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(NEW ORLEANS) — A fourth woman has been arrested for allegedly helping inmates who broke out of a New Orleans jail last week, police said.

Casey Smith, 30, was arrested on Thursday for allegedly assisting two of the 10 inmates who escaped from the Orleans Justice Center on May 16, according to the New Orleans Police Department.

“Through investigation, members of the NOPD’s Special Operations Division Tactical II team obtained information linking Smith to allegedly aiding at least two of the reported escapees as they were transported to multiple locations in the hours following their escape,” the New Orleans Police Department said in a press release on Friday announcing the arrest.

Smith allegedly admitted to aiding in the escapees’ transport along with 32-year-old Cortnie Harris, who was arrested on Wednesday, police said. Smith has been booked for accessory after the fact to simple escape.

Smith is the fifth person, including a jail employee, arrested in connection with the jailbreak.

In addition to Harris, state police announced on Wednesday that 38-year-old Corvanntay Baptiste was arrested and charged with felony counts of being accessories after the fact. They were both booked at the Plaquemines Parish Detention Center, officials said.

On Thursday, a Slidell woman was taken into custody for allegedly helping a fugitive who is still at large following the jailbreak, Louisiana State Police said.

Connie Weeden, 59, was booked into the St. Tammany Parish Correctional Center on Thursday. She faces a felony charge of accessory after the fact for allegedly assisting Jermaine Donald, one of the five escapees still on the run, police said.

“Weeden was in contact via phone both before and after the escape,” Louisiana State Police officials said in a statement. “Investigators determined that after the escape, she provided Donald with cash through a cell phone app.”

Donald remains at large, along with four others who broke out of the Orleans Justice Center on May 16. Authorities have recaptured five of the original 10 inmates who escaped.

Law enforcement officials warned that helping fugitives will carry serious consequences.

“Those who choose to assist or conceal these individuals are violating the law and will be held accountable,” said state police. “Harboring fugitives threatens the safety of our communities and will not be tolerated.”

Under Louisiana law, a conviction for accessory after the fact carries a penalty of up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $500, or both.

Amid an ongoing investigation into the escape of inmates, the Orleans Parish District Attorney issued subpoenas on Thursday to Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson and other sheriff’s office staff members.

The order demanded access to emails, text messages and internal messages from or to Hutson and other sheriff’s office staff and contractors, including those to Sterling Williams, a jail maintenance worker who was arrested in connection with the jailbreak.

Williams, a 33-year-old maintenance worker at the Orleans Parish Justice Center, was arrested and booked into jail Tuesday morning, according to Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill.

Williams allegedly shut off the water to a toilet to help clear the way for the inmates to escape, sources said. The prisoners, including three who are charged with second-degree murder and remain on the run, were able to crawl out through a hole after ripping the toilet off its hinges. Williams’s lawyer has denied he intended to help in the inmates’ escape and said a deputy asked him to shut the water off due to a clogged fixture.

“Did he admit he turned the water off? Yes, absolutely, and we’re not denying that. Did he confess to conspiring to aid violent criminals to escape the jail, climb a wall, run across the interstate and terrorize the city? Absolutely not,” lawyer Michael Kennedy told ABC News.

Four other jail employees have been suspended in this investigation.

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(DALTON, Ga.) — The Georgia teen who was arrested in a case of mistaken identity — and then detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement over her undocumented status — is saying a day after her release on bond that her time in custody was “life-changing.”

Ximena Arias-Cristobal, 19, was arrested on May 5 in Dalton, Georgia, when her dark gray truck was mistaken for a black pickup that made an illegal turn. Those citations were later dropped once officials realized there was a mix-up, Dalton Assistant Police Chief Chris Crossen said.

But she was still detained by ICE after it was discovered she was an undocumented immigrant.

As she was being transferred to Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, she stopped at some offices in Atlanta, she said.

“They had me in a room by myself for nine hours. I didn’t know what was going on. It was never explained,” Arias-Cristobal told Chattanooga, Tennessee, ABC affiliate WTVC Thursday after her release from detention..

“Being in Stewart changed my life. It’s something that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. It’s life-changing,” she said.

Arias-Cristobal, a student at Dalton State College, was in the ICE detention center for two weeks.

“It was scary. I was terrified,” Arias-Cristobal told WTVC.

“I won’t ever be the same,” she told Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB in a separate phone interview.

Arias-Cristobal was released on a $1,500 bond and the government did not wish to appeal, according to her attorney.

“We do not have another hearing currently scheduled. It would be remarkable if it is before mid-2026,”  Charles Kuck, an attorney for Arias-Cristobal, told WTVC.

She was granted bond on Wednesday and reunited with family at her home on Thursday.

The teen came to the U.S. with her parents when she was 4 years old and is ineligible for relief from deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which temporarily protects some migrants from deportation if they were brought to the country as children, an attorney for Arias-Cristobal told ABC News.

Arias-Cristobal was not eligible to register for the DACA program because it ended before she became eligible to apply at 16 years old.

The Department of Homeland Security said following her detainment that it is committed to ordering Arias-Cristobal to “self-deport” to Mexico and that she “admitted to illegally entering the United States and has no pending applications with USCIS.”

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(NEW YORK) — The alleged leader of a neo-Nazi cult based overseas has been extradited to the United States and accused of inspiring “multiple senseless killings” around the world, including the shooting at Antioch High School in Nashville, Tennessee, that four months ago left one student dead and another injured, according to the Justice Department.

In a letter to a federal judge filed Friday morning, the Justice Department said that Michail Chkhikvishvili, a Georgian national arrested in Moldova last year, is scheduled to be arraigned later in the day in U.S. federal court in Brooklyn.

Chkhikvishvili was indicted last year on several federal charges, including two counts of soliciting hate crimes and other violent attacks. According to the Justice Department, he was a leader of the “Manian Murder Cult,” a Russian and Ukrainian-based extremist group also known as “MKY” that promotes violence against racial minorities, the Jewish community, and others it deems “undesirables.”

In announcing his indictment last year, the Justice Department said Chkhikvishvili – who allegedly also goes by the moniker “Commander Butcher” – distributed a self-authored “Hater’s Handbook” encouraging readers to commit school shootings and other mass “terror attacks,” providing suggested methods and strategies.

The Justice Department also said he planned and solicited help for a mass casualty attack targeting Jews and other minorities in New York City on New Year’s Eve, but the person he solicited was actually an undercover FBI agent.

Since his arrest in July of last year, Chkhikvishvili had been held in Moldova. But he is now expected to appear is a U.S. federal court on Friday, and federal prosecutors hope a federal judge will agree to keep him detained pending trial, according to the Justice Department’s filing.

“The defendant’s repeated solicitations of violence have had the intended effect. They have directly resulted in real violence, including multiple senseless killings, in the United States and around the world,” the Justice Department said in its filing.

As an example, the Justice Department wrote: “In January 2025, a 17-year-old student killed one individual and injured another before committing suicide inside Antioch High School in Nashville, Tennessee. The attacker livestreamed part of the attack. Prior to the attack, in an audio recording posted online and attributed to him, the attacker claimed he was taking action on behalf of MKY and at least one other group. The attacker’s [writings] explicitly mentioned the defendant by name and included numerous references to MKY’s founder, Yegor Krasnov. The attacker stated that he would write Krasnov’s name on his gun.”

The Justice Department also said an August 2024 knife attack in Turkey and the April 2022 murder of an elderly woman in Romania were connected to Chkhikvishvili’s actions.

“The defendant has consistently demonstrated that he is capable of orchestrating deadly attacks from behind a computer screen at home,” the Justice Department added. “Moreover, the defendant has repeatedly stated that he has committed acts of violence and that he intends to commit more. The Court should take the defendant at his word and detain him in the interest of public safety.”

In a statement issued Friday, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the case against Chkhikvishvili “is a stark reminder of the kind of terrorism we face today: online networks plotting unspeakable acts of violence against children, families, and the Jewish community in pursuit of a depraved, extremist ideology.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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(CAMBRIDGE, Mass.) — Harvard University sued the Trump administration Friday, alleging that the decision to revoke the school’s ability to enroll international students “is a blatant violation of the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause, and the Administrative Procedure Act.”

The Trump administration said on Thursday the school lost its ability to use the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (which allows for noncitizens to study at the university under a specific visa) because it had not complied with demands sent last month to supply information on student visa holders.

“As a result of your refusal to comply with multiple requests to provide the Department of Homeland Security pertinent information while perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies, and employs racist ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ policies, you have lost this privilege,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote in a letter to the university.

Harvard President Alan Gerber pushed back in a message to the university on Friday.

“The government has claimed that its destructive action is based on Harvard’s failure to comply with requests for information from the US Department of Homeland Security. In fact, Harvard did respond to the Department’s requests as required by law,” Gerber said.

In its complaint, Harvard said there is “no lawful justification” for canceling the status.

The school accused the administration of waging an “unprecedented and retaliatory attack” because the university supports policies the administration doesn’t like.

“The government has casually discarded core First Amendment protections, the protections of procedural due process, and DHS’s own regulations to immediate and devastating effect for Harvard and its community. Harvard’s more than 7,000 F-1 and J-1 visa holders — and their dependents — have become pawns in the government’s escalating campaign of retaliation,” the complaint reads.

The dispute over international students is the latest development in the administration’s standoff with one of the country’s most prestigious universities.

Trump has threatened the school’s tax-exempt status and is withholding billions in federal funding after the school’s refusal to comply with the administration’s demands regarding campus policies and governance, including actions on antisemitism and the use of DEI on campus.

Noem wrote to Harvard in April requesting a tranche of information be given to DHS in order for the school to retain its SEVP status.

According to the letter, she asked Harvard to give information over on student visa holder’s “known” illegally activity; violent activity; threats to students or faculty; disciplinary actions taken as a result of being involved in a protest; information on whether the student obstructed the school’s learning environment; and the coursework that the student is taking to maintain the visa status.

Noem said the school did not provide adequate information in response, and that it is a “privilege, not a right” for students to study at American universities.

The latest poll by ABC News/Washington Post found most Americans (66%) took Harvard’s side in the conflict. Thirty-two percent of respondents sided with the Trump administration.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(NEW ORLEANS) — A Slidell woman was arrested and accused of helping a fugitive who is still at large from the massive New Orleans jailbreak elude capture, Louisiana State Police said.

Connie Weeden, 59, was taken into custody in Slidell and booked into the St. Tammany Parish Correctional Center on Thursday. In addition to jail employees, she is the third person arrested for assisting the Orleans Justice Center’s escaped inmates.

Weeden faces a felony charge of accessory after the fact for allegedly assisting Jermaine Donald, one of the five escapees still on the run.

“Weeden was in contact via phone both before and after the escape,” said LSP officials in a statement. “Investigators determined that after the escape, she provided Donald with cash through a cell phone app.”

Donald remains at large, along with four others who broke out of the Orleans Justice Center on May 16. Authorities have recaptured five of the original 10 who escaped.

Law enforcement officials warned that helping fugitives will carry serious consequences. “Those who choose to assist or conceal these individuals are violating the law and will be held accountable,” said state police. “Harboring fugitives threatens the safety of our communities and will not be tolerated.”

Under Louisiana law, a conviction for accessory after the fact carries a penalty of up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $500, or both.

The LSP announced on Wednesday that 32-year-old Cortnie Harris and 38-year-old Corvanntay Baptiste were arrested and charged with felony counts of being accessories after the fact. They were both booked at the Plaquemines Parish Detention Center, officials said.

Earlier on Thursday, the Orleans Parish District Attorney issued subpoenas to the Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson, and other OPSO staff members as part of an ongoing investigation into the escape of inmates.

The order demanded access to emails, text messages, internal messages, from or to Hutson and other OPSO staff and contractors, including those to Sterling Williams, the jail maintenance worker who was arrested in connection with the jailbreak.

Williams, a 33-year-old maintenance worker at the Orleans Parish Justice Center, was arrested and booked into jail Tuesday morning, according to Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill.

Williams allegedly shut off the water to a toilet to help clear the way for the inmates to escape, sources said. The prisoners, including three who are charged with second-degree murder and remain on the run, were able to get out after ripping the toilet off its hinges.

Four other jail employees have been suspended in this investigation.

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(WASHINGTON) — The newly sworn-in head of the Social Security Administration told agency staff this week that when he was first offered the job in the Trump administration, he wasn’t familiar with the position and had to look it up online.

Frank Bisignano, a former Wall Street executive, said during a town hall with Social Security managers from around the country on Wednesday that he wasn’t seeking a position in the Trump administration when he received a call about leading the SSA.

“So, I get a phone call and it’s about Social Security. And I’m really, I’m really not, I swear I’m not looking for a job,” Bisignano said, according to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by ABC News. “And I’m like, ‘Well, what am I going to do?’ So, I’m Googling Social Security. You know, one of my great skills, I’m one of the great Googlers on the East Coast.”

“I’m like, ‘What the heck’s the commissioner of Social Security?'” said Bisignano, who now oversees one of the largest federal agencies that’s responsible for distributing retirement, disability, and survivor benefits to more than 70 million Americans.

“Put that as the headline for the Post: ‘Great Googler in Chief. Chief in Googler’ or whatever,” said Bisignano, who throughout the meeting repeatedly bemoaned media leaks from within the agency.

While Bisignano, who previously served as chairman and CEO of financial technology company Fiserv Inc., brings experience managing large organizations and overseeing complex payment systems to his new role, he has no prior history working in government or with the Social Security system.

A spokesperson for the Social Security Administration did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

In Wednesday’s 90-minute call, Bisignano sought to calm concerns about the future of the agency amid recent leadership turnover and scrutiny from Elon Musk’s government-slashing Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE.

He told the managers in the meeting that Social Security was “not going away,” adding that President Trump also agrees with that.

“This is America’s, you know, safety net — it’s not going away. And hopefully you hear me say this every day,” he said. “You know who wants me to tell people that? Guess. The president.”

“I’ve gotten notes about, ‘Will the turmoil of the last five months end? Are you here to cause more turmoil?'” he said. “I don’t think it’s the turmoil of the past five months, although I will be the fifth since, you know, November, right?” Bisignano said, referring to being the fifth person put in charge of the critical agency since Trump was reelected in November.

“Are we having fun yet? Are we OK?” he asked those on the call.

Bisignano told the managers that they needed to believe that DOGE was “helping to make things better” even if “it may not feel that way.”

“Who’s heard of DOGE? Raise your hand, right? Your bias has to be, because mine is, DOGE is helping make things better. It may not feel that way, but don’t believe everything you read.”

He said DOGE would be involved in rebuilding the Social Security website and integrating artificial intelligence into the agency’s phone support systems.

The head of the agency also told managers that the SSA must adopt a “digital-first” mindset to meet the expectations of the American public, comparing the agency to how consumers interact with tech giants like Amazon.

“You’re competing with experiences that people have with Amazon, right? So if I could get something done at Amazon, why can’t I get something done the same way with Social Security? That’s how people think.”

Bisignano’s officially joins the agency following months of upheaval at the SSA, which has seen a revolving door of leadership amid DOGE’s sweeping efforts to overhaul the agency by modernizing its operations and cutting costs. Among the changes DOGE is pushing are staff reassignments, digital infrastructure overhauls, and the controversial outsourcing of certain administrative functions, according to sources.

Bisignano also said he does not intend to implement reductions in force, or RIFs, at the agency, at least for now. “I have no intent to RIF people, OK? Because that’s the big question,” he said.

When the Wall Street veteran was named Trump’s pick to lead the agency, he faced backlash from Democrats and activists who claimed his selection threatened the future of the Social Security program. In early May, lawmakers, union leaders, and activists protested his selection outside the U.S. Capitol ahead of the Senate vote on his nomination.

On Wednesday’s call, Bisignano appeared to revel in the news.

“Did you guys know there was a protest against me? Who knows there was a protest against me?” he said. “I like that protest — I want to prove them so wrong, man, this is going to be most fun I ever had.”

“I mean, think of that — a poor boy from Brooklyn, from a multi-generational household with a dad who worked in the federal government, and senators picketing that I’m going to ruin it,” he said. “No way — make it great, right?”

Bisignano, during the call, returned several times to his concerns about leaks to the press, suggesting that he would sniff them out.

“My father was a DA and I’m a detective at heart, so I can figure stuff out,” he said.

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