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(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice said it is reviewing the criminal case brought against a former FBI informant convicted of peddling lies about former President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden and is moving for a judge to release the man from prison immediately while his case is on appeal.
Alexander Smirnov was sentenced to six years in prison in January after pleading guilty to lying to his FBI handler about the Biden family’s ties to a Ukrainian energy company — in addition to a series of unrelated tax fraud charges.
Smirnov’s lies were later seized on by House Republicans to bolster their efforts to impeach Joe Biden over unproven claims that he corruptly used his position as vice president in the Obama administration to benefit himself financially once out of office.
“The United States intends to review the government’s theory of the case underlying Defendant’s criminal conviction,” Assistant U.S. Attorney David Friedman said in a filing Thursday, offering no further explanation.
The case against Smirnov, brought by former special counsel David Weiss, who was previously a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney, alleged he concocted “fabrications” about Joe Biden and his son accepting $5 million in bribes from the Ukrainian energy giant Burisma. The indictment accused Smirnov of repeatedly changing his story about the alleged bribery scheme after meeting with senior members of Russia’s intelligence services, in what Weiss described as a deliberate effort to influence the 2024 presidential election.
The Thursday filing points to health problems Smirnov has reportedly faced since his incarceration. His attorneys have said he has suffered from chronic eye disease for over a year and requested he be released to receive treatment from a doctor in California.
The judge overseeing his case, however, repeatedly rejected their efforts prior to his guilty plea, arguing he posed a risk of flight from the United States based on his extensive contacts with overseas foreign intelligence services.
A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment further on the government’s filing.
Marcus Wells, a barista at Float Coffee in Hollywood, Calif., speaks, April 8, 2025, about the impact the global tariff war will have on his business. KABC
(NEW YORK) — Americans’ love affair with coffee and chocolate could soon get a lot more expensive.
Baristas and confectioners say the beans they need to make their products are mostly grown in countries targeted by the Trump administration’s tariffs.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the United States is the world’s second-largest importer of coffee. In a reflection of how much Americans love chocolate, U.S. businesses import about $5 billion worth of cocoa beans a year, according to the USDA.
Some owners of small businesses dealing in coffee and confections say they fear the tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump will leave them with no choice but to pass the added costs on to their customers.
“So while the tariffs are being imposed to try to up the production of goods in the United States, that’s a good we just simply cannot make in the United States,” Marcus Wells, a barista at Float Coffee in Hollywood, California, told ABC Los Angeles Station KABC of the coffee beans he imports from Central and South American countries that are currently are under a 10% baseline tariff imposed by the Trump administration.
Trump announced on Wednesday that he was pausing reciprocal tariffs on most countries for 90 days, except China.
Wells said the baseline tariff of 10% will likely translate to a 10% increase in a cup of coffee at his shop.
“We’re always looking for ways to maintain customers and it’s hard to do that when you’re constantly having to raise prices in order to keep your business open,” Wells said.
Cason Crane, CEO of Explorer Cold Brew, a company that sells bottled and canned coffee at stores across the nation, told ABC News that he hopes the 90-day pause will allow enough time for countries to negotiate deals with the White House to stave off the higher reciprocal tariffs.
“Coffee has actually been exempt from tariffs in the United States since the 1800s. So, my hope is that, with this 90-day pause, while it’s not ideal to still have 10% tariffs, that the administration can negotiate some more targeted deals that recognize things like the United States cannot grow coffee outside of Hawaii or Puerto Rico, which account for half a percent of worldwide coffee production,” Crane said.
Before Trump put a pause on reciprocal tariffs on Wednesday, Bill Ackman, the billionaire CEO of the hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management and a supporter of Trump, posted a lengthy message on social media, saying, “If the president doesn’t pause the effects of the tariffs soon, many small businesses will go bankrupt.”
In his post, Ackman shared an email he received from Crane, whose company he has invested in. In the email, Crane said the price of glass bottles he sources from China for his coffee will go up 50%, while chai sourced from India will increase by 26% and coffee imported from Ethiopia, Peru and Canada will climb by 10%.
“Will my clients tolerate a near doubling of their contract costs overnight, or will they expect me to absorb the increases my vendors are already threatening?” Crane wrote in the email. “If clients resist price hikes and my employees demand higher wages to offset their rising cost of living, we end up in a lose-lose scenario — no spending and no jobs.”
On Thursday, Crane told ABC News that he likely won’t be able to raise prices.
“Small businesses have way fewer options than big businesses. We don’t really have the capability to raise our prices,” Crane said. “Think about going to a farmers market; you’re already paying a little bit more. So, we’re already priced at the top range and we don’t really have the power to negotiate with our suppliers like the big businesses do. So the best I can do is keep holding on and hope for a better policy, and urge people to look out for those small businesses.”
New Hampshire chocolatier Richard Tango-Lowy, owner of Dancing Lion Chocolate in Manchester, said he imports some of his cocoa beans from Vietnam, which Trump says faces a 46% reciprocal tariff if it doesn’t bargain with the White House. Tango-Lowy said he also gets beans from Bolivia, which is subject to the baseline 10% tariff.
“We have about 600 kilos of beans on the way from Bolivia. We have no idea what they will cost right now,” Tango-Lowy told ABC affiliate station WMUR in Manchester.
Tango-Lowy said much of his packaging comes from Hong Kong, which is subject to China’s tariffs.
“We work domestically where we can, but a lot of what we do is not available domestically,” Tango-Lowy said. “It just doesn’t exist.”
Tango-Lowy is bracing to have to absorb the tariffs, saying, “We’re going to need the beans at some point.”
As food and beverage companies contemplate if they will or can’t cover the tariffs without raising prices on customers, Andrew Sinclair, owner of Mad Lab Coffee in Los Angeles, said his prices will stay the same.
“If you had to pay $9 for a cup of coffee I probably wouldn’t see you every day, and I like seeing people every day,” Sinclair told KABC. “So we’re going to keep our prices the same.”
Sinclair said he trusts his longstanding partnerships with growers in Colombia and Ethiopia will help him weather the economic turmoil.
“If you can afford a good cup of coffee, go to your local coffee shop and grab a good cup of coffee,” Sinclair said. “And if you can’t afford it, please don’t buy a cup of coffee and end up not being able to pay your rent. That’s just not responsible.”
(COVINGTON, Ga.) — A Walmart employee killed one co-worker and injured another in an after-hours shooting spree that started at the store and ended with the individual killing another co-worker at a nearby home, according to law enforcement officials.
The initial shooting took place in a Walmart branch in Covington, Georgia, about 35 miles east of Atlanta, at around 1:30 a.m. on Friday, according to the Newton County Sheriff’s Office.
An employee allegedly exited the building shortly before the shooting, retrieved a firearm and returned inside, according to a preliminary investigation.
The suspect then located a male acquaintance within the store, and fatally shot them, according to the sheriff’s office.
The suspect later encountered a second acquaintance outside Walmart and shot him as well. That person was transported to a local hospital in critical condition, according to the sheriff’s office.
The suspect then left the area and went into a neighborhood where they forced entry into a residence, found another female acquaintance and fatally shot her, the sheriff’s office said.
“This was not an active shooter situation. The suspect specifically targeted individuals they knew,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
The suspect fled the area and had a brief standoff with Aiken County, South Carolina, sheriff’s deputies and South Carolina State Troopers. The suspect then apparently shot himself and was taken to a local hospital, according to the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office. Aiken County is on the Georgia-South Carolina border, about two hours from Covington.
No deputies were injured. The suspect remains in custody as he is being treated, officials said.
The investigation remains active and ongoing.
“We’re heartbroken by what’s happened. There’s no place for violence in our stores. We’re focused on taking care of our associates and supporting law enforcement with their investigation,” Walmart said in a statement Friday.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge in Maryland says she’ll go ahead with Friday’s hearing in the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was deported to El Salvador in error, after the Trump administration sought to delay the heating until next week.
The Justice Department on Friday morning asked U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis to reschedule the hearing for Wednesday, April 16, two days after El Salvador President Nayib Bukele is scheduled to meet with the White House — but the judge, in a filing, kept the hearing date as scheduled.
Judge Xinis scheduled the hearing after the U.S. Supreme late Thursday affirmed her earlier ruling ordering the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States after he was mistakenly sent to an El Salvador prison last month.
Judge Xinis had also ordered the Trump administration to file, by 9:30 a.m. ET Friday, a supplemental declaration from an individual with personal knowledge acknowledging the current physical location of Abrego Garcia and what steps the administration will take to facilitate his immediate return.
Attorneys for DOJ requested the deadline for the supplemental declaration be moved to next week, but in her filing the judge moved the deadline back by only two hours.
The Supreme Court on Thursday largely upheld Judge Xinis’ ruling last week ordering the Trump administration to bring Abrego Garcia back.
“The order properly requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador,” the Supreme Court’s unsigned order stated.
Abrego Garcia — despite having protected legal status preventing his deportation to El Salvador, where his attorneys say he escaped political violence in 2011 — was sent to that country’s notorious CECOT mega-prison following what the government said was an “administrative error.”
The Trump administration has claimed Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang, which his lawyers and his wife deny, and argued in legal filings that because Abrego Garcia is no longer in U.S. custody, the courts cannot order him to be returned to the U.S. nor order El Salvador to return him.
In response to the Supreme Court ruling, the Trump administration has emphasized its role in carrying out foreign policy, which was also cited in the high court’s order.
The Supreme Court said the lower-court judge should “clarify” her earlier order “with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs. For its part, the Government should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps.”
In a statement, a Justice Department spokesman said: “As the Supreme Court correctly recognized, it is the exclusive prerogative of the President to conduct foreign affairs. By directly noting the deference owed to the Executive Branch, this ruling once again illustrates that activist judges do not have the jurisdiction to seize control of the President’s authority to conduct foreign policy.”
Reacting to the Supreme Court ruling, the attorney for Abrego Garcia told ABC News that “the rule of law prevailed.”
“The Supreme Court upheld the District Judge’s order that the government has to bring Kilmar home,” said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg. “Now they need to stop wasting time and get moving.”
ABC News’ Alexander Mallin and Devin Dwyer contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — U.S. stocks seesawed between gains and losses in early trading on Friday as new Chinese tariffs on American goods intensified a trade war between the two largest economies in the world.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 103 points, or 0.25%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 0.07%.
Meanwhile, a selloff of 10-year Treasuries sent yields climbing to 4.55%. That figure exceeded a recent high attained hours before President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday a 90-day delay of so-called “reciprocal tariffs” for most U.S. trade partners.
The market turmoil Friday morning came after China issued a 125% U.S. tariff, though Beijing said it would not increase tariffs further. The move came in response to a 145% tariff on Chinese goods announced by Trump earlier this week.
In a social media post, Trump signaled confidence.
“We are doing really well on our TARIFF POLICY. Very exciting for America, and the World!!! It is moving along quickly,” Trump said on Truth Social.
U.S. markets closed Thursday with notable losses, a reversal from the enthusiasm unleashed by Trump’s Wednesday decision to pause some tariffs.
Several Asian stock markets slid back into the red on Friday morning, reversing gains made on Thursday amid continued uncertainty as to whether nations would be able to secure deals with Trump to avoid long-term tariffs — and as China announced new retaliatory tariffs on American goods.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index slipped 3.8% and Japan’s broader TOPIX index fell 3.5%. In South Korea, the KOSPI dropped nearly 1% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dipped 0.95%.
In China, markets fluctuated as investors responded to the White House clarifying that the level of tariffs on Chinese goods is now 145% — not 125% as previously believed.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 2%, Shanghai’s Composite Index rose 0.6% and Shenzen’s Component Index rose 1.2%, with investors buoyed by Beijing’s announcement of stimulus measures to bolster the economy against the escalating American tariffs.
Other prominent Asia indices in the green on Friday included Taiwan’s Taiex index up 2.7% and India’s NIFTY 50 up 1.9%.
European markets appeared hesitant upon opening and slipped after China announced it would increase tariffs on U.S. goods from 84% to 125% from Saturday.
On Thursday, Trump again hinted at the resumption of his sweeping tariffs.
“If we can’t make the deal we want to make or we have to make or that’s, you know, good for both parties — it’s got to be good for both parties — then we go back to where we were,” Trump said.
When asked if he would extend the 90-day pause, the president responded, “We’ll have to see what happens at the time.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump undergoes his annual physical at Walter Reed Medical Center on Friday, marking his first such exam of his second term.
“I have never felt better, but nevertheless, these things must be done!” Trump, who became the oldest president to be sworn into office at 78, posted on Truth Social earlier in the week.
The public hasn’t been provided a detailed look into Trump’s health since 2018 and, during the 2024 presidential campaign, he didn’t provide any details about his health despite numerous promises to do so.
It is not clear whether the White House will provide an update after Friday’s exam, but details about Trump’s medical history have been disclosed in the past.
What Trump’s last official presidential checkup revealed
In the January 2018 evaluation, Trump appeared to be in “excellent” cardiovascular shape for his age, according to then-White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson, who administered Trump’s nearly four-hour physical exam at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center said.
The president’s medical issues were limited to high cholesterol, rosacea (a benign skin disease) and being considered “overweight,” as measured by the body mass index (BMI).
Trump’s LDL cholesterol level was 143 and total cholesterol level was 223, higher than the recommended total of 200. The LDL cholesterol, in particular, is significantly higher than the recommended level of 100.
His BMI – or body mass index – is calculated at 29.9, using the National Institutes of Health calculator, which is just shy of the obesity classification, which starts with a score of 30.
The 2018 report said the president takes a cholesterol-lowering drug called rosuvastatin, and because his cholesterol level was a little high, Jackson increased the dosage.
Trump was also taking finasteride for male-pattern hair loss. That medication can also be used to treat prostate issues at higher doses.
Trump also takes aspirin daily to prevent heart disease, a multivitamin and applies a cream called ivermectin, as needed, to treat skin condition rosacea.
At Trump’s urging, his physician conducted a brief screening test called the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. Jackson claimed Trump had a perfect 30/30 score.
COVID hospitalization
In October 2020, Trump was hospitalized after he contracted COVID-19. Then White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said that Trump had a fever and his blood oxygen level had dropped rapidly.
Sources with knowledge of the situation told ABC News that Trump was having trouble breathing and was given supplemental oxygen.
Doctors gave Trump an experimental course of monoclonal antibodies and steroids to treat him and he returned to the White House after three days
Trump’s health post 1st term
Other than the letters from Jackson, the most recent revelation of Trump’s health was a three-paragraph letter from his personal physician Bruce Aronwald of Morristown Medical Group, in which the doctor wrote that Trump’s “overall health is excellent.”
“His physical exams were well within the normal range and his cognitive exams were exceptional,” Aronwald wrote. “In addition, his most recent extensive laboratory analysis remains well within normal limits and was even more favorable than prior testing in some of the most significant parameters, most likely secondary to weight reduction.”
The doctor further explained that Trump’s cardiovascular studies were “all normal” and cancer screening tests were “all negative,” claiming Trump had lost weight through “an improved diet and continued daily physical activity.”
Butler assassination attempt
On July 13, gunfire erupted at a Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing Trump supporter Corey Comperatore and wounding Trump and six others, according to investigators.
Trump’s former White House physician, GOP Rep. Ronny Jackson, released a letter claiming that he had personally reviewed Trump’s medical records from Butler Memorial Hospital, which Jackson claimed showed the former president was treated for a “Gunshot Wound to the Right Ear.”
Jackson also confirmed that Trump underwent a precautionary CT scan while in Butler.
The Trump campaign, however, would not release the records that Jackson claimed to have reviewed.
Trump shared another letter from Jackson, detailing Trump’s ear injury and its healing process — claiming he’s doing “well” and recovering “as expected.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration has asked a federal judge in Maryland to reschedule a hearing set for Friday in the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was deported to El Salvador in error.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis scheduled the hearing after the U.S. Supreme late Thursday affirmed her earlier ruling ordering the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States after he was mistakenly sent to an El Salvador prison last month.
Attorneys for the Department of Justice requested that Friday’s hearing to be rescheduled for Wednesday, April 16. That date is two days after El Salvador President Nayib Bukele is scheduled to meet with the White House.
The hearing is currently scheduled tor 1 p.m. ET Friday.
Judge Xinis had also ordered the Trump administration to file, by Friday morning, a supplemental declaration from an individual with personal knowledge acknowledging the current physical location of Abrego Garcia and what steps the administration will take to facilitate his immediate return.
Attorneys for DOJ requested the deadline for the supplemental declaration be moved to next week.
The Supreme Court on Thursday largely upheld an earlier order issued by the lower-court judge ordering the Trump administration to take steps to return the man.
“The order properly requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador,” the Supreme Court’s unsigned order stated.
Abrego Garcia — despite having protected legal status preventing his deportation to El Salvador, where his attorneys say he escaped political violence in 2011 — was sent to that country’s notorious CECOT mega-prison following what the government said was an “administrative error.”
The Trump administration has claimed Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang, which his lawyers and his wife deny, and argued in legal filings that because Abrego Garcia is no longer in U.S. custody, the courts cannot order him to be returned to the U.S. nor order El Salvador to return him.
In response to the Supreme Court ruling, the Trump administration has emphasized its role in carrying out foreign policy, which was also cited in the high court’s order.
The Supreme Court said the lower-court judge should “clarify” her earlier order “with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs. For its part, the Government should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps.”
In a statement, a Justice Department spokesman said: “As the Supreme Court correctly recognized, it is the exclusive prerogative of the President to conduct foreign affairs. By directly noting the deference owed to the Executive Branch, this ruling once again illustrates that activist judges do not have the jurisdiction to seize control of the President’s authority to conduct foreign policy.”
Reacting to the Supreme Court ruling, the attorney for Abrego Garcia told ABC News that “the rule of law prevailed.”
“The Supreme Court upheld the District Judge’s order that the government has to bring Kilmar home,” said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg. “Now they need to stop wasting time and get moving.”
ABC News’ Alexander Mallin and Devin Dwyer contributed to this report.
Sylvain Gaboury/Paul Bruinooge/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Ghislaine Maxwell asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to overturn her sex-trafficking conviction, arguing she was covered by a non-prosecution agreement the government made with her former paramour, Jeffrey Epstein.
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence. She was convicted on five counts of aiding Epstein in his abuse of underage girls in December 2021.
A federal appeals court rejected her argument that Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement, arranged in 2007, barred her prosecution in New York. She urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider her case.
“Despite the existence of a non-prosecution agreement promising in plain language that the United States would not prosecute any co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein, the United States in fact prosecuted Ghislaine Maxwell as a co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein,” her attorneys wrote in their petition.
Maxwell said the US Supreme Court should resolve differences of opinion among federal appeals court as to whether a non-prosecution arranged in one district can be enforced in another.
“A defendant should be able to rely on a promise that the United States will not prosecute again, without being subject to a gotcha in some other jurisdiction that chooses to interpret that plain language promise in some other way,” defense attorney David Markus wrote.
Four women testified at trial they had been abused as minors at Epstein’s homes in Florida, New York, New Mexico and the Virgin Islands and said Maxwell, the daughter of British newspaper magnate Robert Maxwell, had talked them into giving Epstein massages that turned sexual. They testified they were lured with gifts and promises about how Epstein could use his money and connections to help them.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — U.S. stocks inched lower in early trading on Friday as new Chinese tariffs on American goods intensified a trade war between the two largest economies in the world.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 96 points, or 0.25%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 0.05%.
China issued a 125% U.S. tariff early Friday morning, but Beijing said it would not increase tariffs further. The move came in response to a 145% tariff on Chinese goods announced by President Donald Trump earlier this week.
U.S. markets closed Thursday with notable losses, a reversal from the enthusiasm unleashed by Trump’s Wednesday decision to delay so-called “reciprocal tariffs” on most American trading partners for 90 days.
Several Asian stock markets slid back into the red on Friday morning, reversing gains made on Thursday amid continued uncertainty as to whether nations would be able to secure deals with Trump to avoid long-term tariffs — and as China announced new retaliatory tariffs on American goods.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index slipped 3.8% and Japan’s broader TOPIX index fell 3.5%. In South Korea, the KOSPI dropped nearly 1% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dipped 0.95%.
In China, markets fluctuated as investors responded to the White House clarifying that the level of tariffs on Chinese goods is now 145% — not 125% as previously believed.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 2%, Shanghai’s Composite Index rose 0.6% and Shenzen’s Component Index rose 1.2%, with investors buoyed by Beijing’s announcement of stimulus measures to bolster the economy against the escalating American tariffs
Other prominent Asia indices in the green on Friday included Taiwan’s Taiex index up 2.7% and India’s NIFTY 50 up 1.9%.
European markets appeared hesitant upon opening and slipped after China announced it would increase tariffs on U.S. goods from 84% to 125% from Saturday.
On Thursday, Trump again hinted at the resumption of his sweeping tariffs.
“If we can’t make the deal we want to make or we have to make or that’s, you know, good for both parties — it’s got to be good for both parties — then we go back to where we were,” Trump said.
When asked if he would extend the 90-day pause, the president responded, “We’ll have to see what happens at the time.”
