(WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ky) — At least one person is dead and multiple people have been injured as severe weather swept through Kentucky on Friday, authorities said.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office reported a fatality and multiple injuries, with “severe damage” throughout the county.
A possible tornado was reported in Washington County on Friday, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said on social media, adding that the “level of severe weather was unexpected.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — An IT specialist employed by the Defense Intelligence Agency was arrested Thursday and charged with attempting to provide classified information to a friendly foreign government, the Justice Department announced.
The FBI said it began an investigation into 28-year-old Nathan Laatsch in March after receiving a tip he offered to provide classified information to a foreign government because — according to the tipster — Laatsch did not “agree or align with the values of this administration” and was willing to share “completed intelligence products, some unprocessed intelligence, and other assorted classified documentation.”
The foreign country Laatsch is accused of trying to contact is not identified in court documents.
In communications with an undercover agent with the FBI, posing as an emissary of the foreign country, Laatsch is alleged to have transcribed classified information into a notepad at his desk over a three-day period that he told the agent he was ready to provide.
Video from inside the DIA facility where Laatsch worked showed him writing multiple pages of notes, which he folded into squares and hid in his socks, according to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Another DIA employee saw Laatsch placing multiple notebook pages in the bottom of his lunchbox, according to the affidavit.
The FBI then conducted an operation on May 1 in which Laatsch agreed to drop the classified information via thumb drive at a designated spot in a public park in northern Virginia, according to the charging documents.
The drive allegedly contained information that was designated at both the Secret and Top Secret classification levels. Laatsch contacted the agent roughly a week later and said he was interested in citizenship to the unnamed country because he did not “expect things here to improve in the long term,” according to the documents.
Laatsch again then allegedly attempted to prepare classified information to provide to the agent and in an operation earlier Thursday, he arrived at a location in northern Virginia where he was taken into custody, according to the documents.
Laatsch’s arrest comes amid broader concern among current and former intelligence officials that individuals with access to high-value classified information may use the current moment of disarray and consternation in the intel community to try and sell information to foreign governments for profit.
Laatsch, who was hired by the Defense Intelligence Agency in August 2019, most recently worked as a data scientist and IT specialist for information security in the agency’s Insider Threat Division, according to court documents.
Online court records do not yet list an attorney for Laatsch.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Friday morning accused China of violating a recent trade agreement with the United States.
The sharp criticism appeared to cast doubt over the staying power of the accord, setting up the possibility of a rekindled trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
“China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US,” Trump said in a social media post Friday morning. “So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!”
Trump did not identify the action taken by China that had violated the agreement.
The remarks came hours after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent voiced pessimism about U.S.-China trade talks in an interview with Fox News on Thursday night.
“I would say that they are a bit stalled,” Bessent said when asked about the status of the trade talks. “I believe that we will be having more talks with them in the next few weeks, and I believe we may at some point have a call between the president and Party Chair Xi [Jinping].”
U.S. stocks fell slightly in early trading on Friday morning after the comments from Trump and Bessent.
A trade agreement between the U.S. and China earlier this month slashed tit-for-tat tariffs imposed by the two countries, triggering a surge in the stock market and softening recession forecasts on Wall Street.
The U.S. agreed to cut tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30%, while China committed to reduce tariffs on U.S. products from 125% to 10%. The lowered tariffs are set to remain in place for 90 days while the two sides negotiate a wider trade deal.
The remaining 30% tariffs imposed on Chinese goods faced a major setback this week, however, when a panel of federal judges struck down the legal justification for the levies.
The ruling from the U.S. Court of International Trade late Wednesday invalidated the China tariffs, along with a host of other levies on dozens of countries unveiled in a Rose Garden ceremony that Trump had dubbed “Liberation Day.”
A federal appeals court moved to temporarily reinstate the tariffs on Thursday, leaving the ultimate fate of the policy uncertain.
(NEW YORK) — One year ago today, a jury of 12 New Yorkers convicted Donald Trump for falsifying business records as part of an alleged hush money scheme to influence the 2016 election.
The conviction left an indelible mark on Trump — making him the first president or former president to be found guilty of a crime — and his fight to erase that legacy continues to this day.
On June 11, a federal appeals court in Manhattan is set to hear oral arguments in the president’s renewed legal fight to move his criminal case from state to federal court.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg opposes the move — arguing that a case can’t be removed to federal court after conviction — but Trump’s lawyers have argued the “unprecedented criminal prosecution of a former and current president of the United States belongs in federal court.”
Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts after prosecutors alleged that he engaged in a “scheme” to boost his chances during the 2016 presidential election through a series of hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and the falsification of New York business records to cover up that alleged criminal conduct.
“I did my job, and we did our job,” Bragg said following Trump’s conviction. “There are many voices out there, but the only voice that matters is the voice of the jury, and the jury has spoken.”
Ten days before Trump was sworn in as president last November, New York Judge Juan Merchan sentenced him to an unconditional discharge — without prison, fines or probation — saying it was the “only lawful sentence” to prevent “encroaching upon the highest office in the land.”
“I won the election in a massive landslide, and the people of this country understand what’s gone on. This has been a weaponization of government,” Trump told the court during his sentencing.
Trump continues to vehemently deny any wrongdoing, and his lawyers have argued that his conviction relied on evidence and testimony that related to his official acts as president, including social media posts from his official Twitter account as president and testimony from his former communications director Hope Hicks.
The trial took place one month before the Supreme Court delivered a landmark ruling expanding the scope of presidential immunity, and Trump’s lawyers have argued that the evidence would have not been permitted based on the high court’s ruling.
Trump’s lawyers attempted to use that argument to throw out the case before Trump’s January sentencing, but the argument was rejected by Judge Juan Merchan, two New York appeals courts, and the Supreme Court.
“The alleged evidentiary violations at President-Elect Trump’s state-court trial can be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal,” the Supreme Court said in a brief unsigned opinion, though four justices said they would have granted Trump’s application.
For Trump’s criminal defense, he relied on then-defense attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who now serve as the deputy attorney general and principal associate deputy attorney general. Earlier this week, Trump announced that he plans to nominate Bove — who led a purge of career law enforcement officials before the Senate confirmed his nomination to help run the DOJ — to the United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.
With his former defense attorneys now working for the government, Trump earlier this year tapped the elite Manhattan law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell to handle his criminal appeal.
Lawyers with the Department of Justice also filed an amicus brief in the case this week to argue that the case should be heard — and thrown out — by a federal court because the jury’s conviction relied on evidence that was covered by presidential immunity.
“That President Trump’s defense in fact takes the form of a new constitutional immunity announced by the Supreme Court after his trial ended, rather than a new statute enacted by Congress, should if anything cut in the President’s favor,” lawyers with the Department of Justice argued in a brief submitted on Tuesday.
The appeal — as well as the ongoing appeal of Trump’s $83 million judgment in the E. Jean Carroll civil case and half-billion-dollar civil fraud case — is proceeding on uncharted legal grounds as Trump wields the power of the presidency in his defense. He has characterized the prosecutors who pursued the cases against him as politically motivated, and has touted his electoral victory last November as a political acquittal.
“The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people,” Trump told reporters as he left court following his conviction last year. “And they know what happened here, and everybody knows what happened here.”
(LONDON) — Gazans camped out close to a humanitarian aid distribution site near the city of Rafah on Wednesday night, as a controversial U.S.- and Israel-backed project to distribute food in the devastated Palestinian territory expanded.
Local journalists told ABC News that thousands of people gathered at the site northeast of Rafah in the hope of receiving food aid, but there was not enough to satisfy demand when distribution began on Thursday.
The site is located close to the Morag corridor — a strip of land controlled by the Israel Defense Forces separating the Gazan cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.
Videos from the site showed large crowds of Gazans rushing to collect aid, carrying boxes stamped with the mark of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF — which is directing the aid distribution in collaboration with the American and Israeli governments.
“It is very difficult, we want to eat, we want to live — what should we do?” one man said when speaking with Reuters.
Another man left the site empty-handed, telling Reuters, “Every time I go, I hold a box, a hundred people crowd over me, 300. I could not take anything.”
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes continued across the strip. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Thursday that 67 people were killed and 184 people injured by Israeli action over the previous 24 hours.
The latest casualties bring the total toll in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, to 54,249 people killed and 123,492 injured, the ministry said.
The Israeli government had been implementing a blockade on all humanitarian aid being sent into Gaza since March 2. The blockade was instituted to pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages, Israel said. Hamas still holds 58 hostages, with about one-third of them believed to be alive, according to The Associated Press.
The blockade has caused widespread malnutrition and conditions likely to lead to famine, according to the U.N. and other international aid organizations. Two million people in the Gaza Strip face “extreme hunger and famine without immediate action,” the U.N.’s World Food Programme, or WFP, said last week.
Last week, Israel began allowing small amounts of humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, approving GHF’s responsibility for distribution. Israel had demanded a new aid distribution system, having accused Hamas of previously siphoning off aid.
GHF — launched earlier this year and run by U.S. security contractors, former military officers and humanitarian workers — has set up a handful of hubs protected by armed contractors close to IDF positions. Gazans have been told to travel to the hubs to collect aid.
The United Nations and other humanitarian aid groups have refused to take part in the new effort, citing concerns that it will allow Israel to control — and weaponize — aid supply.
WFP, for example, said it “cannot safely operate under a distribution system that limits the number of bakeries and sites where Gaza’s population can access food. WFP and its partners must also be allowed to distribute food parcels directly to families — the most effective way to prevent widespread starvation.”
GHF Executive Director Jake Wood resigned earlier this week, saying in a statement it had become “clear that it is not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon.”
GHF on Wednesday denied reports that it was forced to pause operations after thousands of Palestinians overran one of its aid distribution sites in Gaza on Tuesday.
The group said its “operations will continue to scale up” on Thursday, having distributed a total of eight trucks worth of aid — enough for 378,262 meals — on Wednesday.
GHF later said that three of its sites were operational on Thursday, distributing around 997,920 meals. That brought the total number of meals distributed to approximately 1,838,182, GHF’s statement said.
However, multiple aid organizations and nongovernmental organizations have said the aid distributed so far is just a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed.
ABC News’ Helena Skinner, Diaa Ostaz, Joe Simonetti, Nadine El-Bawab, Camilla Alcini and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The White House on Thursday lashed out at federal judges who have blocked President Donald Trump from being able to impose global tariffs — a key part of his second-term agenda.
Trump, who has a long history of going after judges whose rulings he disagrees with, as of Thursday afternoon had yet to weigh in on two courts deeming some of his tariffs as “unlawful.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, though, opened her briefing with a lengthy attack on the legal setbacks. She called it “judicial overreach” and called on the nation’s highest court to step in.
“These judges are threatening to undermine the credibility of the United States on the world stage,” Leavitt said. “The administration has already filed an emergency motion for a stay pending appeal and an immediate administrative stay to strike down this egregious decision. But ultimately, the Supreme Court must put an end to this for the sake of our Constitution and our country.”
The Court of International Trade on Wednesday struck down Trump’s global tariffs as “contrary to law.” A federal appeals court is temporarily delaying the ruling while the administration challenges the ruling, reinstating the policy for now.
The three-judge panel had found the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which Trump leaned on to enact his tariffs, does not give him the “unlimited” power to impose the levies he has in recent months. They said it the authority for most tariffs rests with Congress, and Trump’s tariffs don’t constitute “unusual and extraordinary threat” that would allow him to act unilaterally.
Leavitt criticized the panel as “activist judges” despite its three members being appointed to the bench by three different presidents: Trump, Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan.
“The president’s rationale for imposing these powerful tariffs was legally sound and grounded in common sense,” she said. “President Trump correctly believes that America cannot function safely longterm if we are unable to scale advanced domestic manufacturing capacity, have our own secure, critical supply chains, and our defense industrial base is dependent on foreign adversaries.”
“Three judges of the U.S. Court of International Trade disagreed and brazenly abused their judicial power to usurp the authority of President Trump, to stop him from carrying out the mandate that the American people gave him,” she added.
Leavitt also touted the Republican-controlled Senate declining a bipartisan measure put forward to block Trump’s tariffs. That measure failed by the slimmest of margins in a 49-49 vote.
“Following Liberation Day, Congress firmly rejected an effort led by Senator Rand Paul and Democrats to terminate the president’s reciprocal tariffs. The courts should have no role here,” she argued.
When Trump announced his long-anticipated “Liberation Day” tariffs against nearly all U.S. trading partners in early April, he deemed chronic trade deficits a national emergency that “threatens our security and our very way of life.”
Since then, he’s often changed or delayed the tariff rates originally set out, often resulting in market turmoil. A 90-day pause on the higher, so-called “reciprocal” levies instituted so Trump could work on trade deals is set to expire in early July.
ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott asked the White House if its actively reviewing other methods to implement Trump’s tariff agenda in light of the court orders.
“The president’s trade policy will continue. We will comply with the court orders. But yes, the president has other legal authorities where he can implement tariffs,” Leavitt said.
“We can walk and chew gum at the same time,” Leavitt said.
ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh and Peter Charalambous contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal appeals court is temporarily delaying Wednesday’s court order blocking President Donald Trump’s tariffs, reinstating them at least for the time being.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued an administrative stay of the decision while it considers Trump’s appeal.
The administration earlier Thursday urged the New York-based Court of International Trade to delay its order, warning that enforcement of the ruling will cause a “foreign policy disaster scenario.”
In an opinion on Wednesday, the three-judge panel struck down Trump’s global tariffs as “contrary to law.”
The judges found that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — which Trump used to enact his tariffs — does not give him the “unlimited” power to levy tariffs like the president has in recent months.
“The President’s assertion of tariff-making authority in the instant case, unbounded as it is by any limitation in duration or scope, exceeds any tariff authority delegated to the President under IEEPA. The Worldwide and Retaliatory tariffs are thus ultra vires and contrary to law,” the judges wrote.
According to the judges, Congress, not the president, has the authority to impose tariffs under most circumstances, and Trump’s tariffs do not meet the limited condition of an “unusual and extraordinary threat” that would allow him to act alone.
On Thursday, a second federal court determined that Trump’s global were “unlawful.”
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras said in an order the International Economic Emergency Economic Powers Act does not give the president the power to impose most of his recent tariffs.
Notably, the decision from Contreras – an Obama appointee – only restricts the Trump administration’s ability to collect tariffs from the two companies that filed the lawsuit, Learning Resources, Inc., and hand2mind, Inc.
The Department of Justice on Thursday requested a stay to Wednesday’s ruling, saying it’s needed “to avoid immediate irreparable harm to United States foreign policy and national security.”
“It is critical, for the country’s national security and the President’s conduct of ongoing, delicate diplomatic efforts, that the Court stay its judgment. The harm to the conduct of foreign affairs from the relief ordered by the Court could not be greater,” lawyers with the Department of Justice argued.
According to the administration, the court order would strip the president of leverage in trade negotiations, imperil the trade deals already reached, and make the country vulnerable to countries that “feel a renewed boldness to take advantage of” the current situation.
Responding to the ruling, White House spokesman Kush Desai evoked the trade deficit and said, “It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency,” adding that that the administration is committed to using “every lever of executive power to address this crisis.”
The Trump administration had quickly filed a notice of appeal to challenge Wednesday’s decision.
The case now heads to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit where they could ask for a stay of the order.
The Court of International Trade issued the decision across two cases — one filed by a group of small businesses and another filed by 12 Democratic attorneys general.
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford called the ruling “a win for the rule of law and for Nevadans’ pocketbooks.”
“I am extremely pleased with the court’s decision to strike down these tariffs; they were both unlawful and economically destructive,” he said. “The president had no legal authority to impose these tariffs, and his unlawful actions would have caused billions of dollars of damage to the American economy.”
Since Trump announced sweeping tariffs on more than 50 countries in April, his administration has faced half a dozen lawsuits challenging the president’s ability to impose tariffs without the approval of Congress.
New York Attorney General Letitia James called the decision a “major victory for our efforts to uphold the law and protect New Yorkers from illegal policies that threaten American jobs and economy.”
“The law is clear: no president has the power to single-handedly raise taxes whenever they like. These tariffs are a massive tax hike on working families and American businesses that would have led to more inflation, economic damage to businesses of all sizes, and job losses across the country if allowed to continue,” James’ statement continued.
Lawyers for the small businesses alleged that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — which Trump invoked to impose the tariffs — does not give the president the right to issue “across-the-board worldwide tariffs,” and that Trump’s justification for the tariffs was invalid.
“His claimed emergency is a figment of his own imagination,” the lawsuit said. “Trade deficits, which have persisted for decades without causing economic harm, are not an emergency.”
During a hearing earlier this month, a group of three judges — who were appointed by presidents Obama, Trump and Reagan — pushed a lawyer for the small businesses to provide a legal basis to override the tariffs. While a different court in the 1970s determined that the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 — the law that preceded the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — gave the president the right to impose tariffs, no court has weighed whether the president can impose tariffs unilaterally under the IEEPA.
During a May 13 hearing, Jeffrey Schwab, a lawyer from the conservative Liberty Justice Center representing the plaintiffs, argued that Trump’s purported emergency to justify the tariffs is far short of what is required under the law.
“I’m asking this court to be an umpire and call a strike; you’re asking me, well, where’s the strike zone? Is it at the knees or slightly below the knees?” Schwab argued. “I’m saying it’s a wild pitch and it’s on the other side of the batter and hits the backstop, so we don’t need to debate that.”
The ruling marks the first time a federal court has issued a ruling on the legality of Trump’s tariffs. In May, a federal judge in Florida nominated by Trump suggested the president has the authority to unilaterally impose tariffs, but opted to transfer the case to the Court of International Trade.
-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Stocks closed higher on Thursday after a panel of federal judges blocked President Donald Trump from slapping some of his far-reaching tariffs on China and other major U.S. trading partners.
A federal appeals court moved to temporarily reinstate the tariffs on Thursday afternoon, however, leaving the ultimate fate of the policy uncertain.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 117 points, or 0.2%, while the S&P 500 increased 0.4%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 0.3%
The ruling from the U.S. Court of International Trade late Wednesday marked a major blow for Trump’s tariff policy, invalidating levies on dozens of countries unveiled in a Rose Garden ceremony that Trump had dubbed “Liberation Day.”
Less than a day later, an appeals court opted to revive the policy on administrative grounds, affording the judges additional time to weigh the case.
A set of tariffs focused on Mexico and Canada over their alleged role in the fentanyl trade would also fall victim to the U.S. Court of International Trade’s ruling, if it ends up being upheld. The decision would also invalidate a 10% tariff imposed on goods from nearly all countries.
The Trump administration appealed the ruling within minutes on Wednesday night.
The ruling centered on Trump’s unprecedented invocation of the International Economic Emergency Powers Act as a legal justification for tariffs.
The 1977 law allows the president to stop all transactions with a foreign adversary that poses a threat, including the use of tools like sanctions and trade embargoes. But the measure does not explicitly permit tariffs, putting Trump in untested legal territory.
The ruling Wednesday afforded the Trump administration as many as 10 days to halt the tariffs.
Even before the court’s decision, Trump had rolled back some of the levies at issue.
A trade agreement between the U.S. and China earlier this month slashed tit-for-tat tariffs between the world’s two largest economies and triggered a surge in the stock market. Within days, Wall Street firms softened their forecasts of a recession.
The U.S.-China accord came weeks after the White House paused the reciprocal tariffs. Trump eased duties on some goods from Mexico and Canada.
The ruling did not impact sector-specific tariffs used under separate legal statutes, including levies targeting autos, steel and aluminum.
(EXCELSIOR SPRINGS, Mo.) — In a stunning repeat of a February incident, a vehicle crashed into the Clay-Ray Veterans Memorial Hall in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, on Wednesday morning, damaging the same section of roof that had only recently been repaired.
Emergency crews responded to 208 Veterans Memorial Drive just before 7:30 a.m., where they found a vehicle that had driven off Sycamore Street and crashed into the building’s roof.
“Though it might seem like a recurring issue, these are very unique situations,” said Lt. Ryan Dowdy of the Excelsior Springs Police Department, who has served on the force for 13 years. “One was during a police chase from a driver trying to evade capture; the other was possibly due to a medical condition.”
Unlike the previous incident, the vehicle didn’t completely penetrate the roof, but the crash’s impact was severe enough that the car’s engine was ejected, landing near the building’s flagpole.
According to Dowdy, while the incident is dramatic, it is being investigated as a traffic crash.
“If during that investigation we determine that a crime has occurred and believe there is probable cause to support charging an individual, we will not hesitate to file those charges if applicable,” he said.
The February crash resulted in arrests and charges after a 22-year-old man crashed while fleeing police during a traffic stop. That incident left two teenage passengers with serious injuries, while the driver sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
“The representative of the VFW stated that they have had that property for over 80 years, and this is only the second time this has happened,” Lt. Dowdy noted, addressing concerns about the location’s safety.
The Clay-Ray Vets Club, which manages the building, had been in the process of rebuilding and restoration following the February incident, according to their Facebook post.
Authorities have not yet released the identity of the driver or additional details about the most recent crash. The investigation is ongoing.
(NEW ORLEANS, La) — The reward for the arrest of the two remaining inmates who broke out of a New Orleans jail this month has more than doubled to $50,000, authorities announced on Thursday, as police said they believe they are closing in on the “dangerous” fugitives.
Antoine Massey and Derrick Groves are among 10 inmates who escaped from the Orleans Justice Center on May 16, according to Louisiana State Police.
In the nearly two weeks since, eight of the inmates have been captured, but Massey and Groves remain on the run, police said.
There are now rewards totalling $50,000 per inmate for tips leading to their arrest, according to Louisiana State Police Superintendent Col Robert Hodges. That includes rewards being offered from the Crimestoppers of Greater New Orleans, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, he said.
Hodges said police have “some strong leads” about where the remaining two fugitives are, though they still need tips because of the men’s movement.
“We’re confident that we are closing in on the remaining two escapees, and that we should have them in custody soon,” he said during a press briefing on Thursday. “We’re resilient, and although they’re going to get tired and frustrated as they try to move around Louisiana or move around the metropolitan area, they know the walls are closing in.”
Authorities urged anyone with information on the whereabouts of the two fugitives to reach out while acknowledging that may be difficult.
“We understand, along with our law enforcement partners, that some of you might be reporting a friend, a loved one, a relative, and albeit not easy, it is critical to your safety and the safety of the public that you report that,” Walter Martin, chief deputy U.S. marshal for the Eastern District of Louisiana, said during the briefing.
Martin vowed to recapture the “dangerous inmates.” One of them, Groves, was recently convicted of two counts of second-degree murder in a 2018 Mardi Gras Day shooting and faces a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, prosecutors said. Unrelated to that case, he also subsequently pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter, online court records show.
Hodges warned that anyone who helps the remaining fugitives will be arrested and prosecuted.
“Now is the time to make the right choice,” he said.
Crimestoppers of Greater New Orleans President and CEO Darlene Cusanza said Thursday the organization has received nearly 700 tips related to the inmates’ escape, resulting in the arrest of three of them. One inmate was arrested within 30 minutes of receiving the tip, she said. Three tipsters will be paid $10,000, she said.
The 10 inmates escaped from the Orleans Justice Center in the early morning hours of May 16 after climbing through a hole behind a toilet. Their disappearance was not noticed for several hours and touched off a massive manhunt.
Over a dozen people have been arrested on suspicion of helping the escapees, including another inmate in the jail and a jail maintenance worker who is accused of shutting off water to the toilet allowing escapees to remove it.
Three of the 10 inmates who escaped were apprehended in New Orleans within the first 24 hours of the jailbreak. The others were captured in the following days, including in Baton Rouge and two in Texas.
The eight captured inmates have been transported to a secure state facility in Louisiana, Hodges said.
