Andres Felipe Pineda Mogollon, who was wanted for escaping from Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, was arrested in Los Angeles, federal authorities said. FBI Los Angeles
(LOS ANGELES) — The last remaining detainee who escaped from an immigration detention center in New Jersey last month has been located in Los Angeles, federal authorities said.
Andres Felipe Pineda Mogollon was one of four detainees who escaped from Delaney Hall Detention Facility in Newark on June 12, according to the FBI.
He was arrested after a traffic stop in Silver Lake, the FBI in Los Angeles said Thursday. No additional details on his capture were released.
Mogollon, a 25-year-old Colombian national, has been charged with escape from the custody of an institution or officer, according to the Department of Justice.
He was previously arrested by the New York City Police Department in April for petit larceny and by the New Jersey Police Department in May for residential burglary, conspiracy residential burglary and possession of burglary tools, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
He is illegally in the country after overstaying a tourist visa, according to DHS.
The other three detainees — Joel Enrique Sandoval-Lopez, Joan Sebastian Castaneda-Lozada and Franklin Norberto Bautista-Reyes — were captured within a week of escaping from Delaney Hall, a privately owned facility that has been contracted out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, authorities said.
DHS had described the four men as “public safety threats” who were all in the country illegally.
Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., said at a news conference last month that the four men escaped from the facility by breaking through a wall — which he described as “drywall with a mesh interior” — in a unit that led to an exterior wall and into a parking lot. Kim said he was briefed on escape by the facility’s administrators and ICE officials.
Kim said the escape followed “disturbances” and unrest over the past 24 hours related to food access at the facility. However, DHS released a subsequent statement saying, “contrary to current reporting, there has been no widespread unrest” at Delaney Hall.
An incident was reported at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Special Enforcement Bureau compound in East Los Angeles, July 18, 2025. KABC
(LOS ANGELES) — At least three people were killed in an apparent “horrific incident” at a Los Angeles law enforcement training facility, Attorney General Pamela Bondi said.
The victims, employees of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, appeared to be handling explosives when there was a blast, sources told ABC News. The facility, a Special Enforcement Bureau compound, also houses the bomb squad.
“Our federal agents are at the scene and we are working to learn more,” Bondi wrote on social media.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(UNION, Maine) — The 17-year-old suspect in the murder of a paddleboarder earlier this month will appear in court on Friday, where he is expected to be charged with one count of murder.
Sunshine Stewart was found dead on July 3 at Crawford Pond in Union, Maine. Her cause of death was strangulation and blunt force trauma, Maine State Police revealed Thursday.
The suspect, who is male, was arrested without incident Wednesday night, police said. He came to the pond area to spend summer vacation time with his family, according to an official familiar with the investigation.
He is expected to appear remotely from the South Portland juvenile detention facility, where he is being held, in front of a Knox County district judge.
It is unclear whether the 17-year-old will be charged as an adult.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Steve Farzam has been charged for allegedly impersonating a firefighter after officials found a fire truck and other first responder gear in his home, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. KABC
(LOS ANGELES) — A Southern California man has been charged for allegedly impersonating a firefighter after officials found a fire truck and other first responder gear at his home, according to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office.
Steve Farzam, 47, was charged on Thursday with 28 criminal counts for a “string of alleged crimes that occurred between 2023 and May of this year, including impersonating a firefighter during the Palisades Fire, assaulting a first responder and discharging a laser at aircrafts,” the district attorney’s office said in a press release on Thursday.
“This defendant’s alleged actions reflect a disturbing pattern of lawlessness and disregard for public safety. If proven, this type of escalating conduct undermines the integrity of our emergency response systems and erodes public trust and we will use every single legal tool available to hold the defendant accountable,” Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement.
The investigation into Farzam began earlier this month when the Los Angeles Police Department started looking into cases “involving pilots being struck by a laser while piloting commercial aircraft and helicopters around West Los Angeles area,” according to a press release from the LAPD.
The incident occurred back on Feb. 21, when the suspect pointed a blue laser on law enforcement and commercial aircraft, according to ABC Los Angeles station KABC.
This investigation “led to an individual named Steven Farzam,” with police then filing 28 counts of felony and misdemeanor charges against him and securing a search warrant, police said.
On Wednesday, the suspect was taken into custody and officials served a “multi-location search warrant at Farzam’s residences in West Los Angeles,” police said.
During the search, police found two utility vehicles with California exempt license plates, police and fire light package equipment for vehicles, radios, first responder identifications, a Pierce Fire Engine, multiple rounds of ammunition, “various fraudulent documents relating to a fictitious Fire Department and other first responder paraphernalia,” officials said.
The fire truck that was discovered at his home had burn marks on the top of it and was registered to the Santa Muerte Fire Department, which does not exist, officials said.
Officials believe on Jan. 16, Farzam “posed as a firefighter during the Palisades Fire, gaining access to restricted emergency zones and interfering with emergency operations,” according to the district attorney’s office.
During Farzam’s arraignment on Thursday, Deputy District Attorney David Ayvazian said that during the Palisades Fire, the suspect “tried to badge his way into fire zones, which he successfully did at least three times — pretending to be an arson investigator,” according to KABC.
Farzam faces six counts of discharging a laser at an aircraft, three counts of assault with a deadly or dangerous weapon, four counts of assault upon a peace officer, one count of impersonation of a public officer, one count of carrying a loaded unregistered handgun in a vehicle, seven counts of perjury by declaration and one count of procuring and offering false or forged instrument, officials said. He also faces the two misdemeanor charges of impersonating a fire officer and trespassing on closed lands, the district attorney’s office said.
Farzam pleaded not guilty during his arraignment on Thursday and he is currently being held in custody without bail, the district attorney’s office said. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 28, officials said.
Farzam’s public defender said in court on Thursday that the suspect should be granted bail, according to KABC.
“There is not a substantial likelihood that his release would result in great bodily harm to anyone,” the public defender said.
(NEW YORK) — Consumer sentiment ticked higher in July, marking two consecutive months of improved shopper attitudes as businesses navigated President Donald Trump’s latest tariff threats targeting dozens of countries. The fresh reading matched economists’ expectations.
The recent resurgence of consumer sentiment followed six straight months of worsening attitudes, according to University of Michigan survey data released Friday. Before the swell of optimism, consumer sentiment had fallen to near its lowest level since a bout of inflation three years ago.
Despite the new data, the measure of consumer sentiment remains 16% lower than where it stood in December, before Trump took office.
Year-ahead inflation expectations dropped for a second consecutive month, declining from 5.0% in June to 4.4% this month, the survey data showed. The anticipated inflation level would still mark a major increase from the current year-over-year inflation of 2.7%.
The new report on consumer sentiment came a day after the release of retail sales data that showed unexpectedly strong performance in June. Robust shopper appetites last month suggested that the uncertainty surrounding Trump’s tariffs hadn’t prompted households to stash extra income.
Consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, is a key bellwether for the outlook of the nation’s economy.
So far, key measures of the economy have largely defied fears of a tariff-induced downturn. The unemployment rate stands near a historically low level and job growth remains robust, though it has slowed from previous highs. Inflation has climbed over the last two months but it remains below where it stood when Trump took office.
Some analysts expect price increases to accelerate over the coming months as tariffs take hold, though many have acknowledged that the path forward remains unclear amid Trump’s fluctuating policies.
Typically, importers pass along a share of the tariff-related tax burden in the form of higher costs for shoppers. A host of major retailers, including Walmart and Best Buy, have warned of potential price hikes as a result of Trump’s levies.
Trump has rolled back many of his steepest tariffs over recent months, including a sky-high levy on China, the top source of U.S. imports. In recent days, however, Trump announced plans to slap tariffs as high as 50% on dozens of countries, including 25% tariffs on top U.S. trade partners such as Japan and South Korea.
The fresh levies are set to take effect on Aug. 1. In addition, a proposed 50% tariff on copper imports could intensify the impact of the country-specific levies.
(NEW YORK) — Defense attorneys for alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter Luigi Mangione say prosecutors at the Manhattan district attorney’s office are violating his health privacy rights by accessing confidential medical information, according to a court filing Thursday seeking a hearing and sanctions.
“The District Attorney has subpoenaed Mr Mangione’s health insurer, and, if their account is to be believed, they partially reviewed confidential, private, protected documents that the District Attorney readily admits are protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. There is no question that the District Attorney has no right to possess or review these documents,” the filing said.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to murdering UnitedHealthcare chief Brian Thompson on a Midtown street last December. Mangione was not covered by UnitedHealthcare.
Instead, prosecutors have said he wanted to send a message about corporate greed.
His attorneys are now seeking access to information from prosecutors and from Mangione’s insurer, Aetna, arguing the subpoena was improper.
“There is no question that the People have violated Mr Mangione’s rights under HIPPA by possessing and reviewing the subpoenaed documents. However, the violation goes far beyond this. The violation also involves the intentional and knowing violating of his doctor-patient privilege,” the defense said.
The district attorney’s office said it will formally respond in court papers.
However, prosecutors said they requested limited information from Aetna and Aetna sent them additional materials in error. Prosecutors said they deleted the materials as soon as they became aware of them and brought it to the attention of both the defense and the court.
The error was compounded by defense counsel resending to prosecutors the very same items prosecutors had already deleted, a source familiar with the subpoena said.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell/Photo credit: Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in February released what was then described as the “first phase of the declassified Epstein files.”
That initial release — which was delivered to a group of prominent right-leaning influencers and journalists — included 341 pages of documents related to the disgraced financier. But 118 pages of those files were duplicative of one another.
The vast majority of those documents were previously made public through the prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein’s former associate Ghislaine Maxwell or civil lawsuits, including flight logs from Epstein’s plane, a redacted version of Epstein’s so-called “black book” of contacts and a heavily redacted seven-page list of masseuses.
The only newly-released document in “phase one,” which received little public attention, was a three-page catalog of evidence that appears to be an accounting of evidence seized during the searches of Epstein’s properties in New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands after his arrest in 2019, and a search of his Palm Beach mansion a dozen years earlier.
That little-noticed index offers a roadmap to the remaining trove of records that President Donald Trump’s administration has declined to release, including logs of who potentially visited Epstein’s private island and the records of a wiretap of Maxwell’s phone.
The three-page index is a report generated by the FBI that lists the evidence inventoried by federal law enforcement during the multiple investigations into his conduct. According to that index, the remaining materials include 40 computers and electronic devices, 26 storage drives, more than 70 CDs and six recording devices. The devices hold more than 300 gigabytes of data, according to the DOJ.
The evidence also includes approximately 60 pieces of physical evidence, including photographs, travel logs, employee lists, more than $17,000 in cash, five massage tables, blueprints of Epstein’s island and Manhattan home, four busts of female body parts, a pair of women’s cowboy boots and one stuffed dog, according to the list.
The unreleased evidence notably includes multiple documents related to two islands Epstein owned in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Little Saint James — where his compound was located — and Greater Saint James. According to the index, the files include a folder containing Island blueprints, photographs and other documents.
Some of the documents could shed light on who visited the island. According to the index, the files also include a Little Saint James logbook as well as multiple logs of boat trips to and from the island.
The evidence also includes multiple lists, one vaguely described as a “document with names” and an employee contact list. Investigators also recovered pages of handwritten notes, multiple photo albums, an Austrian passport with Epstein’s photograph and more than a dozen financial documents.
The records also include three discs containing the outcome of “court authorized intercept[s]” of a phone number previously belonging to Ghislaine Maxwell.
In a joint memo released last week, the FBI and DOJ argued that a “large portion” of the records included photographs of victims and child pornography. According to the DOJ, the evidence includes “images and videos” of victims who appear to be minors, “over ten thousand downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography,” and a “large volume” of images of Epstein. Authorities also concluded that Epstein did not maintain a “client list” or blackmail prominent individuals.
“While we have labored to provide the public with maximum information regarding Epstein and ensured examination of any evidence in the government’s possession, it is the determination of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted,” the memo said.
The memo argued that “a fraction of this material would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial” and that a court order prohibits further disclosure of the materials.
“One of our highest priorities is combatting child exploitation and bringing justice to victims. Perpetuating unfounded theories about Epstein serves neither of those ends,” the memo said.
Stanislav Kogiku/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(TOKYO) — For Americans who were eagerly awaiting the release of the Nintendo Switch 2, the delay of U.S. pre-orders for the popular new gaming console this April was one indication of what’s to come if President Donald Trump’s planned 25% tariffs on all Japanese exports goes into effect on August 1, as he’s said it will in his latest letter to the Japanese government on July 7.
U.S. pre-orders of Nintendo’s next generation gaming console were delayed from April 9 to April 24 because of the impact of potential tariffs from the U.S., the company said at the time.
Nintendo moved forward with the planned June 5 launch date of the device in the U.S., selling 3.5 million consoles worldwide in the first four days on the market, but the delay for such a high-demand product suggests consumers could see greater impacts to products from the popular gaming company that are sold in the United States in the near future.
“There will be tariffs imposed on the devices, so definitely there will be impact,” Professor Yusuke Koyama who teaches economics and focuses his research on the gaming and animation industry at Shibaura Institute of Technology in Japan told ABC News.
“If the tariffs are fixed, and it’s clear that it’s going to be a long-term thing, they are definitely going to have to raise prices,” he added.Tariffs on Japanese exports aren’t the only issue Nintendo could face in the Trump tariff war, Koyama said.
The Nintendo Switch 2 devices are primarily manufactured outside of the U.S. in China and other countries in Southeast Asia. Because of this, the devices will be impacted by the tariffs not only on Japan but on other Asian countries as well, he added.
Nintendo previously had most of their devices made in China, but the company began shifting its production sites to other countries in Southeast Asia in 2019, during the first Trump administration, Koyama said.
“It is not an easy thing to move the production sites on the devices,” Koyama said.
Japanese electronics companies may have to restructure once they start to feel the impact from the U.S. tariffs, chief economist at the Japanese Dai-ichi Life Research Institute Hideo Kumano told ABC News.
“At the moment, people don’t really feel the impact, but recently some electronics companies announced their plans for restructuring,” Kumano told ABC News. “If such plans are actually executed, then people lose jobs … Such a negative impact might be felt by summer or autumn onwards.”
Nintendo has not announced any plans for restructuring publicly at this time, and Nintendo declined ABC News’ request for an interview.
If a Japanese company does business globally, it will be impacted by the coming tariffs, Kumano added. “All companies that do business globally will be impacted one way or another,” he said.
While Nintendo’s gaming consoles and physical products will be impacted, the games consumers can download won’t be subject to the new tariffs. While the U.S. consumer downloading ratio compared to purchasing of physical products is already high, Koyama said he could see this area of Nintendo’s business expand if the tariffs do cause other prices to increase.
“In the U.S., it already has a high downloading ratio, so I think that trend may just get stronger with this,” Koyama said. “In Japan, the packages are still more popular.”
Despite potential price hikes, Koyama predicts consumers will still purchase Nintendo products and games, because their games are unique compared to their competitors.
“Nintendo is producing games that you cannot find in other PC games or PlayStation games, so that’s why the games are very popular,” Koyama said. “I think the consumers will still buy.”
Japanese companies Kumano has spoken with said these tariffs are unlike anything they’ve seen before.
“I’ve actually had conversations with people from various companies, and they all say that things were changing so rapidly. This is the first experience for them to be involved in such rapid and dramatic change,” Kumano said.
(WASHINGTON) — Recent court filings suggest the Trump administration “misled federal judges, Congress, and the American people” about a deal between the U.S. and El Salvador to detain over 200 Venezuelan migrants at the notorious mega-prison known as CECOT, four Democratic ranking members of House committees said in a letter.
The letter, reviewed by ABC News, was sent Thursday to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and calls on officials to turn over any and all agreements between the U.S. and El Salvador, which have not been made public.
The letter cites court filings that appear to contradict the administration’s contention that migrants sent to the prison are solely under the jurisdiction of the government of El Salvador.
According to those filings, submitted July 7 in a case challenging the removal of Venezuelan migrants from the U.S., the government of El Salvador told a United Nations working group that the men in CECOT deported from the U.S. remain the “legal responsibility” of the United States.
“In this context, the jurisdiction and legal responsibility for these persons lie exclusively with the competent foreign authorities, by virtue of international agreements signed and in accordance with the principles of sovereignty and international cooperation in criminal matters,” El Salvador officials said in a report to the U.N.
In their letter, the ranking members said the filing “indicates that the Department of Justice has misled federal courts in assertions regarding the agreement with El Salvador.”
ABC News has reached out to DHS and the State Department for comment on the letter.
The Trump administration has insisted for months that it is unable to return any of the migrants sent to CECOT because they’re under El Salvador’s authority.
In March, the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime authority, to deport two planeloads of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador as part of a $6 million deal the administration struck with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele to house migrant detainees as part of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The Trump administration argued that the men who were deported are members of Tren de Aragua which the government has deemed a foreign terrorist organization and a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the country.
However, one ICE official said in a sworn declaration submitted in federal court that many of the noncitizens who were deported did not have criminal records in the United States because “they have only been in the United States for a short period of time.”
The Democrats’ letter also highlighted reporting by The New York Times that said the deal between the U.S. and Bukele, also included an agreement to return some top leaders of the MS-13 gang who allegedly had knowledge of a “corrupt bargain” between Bukele and the gang “that has played a significant role in the decrease in gang violence in El Salvador.” ABC News has not independently confirmed that reporting.
In addition to the U.S.-El Salvador agreement, the lawmakers are asking the Trump administration to provide information about how it screens migrants with valid asylum claims or withholding of removal orders, and Convention Against Torture protection claims before they’re removed from the country.
“Congress has the right and the obligation to conduct oversight over the executive branch and determine what deals our government has struck with a foreign dictator to imprison individuals seized in the United States in an effort to place them beyond the reaches of our courts,” they wrote.
The signers of the letter were Reps. Jamie Raskin, of Maryland; Bennie Thompson, of Mississippi; Robert Garcia, of California; and Gregory Meeks, of New York.
(WASHINGTON) — Facing uproar in his MAGA base over the Jeffrey Epstein files, President Donald Trump has called for Attorney General Pam Bondi “to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval” related to the case.
Bondi responded on social media Thursday evening, saying, “We are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts.”
It’s not immediately clear the extent of the administration’s request to unseal the transcripts, which would be subject to the approval of a federal judge in the Southern District of New York, where Epstein was charged before he died by suicide in 2019.
This change of course comes after the Justice Department and the FBI released a memo earlier this month stating no evidence was found that Epstein kept a “client list” of associates or that he blackmailed any prominent individuals. The memo concluded no investigation into uncharged third party was warranted.
The brief memo put out by the DOJ and FBI last week stoked furor among Trump’s diehard supporters after years of prominent right-wing figures pushing accusations about Epstein and the “deep state” that’s protecting elites.
Trump’s since sought various ways to put out the political firestorm, coming to Bondi’s defense while also saying she should release what she deems “credible.”
In Trump’s call for Bondi to produce the grand jury testimony, he said it was a “SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats,” and that it “should end, right now!”
Shifting from his previous statement of calling the Epstein files a “hoax” and those Republican supporters who are questioning his administration’s handling of it as “stupid” and “foolish.”
Trump, in a phone interview with “Just the News” on Real America’s Voice on Wednesday night, alleged without providing evidence that Democrats and former officials doctored files relating to the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender.
The comments came when Trump was asked if he wanted one prosecutor to look into the broad subject of political prosecution.
“Well, I think it’s in the case of Epstein, they’ve already looked at it, and they are looking at it, and I think all they have to do is put out anything credible,” Trump said.
“But you know, that was run by the Biden administration for four years. I can imagine what they put into files, just like they did with the others,” Trump continued. “I mean, the Steele dossier was a total fake, right? It took two years to figure that out for the people, and all of the things that you mentioned were fake.”
“So I would imagine if they were run by Chris Wray and they were run by Comey, and because it was actually even before that administration, they’ve been running these files, and so much of the things that we found were fake with me,” Trump said. Despite Trump’s claims that Democrats “put” things in the files, many documents relating to Epstein, including those that mention Trump and several prominent Democrats, have been public for years.
And the White House on Thursday shut down the idea of appointing a special prosecutor in the Epstein case.
“The idea was floated from someone in the media to the president. The president would not recommend a special prosecutor in the Epstein case. That’s how he feels,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the briefing.
Asked to clarify what part of the Epstein saga is a “hoax” as Trump claimed, Leavitt only continued to criticize Democrats.
“The president is referring to the fact that Democrats have now seized on this as if they ever wanted transparency when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein, which is an asinine suggestion for any Democrat to make,” she said. “The Democrats had control of this building, the White House, for four years, and they didn’t do a dang thing when it came to transparency in regards to Jeffrey Epstein and his heinous crimes.”
Epstein was arrested in 2019 and died in prison by suicide while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges while Trump was president.
“Some of the naive Republicans fall right into line, like they always do,” the president said on “Just the News.” Calls for transparency on Epstein came from several Republicans on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. And Trump’s own former vice president, Mike Pence, called for the administration to “release all of the files” regarding the Epstein investigation.
Leavitt on Thursday defended the administration’s handling of the Epstein files and attempted to distance Trump from further decision-making on the case.
Leavitt said it would be up to the Justice Department and Bondi to release any other “credible” evidence.
“In terms of redactions or grand jury seals, those are questions for the Department of Justice. Those are also questions for the judges who have that information under a seal. And that would have to be requested and judge would have to approve it. That’s out of the president’s control,” she said when asked why they wouldn’t release the files, with sensitive information redacted, in order to provide more transparency.
