(TOKYO) — In the latest blow to a delayed and beleaguered Tokyo Olympics, officials on Thursday said a state of emergency had been declared due to COVID-19 and spectators would not be allowed in venues to watch the games in the city’s new stadiums.
While international spectators had already been barred, the latest announcement bans locals hosting the games from attending the events in their city. The decision also means that organizers will likely lose much of the $800 million collected through ticket sales. Local opposition to holding the games was already high.
Many of Japan’s peers across the globe are easing coronavirus restrictions at a time when it is reinstating them. While data on cases and deaths indicate the world’s third-largest economy by gross domestic product has managed comparatively well over the course of the pandemic, Japan’s present vaccination rates lag far behind other developed nations as increased threats lurk from new variants.
With the opening ceremony now just two weeks away, here is how Japan and its capital city are faring with the coronavirus.
Tokyo
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government on Thursday reported 896 new cases, and on Wednesday reported 920 new cases — a major jump from Tuesday’s tally of 593 new cases and Monday’s 342 new cases.
The cumulative number of COVID-19 cases in Tokyo — which has a population of 13.96 million — since the start of the pandemic is 179,252 and the number of deaths from the virus is 2,246. The data indicates Tokyo has fared relatively well so far compared to the devastation the virus wrought on major cities elsewhere. New York City, with a population of 8.33 million, has reported 957,148 cumulative cases and 33,444 deaths. London, with a population just shy of 9 million, has suffered 783,437 cumulative cases and 14,966 deaths.
Meanwhile, London on Wednesday reported 3,314 new positive cases, according to its most-recent data. New York City on Wednesday had 452 new cases.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga attributed the recent uptick in infections in Tokyo in part to the highly transmissible delta variant.
Japan
National data similarly shows Japan’s case count has comparatively remained low, but its lagging vaccination rates are hampering its pandemic recovery.
Japan has reported a total of 2,180 new cases over the past day, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. Its record high was 7,914 new cases in a single day on April 29. Some 15.16% of the population of Japan has been fully vaccinated.
The U.S., which has three times the population of Japan, reported 22,931 new cases over the past day, Johns Hopkins data indicates. The U.S. saw a record high of 300,462 new cases in a single day on Jan. 2. Meanwhile, 48.11% of the population has been fully vaccinated.
The U.K., which has a little over half the population of Japan, had 32,061 new cases over the past day. Its record high was 68,192 new cases in a single day on Jan. 8. Some 50.91% of the population is fully vaccinated, according to Johns Hopkins.
Meanwhile, data compiled by The New York Times indicates that the U.S. had an average of five cases per 100,000 residents in the last seven days. The U.K.’s average is 41 per 100,000 people. Japan’s average is one case per 100,000 residents, according to the same data set.
(WASHINGTON) — When Senate lawmakers return next week from recess, the 7-foot-tall, black, metal fencing that served as one reminder of the horrors that took place there on Jan. 6 is slated to be gone.
The Capitol Police Board, the oversight body supervising security on Capitol Hill, has approved plans to begin removing the remaining temporary fencing around the Capitol on Friday, according to a memo sent to House offices and obtained by ABC News.
Removal is expected to take up to three days, good weather permitting.
“Based on USCP’s assessment of the current threat environment and USCP’s enhanced coordination with District of Columbia, neighboring state and federal law enforcement partners, the Board supports USCP’s recommendation to remove the temporary fencing around Capitol Square,” said a memo from House Sergeant at Arms William Walker sent to Congressional offices and obtained by ABC News.
“USCP will continue to monitor intelligence information and the associated threat environment. The Architect of the Capitol has the ability to and will expeditiously reinstall the temporary fencing should conditions warrant,” the memo continued.
The House Sergeant at Arms also noted that despite the metal fencing coming down there are still limits on public access to the building due to restrictions put in place when the coronavirus pandemic took hold.
“Although the temporary fencing will be removed, current building access restrictions will remain in place,” the memo said.
The fencing has been around the Capitol since after the Jan. 6 attack when security measures were sharply stepped up in the aftermath of the violent assault by a mob of supporters of former President Donald Trump.
An earlier rally turned deadly after Trump encouraged his supporters to march to Capitol Hill, where Congress was meeting to certify Joe Biden’s election win.
Rioters then breached barricades and security checkpoints, forcing then-Vice President Mike Pence and lawmakers to evacuate or shelter in place, temporarily disrupting the certification. Five people died during or after the riot, 140 police officers were injured and the Capitol building suffered approximately $1.5 million in damage.
Democratic D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton celebrated the announcement of the fencing coming down on Thursday, though with a hint of caution about how free the complex will be.
“While I am seeking further information about the bike racks that will apparently be used to block access to parts of the Lower West Terrace and East Front of the Capitol, overall, the announcement is a victory for D.C. residents, local businesses and the American people,” she said.
Back in February, Norton introduced a bill in Congress, which has not passed, called “No Fencing at the United States Capitol Complex Act” to block the use of federal funds for any fencing at the Capitol.
“This announcement finally vindicates my campaign against fencing off the Capitol,” she said Thursday. “We will never again allow our Capitol Hill neighborhood to be turned into a military zone any more than the Capitol itself.”
An even larger, outer permitter of the non-scalable fencing was reduced by late March to contain just the Capitol grounds — a move approved by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has also rejected calls for permanent fencing in the nation’s capital.
“When the time is right, the fencing around the White House and U.S. Capitol, just like the plywood we’ve seen on our businesses for far too long, will be taken down,” Bowser tweeted back in January when the fencing went up.
In May, the House passed a $1.9 billion spending bill that Democrats argued would bolster the Capitol’s police force and improve the complex’s security without the need for permanent fencing around the People’s House. That legislation is currently stuck in the Senate
ABC News’ Libby Cathey, Beatrice Peterson, Luke Barr and Alexander Mallin contributed reporting.
(DETROIT) — A Michigan mother and her teen daughter, who spent 78 days in juvenile detention after a judge ruled that she’d violated probation by not completing her homework, are speaking out about their experience, which they say was an injustice in the criminal justice system.
Wishing to be identified only as Grace — her middle name — the now 16-year-old, who is Black and has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, had struggled to keep up with the transition to remote learning during the coronavirus pandemic last year. She was placed on “intensive probation” in April 2020 after being charged with assault for fighting with her mother and larceny for stealing a schoolmate’s cellphone after her mother took hers away.
Grace, who lives in suburbs outside of Detroit, said that she knew there would be consequences for those actions, but she didn’t realize they would rise to such a level, and that she thinks they did because she’s Black.
“If a white girl were to steal the phone and she has the same history as me, same background, same everything … they would probably look at her and say, ‘Hey, you know, you’re not brought up like this,’” Grace told ABC News’ Linsey Davis. “But for me, I feel like it was more of an ‘OK, this is what we expect from Black people.’”
Charisse, Grace’s mother who also asked to use her middle name, called her daughter’s incarceration an “injustice” that should “not be forgotten … that should never occur again.”
“My daughter was penalized because of having a learning disability, which is her chronic ADHD,” Charisse told ABC News.
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Among the terms of her probation was a requirement that Grace complete all of her schoolwork on time. But she said the transition to virtual learning made her feel overwhelmed and anxious. She was matched with a caseworker who Charisse said she thought would help Grace get the support services she needed.
“When we first met, she had shared with us that one of her roles would be to help us through any issues, to keep my daughter on the straight and narrow,” Charisse said. Instead “I got a violation,” she said.
Within days of hearing Grace might have been behind on her schoolwork, the caseworker referred her to the court, recommending that she be placed in juvenile detention, according to ProPublica, which first reported the case. The Oakland County Family Court Division did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
On May 14, Grace was subsequently brought before Oakland County family court Judge Mary Ellen Brennan, who at one point during the hearing said Grace was “a threat to the community.” She ordered Grace to be taken into custody and sent to a county detention center named Children’s Village. Her decision came after Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s coronavirus-related order to keep juveniles out of detention unless they posed “a substantial and immediate safety risk to others.”
“If we called every person who’s taken something or a person who’s [gotten into] an argument with their mom … I’m pretty sure everybody would be … a threat to the community,” Grace said.
Jonathan Biernat, one of Grace’s lawyers, said that in the handling of her case, the court never got “any testimony from the school or the teacher — anybody involved with her education. They got testimony from the probation officer, the prosecutor. And the judge made her decision based on that testimony.”
Reporter Jodi Cohen, who investigated Grace’s case for ProPublica, told ABC News that 42% of Black youth in the county where Grace lives are referred to the court system despite Black youth making up only 15% of its population.
“Cases like Grace’s, and others where you see young people of color … disproportionately represented at various contact points, to me, that points out systemic failures long before the court involvement started,” said Jason Smith, executive director of the Michigan Center for Youth Justice. “We wouldn’t be talking about disparity rates at the confinement level if there was more support in the community. … we wouldn’t rely on the justice system to address a lot of these issues that shouldn’t be criminalized in the first place.”
Charisse said she’s still haunted by the memories of her daughter being handcuffed and taken into custody.
“I was devastated. It just didn’t make any sense and I became very angry. I was furious,” she said.
Grace still holds on to all the letters of support that she received during her time in juvenile detention, but she said one still stands out for her: The first one she sent to her mother from inside.
“Dear mommy, I miss you a lot, and being here is hard. I haven’t really wrote you because I had to ask God to give me strength to do so. I couldn’t write without crying or feeling bad for the rest of the day. … Please continue to send me pictures of me and you or just with anyone. I love you, mommy, and I miss you,” the letter reads in part.
Cohen said that she received a call from Charisse in May 2020. After Charisse told her about Grace’s situation, “it didn’t sound right,” Cohen said.
“Most lawyers who looked at the case didn’t think it was possible to get her out of the detention center,” Biernat said. “It would be too difficult to convince the judge to change your mind.”
Salma Khalil, another of Grace’s lawyers, added that “these cases are long, they’re drawn out, they’re complicated [and] they require a lot of resources.”
ProPublica published Grace’s story in mid-July 2020 and it quickly sparked widespread outcry — far more attention than Charisse had expected, she said.
“We immediately started to receive phone calls from all over the country. We got calls from senators, we got calls from legislators in [Washington], D.C. It was amazing,” Biernat said.
Cohen said she didn’t expect her article to trigger a social media movement calling to free Grace. High school students slept outside, near the facility in protest of Grace’s incarceration. A petition for her release garnered hundreds of thousands of signatures. And a grassroots organization led a 100-car caravan from Grace’s school to the detention center.
Less than a week after the ProPublica article, as pressure to revisit Grace’s case mounted, Brennan agreed to a hearing on a motion to release her from detention. During the hearing, Brennan recounted Grace’s history of encounters with law enforcement, which go back to when she was a preteen, Cohen said, adding that Brennan used the hearing to make her point of view on the case public.
Meanwhile, Grace pleaded with the judge for her release, saying, “Each day, I try to be a better person than I was the last, and I’ve been doing that even before I was in this situation. I’m getting behind in my actual school while here [at the detention center]. The schooling here is beneath my level of education.”
Brennan ultimately decided that Grace belonged in juvenile detention and denied her release. Khalil said that, at the hearing, Grace and Charisse hugged in what she described as a “heartbreaking moment.”
“I think people need to remember that Grace and her mom have a very close bond,” Khalil said. “Charisse raised Grace with her own hands. She’s an involved mom, so the trauma that they are both experiencing and being separated from one another … it just breaks your heart that our system did that to them.”
Biernat, however, said they “weren’t going to sleep” until she’d been let go, and filed a petition with the Michigan Court of Appeals. It worked. Eleven days after the hearing, the appeals court ordered Grace to be released immediately.
Now, nearly a year after her experience, Grace is an honors student who enjoys taking pictures during her free time. She’s also started to speak out about her experience, which has begun to catalyze change in the state. In June, Whitmer signed an executive order to create a task force on juvenile justice reform.
One of the goals of Whitmer’s task force is to collect statewide data on the juvenile justice system’s influence on youth who enter it, including how many youth within the justice system — regardless of their race — are there due to school discipline or academic issues. Smith said these numbers are currently “unknown.”
“There are thousands of other Graces out there and we need to pay attention to those children,” Charisse said. “Our Black girls are being criminalized. My child was criminalized because of her behavior and her ADHD, but Black girls are being criminalized just because of who they are.”
Attorney Allison Folmar, a longtime family friend who is now representing them, told ABC News they are now planning to file a due process complaint against the school district where Children’s Village is located, alleging that Grace was denied her right to adjust to remote learning as a student with ADHD.
“The Individuals with Disabilities [in Education] Act exists because you have to prohibit the very injustice that occurred in this case,” Folmar said. “This federal act empowers students who are differently abled to learn in accordance with his or her individual ability and progress. Students cannot be forced into mainstream academic practice that leaves them at an educational disadvantage.”
She went on, “So, this is about making sure that the educational system does not leave another child behind and … say we’re speaking of this case, to criminalize the inability to learn in this type of situation.”
While she noted that Grace is “still trying to recover academically” after her time in juvenile detention, Folmar also said that Grace “excels” when given “all of the necessary tools to thrive” and pointed to her becoming an honors student.
“We are simply trying to make her whole,” Folmar said.
Since her learning plan had been disrupted by her incarceration, Folmar said they’re now seeking compensation in the civil case to pay for the new school she’s attending as well as the services she needs to succeed academically.
Grace said that her future plans include going to college and starting a computer information or cybersecurity business. She also said she wants to continue to advocate for others.
When asked if there was anything she would say to Brennan, Grace said she would tell her, “I’m not just what was on the papers. I’m not just what you saw from those reports or what you saw in those files. I have so many different attributes and I’m so different than just that, and I hope that she doesn’t judge everyone based on just that.”
ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Pfizer and BioNTech have released initial data from a study on booster shots for their COVID-19 vaccine, saying a third dose delivered about six months after the second shot has shown neutralization titers are five to 10 times higher than after two primary doses.
The companies said they expect to publish “more definitive data” soon and submit the Food and Drug Administration “in the coming weeks.”
Pfizer said real-world evidence from Israel showed a decrease in efficacy about six months after people were fully vaccinated.
“While protection against severe disease remained high across the full 6 months, the observed decline in efficacy against symptomatic disease over time and the continued emergence of variants are key factors driving our belief that a booster dose will likely be necessary to maintain highest levels of protection,” Pfizer said in a statement.
Additionally, the companies are working on materials with a plan to test a new vaccine construct based on the delta variant — with plans to start clinical trials in August.
“While we believe a third dose of BNT162b2 has the potential to preserve the highest levels protective efficacy against all currently known variants including Delta, we are remaining vigilant and are developing an updated version of the Pfizer-COVID-19 vaccine that uses a new construct based on the B.1.617.2 lineage, first identified in India and also known as the Delta variant,” the companies said in a statement.
“The companies are already producing clinical trial material and anticipate beginning clinical studies in August, subject to regulatory approvals,” Pfizer and BioNTech added.
Moderna, the maker of the only other authorized mRNA vaccine in the U.S., has made similar statements about the need for booster shots in the past.
“Booster shots will be needed as we believe the virus is not going away,” Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said during a first-quarter earnings call to investors in early May.
It will be up to the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine if and when booster shots will be allowed, recommended and made available.
“Clearly, the pharmaceutical companies have an economic incentive, particularly the ones who have vaccines that are for profit,” Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, told ABC News in late May. “We want the decision to be made based on public health solely and [not] on economic incentives of the companies.”
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos, Dr. Deepak Ramanathan and Sony Salzman contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden’s push to enlist volunteers, including local doctors and pastors, to go “literally knocking on doors” to encourage vaccinations in some states sparked an outcry this week among conservatives, who mischaracterized the effort as the deployment of government agents to strong-arm reluctant Americans.
The blowback — from right-wing media and Republican politicians on Twitter — prompted a sharp response Thursday from the White House, which says any door-knocking efforts will be locally led by community volunteers.
“I would say, for those individuals, organizations that are feeding misinformation and trying to mischaracterize this type of ‘trusted messenger’ work, I believe you are doing a disservice to the country and to the doctors, the faith leaders, community leaders and others who are working to get people vaccinated, save lives, and help end this pandemic,” Biden’s COVID coordinator, Jeff Zients, said.
Earlier this week, after missing his own goal to ensure 70% of U.S. adults received at least shot by the Fourth of July, Biden called for a stepped-up vaccination strategy that would rely on volunteers like faith leaders, local medical professionals and community organizations to canvas neighborhoods.
He also promised to assign White House-coordinated “surge teams” to any states requesting help, including personnel to help track outbreaks, boost testing or tailor pro-vaccine messages to the public.
“We need to go to community-by-community, neighborhood-by-neighborhood and, often times, door-to-door, literally knocking on doors to get help to the remaining people protected from the virus,” Biden said.
The comment was swiftly picked up by conservative pundits and outlets suggesting that federal agents would soon be knocking on doors or mandating a vaccine.
“How about don’t knock on my door,” tweeted Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican. “You’re not my parents. You’re the government. Make the vaccine available, and let people be free to choose. Why is that concept so hard for the left?”
Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan tweeted: “The Biden Administration wants to knock on your door to see if you’re vaccinated. What’s next? Knocking on your door to see if you own a gun?”
The Biden administration has said repeatedly that the federal government won’t mandate vaccines and will leave it up to businesses and schools to decide.
“It’s up to every individual to decide whether they’re going to get vaccinated,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki this week.
Still, that message was muddied Thursday when Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told CNN in an interview that “it is absolutely the government’s business” to know who isn’t vaccinated because of the money spent on the effort. He later added: “You don’t have to answer the door but I hope you do.”
Becerra later tweeted that his comments were being taken “wildly out of context.”
“To be clear: government has no database tracking who is vaccinated,” Becerra said. “We’re encouraging people to step up to protect themselves, others by getting vaccinated. It’s the best way to save lives and end this pandemic.”
In Missouri — one of the first states to receive help from the federal “surge” teams that Biden promised — the Republican governor there tweeted that government “agents” going door-to-door aren’t welcome.
“I have directed our health department to let the federal government know that sending government employees or agents door-to-door to compel vaccination would NOT be an effective OR a welcome strategy in Missouri!”
But according to an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity, federal door knockers were never planned. At the request of the state’s health department, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deployed an epidemiologist to Missouri on Monday to help with genetic sequencing and data analysis through Aug. 6.
Another CDC official – a “risk communication specialist” – was tasked to provide remote support for one month to the Missouri Chief Bureau of Immunizations to help address local vaccine hesitancy and drive up vaccination numbers.
In a statement, the Missouri health department said it hoped more support was on its way.
“We are looking forward to collaborating with them and learning more about how the Delta variant is impacting Missouri, specifically southwest Missouri initially,” the department said in a statement.
“More team members will be added in the coming weeks, both remotely and in person, to assist with data and research, vaccine uptake strategies and outreach,” the department added.
ABC producer Arielle Mitropoulos and Sasha Pezenik contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Tropical Storm Elsa is delivering heavy rain as it moves up the East Coast, with more than 50 million Americans under flash flood watches over the next 24 hours.
The storm is moving northeast at 20 mph, with the center about 25 miles southwest of Raleigh, North Carolina, as of Thursday afternoon. North Carolina residents saw heavy rain and wind gusts this afternoon that extended into southeastern Virginia, with maximum sustained winds at 45 mph.
There have been four reported tornadoes in three states thanks to Elsa, with Florida, Georgia and South Carolina all reporting damage.A tornado watch has been extended into southeastern Virginia and southern Maryland into Thursday evening.
Elsa is forecast to hug the Northeast coastline as it heads toward Nova Scotia, with some strengthening possible over the next 24 hours.
Heavy rain and gusty winds are expected in parts of Virginia and Maryland, and later in Delaware as it gets closer to Friday. The storm is forecast to hit Philadelphia and New York City early Friday, with heavy rain likely affecting commutes.
By late morning Friday, conditions likely will shift into New England and last into the afternoon and evening, before heading out of Maine Friday night.
Through Friday, a large swath of the East Coast is forecast to receive 2 to 4 inches of rain. The highest totals are likely along and east of Interstate-95 up across the mid-Atlantic. Up to 6 inches of rain is possible in parts of New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Unrelated to Elsa, a severe thunderstorm watch has been issued for parts of the Northeast, from Pennsylvania to Connecticut, and remains in effect into Thursday evening.
(NEW YORK) — Cancer death rates continue to decline, with decreases in melanoma and lung cancer death rates leading that trend, according to a new report.
The report, published by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute Thursday, includes data from 2001 to 2018, meaning it does not reflect cancer incidence or deaths rates during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The decline in cancer death rates held true for both men and women of all racial and ethnic groups. The report showed a decrease in death rates among 11 of the 19 most common cancers in men and 14 of the 20 most common cancers in women. That overall decline translates into an average 2.2% cancer death rate decrease per year for men and an average 1.7% decrease per year for women.
Experts attributed the decline in deaths to reduced smoking rates and targeted cancer treatments.
“The continued decline in cancer death rates should be gratifying to the cancer research community, as evidence that scientific advances over several decades are making a real difference in outcomes at the population level,” Dr. Norman Sharpless, director of the National Cancer Institute, one of the groups that collaborated on the report, said in a statement.
Despite those gains, death rates for a few types of cancers, including uterus, brain, nervous system and pancreatic cancers, increased.
Additionally, cancer incidence rates among women, children, adolescents and young adults rose between 2014 and 2018, the report found. The most common cancer among adolescents and young adults ages 15 to 39 was female breast cancer. Among children younger than 15, the most common cancers were leukemia, lymphoma and brain and nervous system cancers. Although the incidence of cancer is increasing among women, in general, cancer incidence rates are higher for men.
“I believe we could achieve even further improvements if we address obesity, which has the potential to overtake tobacco use to become the leading modifiable factor associated with cancer,” Sharpless added.
(CHICAGO) — The Iowa man arrested after a cleaning service worker discovered firearms and ammunition in his hotel room overlooking Fourth of July activities in downtown Chicago has been released after posting bail.
Keegan Casteel, 32, of Ankeny, Iowa, was arrested Sunday and charged with two felony counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.
Officials haven’t yet said why they believe Casteel may have brought the guns to Chicago.
In a bizarre twist, after posting $1,000 bond and being released from jail Wednesday, Casteel proposed to his girlfriend outside a police station, Chicago ABC station WLS reported.
A cleaning service member at the W Hotel Lakeshore found weapons in Casteel’s 12th-floor room facing Navy Pier “in a very suspicious position” on the windowsill around 5:45 p.m., Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said Tuesday.
Casteel had one loaded semi-automatic rifle, equipped with a forward grip assist and a high-powered laser attachment, with a live round in the chamber, as well as a .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun and four additional loaded magazines, the Office of the Cook County State’s Attorney told ABC News.
Brown said after the discovery of the weapons, Casteel was interviewed by the Chicago Police Department’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and arrested without incident. WLS reported that Casteel’s girlfriend was also in the room.
Brown said Tuesday the incident is “obviously very concerning, considering the position of the W Hotel to Navy Pier,” a major tourist attraction.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a press conference Tuesday she believes there was “something more nefarious” in Casteel’s taking a rifle with a scope across state lines.
His hotel room overlooked Ohio Street Beach and the lakefront, which was crowded for Fourth of July festivities at the time.
Casteel has an Iowa gun permit, prosecutors said. He did not have a Firearms Owner Identification Card in Illinois, which is required to have a gun in the state, Brown said Tuesday. Police confiscated the weapons.
Brown said Tuesday that Casteel does not have a criminal record, however a review of court records shows Casteel has been arrested several times in Iowa.
His most recent arrest was in September 2019 for failure to provide proof of financial liability, which was dropped a month later. He was arrested on the same charge in July 2019 and found guilty. He also was arrested in 2012 for operating a vehicle while intoxicated.
(NEW YORK) — Not long ago, Michael Avenatti was a fixture on cable news, the bellicose nemesis of former President Donald Trump as lawyer to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. He even briefly considered a run for president.
On Thursday, Avenatti dropped another few pegs on his descent into disrepute.
A federal judge in Manhattan sentenced Avenatti to 30 months in prison for trying to extort millions of dollars from Nike.
“Michael Avenatti used illegal and extortionate threats and betrayed one of his clients for the purpose of seeking to obtain millions of dollars for himself,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a statement about the sentencing. “Not only did Avenatti attempt to weaponize his law license and celebrity to seek to extort payments for himself, he also defrauded his own client. Avenatti will now serve substantial time in prison for his criminal conduct.”
Prosecutors said Avenatti deserved a substantial sentence after he “sought to enrich himself by weaponizing his public profile in an attempt to extort a publicly-traded company out of tens of millions of dollars.”
“While the defendant may have tried to hide behind legal terms and a suit and tie, the jury clearly saw the defendant’s scheme for what it was — an old-fashioned shakedown,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District Geoffrey Berman said in a statement at the time of his conviction.
The sentence exceeded the six months the defense asked for, saying Avenatti had been “openly mocked” by Trump and suffered enough.
Avenatti was convicted by a federal jury in February 2020 after a two-week trial in New York City.
Trump once tweeted, sarcastically, “Such a fine guy! Presidential aspirations you know!” about Avenatti after his request for bail was denied in March 2020 as he awaited sentencing.
Avenatti attempted to extort at least $15 million from Nike or else he threatened to use his media influence to damage the brand, according to prosecutors.
He faces separate charges in New York for allegedly stealing a book advance from Daniels and in California for defrauding other clients.
Daniels, who praised the conviction last year, dumped Avenatti as her lawyer in early 2019.
ABC News’ Mark Osborne contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden announced Thursday the drawdown of the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan will be completed by Aug. 31, as instability and violence ratchet up in the region.
“Our military mission in Afghanistan will conclude on Aug. 31. The drawdown is proceeding in a secure and orderly way, prioritizing the safety of our troops as they depart,” he said.
“We did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build. And it’s the right and the responsibility of Afghan people, alone, to decide their future and how they want to run their country,” the president continued.
Biden said it was time to end the nation’s longest war, noting “2,448 Americans killed, 20,722 more wounded and untold thousands coming home with unseen trauma to their mental health,” adding, “I will not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan with no reasonable expectation of achieving a different outcome.”
Asked if a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan is now inevitable, Biden said it isn’t because “the Afghan troops have 300,000 well-equipped, as well-equipped as any army in the world, and an air force, against something like 75,000 Taliban.”
Prior to delivering the speech, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris received a briefing on the drawdown from their national security team.
The White House has stood firm in defense of Biden’s decision to pull out, citing internal analysis concluding that a military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan is unlikely.
But the Taliban are continuing to gain ground, with an aggressive summer offensive through northern provinces in recent weeks that has seized control of dozens of districts.
Biden administration officials have also defended the military withdrawal by saying that U.S. intelligence indicated the threat to U.S. forces from Taliban militants would have significantly increased throughout summer.
“When he announced our drawdown, he made clear that the Taliban would have been shooting at U.S. troops again after May 1. And the withdrawal deadline negotiated by the previous administration kind of set that timeline,” Psaki said July 2, adding that an administration review of options to advance U.S. interests in Afghanistan “did not sugarcoat what the likely outcomes would be” with continued engagement in the region.
The withdrawal, which Biden had said would wrap up by Sept. 11, unfolded ahead of schedule. Bagram Air Base, the main hub of military operations in Afghanistan for the past two decades, was handed over to Afghan forces July 2. In a statement on Monday, U.S. Central Command indicated the withdrawal was about 90% complete. A small force of about 650 will remain in Afghanistan after the withdrawal to protect the U.S. Embassy and, for now, the Kabul airport.
“Our presence is small, both materially and physically,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Tuesday.
But since U.S. troops began pulling out of Afghanistan, security has rapidly deteriorated. Taliban militants have swept through dozens of districts, seizing control and either slaughtering Afghan troops or winning their surrender. Hundreds of Afghan forces also fled across the northern Afghan border into Tajikstan when faced with the growing Taliban threat, although they are now expected to return to the country. Some have already been flown back into Afghanistan.
Amid the recent clashes, the Biden administration is still emphasizing a negotiated settlement between the Taliban and the Afghan government. Those talks, hosted in Doha, Qatar, have been all but dead since they began last September and reached an agenda in November.
The two sides met again Wednesday in Tehran and agreed that “war is not the solution to Afghanistan’s problems,” according to the Taliban spokesperson in Doha.
In those districts retaken by the Taliban last month, militants have evicted families and looted and torched their homes, according to Human Rights Watch, allegedly in retaliation for working with the Afghan government.
There is also concern for the safety of thousands of translators, drivers and other Afghans who assisted U.S. forces and diplomats during the war and are now targets of Taliban militants. In his remarks Thursday, Biden spoke directly to that population to assure them of U.S. support.
“Starting this month…we’re going to begin relocation flights for Afghanistan SIV applicants and their families who choose to leave. We have a point-person in the White House and at the State Department-led task force coordinating all these efforts,” Biden said.
“Our message to those women and men is clear: There is a home for you in the United States, if you so choose, and we will stand with you just as you stood with us,” he added.
While the Biden administration has confirmed it is working to move some of the affected Afghans out of the country to safe locations to await special immigrant visas that would allow them to move to the U.S., the administration has not specified how many will be moved, how quickly or where.
A U.S. official confirmed to ABC News on Friday that the group may be moved to Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan — three of Afghanistan’s northern neighbors in Central Asia — but stressed the planning was still early and no decisions had been made. A second U.S. official confirmed Thursday the list also includes Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Biden hosted his Afghan counterpart, President Ashraf Ghani, and High Council for National Reconciliation Chairman Abdullah Abdullah at the White House June 25.
Sitting down with the pair of Afghan leaders, Biden shared an optimistic message.
“The partnership between Afghanistan and the United States is not ending. It’s going to be sustained. And, you know, our troops may be leaving, but support for Afghanistan is not ending, in terms of support and maintenance of their — helping maintain their military, as well as economic and political support,” Biden said.
But Biden grew visibly agitated Friday when reporters peppered him with questions about the future of Afghanistan.
“Look, we were in that war for 20 years, 20 years. And I think — I met with the Afghan government here in the White House, in the Oval. I think they have the capacity to be able to sustain the government. There are going to have to be, down the road, more negotiations, I suspect,” Biden said. “But I am — I am concerned that they deal with the internal issues that they have to be able to generate the kind of support they need nationwide to maintain the government.”
Prior to the Fourth of July weekend, Biden groused about continued questions on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.
“I want to talk about happy things, man,” Biden said.
