(DALLAS) — A 17-year-old boy has been charged with aggravated assault mass shooting after he allegedly opened fire at his Dallas high school, shooting classmates “indiscriminately,” according to court documents.
Surveillance cameras showed a student letting the suspect, Tracy Haynes, into Wilmer-Hutchins High School through an unsecured door on Tuesday, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.
Haynes walked the hallway “until he spotted multiple male students” and then allegedly shot at them “indiscriminately,” hitting five people, the document said.
Haynes then allegedly “approached one student who was not able to run” and “appeared to take a point-blank shot,” the document said.
Five students were taken to hospitals, the document said.
The conditions of those injured was not clear.
A senior student told Dallas ABC affiliate WFAA that he was in the foyer when, around lunch time, he heard a few gunshots. He said he then saw students running and heard screaming, and he took cover in the band room.
Video shows students evacuating the school as police cars and fire trucks gathered at the scene.
All high school students were reunited with their parents and guardians, according to Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde.
There will be no school the rest of the week and mental health professionals will be made available, she said.
“Today, as we all know, the unthinkable has happened,” Elizalde said at a briefing. “And quite frankly, this is just becoming way too familiar, and it should not be familiar.”
The gun used in the shooting “did not come through during regular intake time,” Dallas Independent School District Assistant Chief of Police Christina Smith said at the briefing.
“It was not a failure of our staff, of our protocols, of the machinery that we have,” Smith stressed.
ABC News’ Luke Barr, Josh Margolin, Aaron Katersky and Alex Stone contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK CITY) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Tuesday that a grand jury handed down a number of criminal indictments against multiple state correctional officers in connection to the March 1 beating death of an inmate, Messiah Nantwi.
“The tragic death of Mr. Nantwi at the hands of correction officers, who are responsible for protecting the incarcerated population is deeply, deeply disturbing,” Hochul said in a video released by her office on Tuesday. “The loss of any life in our correctional facilities is one too many.”
Nantwi, 22, was serving a five-year sentence for second-degree criminal possession of a weapon at Mid-State Correctional Facility, a medium-security state prison in the town of Marcy in Oneida County, New York.
Hochul said that she “immediately terminated” the corrections officers who were indicted in connection to Nantwi’s death. The officer’s names have not been released so far and it is unclear how many officers were indicted. ABC News reached out to Hochul’s office but a request for comment was not returned.
“I express my condolences — my deepest condolences to the family of Mr. Nantwi and our hearts go out to all of them in the aftermath of this horrific crime,” Hochul said.
The termination of the correctional officers comes after a spokesperson for the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision confirmed to ABC News on March 26 that 15 persons of interest were identified in connection to Nantwi’s death.
Three of those people were suspended without pay and 12 were placed on administrative leave with pay, “pending the results of an ongoing internal disciplinary review process,” the spokesperson said.
The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision released the names of the persons of interest, including guards from the adjacent Mid-State and Marcy facilities, but it is unclear who was indicted.
A special prosecutor — Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick — was assigned to investigate this case after State Attorney General Letitia James’s Office of Special Investigation (OSI) announced last month that her office is recusing itself from the investigation into Nantwi’s death, citing “internal conflicts.”
In a March 6 statement, James explained that her office’s Division of State Counsel represents state agencies, including the Department of Corrections and correction officers.
“OSI checks for any internal conflicts that could challenge the integrity of a future investigation,” she said. “When the corrections officers involved in the events preceding Mr. Nantwi’s death were identified, OSI confirmed that four of those corrections officers are defendants in other matters where they are or were represented by attorneys in OAG’s State Counsel Division.”
Nantwi’s in-custody death came amid a massive correction officer strike over working conditions in New York prisons that lasted for 22 days and led to the firing of more than 2,000 prison guards.
His death was also the second in Oneida County prisons since December 2024 when Robert Brooks, an inmate incarcerated at the Marcy Correctional Facility — which is across the street from Mid-State — was fatally beaten at the prison.
In February, 10 former prison guards were charged in Brooks’ death.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge has found probable cause that the Trump administration acted in contempt of court when officials last month defied his order to turn around two planes carrying alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador.
The administration’s “willful disobedience of judicial orders” without consequences would make “a solemn mockery” of “the Constitution itself,” U.S. District Judge James Boasberg wrote Wednesday.
Boasberg last month ordered that the government turn around two flights carrying more than 200 alleged Tren de Aragua members to El Salvador after the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act — a wartime authority used to deport noncitizens with little-to-no due process — by arguing that the gang is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States.
Authorities failed to turn the flights around.
Boasberg faulted the Trump administration for conducting a “hurried removal operation” on March 15 and 16 in the hours after he issued an order blocking the deportations and ordering the men returned to the United States.
“As this Opinion will detail, the Court ultimately determines that the Government’s actions on that day demonstrate a willful disregard for its Order,” he wrote.
Boasberg noted that he gave the Trump administration “ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions” yet “none of their responses has been satisfactory.”
While the Supreme Court ultimately vacated his court order, Judge Boasberg concluded that the Trump administration still defied the order during the three weeks it was in effect, even if the order suffered from a “legal defect.”
“The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders — especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it. To permit such officials to freely ‘annul the judgments of the courts of the United States’ would not just ‘destroy the rights acquired under those judgments’; it would make ‘a solemn mockery’ of ‘the constitution itself,'” he wrote.
Boasberg gave the Trump Administration a one-week deadline to file “a declaration explaining the steps they have taken and will take to do so.”
The way to “purge” the potential finding of contempt, Boasberg said, would be to obey his initial order.
“The most obvious way for Defendants to do so here is by asserting custody of the individuals who were removed in violation of the Court’s classwide TRO so that they might avail themselves of their right to challenge their removability through a habeas proceeding,” Boasberg wrote, referring to the temporary restraining order he issued.
“Per the terms of the TRO, the Government would not need to release any of those individuals, nor would it need to transport them back to the homeland. The Court will also give Defendants an opportunity to propose other methods of coming into compliance, which the Court will evaluate.”
If the Trump Administration does not wish to purge Boasberg’s contempt finding, the judge said he will “proceed to identify the individual(s) responsible for the contumacious conduct by determining whose “specific act or omission” caused the noncompliance.”
Boasberg said he will begin by requiring declarations from the government, and if those prove to be unsatisfactory, he will “proceed either to hearings with live witness testimony under oath or to depositions conducted by Plaintiffs.”
As a final potential step, Boasberg raised the remarkable prospect he could appoint an independent attorney to prosecute the government for its contempt.
“The next step would be for the Court, pursuant to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, to “request that the contempt be prosecuted by an attorney for the government,” Boasberg said. “If the Government “declines” or “the interest of justice requires,” the Court will “appoint another attorney to prosecute the contempt.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., is in El Salvador to get answers about the wrongful deportation of a Maryland man by the Trump administration, he said in a video ahead of boarding a flight on Wednesday.
Van Hollen said he had been planning the trip for the last few days and that he hopes to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia in person and see his condition.
Abrego Garcia, who reportedly fled political persecution from El Salvador and was deported last month by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency following an “administrative error,” remains in the CECOT prison despite court orders requesting the U.S. government “facilitate” bringing him back to the United States.
“The goal of this mission is to let the Trump administration, to let the government of El Salvador know that we are going to keep fighting to bring Abrego Garcia home,” Van Hollen said in a video.
He posted another video after he landed and said he was on his way to meet with members of the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador.
It is unclear if anyone else is joining the senator on the trip.
Attorney General Pam Bondi alleged Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 gang member and was able to be deported because of President Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigration.
However, the Department of Justice has not made that accusation in court papers and admitted the deportation was an error. Abrego Garcia’s family and attorneys have been fighting the deportation for weeks in court.
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled last week that the 29-year-old father, who had no criminal record in the U.S., was illegally deported. However, Bondi has claimed El Salvador’s government is not giving him up.
“What bullies do is they begin by picking on the most vulnerable,” Van Hollen said.
Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Leaders We Deserve, a political organization led by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivor and Democratic National Committee Vice Chairman David Hogg, announced Wednesday that it will spend $20 million to help elect younger leaders — including primary challengers to House Democrats who are in safely Democratic seats.
The move puts Hogg, a member of party leadership as one of its vice chairs, at odds with the party establishment and other Democratic leaders, who usually shy away from supporting challengers to Democratic incumbents.
But it comes as Democratic-aligned voters express discontent with how the Democratic Party is responding to the second Trump administration — and as some within the party call for a new generation of leadership and representation in Congress amid consternation with some older House and Senate Democrats.
“While [President Donald] Trump creates new existential crises every day, too many elected leaders in the Democratic Party are either unwilling or unable to meet the moment,” Hogg, 25, said in a statement.
“We need a stronger Democratic Party that is ready to fight back,” he added. “Part of making that a reality is replacing ineffective, asleep-at-the-wheel members with Democrats who have the energy, passion, and vision to meet this moment with the urgency our country deserves.”
A few Democrats have already announced they will challenge longtime House members in the 2026 congressional primaries. Researcher and social media personality Kat Abughazaleh has announced she is mounting a primary challenge to 14-term Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill. Schakowsky has not said whether she will run for reelection.
The announcement from Leaders We Deserve, a group Hogg co-founded in 2023 and of which he serves as president, did not name any specific candidates the group plans to support. The group said it will not challenge “front-line” members facing tough reelection battles against Republicans or “older Democratic leaders like Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi” who it said have been taking on Trump and Republicans successfully.
The announcement was first reported by the New York Times.
In a statement to ABC News, Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin thanked Hogg for his work for the party but reiterated the DNC’s position of not taking sides in primary elections.
“David Hogg is a passionate advocate and we are grateful for his service to the Democratic Party, whether it be in his role as a DNC Vice Chair or in an outside capacity,” Martin wrote. “In order to ensure we are as effective as possible at electing Democrats to office, it is the DNC’s longstanding position that primary voters — not the national party — determine their Democratic candidates for the general election.”
According to the DNC, the party does not intervene in primaries both to allow voters to express their views and to maintain relationships with candidates. The DNC also shared that Hogg was the only party officer not to sign a “neutrality policy” that mandates those officials do not take any actions that may throw their or the party’s impartiality into question.
The party said it will be figuring out unspecified next steps with Hogg and party committees.
Hogg was elected as one of the DNC’s vice chairs in the party’s February elections.
)LONDON and PRETORIA) — An American missionary allegedly kidnapped at gunpoint during a church service in South Africa last Thursday has been rescued in “a high-intensity shootout” between police and his suspected captors, authorities said on Wednesday.
Three unidentified suspects were killed during Tuesday’s rescue operation, which was led by the South African Police Service’s elite Hawks unit, according to a statement from police spokesman Lt. Col. Avele Fumba.
While police have not yet named the rescued American, the Tennessee church with which he is affiliated has identified him as Josh Sullivan.
“Josh has been released. I just got ‘the go ahead to let it be known,” Tom Hatley, pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church in Maryville, Tennessee, said in a Facebook post early Wednesday. “Thank you for your support and prayers. Please do not stop praying for The Sullivans. Praise The Lord Jesus Christ!”
Investigators discovered that the abducted U.S. citizen, believed to be a pastor at a church in the South African port city of Gqeberha, was being held at a safe house there, Fumba said. As officers approached the house on Tuesday, suspects inside a vehicle opened fire and attempted to flee the scene, Fumba said, “leading to a high-intensity shootout in which three unidentified suspects were fatally wounded.”
“The victim was found inside the same vehicle from which the suspects had launched their attack,” Fumba added. “Miraculously unharmed, he was immediately assessed by medical personnel and is currently in an excellent condition.”
The investigation remains ongoing, according to Fumba.
Sullivan’s mother, Tonya Rinker of Maryville, Tennessee, previously confirmed that her son had been abducted.
“As a mother, you never think about something like this happening to your child, but faith carries you through the uncertainty,” Rinker told ABC News in a statement last week. “Joshua’s humor and wit are a blessing; he’s always ready with a joke, and forever seeking to make people laugh.”
Rinker described her son as “an exceptional father, husband, and son, embodying kindness, strength and generosity. He has a servant’s heart, a kind, compassionate spirit and is filled with selflessness. He has a burden for lost souls and has devoted his life to serving God in South Africa.”
Sullivan was reportedly abducted by armed men who burst into a church in Motherwell, a township near Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, the Fellowship Baptist Church in Maryville said on its Facebook page last week.
The incident unfolded at about 7 p.m. local time on Thursday when the pastor of the church “was allegedly confronted by at least four unknown armed suspects during a church service,” Fumba told ABC News in a statement.
Witnesses told investigators that the suspects forced the minister into his own vehicle and then fled, Fumba said.
According to a biography on what appears to be Sullivan’s website, he describes himself as a “church-planting missionary to the country of South Africa,” who arrived there in November 2018 with his wife, Meagan, and their children to run Fellowship Baptist’s Motherwell church there.
Sullivan has been on the staff at Fellowship Baptist Church in Maryville since 2012, according to his website.
ABC News’ Kevin Shalvey and Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Wednesday that he’ll use a Senate procedure that allows home state senators to object to judicial nominees to attempt to block President Donald Trump’s picks for two keep prosecutor positions: the U.S. Attorneys for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
The blue slip process, which has long been honored by the Senate Judiciary Committee, asks for the signoff of home-state senators before proceeding with nominations for U.S. Attorney positions.
Schumer, a New York Democrat, is refusing to return his blue slip for the nominations of Jay Clayton to be the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and Joseph Nocella Jr. to be the lead prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York.
“Donald Trump has made clear he has no fidelity to the law and intends to use the Justice Department, the U.S. Attorney offices and law enforcement as weapons to go after his perceived enemies,” Schumer said in a statement. “Such blatant and depraved political motivations are deeply corrosive to the rule of law and leaves me deeply skeptical of the Donald Trump’s intentions for these important positions. For that reason, I will not return the blue slip for the U.S. Attorney nominees for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.”
This blue slip tradition in the Senate is just that: a tradition, not a law.
It will be up to Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley whether he ultimately honors this blue slip process in this case.
“The Judiciary Committee has long honored the traditional blue slip process for U.S. Attorney nominees,” a spokesperson for Grassley, an Iowa Republican, told ABC News when reached for comment on Schumer’s intention not to return his blue slip on the two New York U.S. attorneys.
Grassley recently told the New York Times he would honor the right of Senators to refuse return of their blue slips.
“The answer is yes,” Grassley said when asked whether he would honor the blue slip position of senators. “If they are from the state the nomination comes from.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi ; Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department has filed suit against Maine in an effort to challenge the state’s policy regarding transgender athletes competing in girls’ and women’s sports, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Wednesday.
The lawsuit alleges Maine’s policy violates Title IX and stems from a broader effort by the Trump administration to spotlight an issue that they see as politically damaging for Democrats.
“The State of Maine, through its Department of Education, is openly and defiantly flouting federal anti-discrimination law by enforcing policies that require girls to compete against boys in athletic competitions designated exclusively for girls,” the lawsuit said. “By prioritizing gender identity over biological reality, Maine’s policies deprive girl athletes of fair competition, deny them equal athletic opportunities, and expose them to heightened risks of physical injury and psychological harm.”
Bondi announced the lawsuit alongside anti-trans activist Riley Gaines and other parents and students from Maine who have objected to the state’s policies regarding transgender athletes.
“The Department of Justice will not sit by when women are discriminated against in sports. This is about sports. This is also about these young women’s personal safety,” Bondi said in remarks at DOJ. “I met many of these women throughout the past weeks and months, and what they have been through is horrific.”
The lawsuit is likely just the first in a series of legal challenges brought by the Trump administration, after Bondi previously sent warning letters in February to state officials in Maine, California and Minnesota ordering them to “comply with federal anti-discrimination laws that require them to keep men out of women’s sports.”
Maine’s Democratic Gov. Janet Mills has blasted the Trump administration’s efforts to strip federal funding from Maine as executive overreach.
“For decades — first as a District Attorney, as Attorney General, and now as Governor — I have fought tirelessly for the rights of women and girls, for the health and well-being of children and families, and defending the Constitution of Maine and the Constitution of the United States,” Mills responded in a statement Wednesday. “My Administration and Maine’s Attorney General will vigorously defend our state against the action announced today from the Department of Justice,” she said.
Earlier, she downplayed the issue of transgender athletes participating in girls’ and women’s sporting events.
“Because there are two, maybe two, trans athletes competing in Maine schools right now, they decided to shut off funding for the school nutrition program, the school lunch program, entirely,” Mills said in an interview this week on CBS affiliate WGME. “The law says if you don’t like what a state is doing over here, you can’t just take the funds away over here.”
In February, meeting with the nation’s governors at the White House, Trump discussed his executive order banning transgender athletes from women’s sports and asked Mills directly, “Are you not going to comply with that?”
She responded that she would comply with state and federal laws.
“Well, I’m — we are the federal law,” Trump said, adding, “Well, you better do it. You better do it because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t.”
Mills responded: “See you in court.”
“Good,” Trump replied. “I’ll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be an easy one. And enjoy your life after governor, because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.”
Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office/Getty Images
(HARRISBURG, Pa.) — The suspected arsonist who allegedly tried to kill Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro decided to firebomb his official residence because of “what he wants to do to the Palestinian people,” according to a search warrant signed by Pennsylvania State Police.
Investigators obtained several warrants as part of the investigation into the early Sunday morning arson attack, including for suspect Cody Balmer’s storage unit, electronic devices and parents’ home, where he told a Dauphin County judge he had recently been living.
Balmer, 38, targeted Shapiro “based upon perceived injustices to the people of Palestine,” one of the warrants said, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Attorney General Pam Bondi strongly condemned the attack in remarks at the Department of Justice on Wednesday, but she declined to label the act “domestic terrorism” or commit to opening a separate federal case against the suspect.
“It is absolutely horrific what happened to him,” Bondi said. “We have been praying for Josh, for his family. Those photos, it was horrible. I firmly believe that they wanted to kill him. The defendant allegedly said he was going to use a hammer if he could have gotten to the governor. I’ve known the governor many, many years. It is horrible, and yes, we are working with state authorities to do — it’s now a pending investigation — anything we can to help convict the person that did this and keep them behind bars as long as possible.”
Bondi did not answer a direct question from a reporter about whether she would label the action “domestic terrorism,” as she has repeatedly described the wave of attacks carried out on Teslas and dealerships around the country in recent months.
The attack occurred hours after the Shapiro family hosted more than two dozen people for the first night of Passover.
The fire was reported at about 2 a.m. ET Sunday and the family was safely evacuated.
Investigators have not released a motive for the attack, but the search warrant represents the most direct indication of why Balmer allegedly hopped a fence at the governor’s mansion, broke windows and hurled Molotov cocktails police said he made from beer bottles and gasoline.
Balmer called 911 less than an hour after the attack, identified himself and told the call-taker that he will not take part in Shapiro’s plans “for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people,” the warrant said, according to the sources. Balmer added Shapiro needed to “stop having my friends killed.”
After turning himself in, Balmer allegedly told police he would have attacked Shapiro with a hammer if he happened upon the governor inside the residence, according to court documents.
Balmer faces eight criminal charges, including attempted murder, terrorism and aggravated arson. Prosecutors at this time have not invoked a hate crime law, which in Pennsylvania is known as ethnic intimidation.
(NEW YORK) — Evidence submitted by Department of Homeland Security lawyers attempts to support the government’s accusations that Mahmoud Khalil should be deported on the grounds that he lied on his green card application.
The evidence — which included reporting by some conservative news outlets — centers on accusations that he withheld information about his employment history and his participation in pro-Palestinian groups.
ABC News has reviewed over 100 pages of evidence submitted in immigration court by both DHS lawyers and those representing Mahmoud Khalil.
On Friday, Judge Jamee Comans, an immigration judge based in Louisiana, where Khalil is being held agreed with the government’s stance that Khalil is deportable under a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that says a person can be deemed deportable “if the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe that the alien’s presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
But Comans did not rule on the government’s allegations that he lied on his green card application.
Accusation: Khalil failed to disclose he’s a ‘member’ of CUAD
According to a Notice to Appear submitted in federal court filings, DHS has claimed Khalil “failed to disclose that you were a member of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD).”
CUAD has been prominently involved in protests against the war in Gaza held at Columbia University.
To support their allegations, government lawyers submitted articles that were published in April 2024, which feature Khalil as a lead negotiator between student protesters who had set up encampments on campus and university administration officials.
However, Khalil’s green card application, reviewed by ABC News and included in the government’s evidence, shows it was submitted on March 29, weeks before the articles were published.
“These articles from late April 2024 cannot possibly support an allegation that Mahmoud failed to disclose any affiliation with CUAD on that application. Furthermore, CUAD is a collection of organizations and there is no individual membership, so the allegation would be completely meritless even if all of the government’s evidence were not from a month after Mahmoud submitted his application,” Marc Van Der Hout, Khalil’s immigration attorney, told ABC News.
In response to the government’s claims, Khalil’s lawyers have submitted information they believe shows that CUAD is not standalone group, but rather a coalition of separate groups, and that Khalil was a negotiator for these and other protesters and not a member.
As evidence, his lawyers submitted letters from several people familiar with his role in the protests, including a professor at Columbia University.
“I want to emphasize that Mahmoud Khalil’s involvement was not as a member of CUAD. As I understood it — and also as is my understanding from the Columbia administrators with whom I spoke — Mr. Khalil served as a negotiator between CUAD and other student protesters, on the one hand, and the Columbia administration, on the other,” the professor wrote.
Accusation: Khalil did not disclose he was a member of UNRWA
According to court filings, DHS has also accused Khalil of failing to disclose that he was a “member” of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) from June 2023 – November 2023. The organization provides humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees.
As evidence, DHS lawyers included excerpts from an article titled “These are the extremist student leaders of the anti-Israel protest camp bringing Columbia to its knees” published in the New York Post.
“Khalil was a political affairs officer with UNRWA–the United Nations’ agency that supports Palestinian refugees from June to November 2023, according to LinkedIn,” the article read.
Another excerpt included in the evidence, cites an article from The Times of India published March 11, 2025, which similarly claims Khalil worked as political affairs officer at the U.N. organization.
“The agency lost significant federal funding following reports that some members participated in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, which resulted in 1,200 fatalities,” the excerpt says.
In immigration court, Khalil’s lawyers submitted a screenshot of his LinkedIn profile which says he was an intern at UNRWA as a political affairs officer on those dates. They also submitted a letter dated April 10 and written by a Columbia University official that says Khalil concluded a 12-week internship at UNRWA for credit.
In a statement to ABC News, a spokesperson for UNRWA confirmed Khalil did a six-month, unpaid internship at the UNRWA Representative Office in New York in 2023.
“He was not a staff member of the Agency nor was he ever on the Agency’s payroll,” the spokesperson said. But the spokesperson also said, the agency “does not have in its Human Resources the job title of “Political Affairs Officer”.
ABC News has reached out to Khalil’s attorneys for comment.
Accusation: Khalil failed to disclose his he was employed at the Syria Office in the British Embassy in Beirut ‘beyond 2022’
DHS lawyers allege that on his green card application, Khalil did not disclose his “continuing employment” as a Program Manager by the Syria Office in the British Embassy in Beirut “beyond 2022.”
On his green card application, under the “employment history” section, Khalil said he was a Program Manager at the British Embassy in Beirut from June 2018 to December 2022.
DHS submitted a profile of Khalil written on a website promoting an upcoming Society for International Development United States conference.
“Mahmoud Khalil works as a Program Manager at the Syria Office in the British Embassy in Beirut,” the profile says.
However, documents that Khalil’s lawyers have submitted indicates they plan to argue that the information about him was written for a conference in 2020, and have included a schedule from that year that lists him as a speaker.
Additionally, they included an email written by a British Embassy official dated April 11, 2025, that states Khalil “ended his contract at the British Embassy Beirut in December 2022 in order to take up a scholarship at Columbia University.”
ABC News has reached out to the Department of Justice for comment
During the Friday hearing, Khalil’s attorney Johnny Sinodis condemned DHS’ evidence against his client.
“DHS did zero investigation on its own other than to file tabloids,” he said in court.
