Politics

(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge in D.C. on Thursday delivered a scathing rebuke of former President Donald Trump and expressed dismay over the state of American politics just moments after a jury found a defendant charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot guilty on all charges.

“You know, I think our democracy is in trouble,” Judge Reggie Walton said at the conclusion of the third jury trial for a defendant charged in the Capitol assault. “Because unfortunately, we have charlatans like our former president, who doesn’t in my view really care about democracy, but only about power. And as a result of that, it’s tearing this country apart.”

Walton, an appointee of former President George W. Bush and one of the most senior judges on the D.C. court, said that he’s received letters from people around the country expressing concern the justice system isn’t confronting Jan. 6 — which he called an “insurgency,” with the seriousness it deserves.

“I have a concern that we have, unfortunately, American citizens who were so gullible that they were willing to accept what was being said without any proof that the allegations about the election had any merit whatsoever,” Walton said. “People are just outraged at how they feel our system is not taking seriously what happened on that day because of their fear of the future of this country.”

His remarks came after a jury delivered a guilty verdict for an Ohio man charged in the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol who sought to defend himself by claiming he was following former Trump’s “orders.”

Dustin Thompson, 38, is the third defendant charged in connection with the Capitol attack to take their case before a jury. The six charges against him included one felony count of obstruction of Congress.

Rather than seeking to dispute the allegations against him — that he joined the pro-Trump mob in storming the Capitol and stole a bottle of bourbon and a coat rack from the Senate parliamentarian’s office, Thompson instead sought to place responsibility for his actions on Trump and his speech on the Ellipse where he urged his followers to march on the Capitol.

Dozens of others among the nearly 800 people charged thus far in the Justice Department’s Jan. 6 investigation have sought to make similar arguments, putting the onus on the former president and his allies who tricked them into believing baseless conspiracy theories about a stolen election.

That Thompson’s defense fell flat with a jury could have an influence on other alleged rioters holding out hopes they could adopt a similar strategy in their cases.

“Defense counsel wants you to focus so much on what President Trump said on the morning of Jan. 6, he wants you to forget what his client did on the afternoon of Jan. 6,” assistant US attorney Bill Dreher said in closing arguments Thursday. “Ladies and gentlemen, you don’t have to choose. This is not President Trump’s criminal trial.”

Speaking directly to the jury, Dreher said, “you can be mad about what happened that day, you can think what President Trump did was wrong, you can think that what he said that day led them to go do what they did.”

“That doesn’t matter,” he continued. “As long as you find — if you find, that Mr. Thompson knew that what he was doing was unlawful. He was 36 years old on Jan. 6 … an adult, not a child. President Trump didn’t hold his hand as he walked down to the Capitol to loot and defile the Senate Parliamentarian’s office.”

Dreher said that Thompson’s effort to put the blame on Trump’s words was not only irrelevant, but misleading — because it doesn’t appear based on data obtained from Thompson’s Uber account that he was even present at Trump’s Ellipse speech.

“It’s a story that is not true and that does not hold up,” Dreher said.

Following the reading of the verdict, Judge Walton ordered Thompson to remain in custody pending his sentencing and slammed him for his testimony in the trial, which Walton said he found “totally disingenuous” and “not truthful.”

“I just don’t think you can do what he did and what the other folks did if you’re convicted and expect to be free,” Walton said. “It’s a consequence — as my mother once told me, ‘you make your bed you gotta lie in it.'”

Thompson is set to be sentenced in July.

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(CLENDENIN, W. Va.) — A historic flood from sudden torrential rain nearly wiped out entire towns in West Virginia’s mountainous coal country, killing 23 and inflicting $1 billion in damage. Six years later, many survivors remain unmoved by the growing threat of climate change and urgent calls to curb greenhouse gasses from burning coal.

“It’s weather all over, you know what I mean. I’m not a scientist, but I just don’t believe it,” said Mayor Kay Summers of Clendenin, a Republican elected two years ago to champion the rebuilding. “Every time it rains and storms, I’m lying awake at night. I know it can happen, but I just don’t think it will happen again.”

Communities in the heart of Appalachia are some of the most vulnerable in the country to the impacts of a warming global climate, according to government scientists, and among the most resistant to government-led efforts to blunt the impacts.

They are also the front line in a landmark environmental case before the U.S. Supreme Court, which will decide this spring how much authority the Environmental Protection Agency has to regulate earth-warming emissions from coal-fired power plants.

“I have never seen flooding like I’ve seen here in the past, really in the past 20 years,” said longtime environmental activist Maria Gunnoe, whose family has lived and mined in West Virginia for generations. “We can’t continue to risk everything for energy, you know, I mean – coal keeps the lights on, they say, but at what cost?”

The region’s recovery from the 2016 flood — and continued reliance on the fossil fuel economy — illustrate the dueling human and economic stakes in West Virginia’s lawsuit against the EPA.

Eighteen states led by West Virginia and a coalition of U.S. energy companies want strict limits on EPA authority to issue rules that could transform entire industries. The Biden administration argues that Congress gave EPA significant leeway under the Clean Air Act to write regulations to stave off climate catastrophe.

“It has incredible potential to affect how EPA and other agencies write regulations for years to come,” Kevin Minoli, a former EPA acting general counsel and career civil servant, said of the case.

The outcome could dramatically shape the future of coal-dependent communities like Clendenin and the coal-fired power plants that employ thousands of workers but also generate millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions every year.

Experts say strict limits to EPA authority could also make it impossible to cut U.S. carbon emissions in half by 2030 and entirely phase out fossil fuels like coal by 2050 — top White House objectives.

“While the EPA does have a narrow array of authority to act in the area of carbon emissions, it’s nowhere near what the Biden administration is suggesting,” said West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, who warns thousands of jobs, industry profits, state tax revenue and a reliable source of electricity are on the line.

While the extreme flood that submerged Clendenin was exceptional, government and academic climatologists warn that the threat of extreme rain events is growing across West Virginia, which already ranks third in the country in flooding disasters over the last 70 years.

Over the same period, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates more frequent and more powerful storms in the region have dumped 55% more rain.

Coal, one of West Virginia’s most lucrative exports, is used to generate a disproportionately high amount of the state’s electricity, around 90%, according to the Energy Information Administration. (Nationwide less than a quarter of electricity is produced from coal.)

The EPA argues in legal documents that Congress gave it sweeping discretion under the Clean Air Act to determine the best system of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to protect human health, and officials said this month that they are poised to release strict new limits on power plant pollution as soon as the Supreme Court rules.

“Our people want to have clean air. They want to have clean water. Absolutely. But you have to go through the process the right way,” Morrisey said. “To allow un-elected bureaucrats just to decide under the guise of good government – that’s not right. This is Congress’s decision to make, not the EPA.”

The state’s largest coal-fired power facility — the John Amos plant in Winfield, West Virginia — sits 40 miles west of Clendenin along the Kanawha River. It’s one of 174 coal-fired plants nationwide that could be impacted by the Supreme Court’s decision.

“They want to make rules but they don’t understand because they don’t walk in those shoes,” Mayor Summers said of EPA regulators.

American Electric Power, one of the nation’s largest utilities which owns the John Amos facility, granted ABC News Live rare access to see firsthand how its workforce of up to 1,000 full-time and contract workers generate enough power for two million homes and businesses across three states.

The plant burns up to 27,000 tons of coal a day during peak season, drawing on daily shipments of regional coal delivered by barge and by rail. Its three power units released 10.8 million tons of earth-warming carbon dioxide last year — or the equivalent of more than two million cars driven for a year — government records show.

In the mid-2000s, EPA regulations forced many U.S. power plants to invest in upgrading smokestacks with scrubbers that remove nearly all sulfur dioxide — a pollutant that can harm human health and contribute to acid rain.

Since then, the agency has attempted to enact new limits on power plant carbon dioxide emissions, a primary driver of global warming. Litigation has complicated that plan, but EPA expects to unveil a new approach this summer.

Energy companies nationwide, including American Electric Power, have slowly been transitioning to cheaper alternatives to coal. Twenty-eight percent of active coal-fired power plants are set to be retired by 2035.

“I grew up in coal country. I come from a community where we’re seeing massive job losses, massive job losses,” said Keena Mullins, co-founder and solar developer for Revolt Energy. “Coal and solar have to coexist here.”

Mullins runs West Virginia’s largest commercial solar installation in the shadow of the John Amos power plant. She says the legal fight over coal draws attention from a need to diversify the state’s energy portfolio.

“If we were to max out every available roof space in this state and all the usable land, we may be able to reach 30 percent of powering the grid — maybe,” she said.

West Virginia’s public utilities commission last year gave the John Amos plant and two other aging coal-fired facilities a new lease on life, approving more than $448 million in environmental upgrades to keep them burning coal until 2040. Part of the costs will be passed on to ratepayers.

“I think we need coal until we have enough, you know, until they figure out an alternate source,” said Ricky Brookover, a union boilermaker who works overnight installing upgrades at the Amos facility. “We put so much clean energy, clean stuff on [the plant]. Like, when you see the white smoke coming out of the stacks, it’s clean.”

Brookover, a 41-year-old father whose family has deep ties to the coal industry, says he doesn’t oppose the EPA but questions a drive to address a climate crisis he doesn’t see.

“I really feel that when I was a kid it was worse than it is now. You know what I mean? We had more snow when I was a kid. It seemed like there was more flooding,” he said.

As both sides brace for a decision by the Supreme Court, environmental advocates say they fear for the worst.

“The impact here is going to be increased mining, increased pollution,” said Gunnoe. “The coal industry has always kept our people in the dark, and I don’t look for it to change.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Following a call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President Joe Biden announced Wednesday his administration is authorizing an additional $800 million for weapons and ammunition for Ukraine, including artillery and armored personnel carriers, as it braces to defend itself from an expected new Russian offensive.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby walked reporters through the aid package in an afternoon press briefing, saying it includes “new capabilities that we have not provided to Ukraine.”

“We committed from the very beginning even before the invasion, to helping Ukraine be able to defend itself. This is a piece of that. And this is representative of the kinds of capabilities that the Ukrainians themselves have asked for and said they need as this fighting now gets focused on the eastern part of the country,” he said.

“How that gets interpreted by the Russians. you can ask Mr. Putin and the Kremlin,” Kirby added.

Biden announced the $800 million package in an earlier written statement. He also noted that Russia is preparing to focus its invasion in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine but affirmed the U.S. would continue to “provide Ukraine with the capabilities to defend itself.”

“This new package of assistance will contain many of the highly effective weapons systems we have already provided and new capabilities tailored to the wider assault we expect Russia to launch in eastern Ukraine. These new capabilities include artillery systems, artillery rounds, and armored personnel carriers,” Biden said.

“I have also approved the transfer of additional helicopters. In addition, we continue to facilitate the transfer of significant capabilities from our Allies and partners around the world,” Biden added.

According to the Pentagon, the list of new military hardware includes 155mm howitzer artillery — a specific request from Ukraine — 200 M-113 armored personnel carriers, 100 armored humvees, 300 Switchblade drones, and 11 MI-17 helicopters. The U.S. had given Ukraine five helicopters as part of an earlier shipment.

“And again, the Ukrainians have made it clear that in this fight that’s coming, artillery is a critical need — not just the artillery piece itself, but the rounds that go with it,” Kirby said following Biden’s announcement. “You can see, there’s 40,000 rounds that are going on with this — and we will be in an iterative conversation with them going forward and if they need additional artillery rounds, clearly the United States will do what we can to fill those needs.”

Reiterating the U.S. position not to send U.S. forces to fight in Ukraine, Kirby told reporters, “There will be no U.S. pilots flying the helicopters into Ukraine.”

“Unmanned coastal defense vessels” were also included on the lengthy list of equipment, some of which will require specific training.

The additional aid comes after Biden called Russia’s action’s in Ukraine “genocide” for the first time and as Zelenskyy warns Putin could use chemical weapons in Ukraine.

The U.S. has now given Ukraine more than $3 billion in security assistance.

ABC News’ Matt Seyler contributed to this story.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is getting both praise and criticism after doubling down on describing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine as “genocide” — the first time he’s used the term since the invasion began nearly 50 days ago — even as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for weeks has claimed that is what’s happening on the ground.

During prepared remarks in Iowa Tuesday blaming inflation and gas prices on “Putin’s price hike,” Biden said, “Your family budget, your ability to fill up your tank, none of it should on hinge on whether a dictator declares war and commits genocide half a world away.”

His use of the word raised questions among Washington reporters about whether it was an ad-libbed moment or a policy shift from the White House — until Biden later insisted he meant exactly what said.

“Yes, I called it genocide,” Biden told reporters after his remarks. “Because it has become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being able to be a Ukrainian. And the evidence is mounting. It’s different than it was last week, the more evidence is coming out of the — literally, the horrible things that the Russians have done in Ukraine and we’re going to only learn more and more about the devastation.”

Biden went on to acknowledge the U.S. government has an internal, legal process for designating whether genocide has occurred but still stood by what he indicated was his opinion.

“We’ll let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies, but it sure seems that way to me,” Biden added.

Genocide is defined as an act “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,” according to the United Nations’ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Zelenskyy has argued — and pleaded — for weeks that Russia has met this definition and called on Western leaders to use the same term. He was quick to applaud Biden’s comments as “true words of a true leader.”

The Kremlin, meanwhile, blasted the comment as Putin indicated this week indicated his invasion won’t stop until his goals are met and said peace talks with Kyiv had reached a “dead end.”

“We consider this kind of effort to distort the situation unacceptable,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday. “This is hardly acceptable from a president of the United States, a country that has committed well-known crimes in recent times.”

It’s not clear how many Western leaders will go as far as Biden and Zelenskyy — or what will take for them to reach the same conclusion.

No other Western nations have made the determination, aside from Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas tying Russia’s crimes to the term in a tweet. French President Emmanuel Macron suggested Wednesday he’s more “careful” with his words than the American president, saying only that “war crimes” have been confirmed.

“So far, it has been established that war crimes were committed by the Russian army and that it is now necessary to find those responsible and bring them to justice,” Macron told France 2 in an interview.

“I am very careful with some terms [genocide] these days,” he added. “I’m not sure the escalation of words is helping the cause right now.”

Macron also rebuked Biden’s language last month, when asked about Biden calling Putin a “butcher” and saying he “cannot remain in power” during remarks in Warsaw.

“I wouldn’t use those terms, because I continue to speak to President Putin,” Macron said in another interview with France 3. “Because what do we want to do collectively? We want to stop the war that Russia launched in Ukraine, without waging war and without escalation.”

Biden stood by his words then, saying he was “expressing moral outrage” but also clarified that he wasn’t “articulating a policy change” amid some fallout.

It’s unclear now what pushed Biden to change his stance on using the term “genocide” — because asked directly last week if he thought the atrocities documented in Bucha were genocide, he said no.

“I got criticized for calling Putin a war criminal. Well, the truth of the matter, you saw what happened in Bucha,” Biden said April 4. “He is a war criminal — but we have to gather the information, we have to continue to provide Ukraine with the weapons they need to continue to fight, and we have to gather all the detail so this could be an actual — have a war crime trial. This guy is brutal. What’s happening in Bucha is outrageous, and everyone sees it.”

Asked directly, “You agree this is genocide?”

“No, it is a war crime,” Biden replied.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan followed Biden’s comment the same day by saying the administration had not yet seen the “systematic deprivation of life” necessary to meet the definition of genocide.

“This is something we, of course, continue to monitor every day. Based on what we have seen so far, we have seen atrocities, we have seen war crimes. We have not yet seen a level of systematic deprivation of life of the Ukrainian people to rise to the level of genocide,” Sullivan said.

According to the White House, President Biden called President Zelenskyy Wednesday morning to update him on ongoing U.S. support for Ukraine.

This call comes as the U.S. could announce an additional military assistance package to Ukraine as soon as Wednesday that could be as much as $750 million, and include a range of new military hardware.

ABC News Sarah Kolinovsky, Molly Nagle and Luis Martinez contributed to this report.

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(PIERRE, S.D.) — South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg was impeached Tuesday by lawmakers in the state House of Representatives over the 2020 crash he was involved in that left a 55-year-old man dead.

The house voted 36-31 to impeach Ravnsborg and charged him with committing crimes that caused someone’s death, making “numerous misrepresentations” to law enforcement officers after the crash and using his office to navigate the criminal investigation, according to the articles of impeachment.

Ravnsborg was driving back from a dinner party hosted by the state Republican Party on Sept. 12, 2020, when he struck Joseph Boever, 55, who was walking on the road, a mile west of Highmore, South Dakota, police said. Ravnsborg called 911 and claimed he thought he hit an animal and drove home in another car, investigators said.

Boever’s body was found the next morning.

“When we’re dealing with the life of one of your citizens, I think that weighed heavily on everyone,” state Rep. Will Mortenson, who introduced the articles of impeachment, said in a statement following the vote.

Several members of Boever’s family, including his widow, Jennifer Boever, and his mother, Dorothy Boever, were in attendance during the vote. The family brought a picture of Joseph and Jennifer Boever on their wedding day.

“We were happy, and for this man to come along and take it away … this is just inexcusable,” Jennifer Boever told reporters after the vote. “I’m glad that we got the vote here, and now we just need the Senate’s help on this.”

Investigators determined that Ravnsborg was distracted while he was driving and his car crossed completely onto the highway shoulder before hitting Boever, who was carrying a flashlight. The investigators said officers didn’t believe some of Ravnsborg’s initial statements.

In August, Ravnsborg pleaded no contest to a pair of misdemeanor traffic charges related to the crash and was not sentenced to any prison time. He rejected several calls for his resignation from lawmakers, including South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a fellow Republican.

Ravnsborg will be temporarily removed from office pending an impeachment trial in the South Dakota state Senate. No date has been set for the trial. However, the state constitution says the Senate must wait at least 20 days before impeachment hearings can begin.

“The House of Representatives voted, and I respect the process, but I look forward to the Senate trial, where I believe I will be vindicated,” Ravnsborg, who is the first state official to be impeached in South Dakota history, said in a statement.

Prior to the vote, Ravnsborg sent letters to lawmakers before the vote urging them to exonerate him, the Argus Leader reported.

“Setting such a low precedent will affect many members of the Legislature who have been convicted of Class 2 and Class 1 misdemeanors,” he wrote.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Pentagon has been providing daily updates on the U.S. assessment of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Ukraine’s efforts to fight back.

Here are highlights of what a senior U.S. defense official told reporters Tuesday on Day 48:

Russia could use riot control agents to mask chemical weapons

A defense official said the U.S. cannot confirm whether Russia has used any chemical weapons in Mariupol or elsewhere in Ukraine, but the Defense Department has seen evidence Russia could consider disguising use of chemical weapons by making them look like more benign riot-control agents.

“In the past we’ve had indications that that could be one thing that the Russians look at, is the potential mixing of agents with the with the idea that they could disguise a more serious attack by using the vehicle and the techniques of riot control agents,” the official said.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby put out a similar statement Monday night addressing social media reports claiming Russia used a chemical weapon in Mariupol.

“These reports, if true, are deeply concerning and reflective of concerns that we have had about Russia’s potential to use a variety of riot control agents, including tear gas mixed with chemical agents, in Ukraine.”

Kirby, like the official on Tuesday, emphasized the U.S. cannot confirm the allegations.

On Tuesday, Kirby told reporters the U.S. is looking into the matter.

“We’re obviously taking it seriously and we’re monitoring it,” Kirby said. “We’re trying to do the best we can to figure out what, if anything, happened.”

Russian convoy creeping south

The Russian convoy approaching Izuim is still roughly 40 miles to the north of the key Ukrainian city, according to the official.

“We do assess that it’s moving, but not at breakneck speed,” the official said.

While the Pentagon doesn’t have a pristine view of what capabilities make up the convoy, it seems to be support-heavy.

“It includes some command and control elements, some enablers, and we think it’s also intended for resupply, perhaps an effort to amend their poor performance in logistics and sustainment in the north,” the official said.

Heavy fighting continues to the south of Izuim, with Russian forces about 12 miles from the city.

Mariupol stands

While Russian forces have devastated the coastal city of Mariupol with long-range strikes and have cut off essential supplies to the populace, Ukrainians continue to defend it.

“You’ve seen the devastation that Russian airstrikes have wrought on Mariupol in the city, but our assessment is that the Ukrainians are are still fighting for it,” Kirby said.

Mariupol is strategically important for both the Ukrainians and Russians.

“It’s obvious that the Russians want Mariupol because of its strategic location there at the south of that Donbas area and right on the Sea of Azov,” Kirby said. “It’s a major, important city… it would provide them unfettered and unhindered land access between the Donbas and Crimea.”

Meanwhile, Ukraine has its own clear incentives to keep Mariupol.

“It also has great significance to the Ukrainian people because of what it represents to their economic life, because it is their city and it’s part of their country,” Kirby said. “They haven’t given up on it, and we’re not giving up on them, either.”

Military aid for Ukraine

The $800 million military aid package for Ukraine authorized by President Joe Biden last month has mostly been delivered, and will be completed in the coming days, according to the official.

“Yesterday, two U.S. flights arrived in the region with everything from small-arms ammunition, machine guns, body armor, grenades and other explosives,” the official said.

So far, the U.S. has sent 19 out of an expected 20 flights needed to deliver the $800 million package.

While U.S. officials have said Russia has not hit support shipments coming over the border, there is an effort more broadly to disrupt Ukrainian forces’ ability to resupply themselves.

“They certainly have shown an interest in trying to hit logistics and sustainment for the Ukrainians, and they have certainly tried to go after Ukrainian air defense as well,” the official said.

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(NEW YORK) — President Joe Biden addressed the New York City subway system shooting that left at least 29 injured on Tuesday while he was in Iowa as federal authorities in Washington assist New York officials in an intense manhunt for the suspect.

“To start, I’d like to say a few words about the mass shooting in New York City subway this morning, you all read and heard about,” Biden began, before delivering remarks on easing gas prices. “Jill and I and my wife Jill and I are praying for those who are injured and all those touched by that trauma, and we’re grateful for all the first responders who jumped into action, including civilians — civilians who didn’t hesitate to help their fellow passengers and try to shield them.”

“We’re going to continue to stay in close contact with New York authorities and as we learn more about the situation over the coming hours and days,” he said. “We’re not letting up on it until we find out, and we find the perpetrator,” he said.

Biden was briefed on the shooting earlier, White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted, before he departed for Iowa. Senior White House staff are also in contact with New York City Mayor Adams and Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell as the situation unfolds, she said, and Biden reiterated.

En route to Des Moines, Psaki told reporters on Air Force One that she spoke with Biden aboard the plane about the ongoing situation and said the president reiterated a commitment to provide assistance to local leaders on the ground as the investigation continues.

“Anything they need, anything they want. We are here to help them and provide that to them,” Psaki said.

She said Biden and New York City Mayor Eric Adams have not yet had a phone call Tuesday.

The still at-large suspect — who police said was wearing a green vest and a hooded gray sweatshirt — is believed to have opened fire inside at least one subway station during morning rush hour traffic. There are at least three active crime scenes in Brooklyn. Authorities said at an earlier press conference that the lone gunman put on a gas mask, deployed a smoke canister, and when the subway car filled with smoke, opened fire inside the car and on the platform.

Among those injured, according to the FDNY, 10 were shot. Five people are in critical but stable condition.

The NYPD has put out a citywide alert for a UHAUL vehicle and shared a description of the suspect with federal authorities. The shooter’s motive remains unclear, police said.

Vice President Kamala Harris has received regular updates on the shooting, according to a White House official. Attorney General Merrick Garland and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas have also been briefed.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York tweeted that he is “closely monitoring” the unfolding situation in what he called “our beloved Brooklyn.”

“I’m grateful for the quick action of our first responders,” he said. “To everyone in New York: Stay safe.”

The shooting sparking panic across New York City comes as Adams has vowed to combat gun violence as mayor amid a recent surge in crime.

ABC News’ Aaron Katersky, Josh Margolin, Alexander Mallin and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Just as he was emerging as a top target of the House committee investigating the Capitol attack, former Trump lawyer John Eastman took a trip to Wisconsin.

Eastman, a right-wing lawyer who drafted a plan for former President Donald Trump to cling to power by falsely claiming then-Vice President Mike Pence could reject legitimate electors during the 2020 presidential election, was part of a small group of Trump allies who secured a private meeting last month to try and convince the Republican leader of the Wisconsin state Assembly to decertify President Joe Biden’s win, multiple sources familiar with the meeting told ABC.

On March 16, Eastman and others spent nearly two hours behind closed doors pressuring Republican Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to nullify the 2020 election and reclaim the electors awarded to Biden, the sources said, which legal experts say is impossible.

Eastman was subpoenaed by the congressional committee looking into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol in November. He had been bucking the panel’s request for documents, claiming attorney client privilege, until a federal judge recently ordered most of them turned over.

Eastman in the meeting urged Vos to decertify the election, sources familiar with the meeting said. According to Jefferson Davis, a Wisconsin activist pushing to reverse Biden’s victory who was also in the meeting, Trump’s former lawyer pushed Vos to start “reclaiming the electors” and move forward with “either a do over or having a new slate of electors seated that would declare someone else the winner.”

When reached for comment, Eastman said in a statement to ABC News, “By explicit request from Speaker Vos, that meeting was confidential, so I am not able to make any comment.”

Following the meeting, Vos reiterated his position that the 2020 election can’t be decertified. Vos, however, has pushed claims of widespread election fraud and was held in contempt by a judge last month for failing to turn over documents related to a Republican-led investigation he had launched himself in May 2021 into the 2020 election.

His office did not respond to multiple requests for comment from ABC News.

The Wisconsin meeting is just one instance among many in an ongoing effort by Eastman and other Trump allies who, even 15 months into President Joe Biden’s tenure, have continued to push for the results of the 2020 election to be overturned despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

In February, Eastman also joined leaders of Colorado’s election denial campaign, holding an “emergency town hall meeting” in Castle Rock. The meeting, organized by FEC United founder Joe Oltman, rallied the crowd against Secretary of State Jenna Griswold, falsely accusing her of participating in an election fraud conspiracy.

During the meeting, Eastman boasted about his involvement in election lawsuits in Texas, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Wisconsin and decried the “attacks” that he and others who push election conspiracies have experienced, calling it “pure evil,” according to a video of the meeting posted by FEC United.

Eastman has said he attended a gathering of Trump supporters at the Willard Hotel on Jan. 5, 2021 and spoke before Trump at the “Save America” rally the next day. Eastman also has said publicly that he, along with other Trump allies, had a so-called “war room” set up at the hotel for several days preceding and on Jan. 6.

Trump has been watching the decertification push closely, saying in a statement last month following the Wisconsin meeting that “Speaker Vos should do the right thing and correct the Crime of the Century—immediately! It is my opinion that other states will be doing this, Wisconsin should lead the way!”

The former president has been in contact with multiple people in Wisconsin working on the effort and has received regular updates from MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, sources said, who has spread wild and baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 vote count.

Lindell, who remains a close confidant of the former president, has participated in the Wisconsin pressure campaign with his own team of people including Douglas Frank, who was prominently featured at the My Pillow CEO’s conspiracy-filled “Cyber Symposium” last August, Army Reserve Lt. Colonel Ivan Raiklin, who has also worked closely with former Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn to overturn the 2020 election and Shawn Smith, a Colorado-based activist who has called Lindell an “angel investor” in her organization devoted to “election integrity.”

While Lindell was absent from the March 16 meeting, Frank, Raiklin and Smith attended with Eastman, according to sources familiar with the meeting.

Lindell is currently facing a $1.3 billion lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems for promoting false claims about their voting machines. He traveled to Mar-a-Lago last Thursday to attend a fundraiser for Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake that featured the former president.

As Eastman continues his campaign to overturn the election, he has become of greater interest to investigators on the Jan. 6 committee, the panel has publicly indicated.

Last month, a federal judge ruled that Eastman must turn over most of the documents he has been withholding from the committee. The panel has begun receiving and reviewing the documents, according to sources.

The judge, who reviewed the documents privately, said that Trump “more likely than not” committed felony obstruction in the effort to overturn the election.

Eastman and others continue to push to decertify President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in Wisconsin despite multiple recounts, court filings and audits failing to identify any widespread fraud in the battleground state.

Reviews and audits in other states including Georgia and Arizona, have also failed to substantiate claims about widespread election fraud.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden, in conjunction with the Department of Justice, announced a new measure Monday to crack down on what law enforcement says is the growing problem of “ghost guns” and called on Congress to pass universal background checks.

“They call this rule I’m about to announce extreme. ‘Extreme,'” Biden said at the White House Rose Garden event. “But let me ask you — is it extreme to protect police officers, extreme to protect our children, extreme to keep guns out of the hands of people who couldn’t even pass a background check?”

A “ghost gun” is a firearm that comes packaged in parts, can be bought online and assembled without much of a trace — a point Biden demonstrated with props.

“It’s not hard to put together,” Biden said, showcasing its pieces. “Anyone could order it in the mail, anyone … Terrorists and domestic abusers can go from a gun kit to a gun in as little as 30 minutes. Buyers aren’t required to pass background checks because guns have no serial numbers.”

The new rule essentially expands the definition of a “firearm,” as established by the Gun Control Act, to cover “buy build shoot” kits that people can buy online or from a firearm dealer and assemble themselves. It will make these kits subject to the same federal laws that currently apply to other firearms.

The goal, officials said, is to keep untraceable guns off of the streets and out of the hands of those who are prohibited by law from possessing a firearm.

“We call them ghost guns because they can’t be traced, but make no mistake. They are real. They can shoot to kill, and they do,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “For years criminals have sought out these unmarked guns to murder and to maim. That’s why the attorney general has signed a rule that updates our regulations to keep up with changes in technology.”

With families affected by gun violence invited to the White House Monday, Mia Tretta, a survivor of a 2019 high school shooting in Santa Clarita, California, memorialized two classmates, Dominic Blackwell and Gracie Ann Muelburger, who were killed with a ghost gun, and introduced Biden, whom she called “the strongest gun-sense commander in chief ever to hold office.”

“Starting today, weapons like the one used in Saugus High School and to ambush deputies that are here with us today are being treated like the deadly firearms they are,” Biden said. “If you commit a crime with a ghost gun, expect federal prosecution.”

“This rule is an important step, it’s going to make a difference, I promise you,” Biden added.

ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega pressed the White House on this promise at the daily White House briefing.

“Can you say, this administration say there will be fewer shootings, as a result of what the president is doing today?” Vega asked press secretary Jen Psaki.

“That’s always our hope and our objective, right, is to reduce the impact of gun violence as we’ve seen, violence go up. We have seen a huge vast majority of that nearly three quarters as a result of guns and ghost guns, as you said, Cecilia, are used by simply clicking and ordering online, ordering a kit that people can make in their homes,” Psaki said.

Commercial manufacturers of those kits will now have to be licensed and include serial numbers on the kits’ frame or receivers. In addition, commercial sellers will have to be federally licensed and run background checks before selling a kit.

A senior administration official told ABC News, “At its core, this rule clarifies that anyone who wants to purchase a weapon parts kit that can be readily be converted to a fully assembled firearm must go through the same process they would have to go through to purchase a commercially made firearm in short weapon parts kits that may be readily convertible into working fully assembled firearms must be treated under federal law.”

The rule also tackles ghost guns already made and in circulation. The DOJ will require federally licensed dealers that take in any un-serialized firearms to serialize them before selling the weapon. If a licensed dealer acquires a ghost gun, the rule will require them to serialize it before re-selling it.

“This requirement will apply regardless of how the firearm was made, meaning it includes ghost guns made from individual parts, kits, or by 3D-printers,” a fact sheet of the new rule shared with ABC News reads.

“If you can put together an IKEA dresser, you can build a ghost gun,” Tretta, also a volunteer leader with Students Demand Action, told ABC News ahead of Monday’s event. “Unfortunately, it is that easy to get a weapon that has not only changed my life but has done the same thing to thousands of others. Finalizing this rule is a critical step to making sure no one else has to go through what my family has had to go through.”

The rule also updates the definition of a “frame” and “receiver” so that all using split or multi-part receivers are covered under existing gun laws and will be subject to serial numbers and background checks. It also extends the 20-year record retention requirement that all Federal Firearm Licensees must adhere to. Under the rule, FFLs must retain records for as long as the dealer is licensed.

While some gun advocacy groups are threatening to sue over the rule, Psaki said Monday the administration felt confident it would be able to continue to implement it.

Gun Owners of America has vowed to fight the rule it calls “pure gun control,” claiming it “will do far more than the White House is pretending.”

The National Rifle Association tweeted, “Biden’s gun control actions will hearten his wealthy gun control supporters. But, this action sends the wrong message to violent criminals, because this “ban” will not affect them. These violent crime sprees will continue unabated until they are arrested/prosecuted/punished.”

From January 2016 to December 2021, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said it received “approximately 45,000 reports of suspected privately made firearms recovered by law enforcement in criminal investigations — including 692 homicides or attempted homicides,” according to the DOJ.

New ATF director

Biden also announced the nomination of Steve Dettelbach as the new director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

“Steve’s record makes him ready on day one to lead this agency,” Biden said. “And by the way, in 2009, the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed him to serve as U.S. Attorney.”

Dettelbach served the Justice Department for two decades, Biden said, ticking through his accomplishments.

A senior administration official said of Biden’s nominee, “He has a proven track record of working with federal, state, and local law enforcement to fight violent crime and combat domestic violent extremism and religious violence — including through partnerships with the ATF to prosecute complex cases and take down violent criminal gangs.”

The official did not specify whether the interim ATF director, Marvin Richardson, will remain in place during the confirmation process.

Psaki couldn’t say on Monday what impact not having a confirmed leader of the bureau since 2015 was having on crime — but put the onus on Republicans to help confirm Dettelbach given concerns over the crime rate.

“He’s received bipartisan support from law enforcement leaders. He was confirmed unanimously when he was nominated to serve as a federal prosecutor. And our view is that if Republicans are about getting tough on crime as we are and keeping our communities safe, they should support a career prosecutor like Steve Dettelbach who can make the ATF more effective in getting guns off our streets and stopping criminals,” she said.

Some gun safety advocacy organizations applauded the pick.

“We applaud the Biden-Harris Administration for doubling down on its commitment to gun safety by taking action to rein in ghost guns and nominating an ATF Director who will end its culture of complicity with the gun industry,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, told ABC News. “Steve Dettelbach will be the strong leader the ATF needs to lead a top-to-bottom overhaul of the agency, and we urge the Senate to swiftly confirm him.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden and the Department of Justice are set to announce a final rule on “ghost guns” on Monday in the Rose Garden.

A “ghost gun” is a firearm that comes packaged in parts, can be bought online and assembled without much of a trace.

The new rule essentially expands the definition of a “firearm,” as established by the Gun Control Act, to cover “buy build shoot” kits that people can buy online or from a firearm dealer and assemble themselves. It will make these kits subject to the same federal laws that currently apply to other firearms.

“At its core, this rule clarifies that anyone who wants to purchase a weapon parts kit that can be readily be converted to a fully assembled firearm must go through the same process they would have to go through to purchase a commercially made firearm in short weapon parts kits that may be readily convertible into working fully assembled firearms must be treated under federal law,” a senior administration official told ABC News.

Commercial manufacturers of the kits will have to be licensed and include serial numbers on the kits’ frame or receivers. In addition, commercial sellers will have to be federally licensed and run background checks before selling a kit.

The final rule also tackles ghost guns that have already been made and are in circulation. The DOJ will require federally licensed dealers that take in any un-serialized firearms to serialize it before selling the weapon. If a licensed dealer acquires a ghost gun, the rule will require them to serialize it before re-selling it.

“This requirement will apply regardless of how the firearm was made, meaning it includes ghost guns made from individual parts, kits, or by 3D-printers,” a fact sheet of the new rule shared with ABC News.

“If you can put together an IKEA dresser, you can build a ghost gun,” Mia Tretta, a volunteer leader with Students Demand Action and a gun violence survivor who was shot and wounded with a ghost gun in a school shooting in 2019, told ABC News. “Unfortunately, it is that easy to get a weapon that has not only changed my life but has done the same thing to thousands of others. Finalizing this rule is a critical step to making sure no one else has to go through what my family has had to go through.”

The final rule also updates the definition of a “frame” and “receiver” so that all using split or multi-part receivers are covered under existing gun laws and will be subject to serial numbers and background checks.

The rule also extends the 20-year record retention requirement that all Federal Firearm Licensees must adhere to. Under the rule, FFLs must retain records for as long as the dealer is licensed.

From January 2016 to December 2021, the ATF said it received “approximately 45,000 reports of suspected privately made firearms recovered by law enforcement in criminal investigations — including 692 homicides or attempted homicides,” according to the DOJ.

New ATF director

Biden and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco are also set to announce the nomination of Steve Dettelbach as the new director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

“Steve is a highly respected former U.S. Attorney and career prosecutor,” a senior administration official said. “He has a proven track record of working with federal, state, and local law enforcement to fight violent crime and combat domestic violent extremism and religious violence — including through partnerships with the ATF to prosecute complex cases and take down violent criminal gangs.”

The official did not specify whether the interim ATF director, Marvin Richardson, will remain in place during the confirmation process.

“We applaud the Biden-Harris Administration for doubling down on its commitment to gun safety by taking action to rein in ghost guns and nominating an ATF Director who will end its culture of complicity with the gun industry,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, told ABC News. “Steve Dettelbach will be the strong leader the ATF needs to lead a top-to-bottom overhaul of the agency, and we urge the Senate to swiftly confirm him.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.