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(NEW YORK) — Eight people and six companies have been charged in a series of indictments with pervasive fraud and corruption in the construction industry, motivated by “greed at all costs,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. said Tuesday while announcing the indictments.
The defendants allegedly deceived government agencies that award projects to minority and women-owned businesses (MWBE).
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is charging the drywall and carpentry company JM3 Construction, its owner Lawrence “Larry” Wecker, project manager Michael Speier, and other co-conspirators for allegedly taking part “in multiple criminal schemes to increase their business and revenues to the detriment of their workers and fair competition within this industry,” Bragg said.
According to one indictment, JM3 Construction falsified business records to make it seem as though the company was working with minority and women-owned businesses, and awarded lucrative city and state contracts.
“These defendants, as charged, enriched themselves at the expense of a program intended to assist minority and women-owned businesses, by deceiving city and state government entities, part of a series of frauds that shortchanged workers and undermined fair competition,” New York City Department of Investigation Commissioner Jocelyn E. Strauber said.
Bragg alleges that JM3 obtained government-subsidized affordable housing contracts by listing minority and women-owned contractors on paper, while using non-MWBE contractors to do the work, a scheme that the district attorney said put actual MWBE companies at a disadvantage.
“We have zero tolerance for anyone seeking to defraud the city and harm minority and women-owned businesses,” New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Adolfo Carrión Jr. said in the statement announcing the charges. “We stand by our commitment to diversifying who the city does business with and we thank the Manhattan District Attorney’s office for bringing these bad actors to light.”
Bragg said the company and Wecker stole money from subcontractors and falsified business records, as well as fixed bids for construction projects to guarantee that the company was awarded projects with inflated costs that covered the alleged bribes.
The DA further alleges that JM3 and Wecker inflated the price of a nearly $10 million drywall contract by $400,000, so the company could pay $50,000 to Adrian Esparragoza, a general contractor who gave them the contract.
The district attorney’s office charged Esparragoza with providing insider information to Wecker and Speier to get the contract.
Bragg claims that JM3 Construction used subcontractors with multi-million-dollar payrolls to cash checks, under shell companies, that were allegedly for payments to legitimate subcontractor services.
“None of that cash was reported to the New York State Insurance Fund, meaning workers operating in this very dangerous industry were exposed and underinsured,” Bragg said on Tuesday.
Bragg said the defendants swindled NYSIF out of more than $2 million.
(NEW ORLEANS) — A third detainee who escaped from a Mississippi jail more than a week ago was found dead inside a vehicle at a New Orleans truck stop on Sunday, authorities said.
Casey Grayson, 34, was one of four men who broke out of the Raymond Detention Center in Hinds County last month, local authorities said.
His cause of death is pending an autopsy, Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones said Tuesday.
“There was drug paraphernalia and suspected narcotics recovered in close proximity to where he was discovered in the vehicle,” Jones told reporters during a press briefing Tuesday, noting that there was no foul play suspected.
Authorities believe a family member may have provided the white pickup truck that Grayson was discovered in following his escape, but “that is still under investigation,” Jones said. A security guard found him unresponsive in the truck and alerted authorities, Jones said.
Since the breach, one of the detainees was killed in a shootout with law enforcement and another was taken into custody in Texas, while a fourth remains at large.
The four detainees escaped through the roof of the Hinds County jail on April 21, according to the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office. The men were discovered missing from the jail early the following day after a headcount, according to Jones. The men were pretrial detainees, meaning they were being held in prison while awaiting trial.
Grayson had been detained since mid-February and was charged with the sale of a controlled substance and grand larceny, according to Jones. The sheriff’s office received information last week that Grayson may have been in the New Orleans area, he said.
The discovery comes after one of the escaped detainees, 51-year-old Jerry Raynes, was captured in Spring Valley, Texas, in the Houston area, last week. He is in the process of being extradited to Mississippi, Jones said Tuesday.
Raynes had been in the Raymond Detention Center since January 2022 after being charged with auto theft and business burglary and has a history of escaping pretrial detention facilities, according to Jones. He faces additional charges of escape and auto theft, the sheriff said.
Another one of the escaped detainees — 22-year-old Dylan Arrington — was killed in a shootout with deputies at a residence in Leake County on April 26, according to Jones. Arrington had barricaded himself inside the home, which somehow became engulfed in flames during the standoff, Jones said.
While on the loose, Arrington was believed to be involved in a fatal carjacking in Jackson on April 24. The victim — identified as the Rev. Anthony Watts — was believed to have pulled over to help after someone crashed a motorcycle before he was fatally shot, authorities said.
Arrington had been in the detention center since April 13 after being charged with auto theft and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, according to the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office.
The fourth detainee was identified by the sheriff’s office as Corey Harrison, 22, who was charged with receiving stolen property and had been detained since April 7.
Jones said Tuesday that Harrison is believed to be affiliated with the Hinds County area but “I do not have an exact location on where he may be at this particular time.”
ABC News’ Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Six people are dead and dozens more injured after a massive pileup Monday in Illinois caused by a sudden dust storm, officials said.
More than 30 people were injured and transported to the hospital, including multiple people with life-threatening injuries, Illinois State Police Maj. Ryan Starrick said during an afternoon press conference. Victims range in age from 2 to 80 years old, Starrick said.
The crash took place at about 11 a.m. local time on Interstate 55 in Montgomery County, officials said. Car accidents were reported on both north and southbound lanes of I-55 for a 2-mile stretch.
Forty to 60 passenger vehicles and at least 30 commercial vehicles were involved in the crash, including two semi-trucks that caught fire, police said.
The cause of the crash was excessive winds blowing dirt from farm fields across the highway, Starrick said. The crash prompted a response from a flurry of emergency vehicles and multiple helicopters.
The Montgomery County Coroner’s Officer confirmed to ABC News the identity of one of the victims as Shirley Harper, 88, of Franklin, Wisconsin, who was a passenger in a vehicle that was being driven by her daughter. Her daughter survived and is currently hospitalized, authorities said.
Leach, who was driving an RV from Illinois to Texas, told ABC News that she had been stuck in traffic behind the massive crash for five hours.
“It actually looks like snow almost when I was sending [my kids] videos,” said Karen Leach, who was caught up in the storm. “And it just it feels like, like the end of the world.”
The stretch of I-55 where the accident took place is expected to be closed at least through the evening, Starrick said.
“My team and I are closely following the devastating crash on I-55 as authorities learn more,” Rep. Nikki Budzinski wrote on Twitter. “Please be safe as this situation continues to unfold.”
The same stretch of interstate was closed again Tuesday “due to high winds and low visibility,” Illinois State Police tweeted, noting that it was ” out of an abundance of caution” and there were no crashes.
ABC News’ Darren Reynolds contributed to this report.
Steven Tyler is claiming free speech in his latest attempt to thwart the lawsuit brought by the woman accusing him of sexual assault in the ’70s.
According to legal documents obtained by People, Tyler is arguing that the woman, Julia Misley, who was previously known as Julia Holcolmb, can’t claim his 2011 memoir, Does This Noise In My Head Bother You?, caused her “emotional distress” because she isn’t identified in the book. Plus, he contends, his writings constitute free speech.
The documents note, “Tyler’s statements in his memoirs, including his statements about his relationship with Plaintiff, thus concern a matter of public interest and qualify as protected activity.”
The Aerosmith frontman’s also claiming that since the book was released in 2011, Misley waited too long to file her claim and the statute of limitations has already passed.
The documents, filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, also argue that Tyler’s writings “do not qualify as outrageous conduct that was intended to cause emotional distress,” stating the contents of the book “relay his own experiences from his newsworthy life.”
He suggests Misley can’t prove that she actually “experienced severe emotional distress” from the book, aruging that if she had she wouldn’t have been able to talk about their relationship “for over decade.” He points out that in her professional speaker bio she refers to herself as his “former girlfriend.”
Misley filed her lawsuit back in December, accusing Tyler of sexual assault, assault and battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
(NEW YORK) — More than a year after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine, the countries are fighting for control of areas in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian troops have liberated nearly 30,000 square miles of their territory from Russian forces since the invasion began on Feb. 24, 2022, but Putin appeared to be preparing for a long and bloody war.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
May 02, 6:12 PM EDT
Explosions reported in Kyiv
Explosions were reported in Kyiv around 1:00 a.m. Wednesday local time, according to Suspilne, the Ukrainian public broadcaster.
The Ukrainian Air Defense Forces were activated in response, the Kyiv City Military Administration reported.
Reports of damage, and number of people injured or killed were not immediately available.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman and Max Uzol
May 02, 12:38 PM EDT
Marine veteran killed while evacuating civilians in Ukraine
A 26-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran was killed in a mortar strike last month in Ukraine while working to evacuate civilians, his family confirmed to ABC News this week.
Cooper Andrews died on April 19 in the Bakhmut area, his cousin Willow Pastard, who is speaking on his family’s behalf, told ABC News.
The State Department announced Monday that an American citizen died in Ukraine, though did not provide more details or an identity “out of respect for the family’s privacy during this difficult time.”
“We are in touch with the family and providing all possible consular assistance,” a spokesperson for the agency said in a statement.
At least nine deaths of U.S. citizens who have volunteered to fight in Ukraine have been officially reported since the war began last year, according to the State Department.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
May 01, 3:54 PM EDT
2 dead, 40 wounded in latest Russian strikes
Two men were killed and at least 40 people, including children, were injured after Russian missiles struck Pavlograd, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other officials said.
Serhii Lysak, the head of the military administration of the Dnipropetrovsk, said 19 high-rise buildings, 25 private houses, six schools and preschool education institutions and five shops were hit by the missiles.
Five children were among the wounded officials said. The youngest victim is 8 years old, according to officials.
-ABC News’ Wil Gretsky
May 01, 3:07 PM EDT
Russia suffered 100K casualties in Bakhmut since December: White House
The U.S. estimates that Russia has suffered over 100,000 casualties, including over 20,000 killed in action, from the battles in Bakhmut since December, White House spokesman John Kirby said Monday
Half of the 20,000 killed in action were members of the Russian-backed private military Wagner Group, according to Kirby. The majority of Wagner fighters killed were allegedly ex-convicts, according to Kirby.
Kirby said that the data came from “some downgraded intelligence,” that the U.S. has been able to collect. He was unable to provide data on deaths of Ukrainian fighters.
Kirby emphasized that the U.S. thinks Bakhmut holds “very little strategic value for Russia” and if captured by Russia it “would absolutely not alter the course of the war in Russia’s favor.”
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson
May 01, 1:41 PM EDT
State Department confirms US citizen dies in Ukraine
The State Department announced Monday that an American citizen died in Ukraine.
“We are in touch with the family and providing all possible consular assistance,” a spokesperson for the agency said in a statement.
The State Department declined to provide more details or an identity “out of respect for the family’s privacy during this difficult time.” It is not immediately clear when the death took place.
At least 10 U.S. citizen deaths in Ukraine have been officially confirmed by the State Department since the war began last year. The majority of those deaths were of Americans who volunteered to fight alongside Ukrainians, according to officials.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Apr 30, 5:48 PM EDT
Russian missile attack in Dnipropetrovsk region hits Ukrainian cities: Reports
A Russian missile airstrike was reported in different areas of Ukraine Sunday evening.
Sixteen Russian Tu-95 bombers were reported in the air from various airfields and explosions were reported in the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine at 10:51 p.m. local time.
“Presumably, Kh-101 cruise missiles are actively flying at the Pavlograd-1 and Pavlograd-2 railway stations, where trains with APU (Ukrainian Armed Forces) equipment and people were located,” a Russian Telegram channel, Military Chronicle, said.
Several explosions were heard in the city of Pavlograd, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, local Ukrainian media reported.
An air alert was announced for the region at 9:30 p.m. local time and about 10:00 p.m., social networks began to report explosions in Pavlograd.
According to local media, repeated explosions were heard in the city at 10:20 p.m.
The strikes destroyed Ukrainian anti-aircraft missiles for the S-300 complex on Pavlograd, Russian Telegram channel Intel Slava reported.
S-300s are long-range surface-to-air missiles.
Supply vehicles with reserve ammunition that belong to the Ukrainian Armed Forces were also hit, the channel said, citing eyewitness accounts.
Intel Slava is funded by the Russian government.
“The detonation of rockets has been going on for almost an hour,” the Intel Slava post said.
It’s unclear how many people were injured or killed.
-ABC News’ Fidel Pavlenko and Anastasia Bagaeva
Apr 30, 2:00 PM EDT
Leader of Russian mercenary group threatens mutiny
The Russian oligarch behind the Wagner private paramilitary group fighting for the Kremlin in Ukraine is threatening a mutiny if his forces are not resupplied with ammunition soon.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, owner and curator of the Wagner group, penned a letter to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigue, demanding ammunition be provided to his forces on the battlefield.
In the letter, Prigozhin wrote that if supply problems are not fixed fast, he will complain to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his mercenaries would abandon their positions in Bakhmut, Ukraine, where heavy fighting has been going on for weeks, The Moscow Times reported.
“I appeal to Shoigu with a request to immediately issue ammunition. In case of refusal, I consider it necessary to convey to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief information about the existing problem in order to make a decision and about the advisability of further presence of Wagner PMC in Bakhmut in the conditions of a shortage of ammunition,” Prigozhin wrote.
He added, “If the deficit is not replenished … we will be forced to withdraw part of the units from this territory, and then everything else will crumble. Therefore, the bell is already ringing — it is called an alarm.”
Emphasizing the urgency, Prigozhin noted that Ukraine is planning to launch a counteroffensive soon.
There was no immediate public response from Shoigu or the Kremlin.
“We need to stop deceiving the population and telling that everything is fine with us,” Prigozhin wrote. “I must honestly say: Russia is on the brink of disaster. If these screws are not adjusted today, the ‘aircraft’ will crumble in the air.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday wished Ukrainian military forces success in what he described as the “main battles” that are “coming soon.”
Zelenskyy’s statement came a day after he said at a news conference in Kyiv that Ukrainian forces will soon launch a counteroffensive, likely before F-16 fighter jets promised by Western allies arrive.
“Dear warriors, the main battles are coming soon. We must free our land and our people from Russian slavery,” Zelenskyy said at an event where he bestowed medals to members of the county’s Border Guard forces.
Apr 30, 5:52 AM EDT
Counteroffensive expected ahead of Western jet deliveries
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian counteroffensive will start before Ukraine receives F-16 fighter jets promised by Western countries.
“Frankly speaking, it would help us a lot. But we also understand that we can’t drag it [the counteroffensive] out, which is why we’ll start before we receive F-16 [aircrafts] or other models,” Zelenskyy said at a news conference for Scandinavian media held in Kyiv on Saturday, according to a script provided by Reuters.
He added, “But to calm Russia down with the fact that we’d still need a couple of months to train on the aircrafts and only then we’d start; No, this won’t happen. We’ll start and go forward, while at the same time, simultaneously, I think this is very important [to receive western fighter aircrafts.]”
He said Ukraine is “capable of putting an end to this war.”
Also on Saturday, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Ukraine received a signal from some countries about the readiness to start training Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets.
According to Kuleba, the F-16 fighter jet is the ideal aircraft due to its technical characteristics, although Kyiv does not overlook other aircraft, either. The minister added that the decisive word on issuing F-16s will be with the United States, because these are American fighters.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres and Max Uzol
Apr 29, 1:49 PM EDT
23 dead in Russian attack on high-rise building, 17 saved from rubble
A Russian attack on a high-rise building in Uman has left 23 people dead. Among the dead were six children between the ages of one and 17 years old, according to the Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs, Ihor Volodymyrovych Klymenko.
Rescuers, policemen and volunteers managed to save 17 people from the rubble. Heavy machinery and special equipment were involved, according to officials.
Two more women are considered missing, officials said. But the search and rescue operation has concluded, officials said.
“My sincere condolences to the relatives of the deceased. We will punish this evil. We will not allow it to grow. We will definitely stand up and win,” Klymenko said.
-ABC News’ Tatyana Rymarenko
Apr 28, 12:18 PM EDT
Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities kill 24, including children
Russian airstrikes targeted several cities across Ukraine early Friday, killing at least 24 people, Ukrainian officials said.
The city of Uman in central Ukraine’s Cherkasy Oblast was the worst affected. Several buildings were damaged or destroyed. One of the strikes hit an apartment building, killing at least 22 people, including three children, and injuring another 18 people, according to Cherkasy Oblast Gov. Ihor Taburets. The attack happened at around 4:30 a.m. local time, when most people would have been asleep. An entire section of the nine-story building collapsed, with 27 apartments completely destroyed. There were 109 people who lived in that part of the building, according to Ukrainian police. Rescue teams were expected to spend all day and night searching for survivors in the rubble.
Dnipro, Ukraine’s fourth-largest city and a major industrial hub located in southeastern Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, was hit by “high-precision” strikes in the early morning hours, leaving a woman and a 3-year-old child dead, according to Dnipro Mayor Boris Filatov.
Russian strikes also targeted Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital and largest city, but there were no reports of any casualties or damages. It was the first such attack on the capital in 51 days, according to the Kyiv City Military Administration. Preliminary data shows 11 cruise missiles and two drones were destroyed in Kyiv’s airspace, the city military administration said.
Apr 28, 11:54 AM EDT
Ukraine says it’s ‘ready’ for counteroffensive
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Friday the military is “ready” to launch a counteroffensive against Russian forces.
“It’s up to the general staff and the command,” Reznikov said during a press briefing in Kyiv. “We will do it as soon as there is God’s will, the weather and the commanders’ decision.”
Ukraine has received Patriot missile defense systems from the United States as well as Germany and the Netherlands. The Ukrainian military has been trained on how to use the systems and “mastered” them within weeks, according to Reznikov.
“The exact number of batteries, I’m sorry, I won’t say,” he added. “Let the enemy guess.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged the world not to consider or call the anticipated counteroffensive “a decisive battle.” Speaking at a press conference in Odesa on Friday, Kuleba said the decisive battle is the one that will lead to the liberation of all occupied Ukrainian territories.
One person was killed and 23 people, including a child, were wounded in a Russian missile strike in Mykolaiv early Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
The missile struck a block that had apartments, houses and a historic building, according to Zelenskyy.
“The terrorists will not get away with this yet another crime against humanity,” the president said in a statement.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Apr 26, 12:50 PM EDT
Zelenskyy has 1st call with China’s Xi Jinping since war began
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping in what was the two leaders’ first official contact since January 2022, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Xi announced that he will send a special envoy to visit Ukraine and “other countries” to work on a political solution.
“I believe that this call, as well as the appointment of Ukraine’s ambassador to China, will give a powerful impetus to the development of our bilateral relations,” Zelenskyy said in a statement on Twitter.
The Chinese government’s official position still refuses to call the war an “invasion.”
The call between the two leaders is said to have lasted an hour, according to Zelenskyy’s office.
“Before the full-scale Russian invasion, China was Ukraine’s number one trading partner. I believe that our conversation today will give a powerful impetus to the return, preservation and development of this dynamic at all levels,” Zelenskyy said in a statement.
-ABC News’ Karson Yiu, Cindy Smith and Will Gretsky
Apr 25, 1:03 PM EDT
At least 2 dead, 10 injured in strike that hit Ukrainian museum
At least two people were killed and 10 injured after a Russian missile hit a Ukrainian museum Tuesday, officials said.
The local history museum is located in the city center of Kupiansk, in the Kharkiv region.
“The terrorist country is doing everything to destroy us completely. Our history, our culture, our people,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media while sharing a video that showed the damaged building. “Killing Ukrainians with absolutely barbaric methods.”
Apr 24, 5:48 AM EDT
Russian passports pushed on occupied Ukraine
Russian officials have warned Ukrainians in occupied Kherson that they may be “deported” if they don’t accept Russian passports, the U.K. Ministry of Defence said Monday.
“Russia is using passports as a tool in the ‘Russification’ of the occupied areas, as it did in Donetsk and Luhansk before the February 2022 invasion,” the ministry on Twitter.
Residents of Kherson have been warned of penalties for those who don’t accept Russian passports by June 1. Some may be removed from the territory or may have their property seized, according to the U.K.
Steve Vai helped a group of almost 8,000 guitarists break a world record. The legendary axe man was in Wrocław, Poland, last weekend to take part in the annual Thanks Jimi Festival, where he led a group of guitarists in a performance of the Jimi Hendrix classic “Hey Joe.”
“Beautiful day in Wrocław breaking the world record for the most guitar players performing ‘Hey Joe’ at the same time. I think it was 7,968!” Vai shared on Instagram. “It sounded like someone kicked a bee hive! It was glorious to see all those folks playing guitars and enjoying the event. Really quite amazing.”
He added, “Poland knows how to have a good time!”
Each year the guitar festival attempts to break the world record for the most guitarists performing the Hendrix classic. According to Guitar World, the first attempt in 2003 featured 588 players, while last year’s included 7,676 guitarists.
(MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla.) — A Florida woman was arrested and charged with battery on an elected official after she allegedly threw a glass of wine at Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., according to the Walton County Sheriff’s Office.
The incident occurred on Saturday in Miramar Beach, Florida.
Gaetz was at the South Walton Beaches Wine and Food Festival, according to a police report obtained by ABC News.
The woman, identified by police as Selena Jo Chambers, told investigators she tripped and accidentally spilled a drink on Gaetz, but others say it went down differently.
“Representative Gaetz said Chambers and another female had been walking past him and his family cursing at them,” according to the police report. “He believed both females had recognized him as a United States Representative.”
Gaetz told police he was speaking to someone when Chambers allegedly began loudly swearing at him.
“Blaine Odom said he was speaking with Representative Gaetz and saw Selena Chambers swearing loudly at them. Chambers was carrying a drink in her right hand. Chambers thrust the container into the air and the beverage from the drink landed on Representative Gaetz and on Odom’s right shoulder,” according to the police report.
It continued, “Chambers then walked away yelling and flipping him off. Odom said he observed the drink land on Representative Gaetz and also on him. Odom said his clothing was soaked from the drink Chambers threw on him. Odom said he wanted to press charges against Chambers.”
Chambers told investigators she had been drinking. Her friend was not arrested.
Battery on an elected official is a felony and simple battery is a misdemeanor. Chambers was released on $1,000 bond.
She couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Gaetz thanked the sheriff in a statement for taking “swift” action and charging the woman.
It isn’t the first time Gaetz has been the target of an object thrown as him. In 2019, a woman threw a drink at Gaetz during a town hall meeting. That woman was sentenced to 15 days in jail for the incident.
(WASHINGTON) — Rapper Fat Joe wasn’t in Washington D.C., last week for a concert, he came to lobby Congress to call for transparency in hospital billing due to the staggering amount of medical debt many Americans face.
“I look at myself as an evangelist, spreading the word gospel of how important it is to show us the prices,” Fat Joe told ABC News. “Because this is an issue that affects all Americans. This is colorblind. This is religion blind, and I believe in the power of the people.”
For two days, the 52-year-old, born Joseph Cartagena, walked the halls of Capitol Hill, visited the White House and held numerous meetings with lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle.
“I’m out here fighting for the American people,” Fat Joe said. “This is a bipartisan issue.”
There are 100 million American in medical debt, according to Kaiser Health News.
Fat Joe teamed up with the nonprofit Power to the Patients to be a spokesperson a year ago. This is his second visit to Capitol Hill on the issue.
“I grew up in the South Bronx. I grew up in a very deprived poor area.” Fat Joe said. “When I was there, my people fought for me and championed me to get to the level where I’m at. So I have an obligation to speak for the voiceless.”
One in 10 American adults owe medical debt, according to the Peterson Center on Healthcare and the Kaiser Family Foundation. Medical bills accounted for about 40% of personal bankruptcies in 2019, according to the National Institute of Health.
Even as health care costs continue to rise, advocates said hospitals have been reluctant to comply with a federal rule requiring hospitals to list the cost of standard procedures.
“Families deserve to have peace of mind knowing how much their health procedure will cost them ahead of time,” Chair of the Hispanic caucus Nanette Diaz Barragan said during a news conference with Fat Joe at the Capitol last week.
The federal agency tasked with enforcing the rule has imposed fines on four hospitals since former President Donald Trump signed the health care pricing transparency executive order in June 2019. As of April, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has also issued 730 warnings to hospitals who were not in compliance.
However, Power to the Patients research arm said its analysis found that more than 70% of U.S. Hospitals reviewed are still not in full compliance.
“Despite its complexity and lack of clarity hospitals are eager to continue their compliance efforts,” Ashley Thompson, senior vice president of public affairs of the American Hospital Association, said at a congressional hearing.
Fat Joe’s lobbying efforts in Congress coincided with a hearing in the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health.
“We’re considering bipartisan legislation to codify existing price transparency rules for hospitals and insurers,” Anna G. Eshoo, Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Health, said.
Fat Joe believes this bipartisan push to strengthen and enforce the bill is one of many positive signs that this two-day trip to the Hill may actually help bring some change.
“Last year I came it was just one gentleman who came to meet us,” Fat Joe said. “Today was about 25-30 different congressmen and senators and so I feel the momentum.”
(KEYSVILLE, Ga.) — For nearly three decades, Lucious Abrams says he has gotten letters from the United States Department of Agriculture promising to wipe out his debt –but for him and other Black farmers in the country, receiving relief from the federal government has been a difficult process.
Every morning in the rural town of Keysville, Georgia, the sun rises over 600 acres of farmland that has belonged to Abrams’ family for three generations.
It is now planting season, typically the time when he would start tending to crops, but on this farm, he says nothing is operational.
“We used to grow soybeans, corn, cotton before we were unable to farm,” Abrams told ABC News Live Prime. “This is the devastation that is happening to most Black farmers.”
After accruing over $1.2 million dollars of debt over the course of 28 years, the 70-year-old farmer spends most of his time looking at things he doesn’t have the money to fix.
His financial burdens have hindered his ability to maintain his land and farming equipment.
“I feel like I’ve been left on “‘Gilligan’s island,” Abrams told ABC News senior Congressional correspondent Rachel Scott in an interview.
Land Lost and Justice Deferred
Over the last century, Black farmers have lost more than 12 million acres of land, according to USDA data.
In 1920, 14 percent of all farms were operated by Black farmers, owning more than 16 million acres. But by 2017, that figure had plummeted to 1.7 percent – just half a percent of the country’s 4.7 million acres of farmland, according to the USDA.
On March 6, 2021, Congress approved $4 billion in loan forgiveness for farmers of color in a program aimed to address historic discrimination by the USDA, which has acknowledged routinely denying loans to farmers of color. The USDA told ABC News approximately 19,000 Black farmers were identified and sent letters notifying them that they may be eligible for federal aid under this program.
However, the legislation was halted by a lawsuit from white farmers who claimed they were being excluded because of their race.
“To be eligible for this debt relief, you had to be a minority. If you weren’t a minority, you were excluded,” Sid Miller, Texas Agricultural Commissioner, said in an interview with ABC News.
Miller is a rancher and filed the lawsuit in 2021 as a private citizen.
“I’m all for helping minority farmers and farmers overall, but our Constitution prohibits discrimination,” Miller continued.
Democrats subsequently rewrote the plan in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2021, removing references to race in the eligibility requirements and splitting up relief into two funds: distressed borrowers relief and discriminated borrowers relief.
“It was what it was,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) told Scott in an interview, reflecting on the decision to rewrite the legislation.
“We have a legal system now dominated by a lot of conservative jurists who would not let that program go forward and we knew that would put more farmers in peril. Congress has done their job now. It’s on the USDA now to make sure that they’re gonna implement this in a way that eligible farmers get the resources they are owed,” Booker continued.
Earlier this year, Booker led a group of several Democrats including Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) in reintroducing the Justice for Black Farmers Act which aims to protect black farmers and address historic discrimination in lending.
“I want to see USDA get the farmers the relief that we passed through legislation. It is taking entirely too long. While folks are caught up in bureaucracy and processes, another planting season has come and gone, ” Warnock said.
Meanwhile, farmers like Abrams have been left in limbo for decades with staggering debt.
“The world is turning their head away. This is a moral issue. we are here in America and you’re going to have lawyers put a clause in there and we have no recourse? The Senate, the Congress pass it and we still can’t get justice,” Abrams said.
It’s not the first time Black farmers were promised relief they didn’t receive.
A History of discriminatory practices against Black farmers
Abrams was one of six plaintiffs in the landmark Pigford v. Glickman, a class action lawsuit between the U.S. department of agriculture and Black farmers. The suit claimed that the agency had discriminated against Black farmers on the basis of race and failed to investigate or properly respond to complaints from 1983 to 1997.
It resulted in a $1.2 billion settlement in 1999, but confusion around paperwork and deadlines led to thousands of claims being denied.
The disparities in access to federal aid persist for minority farmers. In 2022, just over a third of all farmers who identified as Black and applied for direct loans were approved, according to an ABC news analysis of USDA data.
In comparison, the data shows, 72 percent of farmers who identified as white and applied for the same loan were approved.
USDA officials told ABC News at least 19,800 distressed farmers have received aid from the relief programs, but the federal agency is not tracking loan recipients by race, making it difficult to see the impact. The agency says payments for discriminated borrower claims won’t be distributed until the end of the year.
“I think we can agree that, yes, we recognize that there were enough disparities in long performance among black and brown farmers that we needed to do something. And I’m convinced that race was a, was a good metric by which to make those decisions, but we were sued,” Dr. DeWayne Goldmon, Senior Advisor for Racial Equity for Tom Vilsack, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
“We have decided to focus on following the mandate of the law. Right now, we’re focused on implementing it and getting people back farming and participating in programs as fully as they can,” Goldmon added.
Goldmon, who is also a Black farmer, oversees efforts to address racial disparities at USDA and acknowledges the distrust.
“I’ve had conversations with Secretary Vilsack and my other colleagues across the department, in these positions, you know, our task is to move forward as boldly as we can and make sure that we do the work that’s required,” the senior advisor told Scott in an interview.
Soon after ABC News asked the USDA about Abrams’ case, he said he received notice from the department that his debt had been forgiven.
It has been the relief he’s been waiting for.
“I cried tears of Joy. It’s taken me over 30 years. I’m 70-years-old, that’s almost half my life. I’ve had almost 30 years of let downs, but out of all that, I knew that one day God was going to find a way,” Abrams told ABC News.
“I went out to the grave and talked to my mom, my dad and my sisters told them our blessing finally came. We got the debt paid off,” he added.
(NEW YORK) — Donald Trump will not testify in his own defense in writer E. Jean Carroll’s civil defamation and battery case against the former president, Trump’s attorney said Tuesday at the end of the day’s testimony.
Carroll, who brought the lawsuit in November, alleges that Trump defamed her in a 2022 Truth Social post by calling her allegations “a Hoax and a lie” and saying “This woman is not my type!” when he denied her claim that Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in the 1990s.
She added a charge of battery under a recently adopted New York law that allows adult survivors of sexual abuse to sue their alleged attacker regardless of the statute of limitations. Trump has denied all allegations that he raped Carroll or defamed her.
As Judge Lewis Kaplan was asking the lawyers Tuesday to forecast the remainder of the case, defense attorney Joe Tacopina affirmed that he has just one expert witness.
“So Mr. Trump is not going to be coming?” the judge asked. “Correct,” Tacopina said.
“It’s his call,” the judge said. “I understand that. You understand that. He understands that.”
Tacopina had said at the start of the trial that Trump would make the decision as the trial progressed. Trump was not required to appear, as the trial is a civil case and not a criminal one.
During Tuesday’s testimony, a businesswoman told jurors that Trump had groped her during a flight to New York in 1979, in what Carroll’s attorneys said showed a pattern of behavior on Trump’s part. Jessica Leeds is one of two women who the court has ruled are allowed to testify about prior alleged assaults by Trump.
Leeds, who first made her allegations to The New York Times just before the 2016 presidential election, testified that she was on a flight to New York when she was bumped up to first class from her coach seat and wound up next to Trump.
“When I got up there and sat down, the gentleman sitting by the window introduced himself as Donald Trump. We shook hands,” Leeds, who was 37 at the time, testified. “What happened was, they served a meal. And it was cleared and we were sitting there, when all of a sudden Trump decided to kiss me and grope me.”
She said there was no conversation — “It was out of the blue.”
Leeds described the alleged encounter “like a tussle,” saying, “He was trying to kiss me. He was trying to pull me towards him. He was grabbing my breasts. It was like he had 40 million hands.”
“It was when he started putting his hand up my skirt, that gave me a jolt of strength,” testified Leeds, who said she freed herself and went “storming back to my seat in the back of coach.”
Trump has denied the allegations.
Leeds, like Carroll, did not scream or yell during the alleged encounter.
“It never occurred to me to yell out,” Leeds said. When asked “Why not?” by Carroll’s attorney, she said, “I don’t know.”
Leeds recalled waiting until every other passenger had deplaned before she left, because she didn’t want to risk running into Trump again. She said she told no one about the alleged incident.
“I did not tell anybody at work because I didn’t think they would be interested in my experience,” Leeds said. “At that time and that place, in the work environment, men could basically get away with a lot.”
Leeds said she only revealed what allegedly happened to her when Trump started running for president.
“I started off telling my family, telling my children, telling my friends, my neighbors, my book club, anyone and everyone who would listen to me,” Leeds said. “I thought he was not the kind of person we wanted as president.”
Leeds said that three years after the alleged incident, she saw Trump with his pregnant then-wife, Ivana, at a Humane Society of New York gala at Saks Fifth Avenue, where she was giving out table assignments.
“He looked at me and he said, ‘I remember you, you’re that c— from the airplane,'” Leeds said. “It was like a bucket of cold water thrown over my head.”
On cross-examination, Tacopina asked, incredulously, “That was from a few-second interaction from an airplane that he remembered you, apparently?”
Leeds testified that she could not recall the exact date of the alleged assault, could not recall the origin of her LaGuardia-bound flight, and did not know who Trump was at the time, describing him as “some random guy sitting next to me on the airplane.”
“Fair to say you can’t name one witness who saw what happened to you?” Tacopina asked. “Correct,” Leeds replied.
“Not a single person can corroborate your story?” Tacopina asked. “That is correct,” Leeds said.
On re-direct, Carroll’s attorney, Michael Ferrara, asked, “Are you making this up because you hate Donald Trump?”
“No, I’m not making this up,” Leeds answered.
Asked why she didn’t report the alleged assault to her bosses, since it occurred on a business trip, Leeds said, “If I had gone in and complained about what had happened, my feeling was my boss would say to me, ‘That’s really too bad, how about lunch?'”
“I didn’t want any sympathy. I wanted this job,” said Leeds. “It was a good paying job.”
The jury also saw a clip of Trump on the 2016 campaign trial denying Leeds’ accusation, saying, “She would not be my first choice” — echoing his response to Carroll that “she’s not my type.”
Earlier Tuesday, a friend of Carroll, writer Lisa Birnbach, testified that Carroll called her within “five to seven minutes” of Trump’s alleged attack at Bergdorf Goodman’s.
“She told me that Donald Trump recognized her outside or right in the doorway of Bergdorf Goodman, he asked her to help him shop, and assaulted her upstairs in a dressing room,” Birnbach testified.
Birnbach testified that she “thought it was kind of nutty” for Carroll to go to the lingerie department with Trump, but she did not think it was dangerous.
“I had just spent a few days with him,” Birnbach said of Trump, referring to two days she spent at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate for a Feb. 12, 1996, piece she wrote for New York magazine. “He didn’t strike me as dangerous.”
Birnbach described the alleged assault as she said Carroll relayed it to her, saying, “He slammed his whole arm, pinned her against the wall with his arm and shoulders and with his free hand pulled down her tights.”
“And E. Jean said to me many times, ‘He pulled down my tights, he pulled down my tights.’ Almost like she couldn’t believe it had just happened to her,” Birnbach said.
“As soon as she said that, even though I knew my children didn’t know the word, I ducked out of the room and I whispered ‘E. Jean, he raped you, you should go to the police,'” Birnbach testified.
“She said, ‘No, no I don’t want to go to the police,'” Birnbach told the jury, saying that Carroll made her promise that “‘you will never speak of this again and promise me that you will tell no one.’ And I promised her both those things.”
A former executive at Bergdorf Goodman, Robert Salerno, testified Tuesday that there were no security cameras in the sixth floor lingerie department at the time of the alleged assault. He also testified that he’s seen Trump shop in the store.
In earlier testimony, Carroll described being in somewhat of a stupor when she called Birnbach after leaving the department store, laughing as she relayed her alleged encounter with Trump. It was Birnbach, Carroll said, who told her to stop laughing because she had been raped.
“And even when Lisa said it, it took a real effort for me to take it in,” Carroll testified. “Lisa is the one who focused my brain for that moment. It was Lisa saying that.”
Birnbach said the account that Carroll gave when she went public with the accusation in her 2019 book matched what Carroll told her in the spring of 1996.
“After I read the excerpt, I called E. Jean and told her how brave she was and what a good piece it was,” Birnbach said.
“She’s not a victim,” Birnbach said. “She doesn’t want anybody’s pity. She is somebody who, and I think it’s the way she was raised, instead of wallowing, she puts on lipstick, dusts herself off, and moves on. I think that’s how she has gotten through her life.”
Birnbach told the jury that she supported Hillary Clinton for president in 2016, was “surprised and upset” Trump won, and, on her podcast, called Trump a “narcissistic sociopath” who is “an infection like herpes that we can’t get rid of.”
But, she said, she was only testifying “because my friend, my good friend, who is a good person, told me something terrible that happened to her. As a result she lost her employment and her life became very, very difficult. I am here because I want the world to know that she was telling the truth.”
The defense has said that Carroll was motivated by “political reasons” to publish her allegation against Trump and, subsequently, sue him for defamation and battery. In its cross-examination of Birnbach, the defense questioned her about unflattering things she has said about Trump online and on various podcasts.
“Do you recall saying in a Facebook post the following: ‘Does it get worse than Donald Trump? I’ll tell you in my entire life I’ve never felt a hatred like a feel toward this person,'” defense attorney Perry Brandt asked Birnbach. He asked if, on a podcast, she said, “President Trump, and I don’t like to use those two words together.” On a different podcast, he asked if she said of Trump, “He’s a madman. He’s a narcissistic sociopath. He’s a malignant sociopath. He’s a Russian agent. He’s bad, he’s bad, and God knows what he can do before he leaves.”
Birnbach testified that all of those things sound like something she would have said.
On re-direct, Carroll’s attorney, Shawn Crowley, asked Birnbach, “When Ms. Carroll had called you in 1996 and told you he had just assaulted her, was he a political figure?” Birnbach replied, “Not at all.”
“Donald Trump in 1996 was a well-known New York person,” Birnbach said. “He was not in politics. He was not near politics. He was a guy who liked publicity and attention and he was also a known womanizer. My friend wasn’t raped by a president. She was assaulted by a guy, a real estate guy.”
“Would you lie to prevent Donald Trump from being president?” Crowley asked.
“Never,” Birnbach replied.
Testimony concluded for the day with the plaintiff’s expert on the witness stand.
Dr. Leslie Lebowitz, a clinical psychologist, testified that she had concluded that Carroll had been harmed by Trump’s alleged assault.
“There were three dominant ways that I felt that she had been harmed,” Lebowitz said. “She has suffered from painful, intrusive memories for many years. She endured a diminishment in how she thought and felt about herself. And perhaps most prominently, she manifests very notable avoidance symptoms which have curtailed her romantic and intimate life and caused profound loss.”
On Monday, under cross examination by defense attorney Joe Tacopina, Carroll said she didn’t contact police after she was allegedly attacked by Trump because, as a woman born in the 1940s, she’s a member of the “silent generation” that didn’t speak up about such things. The exchange came after Tacopina introduced several of her advice columns for Elle magazine in which she suggested that her readers call police in the event of a sexual assault or threat.
“There were numerous times where you’ve advised your readers to call the police” despite Carroll never reporting her own alleged rape to police, Tacopina said to Carroll.
“In most cases I advised my readers to go to the police,” Carroll replied.
“I was born in 1943,” she said. “I am a member of the silent generation. Women like me were taught to keep our chins up and not complain. The fact that I never went to the police is not surprising for someone my age. I would rather have done anything than call the police.”
The answer was stricken from the record as nonresponsive to the question posed, but the exchange continued the defense’s questioning of Carroll’s actions following the alleged assault, and their suggestions that her behavior — not going to the police, not seeking security camera footage, continuing to shop at Bergdorf’s — is at odds with how other sex assault victims might behave.
The nine-member jury of six men and three women is weighing Carroll’s defamation and battery claims and deciding potential monetary damages.
Carroll’s lawsuit is her second against Trump related to her rape allegation.
She previously sued Trump in 2019 after the then-president denied her rape claim by telling The Hill that Carroll was “totally lying,” saying, “I’ll say it with great respect: No. 1, she’s not my type. No. 2, it never happened. It never happened, OK?” That defamation suit has been caught in a procedural back-and-forth over the question of whether Trump, as president, was acting in his official capacity as an employee of the federal government when he made those remarks.
If Trump is determined to have been acting as a government employee, the U.S. government would substitute as the defendant in that suit — which means that case would go away, since the government cannot be sued for defamation.
This month’s trial is taking place as Trump seeks the White House for a third time, while facing numerous legal challenges related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, his handling of classified material after leaving the White House, and possible attempts to interfere in Georgia’s 2020 vote. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said last week she would decide whether to file criminal charges against Trump or his allies this summer.
