News

(WASHINGTON) — House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said he had issued two subpoenas to Leon Black after Comer said the private equity billionaire refused to answer some of the committee’s questions about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during Black’s closed-door appearance before the panel Friday.

Black, who was appearing before the panel as part of its ongoing probe into the government’s investigation of Epstein, walked out of his transcribed interview during questioning.

Comer told reporters that the two subpoenas compel Black to appear for a deposition on July 16 as well as produce purported nondisclosure agreements that he was questioned about.

“During today’s voluntary transcribed interview, Mr. Black stated he wouldn’t answer questions about NDAs. Answers about the terms and substance of these NDAs are critical to our investigation,” Comer said. “We owe it to the American people to provide transparency and ensure accountability for survivors.”

“NDAs are between him and other women. We want to know, was Jeffrey Epstein involved in the NDAs? Was he involved in writing? Was he involved in awarding funds to the women for the NDAs? What was the reason for the NDA? We don’t know everything about the NDAs, so that’s very important to our investigation, so the subpoenas were issued. We expect to see back here in a few weeks,” Comer said.

“This is very important for our investigation, Comer said. “We knew for a long time there were NDAs out there by various people. Obviously, they’re very hard to obtain, and with this subpoena, we expect to get those NDAs in hand.”

Asked about Black’s responses during the interview, Comer said, “his response was that he wasn’t allowed to discuss the terms of the NDAs.”

Ranking committee member Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., said he agreed with Comer’s decision to issue the subpoenas.

“The NDAs are central to us understanding what actually happened. There are real accusations, and there are survivors who have accused Mr. Black of horrific things,” Garcia told reporters.

Black’s attorney, Susan Estrich, claimed to reporters that the decision to serve Black with the subpoenas during the interview was “a premeditated political decision” and claimed that Epstein “had no involvement” with the purported nondisclosure agreements.

“They made a premeditated political decision to serve him with subpoenas after less than an hour of questioning, and before they even asked a single question about his legitimate payments to Epstein,” she said. “This was nothing more than a planned political stunt. Mr. Epstein had no involvement with any NDAs, whether they exist or not.”

The latest in a series of rich and powerful people questioned about their relationship with Epstein as part of the Oversight panel’s probe, Black maintained a social relationship with Epstein since the mid-1990s and eventually paid him more than $170 million for “tax and estate planning advice,” according to the Senate Finance Committee.

Black has denied wrongdoing or knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, though his financial payments to Epstein served as a lifeline to the convicted sex offender in the years after Epstein’s 2008 prison sentence for soliciting a minor for prostitution.

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., told reporters after Black’s appearance, “this is the first time” a witness during this probe has walked out in the middle of an interview.

“It’s because we had very important questions about Leon Black’s past with Jeffrey Epstein,” he said. “This is also the first time I heard someone gush poetically about how smart and how great Jeffrey Epstein was.”

“He was smug,” Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Az., said of Black’s appearance. “He refused to answer the questions but at the same time was emphasizing how he was being transparent because this was voluntary. But when pressed on critical questions about his own sexual abuse and the allegations against him and non-disclosure agreements, he absolutely refused to answer these questions,” she said.

Ansari said Black was “speaking fondly of Epstein while also claiming they were not close.”

‘Bona fide advice’

In his appearance before the committee Friday, Black said he was unaware of Epstein’s “demonic life” and that the money he paid Epstein was for legitimate services and “bona fide advice,” according to a copy of his opening remarks reviewed by ABC News.

Black’s prepared remarks during his closed-door interview cast him as the victim of “ugly and vicious” narratives around Epstein, saying he has been the subject of baseless allegations and conspiracy theories about Epstein and that “extraordinary damage has been done to me and my family.”

“I wish I had never met Epstein. I regret ever doing business with him. My association with him, the frivolous but destructive litigation, the endless rumor mill, have created a toxic environment for my wife and family, which I deeply regret,” the prepared remarks said.

Addressing the massive amount of money he paid Epstein, Black, in his remarks, said those were legitimate payments and that he was never blackmailed by Epstein.

“Let me state unequivocally that I have never abused a woman. I have never been with an underage woman. I have never engaged in sex trafficking. I have never paid Epstein for access to women. I was never blackmailed by Epstein. I was not involved with, and had no knowledge of, any of Epstein’s heinous conduct,” his prepared remarks said.

According to Black, Epstein lived a “Jekyll and Hyde” existence and that he, at first, only saw the positive side, including his “unrivaled network of relationships with individuals in finance, academia, science, politics.” Black, in his remarks, said his relationship with Epstein began as personal but grew overtime to helping manage his family investment office.

“With hindsight, I now see that Epstein exaggerated, embellished, manipulated, and outright lied — prolifically and without concern for me or my family. And I now see that his deceit was not limited to me but also extended to numerous highly sophisticated individuals,” Black’s prepared remarks said.

While Black said that Epstein “took credit for other people’s ideas” and made false claims about investments, Black also argued Epstein was able to resolve “a massive estate problem” for him that “would have destroyed enormous value.” According to Black’s remarks, he originally thought he was paying Epstein $95 million in net fees, though that was actually $158 million because Epstein lied about the tax deductibility of the payment.

Black also said in his prepared remarks that he was aware of Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution, but that Epstein lied about the nature of the crime.

“Epstein told me that it was an isolated incident resulting from a fake ID. Five years after his conviction, I gave Epstein a second chance, as did many others. I wish I had not,” he said, according to his prepared remarks.

According to Black, he cut ties with Epstein in 2018 after Epstein failed to repay most of a $30 million loan. Black said he grew “tired of his relentless pursuit of more and more money from me for professional services.”

While Black, according to his remarks, said that he was “glad” to answer the committee’s questions, he noted that he will “not speak about the personal lives of adult women” that he believes should not be connected to Epstein.

“I am here to voluntarily answer questions about the work that Epstein did for me and for the services for which I paid him. I am not here to answer questions about my personal life which would be hurtful to my wife, children and family. And I will not speak about the personal lives of adult women who have not chosen, and do not deserve, to be connected, by me or anyone else, to Epstein,” Black said, per his remarks.

‘The most groundbreaking deposition’

Comer told reporters before Friday’s proceedings that this “could be a pretty significant” interview.

“So, of all the witnesses that have come thus far, this one has the potential to be the most groundbreaking deposition, in my opinion,” Comer said.

“There’s a lot of concerning things in the documents. There are a lot of statements from the survivors that are very concerning as well, with respect to Mr. Black,” Comer said.

The chairman said the committee would ask Black “hundreds and hundreds of questions about financial transactions, about bank violations, about emails, documents, pictures, and communication with survivors.”

Comer said the committee’s investigation is “on a timeline.”

“This Congress will expire the end of this year, so we want to certainly get done as quickly as possible, said Comer, who added that “we hope” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche will sit for an interview.

“I’ll remind everyone the purpose of our investigation to get the truth to the American people and determine how the government failed the survivors by not prosecuting Epstein,” Comer said.

Garcia told reporters prior to Black’s appearance that Epstein “would not have been able to commit the horrific crimes without the support of Mr. Black.”

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., said, “We want him to answer the tough questions about what he knew about Jeffrey Epstein and whether he was involved with some of the crimes himself.”

“Leon Black was one of Jeffrey Epstein’s primary sources of income, flooding him with cash at a time when he was already a registered sex offender. Black has not yet offered a compelling explanation regarding the origination and execution of Epstein’s extraordinary compensation scheme for alleged tax advice,” Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, wrote in a letter to the House Oversight Committee earlier this month. The Senate Finance Committee is leading its own investigation of Epstein’s finances.

Black has long been scrutinized over his relationship with the disgraced financier — describing it as a “horrible mistake” — and was forced out of his firm Apollo Global Management following an external investigation that revealed payments to Epstein totaling at least $158 million.

“Knowing all that I have learned in the past two years about Epstein’s reprehensible and despicable conduct, I deeply regret having had any involvement with him,” Black said during a 2020 Apollo earnings call. “With the benefit of hindsight, working with him was a horrible mistake on my part. I am not seeking to excuse that decision, but I do believe it may be helpful to convey some relevant facts.”

While the investigation concluded that Black and others were aware of Epstein’s 2008 conviction, a report summarizing its findings said that Black was not “involved in any way with Epstein’s criminal activities at any time” or aware of the “scope and details” of Epstein’s sex trafficking. Black has never been charged with a crime.

“When Black first retained Epstein, he believed that Epstein had served his time for the originally charged offenses and believed that it was not inappropriate to give Epstein a second chance, as many other prominent figures in business, science, politics and academia had done,” the report said.

‘Saving you from yourself’

The release of the Department of Justice’s Epstein files earlier this year cast more scrutiny on Black, whose name appears in the files more than 8,000 times. Epstein at one point appeared to serve as a middleman to pay $100,000 to a woman with whom Black allegedly had an affair, according to emails included in the files, and routinely served as a fixer for issues involving his finances.

“Leon, as you are well aware, there is little I won’t do for you or at least try to do as a friend, and a great deal that I have already done (both known and some things that will need to remain unknown),” Epstein wrote to Black in a 2014 email. In another email in 2017, Epstein described his relationship with Black as “saving you from yourself.”

In a statement to ABC News, Black’s attorney Susan Estrich pointed to the external investigation conducted for Apollo that found Black “had no awareness of the criminal activities that led to Epstein’s arrest in 2019” and noted that Black has called for an independent investigation of his relationship with Epstein.

Wyden of the Senate Finance Committee has called on the House Oversight members to scrutinize the $170 million that Black paid Epstein between 2012 and 2017 for purported tax and estate planning. According to Wyden, those payments are sixty times more than what Epstein paid his other tax and estate professionals during the same timeframe.

“Black is a well-advised businessman with access to sophisticated attorneys, yet it appears Epstein was able to shake him down for money that he wasn’t legally owed. This suggests that Epstein may have extorted Black or performed other unseemly tasks on his behalf,” Wyden wrote earlier this month.

Attorneys for Black have pushed back against Wyden’s accusations, accusing him of harassment and saying that the billionaire has cooperated “voluntarily and without compulsion.”

“We are aware of no other private citizen subjected to more written requests from you over the same period,” Black’s attorneys wrote in an April 2026 letter to Wyden. “Your continued attempts to invade into matters pertaining to Mr. Black’s personal life — without the support of any legitimate legislative purpose — appear targeted to unfairly harass Mr. Black in a manner that completely disregards the proper scope of Congress’s investigative powers.”

According to the 2021 external report, Epstein was paid proportionally to the amount of money he saved Black and that Epstein “provided advice that conferred more than $1 billion and as much as $2 billion or more in value to Black”; however, the report also acknowledged that Epstein’s advice was often not useful and that he was “generally a disruptive and caustic force.”

The external report said investigators found “no evidence suggesting that Black ever compensated Epstein for any service other than Epstein’s legitimate advice on trust and estate planning” and other issues. 

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LOS ANGELES) — The judge declared a mistrial Friday in the federal trial of the man accused of starting the deadly blaze that devastated the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles last year, with the jury deadlocked.

Jonathan Rinderknecht was accused of “maliciously” starting a fire that six days later developed into what became known as the Palisades Fire, one of the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles history.

He was indicted on three federal counts — destruction of property by means of fire, arson affecting property used in interstate commerce and timber set afire — which carry up to 45 years in prison. He pleaded not guilty.

The jury began deliberating Wednesday morning. They reported being deadlocked Thursday afternoon, noting that there were two jurors with unwavering stances. The jury remained deadlocked on Friday, with 10 for not guilty and two for guilty, and Judge Anne Hwang declared a mistrial.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli said his office plans to retry the case.

“The evidence is strong that Jonathan Rinderknecht is responsible for igniting the fire on January 1, 2025, which eventually became the Palisades fire,” Essayli said in a statement on social media. “We fully intend to retry this case before a new jury and obtain guilty verdicts on all charged counts.”

Federal prosecutors alleged that Rinderknecht, who was working as an Uber driver at the time, ignited a brush fire that became known as the Lachman Fire just after midnight on Jan. 1, 2025.

Despite being suppressed by fire crews, prosecutors allege that the fire continued to smolder until it surfaced again nearly a week later amid high winds and eventually became the Palisades Fire, which leveled neighborhoods in Los Angeles County and left 12 people dead.

Rinderknecht, a former Los Angeles resident, was arrested in Florida nine months after the Palisades Fire.

Prosecutors alleged he was upset about a past relationship, was fixated on wealth disparity and climate change in messages with ChatGPT and wanted “revenge” against society for his problems.

The government also alleged he was fixated on Luigi Mangione, who has been charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Following the December 2024 shooting, they say he searched for news on Mangione as well as used the search terms “free Luigi Mangione,” “lets take down all the billionaires” and “reddit lets kill all the billionaires.” 

Prosecutors said Rinderknecht ended up working on Dec. 31, 2024, because he had no plans to celebrate New Year’s Eve. They said he went to Skull Rock Trailhead in Topanga State Park after dropping off a passenger in the Pacific Palisades.

They alleged he used a BIC lighter to ignite the Lachman Fire, which they said was not found to be caused by lightning, fireworks or power lines. 

Rinderknecht called 911 multiple times to report the fire while close to the ignition site of the Lachman Fire, and took videos of it, according to prosecutors. He also made a screen-recording on his iPhone of himself attempting to call 911, which prosecutors argued during closing statements was suspicious and pointed to his guilt.

When interviewed in the wake of the Palisades Fire, he told investigators that he saw no fireworks in the area when the Lachman Fire started, prosecutors said. When asked why someone would start a fire in the Pacific Palisades, he mentioned wealth disparity could be one of the reasons why, according to prosecutors.

The defense said Rinderknecht went to the area to watch fireworks, and argued that the Lachman Fire was started by fireworks. His defense attorney, Steve Haney said Rinderknecht called 911 to try to stop the fire, and that the government found no evidence that he was planning a fire.

During closing statements, Haney argued there was no direct evidence supporting that Rinderknecht started the Lachman Fire and questioned the government’s theory that it was a “holdover” blaze that developed into the Palisades Fire.

Over two weeks, jurors heard testimony from arson and fire experts, saw digital and cellular evidence and heard audio of Rinderknecht’s interviews with investigators and his 911 call reporting the Lachman Fire. They also heard testimony from those impacted by the Palisades Fire.  

The Palisades Fire erupted on Jan. 7, 2025, burning more than 23,000 acres over more than three weeks and destroying nearly 7,000 structures, decimating the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, according to California fire officials.

It ignited the same day as the Eaton Fire, which burned more than 14,000 acres in Los Angeles County, destroying more than 9,400 structures and killing 19 people, according to officials.

The fires started burning during strong Santa Ana winds, which, combined with dry conditions, allowed them to spread quickly.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(GREENBELT, Md.) — President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton pleaded guilty Friday to one count of illegal retention of national security information.

Bolton entered his plea to the single felony count in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, before U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang.

The guilty plea makes Bolton thus far the only successfully prosecuted case in Trump’s campaign of retribution against those he perceives to be his political enemies.

Bolton had faced 18 counts of unlawful transmission and retention of national defense information for allegedly sharing notes with his wife and daughter — some of which contained information classified as high as Top Secret — during his time serving in the first Trump administration.

Bolton changed his plea to guilty with respect to count 12 of his indictment.

Sitting in court Friday alongside his attorney Abbe Lowell, Bolton answered a series of questions from Judge Chuang acknowledging his rights and his voluntary decision to plead guilty to the charge, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.

When asked if he was pleading guilty be cause he is, in fact, guilty, Bolton responded to Chuang: “I am, your honor, I’m sorry for it.”

According to terms of the plea agreement outlined by prosecutors in court, the government will not seek a sentence of more than 60 months and Bolton has agreed to forfeit approximately $2.2 million to resolve the case.

Judge Chuang will ultimately have final discretion over how much time Bolton could serve, if any.

Bolton has also agreed to serve 100 hours of community service and is forfeiting any retirement pay tied to his time in federal service.

The count he is pleading guilty to involves keeping classified national security information in diaries, according to sources. Bolton is expected to maintain that he did not take documents with classification markings out of government offices.

Bolton, who was national security adviser for part of the first Trump administration, was indicted by a grand jury in October 2025 on charges that he allegedly unlawfully transmitted and retained classified documents.

The indictment, handed up by a federal grand jury in Maryland, charged Bolton with eight counts of unlawful transmission of national defense information as well as 10 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information.

Prosecutors had accused Bolton of using a non-government personal email account and messaging application to transmit to two unauthorized family members at least eight documents that contained information classified at levels ranging from “secret” to “top secret.”

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(GREENBELT, Md.) — President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton is expected to plead guilty Friday to mishandling classified information.

Bolton, who arrived in federal court in Maryland Friday morning, is expected to plead guilty to one count of illegal retention of sensitive documents, sources have told ABC News.

Bolton has also agreed to pay a fine of $2.25 million, sources said.

The count he is pleading guilty to involves keeping classified national security information in diaries, according to sources. Bolton is expected to maintain that he did not take documents with classification markings out of government offices.

The guilty plea would make Bolton thus far the only successfully prosecuted case in Trump’s campaign of retribution against those he perceives to be his political enemies.

Bolton, who was national security adviser for part of the first Trump administration, was indicted by a grand jury in October 2025 on charges that he allegedly unlawfully transmitted and retained classified documents.

The indictment, handed up by a federal grand jury in Maryland, charged Bolton with eight counts of unlawful transmission of national defense information as well as 10 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information.

Prosecutors had accused Bolton of using a non-government personal email account and messaging application to transmit to two unauthorized family members at least eight documents that contained information classified at levels ranging from “secret” to “top secret.”

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Private equity billionaire Leon Black is set to face questions Friday from the House Oversight Committee regarding his decades-long relationship and sprawling financial entanglements with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The latest in a series of rich and powerful people questioned about their relationship with Epstein as part of the House Oversight panel’s ongoing probe, Black maintained a social relationship with Epstein since the mid-1990s and eventually paid him more than $170 million for “tax and estate planning advice,” according to the Senate Finance Committee.

Black has denied wrongdoing or knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, though his financial payments to Epstein served as a lifeline to the convicted sex offender in the years after Epstein’s 2008 prison sentence for soliciting a minor for prostitution. Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, has argued that Black has so far failed to provide a credible explanation for the payments and may have been “extorted” by Epstein.

“Leon Black was one of Jeffrey Epstein’s primary sources of income, flooding him with cash at a time when he was already a registered sex offender. Black has not yet offered a compelling explanation regarding the origination and execution of Epstein’s extraordinary compensation scheme for alleged tax advice,” Wyden wrote in a letter to the House Oversight Committee earlier this month. The Senate Finance Committee is leading its own investigation of Epstein’s finances.

Black has long been scrutinized over his relationship with the disgraced financier — describing it as a “horrible mistake” — and was forced out of his firm Apollo Global Management following an external investigation that revealed payments to Epstein totaling at least $158 million.

“Knowing all that I have learned in the past two years about Epstein’s reprehensible and despicable conduct, I deeply regret having had any involvement with him,” Black said during a 2020 Apollo earnings call. “With the benefit of hindsight, working with him was a horrible mistake on my part. I am not seeking to excuse that decision, but I do believe it may be helpful to convey some relevant facts.”

While the investigation concluded that Black and others were aware of Epstein’s 2008 conviction, a report summarizing its findings said that Black was not “involved in any way with Epstein’s criminal activities at any time” or aware of the “scope and details” of Epstein’s sex trafficking. Black has never been charged with a crime.

“When Black first retained Epstein, he believed that Epstein had served his time for the originally charged offenses and believed that it was not inappropriate to give Epstein a second chance, as many other prominent figures in business, science, politics and academia had done,” the report said.

The release of the Department of Justice’s Epstein files earlier this year cast more scrutiny on Black, whose name appears in the files more than 8,000 times. Epstein at one point appeared to serve as a middleman to pay $100,000 to a woman with whom Black allegedly had an affair, according to emails included in the files, and routinely served as a fixer for issues involving his finances.

“Leon, as you are well aware, there is little I won’t do for you or at least try to do as a friend, and a great deal that I have already done (both known and some things that will need to remain unknown),” Epstein wrote to Black in a 2014 email. In another email in 2017, Epstein described his relationship with Black as “saving you from yourself.”

In a statement to ABC News, Black’s attorney Susan Estrich pointed to the external investigation conducted for Apollo that found Black “had no awareness of the criminal activities that led to Epstein’s arrest in 2019” and noted that Black has called for an independent investigation of his relationship with Epstein.

Wyden of the Senate Finance Committee has called on the House Oversight members to scrutinize the $170 million that Black paid Epstein between 2012 and 2017 for purported tax and estate planning. According to Wyden, those payments are sixty times more than what Epstein paid his other tax and estate professionals during the same timeframe.

“Black is a well-advised businessman with access to sophisticated attorneys, yet it appears Epstein was able to shake him down for money that he wasn’t legally owed. This suggests that Epstein may have extorted Black or performed other unseemly tasks on his behalf,” Wyden wrote.

According to the 2021 external report, Epstein was paid proportionally to the amount of money he saved Black and that Epstein “provided advice that conferred more than $1 billion and as much as $2 billion or more in value to Black”; however, the report also acknowledged that Epstein’s advice was often not useful and that he was “generally a disruptive and caustic force.”

The external report said investigators found “no evidence suggesting that Black ever compensated Epstein for any service other than Epstein’s legitimate advice on trust and estate planning” and other issues.

Wyden urged the House Oversight Committee to question Black about the basis for those payments and argued he has seen “no proof” that Epstein’s compensation was tied to a percentage of the Black’s estate tax liability he saved.

“To date, I do not believe Black has provided a credible explanation as to why he paid Epstein amounts that vastly exceeded those paid to other professional advisors involved in his tax and estate planning,” he said.  

Black also paid a $62.5 million settlement to the United States Virgin Islands in 2023 after acknowledging that Epstein used the money to “partially fund his operations in the Virgin Islands,” where Epstein owned a private island. Wyden urged the House Oversight panel to press Black about whether he was ever under criminal investigation and if that money was used to fund sex trafficking.

Attorneys for Black have pushed back against Wyden’s accusations, accusing him of harassment and saying that the billionaire has cooperated “voluntarily and without compulsion.”

“We are aware of no other private citizen subjected to more written requests from you over the same period,” Black’s attorneys wrote in an April 2026 letter to Wyden. “Your continued attempts to invade into matters pertaining to Mr. Black’s personal life — without the support of any legitimate legislative purpose — appear targeted to unfairly harass Mr. Black in a manner that completely disregards the proper scope of Congress’s investigative powers.”

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(TAMPA, Fla.) — Detroit Lions cornerback Terrion Arnold faces multiple felony charges in Florida for allegedly orchestrating a kidnapping in which three men were robbed and beaten at gunpoint, authorities said.

The 23-year-old NFL player is one of seven people arrested in connection with the “targeted armed robbery” in Tampa, police said. 

Arnold is accused of “coordinating and directing” the codefendants to “lure” the three men to an apartment, where they were allegedly beaten in retaliation for the alleged theft of more than $200,000 worth of his personal property from an Airbnb he had stayed at with friends days earlier in Largo, according to the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office.

The men, all in their late teens, were allegedly beaten and pistol-whipped by two of the co-defendants, while a third streamed the assault to Arnold and other suspects who were traveling to the apartment, police said. Investigators uncovered a group chat in which Arnold and another suspect allegedly gave directions during the assault, police said.

After arriving at the apartment, Arnold allegedly directed the other suspects to go inside, at which point the victims were robbed during the ongoing assault, police said.

Nearly two hours after arriving at the apartment, the victims were escorted out by armed suspects and left in their vehicle, police said. Arnold is not said to have entered the apartment or interacted with the victims, based on the police statement.

The incident occurred on Feb. 4, three days after multiple items belonging to Arnold and others were stolen from an Airbnb he had rented, according to police. On Feb. 3, Arnold and others reported a loss totaling more than $250,000 to the Largo Police Department, police said. 

Arnold allegedly suspected that two of the three victims were responsible for the theft, though investigators ultimately determined that none of them were involved, Tampa police said. 

“Investigators believe, based on evidence gathered, that Arnold was the primary conspirator,” the Tampa Police Department said in a statement Wednesday.

The victims reported the incident to Tampa police and “positively identified the suspects,” police said. The three victims had “visible injuries from being battered,” police said.

Cell phone evidence and “corroborating testimony” from the co-defendants also “helped establish Arnold’s role in planning and directing the crimes,” the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office said.

Arnold surrendered to authorities Wednesday night, prosecutors said. He was booked on four counts of armed robbery and four counts of kidnapping, online jail records show. He faces a potential sentence of up to life in prison if convicted on the charges, prosecutors said.

He remains held on no bond following his initial appearance in Hillsborough County court on Thursday. His pretrial detention hearing has been scheduled for Monday. The Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office said it plans to argue that Arnold should remain behind bars until his trial.

Among the six codefendants arrested in connection with the case, four men are being held without bond, while two women pleaded guilty on Wednesday to robbery and kidnapping charges, according to the state attorney’s office. As part of their plea agreements, they are required to testify truthfully in proceedings related to the case, the office said. 

“No one has the right to take the law into their own hands. A dispute over missing property does not justify kidnapping, violence, or retaliation,” Hillsborough County State Attorney Suzy Lopez said in a statement. “This arrest is the result of months of investigative work and collaboration between the Tampa Police Department and our prosecutors. We will continue to pursue justice for the three victims by holding everyone accountable for their roles in this crime.”

Arnold’s sports management team said he “categorically denies any involvement in the matters underlying the allegations made against him and maintains his innocence.”

“There is no credible evidence linking Mr. Arnold to these allegations,” Denise White, CEO of EAG Sports and Entertainment Agency, said in a statement to ABC News. “Instead, the government appears to be relying on testimony from multiple convicted felons who have admitted their own involvement and may have substantial incentives to shift blame in an effort to lessen their sentences.”

The Lions said in a statement to ABC Detroit affiliate WXYZ that they are “aware of the legal situation” involving Arnold and “will not comment at this time out of respect for the ongoing legal process.”

Arnold, a native of Tallahassee, Florida, played at the University of Alabama and was a first-round pick in the 2024 draft.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(MECHANICVILLE, N.Y.) — Police in an upstate New York town said Thursday that a grandmother is suspected in the deaths of four of her grandchildren, her daughter and herself inside their apartment building.

Officers in Mechanicville, New York, said they discovered the victims’ bodies inside an apartment on Tuesday after neighbors reported not seeing them for days.

The grandmother was identified as Amy Steadman, 64. Police identified the victims as her daughter Sarah Myers, 44, and Myers’ four children: Harper Harmon, 13, Hudson Harmon, 11, Gavin Harmon, 10, and Gracelynn Harmon, 10, according to police.

While the investigation into the deaths and motive is ongoing, Mechanicville Police Department Chief William Rabbitt told reporters Thursday that the evidence so far indicates that Steadman may have been involved.

Rabbitt said that investigators recovered evidence inside the apartment “to indicate intentional poisoning,” including “numerous prescription and over-the-counter medications.”

“Evidence recovered during the investigation, including a handwritten note and other circumstantial evidence, strongly suggests that Amy Steadman was involved in the deaths,” he added.

The chief said there was no evidence that an outside individual was involved.

Toxicology tests are still ongoing, according to Rabbitt.

While the chief declined to provide more details into the ongoing investigation, he noted that one of the children “suffered fatal sharp force injuries.”

Rabbitt said Steadman and Myers and her family all lived in the same apartment complex in Mechanicville, which is roughly 18 miles north of Albany.

The children’s father lives in Utah, the chief said.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.