are not eager to lower prices right now. Not necessarily because of, you know, they’re greedy or something but because the market is extremely volatile,” De Haan said, adding that “if they were to pass along a decrease one day, they may have to raise prices another 25 to 50 cents the day after if the market goes back up.”
Instead, he said the “stations are essentially smoothing out the incredible volatility and they’re cautiously passing along decreases once they are kind of certain that they’re not going to have to raise prices again.”
PolitiFact also noted that “experts who study the price of oil and gas said it can take weeks for gasoline prices to respond to changes in crude oil costs” and that “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, increased labor costs, the pandemic and additional taxes and inflation have all contributed to rising gasoline prices.”
When pressed on why gas prices remain high despite crude oil prices dropping, BP President David Lawler said it was “complex.”
“It is a very complex set of factors that impact the price of gasoline,” he said.
Later, some lawmakers called out the executives for their lack of answers.
“Can’t you bring more clarity to this than just saying that everything is so complex,” Rep. Eshoo, D-Calif., quipped.
Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, a nonprofit focused on climate policy and holding corporations accountable, says Democrats aren’t wrong to shift the blame onto Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The Democrats aren’t making something up to point out how this is a really acute example of what dependency on oil and gas would get you. That’s exactly right. And the oil companies, they don’t care at all,” he said.
But Wiles noted the gas prices started rising long before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Oil companies are bad in war and peace,” he said.
As the oil company executives face members of the House, lawmakers are also scrambling to pass legislation to provide immediate relief as a consequential midterm season quickly approaches.
Most recently, Biden announced the release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from oil reserves to combat high gas prices; though, senior White House administration officials couldn’t say how quickly Americans will start to feel relief from it.
At her weekly press conference last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress is looking to help as long as the benefit goes directly to consumers, likely in the form of a rebate card or a direct payment.
And some progressive Democrats are renewing their push toward more long-term investments in renewable energy to end oil dependency.
For their part, House Republicans on the Natural Resources Committee introduced a package of bills last week reversing the Biden administration’s moratorium on federal onshore and offshore lease sales.
John Autey / MediaNews Group / St. Paul Pioneer Press via Getty Images
(MINNEAPOLIS) — No criminal charges will be filed in the fatal police shooting of Amir Locke, Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, announced Wednesday.
Locke was fatally shot by Minneapolis police officers in February as officers were executing a “no-knock” search warrant on the apartment he was in.
No-knock warrants allow officers to enter a private home without knocking or making their presence known.
Locke, a legal gun owner, had been sleeping under a blanket on the couch. Body camera footage shows a gun in his hand when he begins to sit up as police approach him.
An officer can be seen shooting him less than 10 seconds after entering the room.
Locke was not a suspect in the crime for which the warrant was issued and was not named in the document.
“Amir Locke’s life mattered,” read a statement from the Hennepin County Attorney. “He was a young man with plans to move to Dallas, where he would be closer to his mom and — he hoped — build a career as a hip-hop artist, following in the musical footsteps of his father.”
However, the attorney’s office stated that after a review of the case, there wasn’t enough evidence to file criminal charges.
The legal team representing Locke’s family said it was “deeply disappointed” by the decision.
“The tragic death of this young man, who was not named in the search warrant and had no criminal record, should never have happened,” the team said in a statement. “The family and its legal team are firmly committed to their continued fight for justice in the civil court system, in fiercely advocating for the passage of local and national legislation, and taking every other step necessary to ensure accountability for all those responsible for needlessly cutting Amir’s life far too short.”
His death reignited calls to end the use of “no-knock” warrants, which were sparked by the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor on March 13, 2020 after Louisville, Kentucky, officers executed a “no-knock” search warrant for Taylor’s ex-boyfriend for allegedly dealing drugs.
In his statement, Freeman also called for a reconsideration on the use of no-knock warrants: “No-knock warrants are highly risky and pose significant dangers to both law enforcement and the public, including to individuals who are not involved in any criminal activity.”
He continued: “The fact that it is standard practice for paramedics to stand by at the scene when no-knock warrants are executed speaks to the foreseeably violent nature of this law enforcement tool.”
Several states have instituted bans on such warrants. Following Locke’s death, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said his office will propose a full ban on no-knock and no-announce search warrants in the city.
“Amir Locke, a lawful gun owner, should still be alive,” said Bryan Strawser, the chair of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, a nonprofit gun rights advocacy group, in a statement following Locke’s death.
“Black men, like all citizens, have a right to keep and bear arms. Black men, like all citizens, have the right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable search and seizure,” he added.
ABC News’ Whitney Lloyd contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann is expected to appear Wednesday before the Jan. 6 select committee investigating the Capitol attack, according to multiple sources familiar with his scheduled appearance.
Herschmann and a committee spokesperson did not return ABC News’ requests for comment on the interview, which could be postponed or rescheduled.
A lawyer who defended former President Donald Trump during Trump’s first impeachment trial and worked in the West Wing as a senior adviser, Herschman was involved in discussions and meetings in the White House and at Trump campaign headquarters regarding Trump’s legal and political efforts to challenge the 2020 election results, including attempts to pressure the Justice Department to take more aggressive actions to investigate claims of election fraud.
He was involved in a contentious Dec. 18, 2020, meeting first reported by Axios, where Trump allies Sidney Powell, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne argued with Herschmann and other White House officials over invoking rarely used presidential powers to declare a national security emergency to seize voting machines — a plan that was ultimately rejected.
To date, the Jan. 6 committee has interviewed more than 800 witnesses and obtained tens of thousands of pages of emails, White House records, and phone records as part of its investigation.
A handful of witnesses have refused to comply with committee subpoenas. On Wednesday the full House will vote on whether to hold Trump White House officials Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino in contempt of Congress for defying committee subpoenas and refer the matter to the Justice Department for possible criminal charges.
In the last week the panel has interviewed Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, both of whom worked in the White House and were involved in Trump’s reelection campaign.
The committee is expected to begin another round of public hearings as early as next month, Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., has told reporters.
(WASHINGTON) — Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday expressed outrage over the “horrible images” of killed civilians in Ukraine and said the U.S. is working with international partners to identify those responsible.
“This Department has a long history of helping to hold accountable those who perpetrate war crimes,” Garland said. “We have seen the dead bodies of civilians, some with bound hands, scattered in the streets. We have seen the mass graves. We have seen the bombed hospital, theater, and residential apartment buildings. The world sees what is happening in Ukraine. The Justice Department sees what is happening in Ukraine.”
Garland said investigators are in the “collection of evidence” stage of any war crime prosecution and he is not calling for anything similar to the Nuremberg Trials at this point, but he notably said the Justice Department has a “long history” of helping to hold accountable those who perpetrate war crimes.
“One of my predecessors — Attorney General Robert Jackson — later served as the chief American prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials,” he said.
Garland told reporters he personally spoke on Tuesday with the Justice Department’s chief prosecutor in Paris who has been meeting with the French war crimes prosecutor.
On Monday, Garland said prosecutors from the department’s Criminal Division met with prosecutors from Eurojust and EUROPOL to “work out a plan for gathering evidence with respect to Ukraine.”
“At the same time, the United States is at the request of the Ukrainian prosecutor assisting in the collection of information with respect to the atrocities that took place in Ukraine and that are still taking place,” Garland said.
“The world sees what is happening in Ukraine.”
Following images out of Bucha and other Ukrainian cities, AG Merrick Garland says U.S. is “assisting international efforts to identify and hold accountable those responsible for atrocities in Ukraine.” https://t.co/GyjVQ5rYNApic.twitter.com/yItmo9sEkj
His remarks come as the Justice Department on Wednesday announced a myriad of actions against Russian oligarchs and Russian darknet operations.
DOJ charged Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev with sanctions violations, alleging Malofeyev as one of the main sources of financing for Russians promoting separatism in Crimea, and for providing material support for the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic.
These actions are part of the Justice Department’s KleptoCapture Task force, established last month and is aimed at seizing Russian oligarch assets.
“After being sanctioned by the United States, Malofeyev attempted to evade the sanctions by using co-conspirators to surreptitiously acquire and run media outlets across Europe,” Garland told reporters. “We are also announcing the seizure of millions of dollars from an account at a U.S. financial institution, which the indictment alleges constitutes proceeds traceable to Malofeyev’s sanctions violations.”
One of Malofeyev’s co-conspirators, according to DOJ, Jack Hanick a former U.S. television producer, was arrested last month in the United Kingdom where he had been living for violating U.S. sanctions stemming from Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
The Justice Department also announced the disruption of a global botnet run by the GRU, which DOJ says the Russians have used similar infrastructure to attack the Ukrainians and were able to shut the system down before it was able to be used against thousands of network devices it had reportedly infected.
FBI Director Christopher Wray told reporters the team behind the global botnet was behind some of most infectious cyberattacks in recent memory — including the cyberattacks against the Winter Olympics in 2018, attacks on Ukrainian power grid in 2015 and the attack on the country of Georgia in 2019.
“We’re going to act as soon as we can with whatever partners are best situated to help,” Wray said. “The Russian government has show that it has no qualms about conducting this kind of criminal activity and they continue to pose a threat.”
Garland echoed Wray’s comments, saying, “We were then able to disable the GRU’s control over those devices before the botnet could be weaponized.”
The Justice Department seized a yacht that belongs to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg in Marina Real in the Spanish port of Palma de Mallorca, according to court documents unsealed Monday.
In addition to the seizure of Vekselberg’s yacht, U.S. authorities also obtained seizure warrants unsealed in Washington, D.C., Monday that target roughly $625,000 associated with sanctioned parties that’s being held at nine U.S. financial institutions, the Justice Department said.
“It does not matter how far you sail your yacht. It does not matter how well you conceal your assets. It does not matter how cleverly you write your malware or hide your online activity. The Justice Department will use every available tool to find you, disrupt your plots, and hold you accountable,” Garland said.
Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Already missing their flight to Canada, Zainab Merchant held her then 6-month-old baby inside a cold room in an airport in September of 2016 while she waited for her husband’s screening to be over after her family was detained for a random security check by Transportation Security Administration agents.
Merchant said her family was stopped for one reason; because she’s Muslim.
“At that moment, I honestly feared for us, because when I think the three-hour mark hit, you’re just sitting there waiting,” Merchant told ABC News. “We don’t know what’s going on with us. I just remember being very fearful about what was going on. It’s a few officers and yourself, and nobody is there. No other person was there with us. So just [a] very lonely, cold, dark experience.”
Merchant, an American citizen, is among the many people on America’s terrorist screening watchlist, a database containing information about individuals targeted as known or suspected of being involved in terrorist activities, according to the FBI.
The watchlist was created in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, and since then, has collected over 1.6 million identities, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. There’s no due process for people added to it, nor any official way to find out who has been added, according to human rights lawyers.
The random security checks started happening more frequently after her first detainment, according to Merchant. Hourslong detentions, fear and extensive questioning have become a familiar experience for Merchant and her family when traveling.
“[Since the Canada trip], we had always been detained, we’d always been questioned and it stopped being random when you knew that every time you travel, my entire family, including the children, were asked to step aside, escorted by the TSA officers,” she said. “It just ended up becoming this traumatic thing for us to ever fly again.”
Unlike the “no-fly” list, the watchlist still allows people to fly. They are, however, subject to extra security, extensive questioning and hourslong detentions when flying or crossing the border.
Merchant said she was not aware she was added to the watchlist until the screenings and processes became even more frequent, and she knew that, regardless of where they were headed, the whole family would be pulled aside.
She said that even her three small children were being targeted and taken away from them during the screening process.
“They were being treated as criminals, no matter how little they were. It wasn’t just my husband and I. They were also screening these little children,” she said.
“I remember just guiding them through it and teaching them … ‘this is what’s going to happen. You have to cooperate, smile, just be friendly.’ Imagine teaching a young toddler this way; you don’t even know how toddlers are going to react.”
Such screenings would happen whenever the family traveled, Merchant says, but the situation became even more intense when the FBI allegedly contacted her with a proposal.
A few months after that initial detention, Merchant was allegedly contacted by FBI agents seeking information about her mosque and community. She said they offered a chance to be removed from the list if she agreed to be an informant.
“I said, ‘absolutely not. You know, I’m a mom. I’m not a spy. I don’t care if I’m going to be on this [a long time]. I’m just not going to do this,'” Merchant said.
In response to an ABC News request for comment, the FBI said the Terrorist Screening Center could neither deny nor confirm whether an individual is on the watchlist.
After the conversation, Merchant said the situation got progressively worse.
“There was a time when they took my laptop and they released the whole bomb squad on me at the airport. There was a time when dogs were unleashed on me. They took out a whole team of dogs to search me,” Merchant said.
The most traumatic and humiliating experience for Merchant, however, was at the Boston Logan International Airport — when she said she had her period and the TSA officers forced her to remove her pants during a private screening.
“That day, they were trying to strip me of my dignity when they didn’t believe that I was on my period. Even though I went on through the scan, everything was clear,” she said.
“I said my final prayers as a Muslim … I had nowhere [to go], no one to call and no one to say anything to stop feeling of utter helplessness. I was ready to die. They removed my pants and they saw the blood everywhere. And they quickly just scurried out of the closet.”
Merchant, however, is not the only one. Many others are on the watchlist without knowing the reason behind it.
Abdulkadir Nur, who goes by Eno, is a 69-year-old U.S. citizen from Somalia who said he is also on the watchlist.
Nur travels often due to his humanitarian work with the United Nations, but every time he leaves the country, he said he undergoes extensive questioning and screening.
“You know, when I fly worldwide, I’ve never had any problems,” Nur said. “Actually, I’m being respected and welcomed everywhere. But when I’m coming to my country, the U.S., I feel like I’m [a] criminal.”
While the TSA says a typical enhanced screening process takes 10 to 15 minutes, both Nur and Merchant said they had to miss multiple flights due to secondary questioning at airports.
With all of the challenges faced, Nur has filed a lawsuit against the FBI with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights group, in hopes to have his name removed from the watch list. The process, if successful, could take years, according to his lawyer.
Merchant says she was able to get her name off the list after she confronted TSA and FBI officers during a closed-door meeting she was invited to in Orlando in 2018.
Now, Merchant hopes to use her experience to help others and shine a light on the issue.
“I don’t fear this anymore,” she said. “It built me up to be that voice for people who don’t have any. Even though I might be off the system, I am not really free until every one of them gets justice.”
(WASHINGTON) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s two adult daughters — Maria and Katerina — are included in the latest round of sanctions on Russia the U.S. announced on Wednesday.
“The sickening brutality in Bucha has made tragically clear the despicable nature of the Putin regime, and today, in alignment with G-7 allies and partners, we’re intensifying the most severe sanctions ever levied on a major economy,” a Biden senior administration official told reporters.
The new round of sanctions includes a ban on all new investments in Russia, increased sanctions on two major financial institutions in Russia — Sberbank and Alfa-Bank — as well as on major Russian state-owned enterprises, and sanctions on Russian government officials and their family members — including Putin’s daughters.
“Today, we’re sanctioning Putin’s adult children, [Russian Foreign] Minister [Sergey] Lavrov’s wife and his daughter and members of Russia’s Security Council,” the official said, including former president and Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, according to the White House.
The official added on a call with reporters that the U.S. has reason to believe that Putin and his cronies hide their wealth with family members, and said, “We believe that many of Putin’s assets are hidden, with family members and that’s why we’re targeting them.”
“These individuals have enriched themselves at the expense of the Russian people. Some of them are responsible for providing the support necessary to underpin Putin’s war on Ukraine. This action cuts them off from the U.S. financial system and freezes any assets they hold in the United States,” the White House said in a fact sheet announcing the sanctions.
Since Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in late February, the U.S. has sanctioned more than 140 oligarchs and their family members and more than 400 Russian government officials and has now fully blocked more than two-thirds of the Russian banking sector, which held about $1.4 trillion in assets before the war.
In conjunction with the G-7 and European Union, the U.S. also announced Wednesday it was cutting off Russia’s ability to use its previously frozen central bank funds to make debt payments — forcing it to find other sources of dollars to avoid defaulting.
“At this rate, it will go back to Soviet-style living standards from the 1980s,” the senior administration official warned.
Asked if the U.S. was concerned about any downsides to detaching Russia from the global market to the point where it would become more concerned with disrupting it, rather than getting back in, the official seemingly brushed off the concern, saying that the U.S. was using a “negative feedback loop” to deter Putin, but that can be stopped if Putin also stops.
“None of this is permanent. The only aspect that’s permanent of the lives that he’s taken away, and he can never bring those back. But the sanctions, the sanctions are designed to be able to respond to the conditions on the ground, and to create leverage for the outcome we seek,” he said.
The announcement follows President Joe Biden on Monday saying he was seeking further sanctions in response to apparent war crimes in Bucha — but as national security adviser Jake Sullivan warned this week, the White House acknowledges that further sanctions against Russia will not change Putin’s behavior overnight.
“Sanctions are intended to impose costs so Russia can’t carry on these grotesque acts without paying a severe price for it,” Sullivan said during Monday’s briefing.
“We don’t expect that that shift in behavior will be caused by sanctions overnight or in a week. It will take time to grind down the elements of Russian power within the Russian economy, to hit their industrial base hard, to hit the sources of revenue that have propped up this war and propped up the kleptocracy in Russia,” he added.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with troops crossing the border from Belarus and Russia. Moscow’s forces have since been met with “stiff resistance” from Ukrainians, according to U.S. officials.
Russian forces retreated last week from the Kyiv suburbs, leaving behind a trail of destruction. After graphic images emerged of civilians lying dead in the streets of Bucha, U.S. and European officials accused Russian troops of committing war crimes.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Apr 06, 12:05 pm
Human Rights Watch racing to document war crimes
Hugh Williamson, director of the Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia division, wrote in an OpEd in the Telegraph that the HRW is racing to document war crimes in Ukraine.
Williamson said one apparent war crime was when seven Ukrainian civilians were allegedly executed by Russian soldiers.
Regarding the images of civilian bodies in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, Williamson said they’re concerned many of the deaths may be the result of war crimes, but “it’s too early to say for certain now, and legal proceedings are still at a nascent stage.”
This comes as a spokesperson for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs doubled down on Russian claims that civilian killings in Bucha were staged.
“On April 3, the world witnessed another crime by the Ukrainian authorities, this time in the town of Bucha, where a criminal false flag operation [showing] the alleged killing of civilians by Russian troops had been staged,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Wednesday according to state-run TASS. Zakharova claimed that when Bucha was controlled by the Russian Armed Forces, not a single local resident was affected by acts of violence.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Apr 06, 11:25 am
New US sanctions target Putin’s children, largest Russian bank
New U.S. sanctions are targeting “the key architects of the war” and their family members, including Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adult children, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s wife and daughter and members of Russia’s security council, a senior administration official told reporters.
“We believe that many of Putin’s assets are hidden with family members and that’s why we’re targeting them,” the official said.
The new sanctions are also the most severe sanctions yet on Russia’s largest private bank, Alfa Bank, and its largest financial institution, Sherbank, the official said.
This will “generate a financial shock” to Russia’s economy,” the official said. “[Sherbank] holds nearly one-third of Russia’s total banking sector assets. That’s over $500 billion. That’s roughly twice the size of the second largest Russian bank, which we previously fully blocked. And in total, we’ve now fully blocked more than two thirds of the Russian banking sector, which before the invasion held about $1.4 trillion in assets.”
The official warned that “Russia will very likely lose its status as a major economy.”
The official noted how these sanctions will hurt everyday Russians.
“It means their debit cards may not work. They may only have the option to buy knockoff phones and knockoff clothes. The shelves at stores may be empty. The reality is the country’s descending into economic and financial and technological isolation. And at this rate, it will go back to Soviet style living standards from the 1980s,” the official said.
-ABC News’ Mary Bruce and Molly Nagle
Apr 06, 11:14 am
DOJ charges Russian oligarch with sanctions violations, announces disruption of global botnet
The Justice Department on Wednesday said it’s charged Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev with sanctions violations, alleging Malofeyev was one of the main sources of financing for Russians promoting separatism in Crimea and for providing material support for the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic.
These actions are part of the KleptoCapture Task force, which is a Justice Department task force established last month aimed at seizing Russian oligarch assets from around the country.
“After being sanctioned by the United States, Malofeyev attempted to evade the sanctions by using co-conspirators to surreptitiously acquire and run media outlets across Europe,” Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters. “We are also announcing the seizure of millions of dollars from an account at a U.S. financial institution, which the indictment alleges constitutes proceeds traceable to Malofeyev’s sanctions violations.”
One of Malofeyev’s co-conspirators, according to the DOJ, is former U.S. TV producer Jack Hanick, who was arrested last month in the United Kingdom, where he had been living for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions stemming from Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
The Justice Department also on Wednesday announced the disruption of a global botnet run by the GRU, Russia’s Chief Intelligence Office. FBI Director Christopher Wray told reporters the team behind the global botnet was responsible for some of the most infectious cyberattacks in recent memory, including the cyberattacks against the Winter Olympics in 2018, attacks on Ukrainian power grid in 2015 and the attack on the country of Georgia in 2019.
The Justice Department seized a yacht that belongs to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg in Marina Real in the Spanish port of Palma de Mallorca, according to court documents unsealed Monday.
In addition to the seizure of Vekselberg’s yacht, U.S. authorities also obtained seizure warrants unsealed in Washington, D.C., Monday that target roughly $625,000 associated with sanctioned parties at nine U.S. financial institutions, the Justice Department said.
At the news conference, Garland also expressed outrage over the images of civilian bodies in Ukraine.
“We have seen the dead bodies of civilians, some with bound hands, scattered in the streets. We have seen the mass graves. We have seen the bombed hospital, theater, and residential apartment buildings. The world sees what is happening in Ukraine. The Justice Department sees what is happening in Ukraine,” Garland said.
Garland said the DOJ is in the “collection of evidence” stage of any war crime prosecution.
-ABC News’ Alex Mallin, Luke Barr
Apr 06, 11:12 am
School-turned-shelter attacked in Donetsk region, governor says
A school-turned-shelter in eastern Ukraine’s war-torn Donetsk region came under attack on Wednesday, according to Donetsk Oblast Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko.
Kyrylenko released images showing several wounded people lying on the ground among debris outside the school, which is currently being used as a humanitarian aid center. First responders were seen helping the victims. Another image showed the inside of a classroom that was damaged during the attack, with the windows shattered and some desks broken.
ABC News’ Visual Verification team confirmed that the photos were taken at a school in Vugledar, a small village about 40 miles from Donetsk city.
-ABC News’ Fergal Gallagher
Apr 06, 11:00 am
UN vote scheduled for Thursday to suspend Russia from UN Human Rights Council
The U.N. General Assembly has scheduled a Thursday vote on suspending Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council.
A two-thirds majority is needed to suspend Russia, which would become only the second country to face this censure after Libya was suspended in 2011 for Muammar Gaddafi’s forces firing on protesters.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Tuesday that she “know[s] we’re going to get” the two-thirds majority, pointing to two previous U.N. General Assembly resolutions that passed with 141 and 140 votes each.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Apr 06, 9:17 am
At least 1,480 civilians killed, 2,195 injured in Ukraine: UN
At least 1,480 civilians have been killed and 2,195 others have been injured in Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, according to the latest figures from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
At least 123 children were among the dead and 183 among the injured, according to the OHCHR, which noted that the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine had reported at least 165 children were killed and 266 injured as of Tuesday.
According to a press release dated Tuesday from the OHCHR, most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, as well as missile and airstrikes.
“OHCHR believes that the actual figures are considerably higher, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration,” the agency said.
Those areas include Mariupol and Volnovakha in the Donetsk Oblast, Izium in the Kharkiv Oblast, Popasna in the Luhansk Oblast, and Borodyanka in the Kyiv Oblast, where the OHCHR said “there are allegations of numerous civilian casualties.” Casualty numbers from those locations “are being further corroborated” and thus are not included in the latest statistics, according to the agency.
Apr 06, 8:16 am
More evidence that bodies in Bucha were there before Russian forces left
More evidence has emerged that some of the bodies seen lying in the streets of Bucha were there before Russian troops retreated from the Ukrainian town, northwest of Kyiv.
According to the U.K. Ministry of Defense, an analysis of satellite imagery dated March 21 identified at least eight bodies lying on a street in Bucha. The town was occupied by Russian forces until March 31, the ministry said in an intelligence update Tuesday night.
As Ukrainian troops regained control over Bucha, graphic images surfaced earlier this week showing numerous bodies of dead civilians — some shot at close range and with their hands bound — strewn across streets and in mass graves. Ukrainian authorities have accused Russia of committing war crimes. Russia has denied responsibility, calling the footage of Bucha “fake” and saying that all of its units withdrew completely from the town around March 30.
However, mounting evidence contradicts Russia’s claims that the scene was “staged” after its troops left.
Apr 06, 6:17 am
Russian military claims attacks on fuel depots
Russian missiles destroyed fuel storage facilities in five cities across Ukraine on Wednesday morning, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said.
“On the morning of April 6, high-precision air- and ground-based missiles destroyed 5 fuel storage bases near Radekhov, Kazatin, Prosyanaya, Nikolaev and Novomoskovsk,” the ministry claimed in its morning briefing. “These facilities have been used to supply fuel to Ukrainian military formations in Kharkov, Nikolaev and Donbass areas.”
Apr 06, 5:49 am
EU proposes new sanctions, readies Russian coal ban
European Union leaders said on Wednesday they were preparing a new round of economic sanctions against Russia, as outrage grew over civilian deaths in Bucha.
“We have all seen the haunting images of Bucha. This is what is happening when Putin’s soldiers occupy Ukrainian territory,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday. “They call this liberation. I call this war crimes. The Russian authorities will have to answer for them.”
The sanctions to be proposed may include a ban on importing Russian coal, bans on transactions with four Russian banks, and a ban on Russian ships at EU ports, among other measures.
The fifth round of sanctions “will not be our last,” von der Leyen said. U.S. officials are also expected to announce new sanctions on Wednesday, sources told ABC News.
Apr 06, 4:47 am
Mariupol airstrikes continue, deepening humanitarian crisis
Russian forces are continuing their airstrikes in Mariupol, the besieged Ukrainian port city, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday.
“The humanitarian situation in the city is worsening,” the ministry said. “Most of the 160,000 remaining residents have no light, communication, medicine, heat or water.”
Russian troops have prevented humanitarian access to the southern city, a move the ministry said was a part of a strategy to pressure Ukraine to surrender.
Apr 06, 12:11 am
US concedes Russia won’t be expelled from Security Council
Speaking with MSNBC Tuesday night, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said the U.S. could not remove Russia from the United Nation’s most powerful body, the Security Council.
“They are a member of the Security Council. That’s a fact. We can’t change that fact, but we certainly can isolate them in the Security Council,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.
That’s separate from the push to remove Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council, which Thomas-Greenfield said earlier they hope to bring to the U.N. General Assembly for a vote.
“I know we’re going to get” the necessary two-thirds majority, she told CNN.
Thomas-Greenfield also described what it was like in the room Tuesday as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s graphic video finally played for the Security Council. She told MSNBC it was the first time she saw the uncensored video of the war’s victims.
“We were all speechless. We had all seen various videos showing atrocities. But they all covered up the real, you know, the real people that were there – they were all blurred,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “This was the first time I’ve seen that video without the bodies being blurred. And it was horrific. And there was silence in the room. I can tell you that people were horrified.”
Apr 05, 9:26 pm
US sending $100M in new anti-tank missiles
The U.S. will be sending an additional $100 million in Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, a White House official confirmed to ABC News. The weapons will be coming from existing military stockpiles.
The White House later released a memorandum from President Joe Biden saying he would be using drawdown powers to release “an aggregate value of $100 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, to provide assistance to Ukraine.”
Pentagon officials have said anti-tank weapons provided by the U.S. and other partner countries have been very successful in staving off Russian troops and bogging down vehicle movement.
