(NEW YORK) — A deadly storm wreaked havoc across the eastern half of the U.S., bringing blizzard conditions to the Midwest, tornadoes to the South and torrential rain to the Northeast — and a new storm is on the move.
In the South, they are cleaning up after the wild weather produced up to 428 damaging storm reports from Texas to Maryland, including at least 14 reported tornadoes.
Three fatalities were reported in Mississippi, according to state officials.
In the Midwest, dangerous whiteout conditions took over roads in Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.
The highest snowfall total was in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where 2 feet was recorded.
The Twin Cities reported 9.5 inches of snow, marking the biggest snowfall of the season.
In the Northeast, a squall line moved through Wednesday evening, bringing 1 to 2 inches of heavy rain and 50 to 60 mph winds.
The storm now has moved out, but windy conditions remain on the East Coast. Wind alerts were in effect Thursday morning from Georgia to Maine, where wind gusts could top 50 mph.
Meanwhile, a new storm is hitting the West on Thursday before moving east to the Plains, Midwest and then the Northeast.
On Thursday, heavy snow will fall from California to Wyoming. Locally, 1 to 3 feet is possible
Rain will continue for Southern California, including Los Angeles and San Diego, where thunderstorms are possible. There’s not a major threat for flash flooding, but there could be debris flow in wildfire burn scar areas.
On Thursday evening, this storm system will move into the Plains, from Nebraska to Iowa, where several inches of snow is possible.
By Friday morning, some of this snow will move into the Midwest, including Chicago, and parts of the southern Great Lakes. A couple of inches of snow is possible in Illinois, Indiana and southern Michigan.
Friday night, a few rain showers and snow showers are possible in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
LONDON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday to meet with European leaders as his nation seeks to weather continued attacks from Russia and growing political pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration in the U.S.
The Ukrainian president’s latest visit to Brussels comes at a difficult moment for his nation, the White House having announced an open-ended pause on all military aid and intelligence sharing in a bid to force Kyiv into negotiating a peace deal with Russia to end Moscow’s three-year-old invasion.
The freeze came after a tumultuous meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump in the Oval Office last week, which descended into a shouting match and ended with the Ukrainian president’s team being asked to leave.
Zelenskyy this week released a statement calling the meeting “regrettable,” saying he is ready to engage in the U.S.-facilitated peace process and sign a controversial minerals sharing deal with the U.S.
Zelenskyy was welcomed to the European Council building in the Belgian capital on Thursday by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa.
“Europe faces a clear and present danger,” von der Leyen said in a post to X as Zelenskyy arrived. “We must be able to defend ourselves and put Ukraine in a position of strength.”
Zelenskyy will speak at a special meeting of the European Council and is expected to hold meetings with European leaders on defense matters.
European leaders have rallied to Zelenskyy’s defense in the face of U.S. pressure, while simultaneously warning that peace in Ukraine is not possible without American backing. The U.K. and France have said they will work with Kyiv to present a peace deal to Trump.
European allies have been rattled by the opening months of Trump’s second term, which have been characterized by efforts to undermine Zelenskyy’s legitimacy, alignment with Russian narratives about the war and criticism of Europe’s ability to ensure security on the continent.
Trump and his officials have been reluctant to offer any security guarantees to Kyiv as part of a peace deal with Russia — an element Zelenskyy and his European partners say is vital to the success of any accord.
European nations announced fresh tranches of assistance for Ukraine ahead of Zelenskyy’s arrival in Brussels.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof announced that his nation would provide $3.8 billion in funding in 2026, $700 million of which is earmarked for drone development.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said his nation would ensure a “significant increase” in aid for Ukraine, while Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz announced another $215 million in aid from Warsaw.
French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu, meanwhile, said on France Inter that his nation was sharing intelligence resources with Ukraine following the U.S. freeze.
ABC News’ Guy Davies and Oleksiy Pshemyskiy contributed to this report.
The only man ever charged in the notorious Las Vegas murder of rapper Tupac Shakur insists he is “innocent,” being railroaded by authorities and that he only confessed to his purported role in the crime because he was getting paid to lie.
In his first interview since being arrested in September 2023, Duane “Keffe D” Davis told ABC News in a jailhouse interview that he should be at home, watching his grandchildren grow up and tending to his garden. Instead, he said, he’s being forced to stand trial in a nearly three-decade-old case that’s devoid of concrete evidence.
“I’m innocent,” Davis said during a sometimes-tearful hour-long meeting at the Clark County Detention Center. He described himself as a “good man” long retired from the drug game he once excelled at.
“I did everything they asked me to do. Get new friends. Stop selling drugs. I stopped all that,” he said, referring to police and prosecutors. “I’m supposed to be out there enjoying my twilight at one of my f—— grandson’s football games, and basketball games. Enjoying life with my kids.”
Prosecutors say Davis, 61, was a longtime member and leader of a set of the infamous Crips street gang based in his hometown of Compton, California. Authorities say that, as the alleged “shot caller” on the night of Shakur’s killing in September 1996, it was Davis who orchestrated the drive-by shooting of the rap star off the Vegas strip. On their way from Mike Tyson’s fight against Bruce Seldon, Shakur was gunned down at a red light in the passenger seat of the BMW being driven by rap impresario Marion “Suge” Knight. Shakur was rushed to the hospital and died six days later from his wounds.
Though the killing occurred on the bustling streets of Sin City – it remained unsolved for nearly 30 years, mired in police scandals and turf wars, and a street code that frowns upon snitches.
Eventually, Vegas detectives built their case off Davis’ own account of the killing, retold in multiple police interviews, public media appearances before his arrest, and a 2019 self-published memoir with his own name on it.
Davis’ previous words copping to his role in the rapper’s killing are crucial in the case against him. Investigators say they spent years working to beef up Davis’ narrative of the events by using evidence and additional accounts to firm up their case – expected to be presented to a jury in 11 months.
Davis, sitting on a wooden bench under the harsh fluorescent lights of a jailhouse conference room and accompanied by corrections officers, now insists he didn’t write his own memoir – and hasn’t even read it. And so, he says, those confessions aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.
“I’ve never read the book,” Davis said of his memoir “Compton Street Legend,” on which he shares the credit as a co-author. The back of the book bears the tagline, “The last living eyewitness to Tupac’s murder is telling his story.”
Davis says his co-author took artistic liberties he had nothing to do with.
“I just gave him details of my life,” Davis said. “And he went and did his little investigation and wrote the book on his own.”
Not only does he say he had nothing to do with Shakur’s killing, Davis said he was hundreds of miles away from where it happened – asserting for the first time where he says he was that night: “in Los Angeles,” and at home.
Davis said he has “about 20 or 30 people going to come” to his murder trial corroborating that alibi – to say nothing of the “13,000 people who say they killed Tupac.” He did not name the people who he said woukld verify where he was the night that Shakur was killed.
“I did not do it,” Davis said of what had stood as one of the best-known cold cases in modern American history. Of prosecutors leading the case against him, he said “They don’t have nothing. And they know they don’t have nothing. They can’t even place me out here. They don’t have no gun, no car, no Keffe D, no nothing.”
Las Vegas prosecutors declined to respond directly to Davis’ comments but continue to insist they are confident in the case and expect to see the man convicted at trial.
In 2008, Davis confessed to his purported role in the Shakur homicide in an interview with detectives connected to a joint federal-Los Angeles task force that had set up a drug operation sting on Davis to extract information on fellow rap icon Biggie Smalls’ murder, which happened six months after Shakur’s. Davis at the time said he didn’t have information about Biggie’s murder — but did have other information that would be valuable. That time, according to police, Davis made his admissions as part of what’s known as a “proffer agreement,” so he could not be prosecuted for what he said.
The following year, Davis again confirmed his purported role in the Shakur drive-by this time in an interview with detectives from Las Vegas. Vegas authorities were not connected to the earlier sessions, and were not required to honor any agreement that might have been made with Davis, according to interview recordings and transcripts reviewed by ABC. The only thing Vegas cops agreed to was that the interview with Davis would be voluntary and he would not be arrested on the spot.
At the time, some Las Vegas detectives wanted to bust Davis and charge him with the Tupac murder, but prosecutors feared that both sets of alleged confessions could be thrown out of court because of the purported non-prosecution agreement in LA. If a judge were to side with Davis, the case would likely have been doomed.
Davis’ lawyers did make that argument earlier this year and the judge rejected it. But the issue was largely beside the point because, officials have said, Davis went on to publicly recount his purported role in the homicide repeatedly in the years since 2009, especially in a 2018 docuseries and on the pages of “Compton Street Legends.”
Davis’ own public words “reinvigorates the investigation,” the now-retired head of the Las Vegas homicide bureau, Jason Johansson, told ABC last year.
Sitting in jail, Davis said that version of events was totally fabricated for profit when he told his story in the media. As for making his purported confession to the authorities, he said, that was a play to keep others caught up in a drug case out of prison. He said he told police what they wanted to hear “if they let me go.”
“That’s the only way you’re walking free,” Davis said, recounting the choice he felt he had to make. “It would’ve been selfish to let everybody go down because of me.”
As for the similar versions of events recounted by him on camera, before his arrest, and in the book with his name on it, Davis says that was just a financial investment.
“They paid me to say that,” he said.
Davis insists the 2008 non-prosecution agreement should still hold and that any statements to law enforcement connected with it should not be presented to the jury next year.
“I’m not even supposed to be in jail,” he said. “A deal is a deal.”
Davis also pointed the finger at an altogether different suspect: the former cop responsible for running some of the security operations for Knight and Shakur on the night of the shooting. That man, Reggie Wright Jr., a former Compton police officer, who testified before the grand jury that indicted Davis for the Shakur killing, ran security for Knight’s Death Row Records back in the mid-1990s. Wright has said he spent most of that night of the killing working out logistics at the club that Shakur and Knight were planning to visit after the Tyson fight.
Echoing a recent accusation lodged in court papers by his attorney, Davis now accuses Wright and his security team of having orchestrated the shooting that killed Shakur.
“Prove that I orchestrated this,” Davis said. “Their top witness is the lead suspect, Reggie Wright Jr.,” alleging both Wright and his onetime security company were “mercenaries.”
Wright has denied any involvement in Shakur’s killing – and points out he was there for exactly the opposite purpose that night.
“I was in charge of possibly protecting this young man,” Wright told ABC’s Nightline last year.
“It’s heartbreaking they keep dragging in my name,” Wright said reacting to Davis’ attorney’s recent allegations. “I didn’t have anything to do with that. One of the worst days of my life when I heard that that happened.”
Davis has repeatedly tried to make bail since he was arrested outside his home in Sept. 2023 but the judge refused to accept the financing packages he has put together. He now faces an additional charge and trial connected with a jailhouse fight with another inmate, set for April.
According to jailhouse surveillance footage obtained by ABC News, the man who fought with Davis appeared to have been waiting alone and unattended in a common area when Davis came walking through with an escort. The second inmate can be seen lunging at Davis, who fought back.
Both Davis and the other inmate have pleaded not guilty to charges of battery and challenging each other to fight. Davis said he was only defending himself. He has also pleaded not guilty to the murder charge.
He insists that he will eventually beat the rap on both the murder and battery charge and that he knows how to fight his way through.
“God got my back, and God will see me through this,” Davis said. “He had my back with cancer, I survived the streets, and the FBI. That’s a big accomplishment for a man from Compton.”
ABC News’ Kaitlyn Morris contributed to this report.
As Donald Trump seeks to reshape the federal government at breakneck speed, his administration has encountered a flood of litigation challenging the legality of its early actions in office.
With more than 100 federal lawsuits filed since the inauguration, Trump and his administration have effectively been sued three times for every business day he has occupied the Oval Office.
Approximately 30 of the 100 lawsuits relate to Trump’s immigration policies, while more than 20 of the cases directly challenge the actions of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Ten of the cases challenge Trump policies relating to transgender people, and more than 20 cases oppose the president’s unilateral changes to federal funding, government hiring and the structure of agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
With Trump signing more than 75 executive orders since taking office, the unprecedented flood of litigation has yielded mixed results in blocking the president’s unilateral efforts to reshape the federal government. His attempts to freeze funding or rewrite longstanding laws have generally been blocked, but some federal judges have implicitly given him the green light to carry out part of his plan to reshape the federal workforce.
U.S. District Judge John Coughenour — who was nominated to the bench by Ronald Reagan — handed the Trump administration one of its first legal defeats by blocking Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship and offered one of the fiercest criticisms of his presidency’s early actions.
“It has become ever more apparent that to our president, the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals,” Judge Coughenour said. “There are moments in the world’s history when people look back and ask, ‘Where were the lawyers, where were the judges? In these moments, the rule of law becomes especially vulnerable. I refuse to let that beacon go dark today.”
But other judges have stopped short of fully blocking policies they believe might be unlawful, demonstrating how a slower-moving judiciary can be outpaced by a rapidly moving administration. In a case challenging the Trump administration’s effort to fire thousands of probationary employees, U.S. District Judge William Alsup rebuked the administration’s actions but did not step in to stop the indiscriminate firing of employees, despite acknowledging its ongoing harm.
“That’s just not right in our country – that we run our agencies with lies like that and stain somebody’s record for the rest of their life? Who is going to want to work in a government that would do that to them? Probationary employees are the lifeblood of our government,” he said.
The number of lawsuits appear to have tested the limits of the court’s ability to hear emergency applications, particularly in the District Court in D.C., where 51 of the cases have been brought. During one contentious hearing, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes threatened to sanction a lawyer who pushed the court to accept an emergency appeal while court staff had been “working around the clock on really monumental time sensitive issues,” Reyes said.
“Why on earth could you not have figured that out with the defendants before coming and burdening me and burdening the defendants and burning my staff on this issue?” Reyes told Seth Waxman, a former U.S. Solicitor General under President Bill Clinton who is now representing eight former inspectors general fired by Trump.
Lawsuits challenging the Trump administration have reached the Supreme Court twice, and the Department of Justice has begun their appeals to the Circuit Court in approximately a dozen cases.
While no judge has found that the president has openly defied a court order, the Trump administration has found itself in hot water for failing to comply with multiple court orders, including orders to stop unilaterally freezing funding to states and holding back more than $1.9 billion in foreign aid.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court narrowly denied the Trump administration’s request to block that payment, marking the first time during this administration that the Supreme Court ruled against the president who nominated three of the court’s nine justices. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Samuel Alito remarked that he was “stunned” by the decision.
“Does a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the Government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) 2 billion taxpayer dollars? The answer to that question should be an emphatic ‘No,’ but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise,” Alito said.
Alito’s criticism comes as Trump’s allies including Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk have criticized the power of judiciary to slow some of the administration’s agenda. Vance publicly suggested defying a court order, and Musk is increasingly calling for the judges who block the administration to be impeached.
“The only way to restore rule of the people in America is to impeach judges. No one is above the law, including judges,” Musk said in a recent post on X.
While the first two months of the Trump administration has yielded a torrent of lawsuits, the cases themselves are expected to take months and potentially years to play out as the courts weigh the limits of Trump’s authority.
LONDON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there can be “no pause” in pressure on Russia after another night of missile and drone strikes across Ukraine, the latest barrage coming the day after the U.S. confirmed it had stopped sharing intelligence with Kyiv.
President Donald Trump’s decision to pause all U.S. military aid and intelligence sharing has raised concerns that Ukraine’s air defenses will become less effective in the days, weeks and months to come.
The pause followed last week’s explosive Oval Office meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump. White House officials have suggested the freeze may be lifted if Ukraine takes concrete steps towards a peace deal with Russia to end Moscow’s 3-year-old invasion.
Ukraine’s air force reported 112 drones and two missiles launched into the country overnight, with 68 drones shot down and 43 lost in flight.
The air force reported damage in the Kharkiv, Sumy, Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
In Dnipropetrovsk, a ballistic missile hit a hotel in the city of Kryvyi Rih — Zelenskyy’s hometown.
“A ballistic missile struck an ordinary hotel,” the president wrote on social media. Four people were killed with more than 30 others injured, he added. The attack came shortly after a group of foreign humanitarian volunteers checked into the hotel, Zelenskyy said. None were hurt.
Sources told ABC News that two U.S. citizens were among the volunteers who survived the strike, working for the Charity fund Freedom Trust and Ukraine Relief organization.
“There must be no pause in the pressure on Russia to stop this war and terror against life,” Zelenskyy wrote.
Russian missiles and drone attacks are a nightly occurrence in Ukraine. The country has become largely reliant on Western anti-air weapons to defeat incoming projectiles.
U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine had allowed Kyiv to give warnings to targeted areas ahead of Russian drone and missile strikes, tracking Russian aircraft taking off, drones being launched and missiles being fired.
A Ukrainian intelligence official told ABC News on Wednesday that the intelligence sharing pause included a halt in sharing U.S. satellite imagery through the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Zelenskyy is expected to travel to Brussels, Belgium, to meet with European leaders on Thursday, as he seeks further Western military and political support. The president has consistently requested more air defenses, an issue now more pressing amid the U.S. aid freeze.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said Wednesday that Trump had asked for a “pause” and is committed to peace. The pause, Ratcliffe suggested, prompted Zelenskyy’s statement that he was ready to revive talks over a potential peace deal.
“And so I think on the military front and the intelligence front, the pause that allowed that to happen, I think will go away,” he added.
Trump has repeatedly — and falsely — blamed Ukraine for starting the war with Russia while seeking to undermine Zelenskyy’s legitimacy as president. The White House is pushing Kyiv to accept a deal to end the fighting and to sign an agreement giving the U.S. access to Ukrainian mineral resources.
In a Tuesday statement, Zelenskyy said the disastrous White House meeting was “regrettable.”
“Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer,” the president said. “Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.”
ABC News’ Fidel Pavlenko, Nataliia Popova, Ellie Kaufman and Guy Davies contributed to this report.
Lawyers for the man accused of killing four Idaho college students are asking the judge in his capital murder case to ban a key witness from using the phrase “bushy eyebrows” to describe the assailant she saw the night of the bloody attack.
That request was included in roughly 100 pages of court filings unsealed Tuesday as preparations continue in advance of the August trial of Bryan Kohberger, who’s charged in the November 2022 killings of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
A roommate of the victims, who lived at the off-campus Moscow, Idaho, home where the killings occurred originally told detectives that the masked male intruder she saw on the night of the killings had a singular physical attribute: “bushy eyebrows.” That phrase has rocketed around the world as the headline-grabbing case has moved slowly toward a trial in Boise, Idaho.
Kohberger’s defense attorneys argued the superficial description will unfairly point the finger at him and potentially bias the jury.
“The description provided by [the roommate] is unreliable and should be excluded,” defense lawyer Elisa Massoth wrote. “Although she has never identified Mr. Kohberger, testimony by [the roommate] from the witness stand, describing bushy eyebrows while Mr. Kohberger sits as the accused at trial, will be as damning as her pointing to him and saying, ‘he is the man that did this.'”
The roommate’s varying accounts and self-confessed sleepy intoxication that night make her memory fickle, Kohberger’s lawyers have argued. And, they argued, she seemed preoccupied with bushy eyebrows even before her friends were killed.
When police photographed the crime scene right after the killings, her room was found to have “many pictures of eyes with prominent eyebrows” on the walls in her room, Kohberger’s lawyers said.
“Many of which she had drawn. Some of the eyebrows are heavy, voluminous, puffy, or perhaps subjectively bushy,” and there was “artwork of human figures with an emphasis upon the eyes and eyebrows were pinned to corkboards,” they said.
Kohberger’s defense attorneys have also asked the judge to bar words like “murder,” “psychopath” and “sociopath” during the trial.
“To label Mr. Kohberger as a ‘murderer,’ the alleged weapon consistent with an empty sheath as a ‘murder weapon’ or to assert that any of the four decedents was ‘murdered’ by Mr. Kohberger denies his right to a fair trial and the right to be presumed innocent,” the defense said.
Prosecutors allege that in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, Kohberger broke into an off-campus home and stabbed the four students to death. He was arrested in late December, after a six-week manhunt, at his parents’ Pennsylvania home and indicted in May 2023.
He was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. At his arraignment, he declined to offer a plea, so the judge entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf.
If convicted, Kohberger could face the death penalty. But not if his lawyers get their way.
Defense attorneys cite autism in bid to strike death penalty
Among the flurry of new filings, the defense also argued his life should not be on the line — because he has been diagnosed with autism, and so his impairments in communication, problems with social skills and impulse control mean he is “insufficiently culpable to be executed.”
His diagnosis however should not be wielded against him, the defense said — arguing prosecutors should not be allowed to use it “by criminalizing his status as a disabled person.”
Even if this does not work to strike the death penalty, his diagnosis could resurface in the sentencing phase if Kohberger is convicted, where his lawyers will likely raise it again as a mitigating factor.
This is not the first time his lawyers have attempted to get the death penalty taken off the table.
In their argument about his condition now, Kohberger’s lawyers shed new light on what has been a heretofore little-known person to the public.
“Mr. Kohberger displays extremely rigid thinking, perseverates on specific topics, processes information on a piece-meal basis, struggles to plan ahead, and demonstrates little insight into his own behaviors and emotions” and “his tone and cadence are abnormal, his interactions lack fluidity, and his language is often overinclusive, disorganized, highly repetitive, and oddly formal,” they argued.
He “frequently shifts the topic back to himself even when it is inappropriate. He uses abrupt, matter-of-fact phrases that would be considered rude. He carries on about topics in a circular manner and perseverates about specific, non-essential details,” they said, adding his autism is “also accompanied by obsessive-compulsiveness, and an eating disorder. Since childhood, Mr. Kohberger has exhibited compulsions around getting things in his eyes, hand-washing and other germ avoidant behaviors.”
(WASHINGTON) — Billionaire Elon Musk’s political action committee, America PAC, has placed its first-ever nationwide TV ad, a $1 million ad buy that touts President Donald Trump’s first few weeks in office following Tuesday’s joint address to Congress, a source familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The 60-second ad will run this week in the Washington, D.C., media market and across the country, the source told ABC News.
The ad begins by attacking former President Joe Biden, showing clips of him stumbling on the stairs while boarding Air Force One. A voiceover says, “After four long years of humiliation, of failure at home and embarrassment abroad, our long national nightmare is finally over.”
The ad then echoes some of what Trump highlighted in his joint address, saying the president has “delivered the lowest level of illegal immigration in history.”
Musk, who spent roughly $250 million supporting Trump during the 2024 election, has been leading the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency’s massive effort to slash federal spending by cutting government programs, laying off federal workers, selling off government buildings and attempting to close down numerous federal agencies.
Critics say Musk is carrying out his cuts without congressional authority, that his efforts are politically motivated, that DOGE is not being transparent about its work, and that it has unnecessarily accessed sensitive government data.
The America PAC ad does not mention DOGE or Musk by name, but it appears to allude to their work, saying of Trump, “He’s draining the swamp, slashing billions in waste at home, while closing the spigot of American tax dollars to foreign regimes.”
(WASHINGTON) — A former top FEMA official who was removed as part of the political blowback over payments to New York City for housing migrants in what critics called “luxury hotels” has sued the Trump administration, alleging she was “unlawfully terminated from her position” without due process.
Mary Comans, who served as the FEMA’s chief financial officer since 2017, claims in the suit that her firing led to her being “falsely condemned online” by prominent individuals including tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has been overseeing government cost-cutting measures as the head of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency.
Comans’ lawsuit, filed in the District of Columbia on Tuesday, claims she was terminated “without any warning.” The suit says the government “failed to undertake any process to enable Ms. Comans to appropriately respond” to the allegations, and then put out a press release that she claims was in violation of the privacy act.
“Additionally, the defendants falsely, deliberately, and publicly portrayed Ms. Comans’ actions in such a manner that third parties have asserted her conduct to have been criminal, which is defamation per se, thereby further contributing to the damages she has suffered,” the filing states.
The lawsuit says the press release led to her action being “widely, publicly, and falsely condemned” by online influencers including Musk. The lawsuit includes a screenshot of one of Musk’s tweets replying to a post about Comans, in which he wrote she had committed “A criminal action.”
“Prior to her termination, Ms. Comans was an exemplary employee with absolutely no disciplinary history and had received “Achieved Excellence” ratings for every year that she served as an SES,” the filing states.
Comans has asked a judge for a declaration that DHS and FEMA’s actions were illegal, and has requested monetary damages.
(NEW YORK) — The stock market surged on Wednesday afternoon after the Trump administration granted automakers a one-month exemption from tariffs imposed a day earlier.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed about 550 points, or 1.3%; while the S&P 500 jumped 1.25%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq increased 1.5% on Wednesday.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump had ordered the delay of auto tariffs after a request from the Big 3 U.S. automakers: Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, the parent company of Jeep and Chrysler.
“The president is giving them an exemption for one month so they’re not at an economic disadvantage,” Leavitt said during a press conference at the White House.
The tariffs are expected to pose a challenge for U.S. automakers, many of which depend on a supply chain closely intertwined with Mexico and Canada.
While easing some tariffs, Trump criticized Canada on Wednesday for what he described as failure to take the steps necessary for the United States to withdraw all of the tariffs imposed a day earlier.
Trump said he held a call with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday during which the two leaders discussed a path to U.S. withdrawal of the tariffs, Trump said, noting such an outcome would require sufficient action by Canada to address drug trafficking.
A week ago, Trump alleged that illicit drugs such as fentanyl had continued to enter the U.S. through Mexico and Canada despite agreements reached last month to address the issue.
In a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump said, “nothing has convinced me” that the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. had stopped.
“[Trudeau] said that it’s gotten better, but I said, ‘That’s not good enough.’ The call ended in a ‘somewhat’ friendly manner!” Trump said.
Since September, nearly all fentanyl seized by the U.S. came through the Southern border with Mexico, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, or CBP, a federal agency. Less than 1% of fentanyl was seized at the Northern border with Canada, CBP found.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sharply criticized the tariffs on Tuesday, calling them a “dumb” policy that does not “make sense.”
The reason for the tariffs is based on a false allegation about Canada as a major source of drugs entering the U.S., Trudeau added.
Persistent tensions between the U.S. and Canada emerged after China issued a warning on Tuesday night that it stands ready for any “type of war” with the United States in the aftermath of tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
The U.S. slapped 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada, as well as 10% tariffs on imports from China. The fresh round of duties on Chinese goods doubled an initial set of tariffs placed on China last month.
A spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry said the tariffs would not lead to a resolution of U.S. concerns about fentanyl originating in China.
“If the U.S. truly wants to solve the fentanyl issue, then the right thing to do is to consult with China on the basis of equality, mutual respect and mutual benefit to address each other’s concerns,” Chinese spokesperson Lin Jian said at a press conference late Tuesday.
“If the U.S. has other agenda in mind and if war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end,” the spokesperson added.
The comments came soon after the Trump administration imposed 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada, as well as 10% tariffs on imports from China. The fresh round of duties on Chinese goods doubled an initial set of tariffs placed on China last month.
Within minutes of the new U.S. tariffs taking effect, China unveiled on Tuesday its initial response by placing additional 10% to 15% tariffs on imported U.S. goods, like chicken, wheat, soybeans and beef.
“The retaliatory tariffs that China is imposing is very specific and directly targeted at American farmers, who are mostly in red states and mostly voted for Trump,” Neil Thomas, a fellow for Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis, told ABC News.
“So China is trying to create pain where it matters for Trump, and it’s hoping to get Trump to the negotiating table and offer relief for this group of Trump supporters,” Thomas added.
The recent duties will be placed on top of similar tariffs imposed by China during the first Trump administration’s trade war in 2018. Some of those tariffs are already at 25%, though Beijing issued some waivers as a result of the 2020 “phase one” trade deal.
The new Chinese tariffs are set to come into effect for goods shipped out March 10.
In a series of social media posts last month, Trump said he would place tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China for hosting the manufacture and transport of illicit drugs that end up in the U.S.
During an address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, Trump also sharply criticized tariffs imposed by the Chinese government on U.S. goods.
“President Trump continues to demonstrate his commitment to ensuring U.S. trade policy serves the national interest,” the White House said in a statement on Tuesday.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Tuesday afternoon that Trump may soon offer Canada and Mexico a pathway to relief from tariffs placed on some goods covered by North America’s free trade agreement.
Lutnick did not mention a potential compromise with China.
ABC News’ Selina Wang, Kevin Shalvey, Karson Yiu and Ellie Kaufman contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The Democratic mayors of Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York City on Wednesday pushed back against House Republicans’ claims that they are harboring dangerous immigrants and violating immigration laws as so-called “sanctuary cities.”
During a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and New York City Mayor Eric Adams all defended their actions on immigration enforcement in their respective cities as Republicans on the committee accused them of increasing crime and impeding on law enforcement actions.
Chairman James Comer, a Republican, said these mayors lead towns that have policies that only create “sanctuary for criminals” and promised to hold them accountable for “their failure to follow the law and protect the American people.” Comer and other Republicans on the committee suggested that the mayors should be doing more to cooperate with the Trump administration and its deportation efforts.
Sanctuary cities still enforce U.S. federal immigration laws, but the term often refers to a limited collaboration with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement while enacting policies that are more favorable to undocumented people.
“As mayor, I do not control who enters or remains in our country, but I do have to manage the population that is within our city,” said Adams, who said as New York City mayor he is working with the Trump administration on immigration aid. “In order to carry out this function without having long term negative ramification, I must create an atmosphere that allows every law-abiding resident, documented or not, to access vital services without fear of being turned over to federal authorities.”
Wu said that the Trump administration is making “hard-working, tax-paying, God-fearing residents afraid to live their lives.”
“A city that scared is not a city that’s safe. A land ruled by fear is not the land of the free,” Wu said.
Democrats immediately criticized the Trump administration, arguing the overreach of federal officials has led to unlawful detentions and created fear in communities.
“Let’s be clear, the state and local laws that Republicans have issue with today are in full compliance with federal law. They do not obstruct ICE from carrying out its duties, and they are backed by evidence demonstrating that they keep people safe,” Ranking Member Gerry Connolly said.
Wednesday’s committee hearing comes as President Donald Trump’s administration officials have ramped up their immigration enforcement efforts with Attorney General Pam Bondi shutting down federal grants to sanctuary cities and multiple threats from “border czar” Tom Homan toward these mayors if they refuse to comply.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference last month, Homan criticized Boston and its police commissioner, saying he’ll be “bringing hell” to the city over its sanctuary city policy.
“Let’s talk about Tom Homan,” Wu said Wednesday. “Shame on him for lying about my city, for having the nerve to insult our police commissioner who has overseen the safest Boston’s been in anyone’s lifetime. Bring him here under oath, and let’s ask him some questions.”
The mayors pushed back heavily on assertions from Republicans that they are welcoming criminals into their cities, blaming the Trump administration for labeling immigrants as criminals and pushing misleading crime statistics.
“If you wanted to make us safe, pass gun reforms,” Wu later added. “Stop cutting Medicaid. Stop cutting cancer research. Stop cutting funds for veterans. That is what will make our cities safe.”
Many Republican lawmakers pointed to specific incidents in each of the mayor’s cities about U.S. citizens getting injured or killed at the hands of undocumented people, attempting to dispel the mayors’ arguments.
Republican Rep. Jim Jordan got in a contentious back-and-forth with Johnston involving a Venezuelan gang member who injured officers during an arrest. Due to the state’s sanctuary city policy, police were forced to arrest the man in public rather than travel into the jail to detain him, something the Republicans criticized.
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace had harsh words for the mayors, saying “you all have blood on your hands” over deaths and injuries at the hands of these undocumented people.
“All of the mayors here today are actively working to harm the American people you represent,” Mace said. “You all have blood on your hands.”
