(NEW YORK) — Elon Musk told Twitter staff during an all-hands meeting Thursday that they need to return to the office full-time, or “resignation accepted,” he can be heard saying in audio obtained exclusively by ABC News.
“Let me be crystal clear, if people do not return to the office when they are able to return to the office — they cannot remain at the company,” Musk is heard in the audio telling an employee who asked about his new plans for a 40-hour workweek at the company during an all-hands company meeting. “End of story.”
Audio excerpts from the meeting were obtained first by ABC News via a lawyer representing former Twitter employees in a lawsuit against the company. ABC News has verified the authenticity of the audio.
“Even if people returned to the office,” a Twitter employee can be heard replying to Musk, “the offices are separate offices — we won’t be in person anyways.”
“Yes,” Musk responds on the audio. “But you can still maximize the amount of in-person activity.”
Musk continued throughout the meeting to compare the company to Tesla.
“Tesla is not one place either, but you know, it’s basically if you can, if you can show up at an office and you do not show up at the office, resignation accepted — end of story,” Musk is heard saying.
“There are plenty of people at Tesla and SpaceX that do work remotely… but it is on an exception basis for exceptional people — and I totally understand if that doesn’t work for some people,” Musk is also heard saying. “But that’s the new philosophy for Twitter.”
Twitter began layoffs on Friday that will cut roughly half of its workforce, the company announced in an email, which ABC News reviewed.
The lawsuit alleges that Twitter violated federal and California laws by not giving staff proper notice before termination. The lawsuit was amended this week to include Twitter’s alleged unfair severance offers.
Twitter hasn’t responded to the lawsuit.
The attorney representing former Twitter employees in the class-action lawsuit, Shannon Liss-Riordan, said she plans to use Musk’s words against him.
“The audio makes clear that Musk’s elimination of remote work, with no notice, is an effort to claim employees have resigned when, in fact, they have been pushed out, so that the company can try to avoid obligations under the WARN Act and promises regarding severance,” Liss-Riordan told ABC News. “This new ridiculous move is just one of the schemes Musk has come up with in an attempt to avoid paying laid off employees what they are owed.”
Musk has implemented the same back-to-work policy at Tesla and SpaceX.
Musk closed a deal to acquire Twitter in late October. Some of Twitter’s top executives were fired, including CEO Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde and general counsel Sam Edgett.
(WASHINGTON) — More than 21 years after the Sept. 11 attacks, new details of how President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney reacted that day in the lead-up and aftermath are now public.
They come in 31 pages of newly declassified notes of the interview Bush and Cheney gave the independent 9/11 Commission in 2004 as it investigated the attacks and related issues.
Bush and Cheney sat together for the interview in the Oval Office on April 29, 2004, along with three aides.
The National Archives released the declassified notes this week.
One of the more dramatic portions is Bush, who was being rushed from Florida onto Air Force One for a day of hopscotching around the nation, recounting giving Cheney the authority to authorize a shootdown of a plane if necessary.
Bush said he understood the basic rules of engagement from his days as a Texas National Air Guard pilot.
“He had been trained to shoot down planes. He understood generally how this worked – one plane would lock on, one would ID. He understood the consequences for the pilot, how a pilot might feel to get the order to shoot down a US airliner. It would be tough. He and Dick discussed it. He talked about what it would be like. Yes, engage the enemy. You have the authority to shoot down an airplane,” according to the notes of the interview.
Later in the interview, the subject of a shootdown comes up again. As officials tried to figure out how many planes were unaccounted for, they thought three were still in the air.
“The Vice President remembered getting ”word then that they [Air Force] were trying to cap up’ over D.C. He opened up a line to the President and raised the issue of rules of engagement. He (the President) authorized shootdown. The President approved this before 10:00. Condi (National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice) heard his (the Vice President’s) end of the conversation,” the notes state.
Cheney would then order the military to shoot down any unresponsive aircraft. What exact authority Bush gave to Cheney that day has been an ongoing question since that time.
Bush, in his 2010 memoir Decision Points, wrote he initially thought the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Pennsylvania was the result of the shootdown order as did Cheney.
“The Vice President thought we’d shot it down. It took a while to sort this out. In the next half hour there were two or three occasions like this: a report of an incoming, would he reiterate authorization? Yes. In every case, though, the problem was resolved without shots being fired. Later in the day there were other reports of incidents … a jet squawking a hijack code, a Korean Airlines jet. There was a lot of this, five reports during the day of hijacked planes. None turned out to be true,” according to the interview notes.
Kean, the chairman, asked Bush and Cheney if they knew the Secret Service had ordered aircraft, out of the chain of command, scrambled out of Andrews Air Force Base. Bush responded he was not aware.
The notes, first reported on by the Wall Street Journal, also detail how Bush and Cheney were questioned about some of the intelligence controversies regarding the attacks. Commission chairman Tom Kean asked about the famous Aug. 6 Presidential Daily Brief entitled “bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US.”
As he had done publicly, Bush said it was more of a document summarizing what was known about al Qaeda than an assessment of current intelligence and stressed he had actually asked for the report.
“The report itself was historical in nature. It said what al Qaeda was doing,” the notes state. “Bin Ladin had long been talking about his desire to attack America. There was some operational data on the FBI. That 70 investigations were underway was heartening, that this was taking place.”
He told the commissioners the government was then developing a strategy to eliminate it. However, what wasn’t known was some of the missed signals and the lack of information sharing between the CIA and the FBI.
Both men also discussed pushing Saudi Arabia, home to 15 of the hijackers and which had come under criticism for not taking more action to crack down on terrorism financing, to do more.
Cheney recalled calling the Saudi Crown Prince on July 5th.
“He went over what was known to him about the al Qaeda and Bin Ladin threat. He said the U.S. wanted to send a team to Saudi Arabia to alert Saudi counterparts about a potential attack. Tenet was talking to Prince Turki about this. The team would come over to work on this. The President said he thought that if there had been a serious concern in August, he would have known about it,” the notes state.
Bush then said a “fundamental” problem facing every president was how to deal with the Saudis.
“There was a sort of split personality there. Some found favor with al Qaeda and the extremists, supporting their radical policies,” the notes said.
“The U.S. had to have a process to push them to change their ways. The U.S. supported political reform. This stand had, the President commented, been widely disparaged. The last (to change) will be Saudi Arabia. The President understood that. But they were feeling the pressure. The royal family, the President added, was not a monolith. There were splits within the family. Crown Prince Abdullah may not know what his stepbrother is doing with certain NGOs spreading hate. The family was a complex organization, with different power centers. The President said he was worried about Saudi Arabia. He did not want it to become an al Qaeda country. Nor did he want it to form an alliance with Iran. He was not sure what else he could say, except that he was working the problem on a daily basis,” the notes said.
The Director of National Intelligence had no comment about the timing of the declassification.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge in Texas on Thursday blocked the Biden administration’s student debt forgiveness policy, ruling that it goes beyond the authority of the Education Department and the power of the executive branch — a decision that marks the second major legal obstacle to the program, which had hoped to begin implementation this fall.
The U.S. district judge, Mark T. Pittman, was appointed by former President Donald Trump, and the lawsuit was brought in October by the conservative Job Creators Network Foundation.
The debt cancellation program was already on hold, unable to discharge any loan payments because of a temporary stay in a federal appeals court that is reviewing a separate lawsuit brought by six conservative states. (A final decision in that case is pending.)
The federal government has said some 43 million people would be eligible for student debt cancellation under the policy.
As of Nov. 3, 26 million people had applied. Of those, the Biden administration said 16 million peoples’ applications had been reviewed and prepared for relief, if and when the program is allowed to move forward.
But in the Texas ruling, Pittman found that whether the loan relief “constitutes good public policy is not the role of this Court to determine,” instead focusing on government overreach: “No one can plausibly deny that it is either one of the largest delegations of legislative power to the executive branch, or one of the largest exercises of legislative power without congressional authority in the history of the United States,” he wrote.
Pittman wrote that there wasn’t clear justification for the Biden administration to wield such influence.
“The Court is not blind to the current political division in our country. But it is fundamental to the survival of our Republic that the separation of powers as outlined in our Constitution be preserved,” he wrote.
“And having interpreted the HEROES Act, the Court holds that it does not provide ‘clear congressional authorization’ for the Program proposed by the Secretary,” he wrote, referring to a Bush-era law that provides broader-than-usual authority to the secretary of education during emergency periods, which the Biden White House says includes the COVID-19 pandemic.
Neither the White House nor the Education Department immediately commented on Pittman’s ruling, though the administration has vowed to appeal legal threats to the policy.
Administration officials have previously dismissed other such legal challenges, arguing that loan forgiveness is trying to help Americans get some “breathing room” while critics are “siding with special interests.”
“While opponents of our plan are siding with special interests and trying every which way to keep millions of middle class Americans in debt, the President and his Administration are fighting to lawfully give middle-class families some breathing room as they recover from the pandemic and prepare to resume loan payments in January,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Abdullah Hasan said in October.
The case so far
The lawsuit from the Job Creators Network Foundation argued that the Biden administration should have let the public weigh in before announcing the policy.
However, the Biden administration argued in its response that there was no requirement for a notice-and-comment period in this situation, though that is typical for certain agency policies.
“Instead of providing notice and seeking comment from the public, the Department hammered out the critical details of the Program in secret and with an eye toward securing debt forgiveness in time for the November election,” the suit argues — also contending that the forgiveness policy excludes people unfairly.
“The result of this arbitrariness is predictable: some will benefit handsomely, some will be shortchanged, and others will be left out entirely,” the lawsuit states.
One plaintiff in the lawsuit, Myra Brown, didn’t qualify for the program because of a rule change that disqualified about 700,000 borrowers from the program — a late change that the Biden administration made seemingly in order to protect the policy against another lawsuit.
The other plaintiff, Alexander Taylor, qualified for $10,000 in student loan forgiveness but not the $20,000 because he wasn’t a Pell grant recipient, which is reserved for people from low-income families.
The president of the Job Creators Network Foundation has called the program an “unprecedented executive power grab” that would allow “greedy and bloated colleges” to keep raising tuition.
“Bailing out this debt only kicks this problem down the road. By blocking this inflationary taxpayer bailout, JCN’s lawsuit can lay the groundwork to actually solve the student debt crisis by holding its college perpetrators accountable,” Elaine Parker said in an earlier statement.
Phelan M. Ebenhack for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Donald Trump on Thursday escalated his criticism of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, suggesting he views DeSantis as a potential challenger in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.
In a lengthy statement — echoed on his social media website, Truth Social — Trump jabbed at DeSantis as an “average” governor who benefited from “great Public Relations.”
He also repeated a new derogatory nickname for DeSantis: “Ron DeSanctimonious.”
In his statement, which also included characteristic complaints about his media coverage and repeated unfounded claims of election fraud, Trump touted himself as being a key endorser during the 2018 Florida gubernatorial primary, when DeSantis ran against Adam Putnam for the GOP nomination.
“He was politically dead,” Trump argued of DeSantis at the time, insisting that his support had been key to the primary win.
“And now, Ron DeSanctimonious is playing games! The Fake News asks him if he’s going to run if President Trump runs [in 2024], and he says, ‘I’m only focused on the Governor’s race, I’m not looking into the future.’ Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that’s really not the right answer,” Trump said.
Sources with direct knowledge of the matter have told ABC News that Trump is leaning toward announcing a third run for the White House, possibly as early as the week of Nov. 14. The former president has also been teasing a 2024 run at rallies across the country for several months.
He said last week during an Iowa rally, “In order to make our country successful, and safe and glorious, I will very, very, very probably do it again,” adding, “Get ready, that’s all I’m telling you. Very soon. Get ready.”
Trump said earlier this week there will be a “very big” announcement on Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump went on to say Thursday that he had faced similar rivals in the 2016 GOP presidential primary and “I easily knocked them out, one by one.”
Aides for DeSantis did not respond to requests for comment on Trump’s criticism.
Sources close to the former president immediately categorized this statement as a “miscalculation” on Trump’s behalf. Two former senior White House officials who still advise Trump told ABC News Thursday night that this is the weakest they’ve seen him politically.
“His overreaction against DeSantis is making it even worse,” one top aide said.
“Unhinged. This is not going to work for him,” another top aide added.
In recent days, the former president has alternated between swipes at the Florida governor, such as the “DeSanctimonious” label, which he first used last weekend, and then telling a rally on Sunday to reelect DeSantis, the closest comments he made to an endorsement.
He also publicly said he voted for DeSantis, who went on to beat Democrat Charlie Crist by nearly 20% — a notable margin in a state famous for its close races. By comparison, many other Republican candidates suffered this midterm cycle despite predictions of a possible “red wave” against the in-power Democrats.
Multiple Trump-backed candidates were defeated, including Michigan gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon and Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania’s Senate race.
Two senior DeSantis campaign officials earlier told ABC News — before Trump’s statement on Thursday — that the campaign made a conscious decision in the final days not to respond to Trump’s taunts. Those included the nickname and Trump telling Fox News on election eve that he “would tell you things about [DeSantis] that won’t be very flattering — I know more about him than anybody other than, perhaps, his wife.”
DeSantis’ aides also said he and his team were aware of his success compared to others in the party who were closely tied to Trump.
When asked what DeSantis was thinking after his election win this week, a top adviser told ABC News that he was focusing not on politics but on Tropical Storm Nicole.
Like Trump, DeSantis campaigned for multiple other Republican candidates this midterm season, such as J.D. Vance in Ohio (who won) and Mark Ronchetti in New Mexico (who lost). When DeSantis stumped for Colorado Republican Senate nominee Joe O’Dea, who had broken with Trump, the latter called it a “big mistake.”
DeSantis has repeatedly played down speculation that he will run for president in 2024 — even as that became an attack line from Crist during the campaign.
“He’s in no hurry. He doesn’t have to be in a hurry … What he’s doing is continuing to elevate his stature and his name ID, his conservative credentials to a larger audience,” Stephan Lawson, DeSantis’ director of communications for his 2018 gubernatorial campaign, previously told ABC News. “I think he’s doing it in a way that’s like, ‘I’m gonna go court and talk to this base of our party in a way that could potentially have broader appeal based on my record of results in Florida.'”
“Put another way — ‘I’m gonna get all the good without the bad of taking on Trump directly,'” Lawson said at the time.
(WASHINGTON) — Two days after the midterms, the Senate races in Alaska, Arizona, Georgia and Nevada remain undecided. With Georgia headed toward a runoff in December and Arizona and Nevada still counting votes, Alaska is moving to ranked choice voting to determine its winner.
None of the candidates in the Alaska Senate race received 50% of the vote, meaning the state’s rank-choice voting system will decide which candidate will represent the state in Congress.
With 71% of the expected vote reporting, Republican candidate Kelly Tshibaka has 44%, Republican incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski has 43%, Democratic candidate Patricia Chesbro has 10% and Republican candidate Buzz Kelley has 3%.
Alaskan voters approved an initiative in 2020 to establish a ranked choice voting general election system and a nonpartisan pick one primary election system. The 2022 August special election was the first time these two systems were implemented in the state.
Here’s how those two systems work:
Nonpartisan Pick One Primary Election system
Under this system, all the candidates are on one ballot during the primaries, regardless of political affiliation. Voters then cast their ballot for one candidate in each race. The four candidates who receive the most votes advance to the general election.
If fewer than four candidates are in a race, they all advance to the general election.
Primary elections are no longer used to determine the candidate nominated by a political party. Instead, all candidates are on the same ballot, so voters can cast their ballot for any candidate, regardless of what party they are affiliated with.
There is no limit on how many candidates can file for the primary election and candidates do not need to be registered with a political party to run for office.
Since none of the candidates on the general election ballot received enough votes to win in the first round, the ranked choice voting system will decide the winner.
Ranked Choice voting system
Ranked choice voting allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference and then votes are counted in rounds. But, each voters’ vote only counts once.
In the first round, all the first choices are counted, if a candidate wins 50% of the vote plus one then the counting stops and that candidate is the winner. If not, round two begins.
In round two, the candidate who received the fewest votes in round one is eliminated. If a voter chooses that last-place candidate, their vote goes to their second choice. If a voter’s first choice was not eliminated, their vote stays with that candidate. The votes are now counted again.
If after round two of counting no candidate receives 50% of the vote plus one, then round two is repeated and the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated.
This process continues until two candidates are left and the one with the most votes is declared the winner.
Voters can rank as many or as few candidates as they wish. If a voter does not wish to rank a candidate, they can leave their row blank. If a voter only votes for one candidate, their vote is counted and it remains with that candidate throughout the process.
(NEW YORK) — Three former Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania, police officers pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment during a court hearing on Thursday in the fatal shooting of Fanta Bility, an 8-year-old girl who was killed last year after officers fired shots into a crowded area.
Former officers Brian Devaney, Devon Smith and Sean Dolan were each charged on Jan. 18 with 12 criminal counts of manslaughter and reckless endangerment. They pleaded guilty to the lesser charge as part of a plea agreement requested by the girl’s family, according to Philadelphia ABC News station WPVI-TV.
A request for comment to the officers’ attorneys was not immediately returned.
Fanta Bility’s family attended the hearing and told reporters they hope the officers’ guilty pleas will help bring their family some “closure.”
“The agony we feel constantly reliving the loss of our dear Fanta who was just 8 years old when she was killed by Sharon Hill police officers, is impossible to describe with words,” Fanta Bility’s uncle, Abu Bility, told reporters who gathered outside the courtroom. “Since her mother and siblings were witnesses to this tragic incident, they will have to live with that trauma imprinted in their memories for the rest of their lives.”
Abu Bility said “after much prayer and discussion,” the family decided that a plea agreement ensuring that the “police officers take responsibility” was in the “best interest of the family.”
“We pray that as a result of the police officers being held accountable, we can, as a family and as a community, finally have some closure and begin the healing process,” he said.
Fanta was shot on Aug. 27, 2021, in Sharon Hill while exiting a football game at Academy Park High School with her family. Devaney, Smith and Dolan fired their guns toward the crowd after two teens opened fire in a personal dispute close to the high school, according to Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer.
“We have now concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that it was, in fact, shots from the officers that struck and killed Fanta Bility and injured three others,” Stollsteimer said in a January press release announcing the charges.
“This is a terrible tragedy that was caused by armed and violent criminals who turned a high school football game into a crime scene in which an innocent child lost her life and others were seriously injured,” Raymond Driscoll, Steven Patton and Charles Gibbs, the lawyers for the three officers, said in a joint statement after the charges were announced. “These three officers ran to the sound of gunshots and risked their own lives to protect that community. These three good men are innocent, and remain heartbroken for all who have suffered because of this senseless violence.”
In September, a Delaware County judge denied a motion filed by the attorneys representing the three officers to dismiss the manslaughter charges in this case. According to WPVI, the lawyers argued that manslaughter charges were not warranted because investigators were not able to determine which officer fired the bullets that killed the 8-year-old.
“Each of the three officers shot at the same target. We are bringing the charges against all three,” said Stollsteimer on Sept. 26 after the judge denied the motion.
The Sharon Hill Borough Council voted on Jan. 21 in favor of terminating the three officers.
(NEW YORK) — Tropical Storm Nicole’s powerful winds have unearthed remains at a beach on Florida’s Hutchinson Island, authorities said.
The six bodies recovered so far are believed to be from a Native American burial ground in the area, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office said.
“Detectives are working diligently to preserve and carefully remove the remains with the utmost care and respect,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement Thursday. “Those remains will be transferred to the Medical Examiners Office then to the Bureau Archeological Research Department of State.”
Nicole made landfall along Florida’s east coast early Thursday as a Category 1 hurricane before weakening to a tropical storm. Two deaths have been confirmed from Nicole: a man and a woman died after they were electrocuted by a downed power line in Orange County, officials said.
(NEW YORK) — Senior members of Twitter’s privacy and security teams have exited the company, according to an internal message from a company lawyer obtained by ABC News that warns of employment contract violations and legal repercussions if new owner Elon Musk doesn’t comply with an FTC agreement.
Among the staffers that left were chief privacy officer Damien Kieran, chief compliance officer Marianne Fogarty and chief information officer Lea Kissner, according to the message. Kissner confirmed their resignation in a Tweet earlier Thursday morning. None have responded to ABC’s request for comment.
The message was posted to Twitter’s Slack by a lawyer on Twitter’s privacy team and viewable to all staff.
“Over the last two weeks, Elon has shown that he cares only about recouping the losses he’s incurring as a result of failing to get out of his binding obligation to buy Twitter,” the lawyer wrote to fellow employees.
The Verge reported first on the lawyer’s message.
The Twitter lawyer’s message comes after Musk announced he’d require employees to be in the office 40 hours a week, eliminating remote work. The lawyer believes this is a “fundamental change to our employment contracts,” they wrote to the Slack group consisting of over 2,000 members.
“I do not, personally, believe that Twitter employees have an obligation to return to the office. Certainly not on no notice,” the attorney wrote.
“He chose to enter into that agreement,” the Twitter lawyer added regarding Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. “All of us are being put through this as a result of the choices he made.”
The Twitter lawyer reminded coworkers that they still have unlimited PTO.
“Perhaps today is a good day to take some rest and recharge,” they wrote.
This member of Twitter’s senior counsel went on to describe Musk’s apparent disregard for any potential legal repercussions that could present themselves in the near future.
In the message, the attorney brought up the Federal Trade Commission settlement Twitter agreed to in May; the company was caught using telephone numbers and emails for targeted advertising, even though they were only supposed to be used for multi-factor authentication logins. The FTC hit the company with a $150 million fine and provided Twitter with a list of new compliance rules.
If the company refuses to comply with the FTC agreement, Twitter could be fined billions of dollars, according to the company lawyer’s Slack message.
But the lawyer claims in the message that they heard Alex Spiro, Musk’s lawyer and current head of Twitter’s legal department, say “that Elon is willing to take on a huge amount of risk in relation to this company and its users, because ‘Elon puts rockets into space, he’s not afraid of the FTC.'”
Twitter’s legal team is asking engineers to “self-certify” compliance with FTC rules and other privacy laws, according to the company attorney’s message.
“This will put a huge amount of personal, professional and legal risk onto engineers,” they wrote. “I anticipate that all of you will be pressured by management into pushing out changes that will likely lead to major incidents.”
An FTC spokesperson tells ABC News “we are tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern. No CEO or company is above the law, and companies must follow our consent decrees. Our revised consent order gives us new tools to ensure compliance, and we are prepared to use them.”
The Twitter lawyer left the number for Twitter’s Ethic’s Helpline and a link to https://whistlebloweraid.org/ at the end of the email.
“It’s been an honor working with all of you,” they wrote. “I’ll be taking a day of PTO today.”
Twitter has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment.
(NEW YORK) — More than six months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion into neighboring Ukraine, the two countries are engaged in a struggle for control of areas throughout eastern and southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose forces began an offensive in August, has vowed to take back all Russian-occupied territory. But Putin in September announced a mobilization of reservists, which is expected to call up as many as 300,000 additional troops.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 10, 3:53 PM EST
Pentagon announces $400M in aid to Ukraine
The Pentagon announced a new $400 million defense package for Ukraine on Thursday.
The new aid will include four short-range Avenger air defense systems, which is a first for the packages approved for the war in Ukraine. It will also include more missiles for HAWK air defense systems, more anti-aircraft Stinger missiles, HIMARS ammunition, precision-guided artillery rounds and Humvees.
The Ukrainians will need some training on the Avengers, according to Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh, who did not give an estimate on when the systems might arrive and be ready to use.
With this latest drawdown, the U.S. has now committed more than $18.6 billion for the war since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Nov 10, 11:51 AM EST
US estimates 100,000 Russians killed or wounded in Ukraine
A new U.S. assessment estimates 100,000 Russians have been killed or wounded in the war in Ukraine, according to Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The U.S. last gave an estimate in early August that the number of Russians killed and wounded was between 70,000 and 80,000.
“There has been a tremendous amount of suffering, human suffering, you’re looking at maybe 15, 20, 30 million refugees, probably 40,000 Ukrainian innocent people who are civilians have been killed as collateral damage,” said Milley.
He added, “You’re looking at well over 100,000 Russian soldiers killed or wounded, same thing probably on the Ukrainian side.”
He pointed out that Russia invaded Ukraine with a force of 170,000 troops.
Nov 09, 12:54 PM EST
Oligarch close to Putin says Russian troop retreat was necessary
Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who runs the private military company Wagner, said Wednesday that Russia’s retreat from the key Ukrainian city of Kherson was painful but necessary.
Prigozhin, nicknamed “Putin’s Chef” due to his restaurant and catering businesses, said Russian troops had to withdraw from Kherson because they were nearly surrounded by Ukrainian forces and cut off from supply lines.
“Neither I, nor Wagner abandoned Kherson,” Pigozhin said. “Without question, it is not a victorious step in this war, but it’s important not to agonize, nor to fall into paranoia, but to make conclusions and work on mistakes.”
He praised Russian Gen. Sergey Surovikin for making the decision to withdraw Russian troops and saving the lives of thousands of soldiers.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Nov 09, 11:01 AM EST
Russian troops retreat from key Ukrainian city
Russia’s defense minister and top commander in Ukraine announced Wednesday that Russian troops will pull back from the key city of Kherson in southern Ukraine.
Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said he accepted a proposal from Russian Gen. Sergey Surovikin to order Russian forces to retreat to the eastern bank of the Dnieper River, in effect abandoning the city of Kherson.
Surovikin said it was a “very difficult decision” and justified it as necessary to save the lives of Russian soldiers and to preserve their capacity for future operations.
“Besides that, it frees up part of the forces and resources, which will be employed for active actions, including offensive, in other directions,” Surovikin said in the televised meeting with Shoigu.
Kherson is the only regional capital the Russians have occupied since 2014. The city and the surrounding area act as a gateway to Crimea Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
Nov 09, 3:21 AM EST
White House denounces Griner transfer to penal colony
Brittney Griner, the WNBA star detained in Russia, has been transferred to a penal colony, a move decried by White House officials.
“Every minute that Brittney Griner must endure wrongful detention in Russia is a minute too long,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement early Wednesday. “As the Administration continues to work tirelessly to secure her release, the President has directed the Administration to prevail on her Russian captors to improve her treatment and the conditions she may be forced to endure in a penal colony.”
Griner’s lawyers said in a statement that she was transferred on Nov. 4 from a detention center in Iksha. She’s now on her way to a penal colony in an undisclosed location.
“We do not have any information on her exact current location or her final destination,” the lawyers, Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov, said in a statement. “In accordance with the standard Russian procedure the attorneys, as well as the U.S. Embassy, should be notified upon her arrival at her destination.”
The White House said it had made a “significant offer” to Russian officials to “resolve the current unacceptable and wrongful detentions of American citizens.”
“In the subsequent weeks, despite a lack of good faith negotiation by the Russians, the U.S. Government has continued to follow up on that offer and propose alternative potential ways forward with the Russians through all available channels,” Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
She added, “The U.S. Government is unwavering in its commitment to its work on behalf of Brittney and other Americans detained in Russia — including fellow wrongful detainee Paul Whelan.”
Nov 08, 11:56 AM EST
Moscow says it’s ‘following’ the US midterm elections
Moscow is closely “following” the midterm elections in the United States and knows that some Republican candidates have proposed to cut the country’s military aid to Ukraine, according to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko.
“Naturally, we are following the developments in the United States,” Grushko said in an interview with Russian state-owned television network Zvezda on Tuesday. “We are aware that a number of prominent Republicans favor reducing the military assistance to Ukraine, because they proceed from the position that what Democrats are currently doing is irrational.”
If Republicans are triumphant, Grushko said, the U.S. Congress could ramp up pressure on European nations regarding their defense budgets.
“We remember that one of [former U.S. President Donald] Trump’s key slogans when he came to power was that the Europeans should pay for their defense themselves,” he added. “Largely thanks to his efforts, European countries took enhanced commitments to increase their defense budgets to 2%. And there have been talks that defense spending should now reach at least 3%. The United States will continue to pursue the policy it has been running since 1949.”
Nov 08, 11:46 AM EST
Zelenskyy broaches ‘genuine peace talks’ in speech
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy raised the notion of holding “genuine peace talks” in his daily address to his nation on Tuesday.
Zelenskyy set out conditions for peace talks with the Russians, requiring the restoration of territorial integrity, compensation for all damages caused to his country, punishment of every war criminal and guarantees that another Russian invasion will not happen again.
“These are completely understandable conditions,” Zelenskyy said.
He said that earlier Tuesday he gave a virtual speech to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Egypt, telling dozens of world leaders of the ongoing Russian aggression.
“Anyone who is serious about the climate agenda should also be serious about the need to immediately stop Russian aggression, restore our territorial integrity and force Russia into genuine peace negotiations,” Zelenskyy said.
He added that previous proposals from Ukraine for peace talks have prompted “insane Russian responses with new terrorist attacks, shelling or blackmail.”
Nov 08, 11:37 AM EST
US ambassador to UN meets with Zelenskyy
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and members of his leadership team in Kyiv on Tuesday “to discuss the unwavering U.S. commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” according to a statement from U.S. Mission to the U.N. spokesperson Nate Evans.
“She reiterated that the United States is steadfast in its support for Ukraine and is prepared to stand with Ukraine as long as it takes,” Evans said.
“Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield and President Zelenskyy discussed international efforts to minimize the impact of Russia’s aggression on global food security, including through sustaining and expanding the UN-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative, and to ensure accountability for war crimes and atrocities perpetrated on the Ukrainian people,” he added. “She committed to continuing to work at the United Nations to strengthen international support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and to urge Member States to defend international law and the Charter of the United Nations.”
Nov 08, 8:09 AM EST
Ukraine asks US for new capabilities in fighting Iranian drones
ABC News has obtained a letter sent by a top Ukrainian official to senior members of Congress, asking them to assist Ukraine’s calls for additional air defense systems to counter the attack drones built and supplied by Iran to bolster Russia’s war effort.
Russia has launched waves of deadly attacks in recent weeks, using Iranian-made drones that explode on impact to strike power plants, killing civilians and causing rolling blackouts, plunging millions of Ukrainian homes into darkness.
In the letter, the chairman of the Ukrainian parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, calls on the U.S. to provide Ukraine with highly mobile air defense systems known as C-RAMs, saying they would help protect “important objects, especially crucial power plants.”
Nov 08, 6:37 AM EST
US ambassador to UN travels to Ukraine
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield is traveling to Ukraine on Tuesday “to reiterate the United States’ unwavering support as Ukraine defends its freedom and territorial integrity amidst Russia’s brutal and unprovoked invasion,” according to a statement from the U.S. Mission to the U.N.
While in the country’s capital, Kyiv, Thomas-Greenfield “will meet with Ukrainian government leaders to discuss the ironclad American commitment to the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine,” and she “will observe efforts to document and preserve evidence of atrocities committed by Russian forces and will hear first-hand accounts of survivors,” according to the U.S. mission.
“Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield will also discuss the global food insecurity crisis exacerbated by Russia’s invasion and will underscore the critical need for an extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative into the coming year,” the U.S. mission said. “She will also meet with humanitarian organizations working to meet winterization needs for vulnerable people impacted by Russia’s attacks on energy and other civilian infrastructure.”
Nov 06, 1:57 PM EST
Biden, German chancellor call Russian nuclear threats ‘irresponsible’
President Joe Biden spoke to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday and both agreed Russia’s nuclear threats stemming the war in Ukraine are “irresponsible,” according to the White House.
Both leaders said they would continue to “provide Ukraine with the economic, humanitarian, and security support it needs to defend against Russia,” the White House said in a statement.
Biden and Scholz also spoke of the chancellor’s recent trip to the People’s Republic of China and, according to White House officials “affirmed their shared commitment to upholding the rules-based international order, human rights, and fair trade practices.”
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Nov 03, 12:02 PM EDT
Western officials believe Russia is planning ‘orderly, well-planned and deliberate’ military withdrawal from Kherson
Western officials are “confident” Russia’s military is “setting the conditions” for withdrawal from the Ukrainian city of Kherson, the only regional capital that has been occupied by Russian forces since the February.
The Russian military is preparing to make a “strategic” withdrawal and move its forces east across the Dnipro river, officials said.
“It looks like an orderly, well-planned and deliberate military process is taking place,” a Western official told ABC News.
The officials would not put a timeframe on when the withdrawal would happen and added that it is not guaranteed to take place. They downplayed, however, any speculation that the Russians are using the withdrawal to mask a more “nefarious” action in that area.
The officials said their assessment was that the Russians believe Kherson “is not worth fighting for.”
The advance of Ukrainian forces in Kherson has slowed over the past three weeks.
In mid-October, the newly appointed commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, General Surovikin, said “difficult decisions” may be necessary in Kherson.
Senior Ukrainian officials have suggested more recently that Russian forces are preparing to fight for Kherson and a source on the ground told ABC News that the Russian military is still moving in and out of the city.
-ABC News’ Tom Burridge
Nov 02, 12:14 PM EDT
North Korea covertly shipping ammunition to Russia for war in Ukraine, US says
North Korea was secreting sending ammunition to Russia to use in its invasion of Ukraine and is disguising the shipments as appearing to be destined to the Middle East or North Africa, the White House said Wednesday.
“Our information indicates that [North Korea] is covertly supplying Russia’s war in Ukraine with a significant number of artillery shells, while obfuscating the real destination of the arms shipments by trying to make it appear as though they’re being sent to countries in the Middle East or North Africa,” White House spokesman John Kirby said.
Kirby said North Korea was sending “a significant number of artillery shells.” He did not specify an exact number but said it was more than “dozens.”
“But we don’t believe that they are in such a quantity that they would tangibly change the direction of this war or tangibly change the momentum either in the east or in the south” of Ukraine, he said.
Kirby added, “We’re gonna continue to monitor whether these shipments are received.”
In September, the U.S. had said Russia is looking to purchase millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea, saying at the time that this indicated the Russian military continues to suffer from severe supply shortages in Ukraine.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson
Nov 02, 12:01 PM EDT
Russia waives veiled threat on use of nuclear weapons
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a warning to nations with nuclear capabilities, calling on them to abandon attempts to infringe on each other’s vital interests, warning that direct armed conflict and provocations with weapons of mass destruction can lead to catastrophic consequences.
Russia claimed it believes there can be no winners of nuclear war and said it refarrims its commitment to the prevention of nuclear warm.
“A reaction with the use of nuclear weapons is hypothetically allowed by Russia only in response to aggression using weapons of mass destruction or aggression using conventional weapons, when the existence of the state is threatened,” the ministry said in a statement.
The White House has said it will not confirm or deny New York Times reporting that senior Russian military officials had recently discussed when and how Russia might use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine. The intelligence about the conversations was reportedly circulated inside the U.S. government in mid-October.
But, Russian President Vladimir Putin was not a part of these alleged conversations, according to the New York Times.
The White House on Wednesday said it still sees “no indications that Russia is making preparations” to use nuclear weapons.
-ABC News’ Natalia Shumskaia and Ben Gittleson
Nov 02, 12:14 PM EDT
North Korea covertly shipping ammunition to Russia for war in Ukraine, US says
North Korea was secretly sending ammunition to Russia to use in its invasion of Ukraine and is disguising the shipments as appearing to be destined to the Middle East or North Africa, the White House said Wednesday.
“Our information indicates that [North Korea] is covertly supplying Russia’s war in Ukraine with a significant number of artillery shells, while obfuscating the real destination of the arms shipments by trying to make it appear as though they’re being sent to countries in the Middle East or North Africa,” White House spokesman John Kirby said.
Kirby said North Korea was sending “a significant number of artillery shells.” He did not specify an exact number but said it was more than “dozens.”
“But we don’t believe that they are in such a quantity that they would tangibly change the direction of this war or tangibly change the momentum either in the east or in the south” of Ukraine, he said.
Kirby added, “We’re gonna continue to monitor whether these shipments are received.”
In September, the U.S. had said Russia is looking to purchase millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea, saying at the time that this indicated the Russian military continues to suffer from severe supply shortages in Ukraine.
Nov 02, 12:01 PM EDT
Russia waives veiled threat on use of nuclear weapons
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a warning to nations with nuclear capabilities, calling on them to abandon attempts to infringe on each other’s vital interests, warning that direct armed conflict and provocations with weapons of mass destruction can lead to catastrophic consequences.
Russia claimed it believes there can be no winners of nuclear war and said it reaffirms its commitment to the prevention of nuclear warm.
“A reaction with the use of nuclear weapons is hypothetically allowed by Russia only in response to aggression using weapons of mass destruction or aggression using conventional weapons, when the existence of the state is threatened,” the ministry said in a statement.
The White House has said it will not confirm or deny New York Times reporting that senior Russian military officials had recently discussed when and how Russia might use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine. The intelligence about the conversations was reportedly circulated inside the U.S. government in mid-October.
But, Russian President Vladimir Putin was not a part of these alleged conversations, according to the New York Times.
The White House on Wednesday said it still sees “no indications that Russia is making preparations” to use nuclear weapons.
Nov 02, 8:40 AM EDT
Russia rejoins wartime deal on Ukrainian grain exports
Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Wednesday that Russia has agreed to resume its participation in a deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations to keep grain and other commodities shipping out of Ukraine’s ports amid the ongoing war.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informed his Turkish counterpart, Hulusi Akar, that the so-called Black Sea Grain Initiative would “continue in the same way as before” as of noon Wednesday, according to Erdogan.
The renewed agreement, first reached over the summer, will prioritize shipments to African countries, including drought-ravaged Somalia, after Russia expressed concerns that most of the grain was ending up in richer nations.
Moscow agreed to return to the deal after receiving written guarantees from Kyiv that Ukraine would not use the safe shipping corridors through the Black Sea for military actions against Russian forces, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Russia had suspended its role in the deal over the weekend, after accusing Ukrainian forces of carrying out a “massive” drone attack on its Black Sea fleet on Saturday.
Turkey and the U.N. brokered separate deals with Russia and Ukraine in July to allow Ukraine to resume its shipment of grain from the Black Sea to world markets and for Russia to export grain and fertilizers.
Since Russian forces invaded neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, the cost of grain, fertilizer and fuel has skyrocketed worldwide. Russia and Ukraine — often referred to collectively as Europe’s breadbasket — produce a third of the global supply of wheat and barley, but a Russian blockade in the Black Sea combined with Ukrainian naval mines have made exporting siloed grain and other foodstuffs virtually impossible. As a result, millions of people around the world — particularly in Africa and the Middle East — are now on the brink of famine.
Nov 01, 3:01 PM EDT
Ukraine does not have effective defenses against Iranian ballistic missiles, air force official claims
Iranian ballistic missiles, which Russia plans to purchase from Iran, will probably be placed on the northern border of Ukraine, the spokesman of the Ukrainian Airborne Forces Yuri Ignat said Tuesday.
Ignat claimed the ballistic missiles’ range was 300 km for one and 700 km for another.
“We have no effective defense against these missiles. It is theoretically possible to shoot them down, but in fact it is very difficult to do it with the means we have at our disposal. We have air defense, not missile defense,” he said.
-ABC News’ Yulia Drozd
Nov 01, 3:01 PM EDT
Russia announces wider evacuation of occupied southern Ukraine
As Ukrainian forces advance to capture the city of Kherson, Russian forces are ordering civilians out of parts of the now-occupied city. Some 70,000 people along a 15 kilometer (10 mile) stretch of the left bank of the Dnipro River will be evacuated deeper into the Kherson region or to Russia, according to the Russian-installed leader of the occupied Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo.
Russia had previously ordered civilians out of an area it controls on the west bank of the river.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Oct 31, 7:07 PM EDT
Russia’s withdrawal from grain deal ‘collective punishment’ for world: State Department
State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Monday lambasted Russia’s recent decision to withdraw from the U.N.-brokered deal that allowed for grain to be exported through the Black Sea — likely to be a chief focus of this week’s G-7 ministerial meeting and potentially the G-20 Leaders’ Summit next month.
“We deeply regret Russia’s decision to suspend its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which is having immediate, harmful impacts on global food security,” Price said during a press briefing. “Russia should return to full participation in the initiative, and we urge all parties to swiftly agree to sustain this crucial program through the months to come.”
“Any disruption to the initiative risks spiking food prices, lowering the confidence of insurers and commercial shippers who have returned to Black Sea routes, and further imposing hardships on low-income countries already reeling from dire humanitarian crises and global food insecurity,” he added.
Price said Russia’s reneging had already caused future contracts for foodstuff to rise, even though some ships appear to have been allowed to pass through the water routes with their cargo following Moscow’s announcement.
“We’ve seen Russia engage in what appears to be collective punishment for the people of Ukraine,” he said. “But Moscow’s suspension of the initiative would be tantamount to collective punishment for the rest of the world — but especially lower- and middle-income countries that so desperately needed this grain.”
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Oct 31, 3:32 PM EDT
Ukraine energy company warns about attacks on energy infrastructure
Following a series of coordinated strikes across Ukraine this Monday morning, Ukraine’s largest private energy company DTEK says it’s running out of equipment and spare parts needed for repairs of the damaged infrastructure facilities.
“Unfortunately, we have already used up the stock of equipment that we had in our warehouses after the first two waves of attacks that have been taking place since Oct. 10,” said DTEK Executive Director Dmytro Sakharuk. “We were able to purchase some equipment. But unfortunately, the cost of the equipment is now measured in hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Most parts have been already used for repairs following previous Russian strikes, he added.
Oct 31, 4:54 AM EDT
Russia launches waves of missiles at energy targets
Russia on Monday morning again launched a series of coordinated strikes across Ukraine, targeting energy infrastructure, including in the Kyiv region.
Ukraine’s military said it shot down 44 cruise missiles as the Russians launched “several waves of missile attacks on critical infrastructure facilities” across the country.
About five distant booms could be heard in central Kyiv at about 8 a.m. local time.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, confirmed that a power plant has been hit, meaning mid-morning around 350,000 homes in the capital were left without power. Kyiv’s water supply has also been compromised, according to a water company.
A local official said “critical infrastructure” had also been hit in the Chernivtsi region in southwestern Ukraine.
Critical infrastructure has also been hit and damaged in Zaporizhzhia in the south, according to another local official.
Other regions of Ukraine appear to have been targeted, including Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Poltava and Lviv.
There are currently no reports of significant casualties.
ABC News’ Tom Soufi Burridge
Oct 30, 10:02 AM EDT
Blinken accuses Russia of ‘weaponizing food’
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken slammed Russia’s decision to pull out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative as a statement from the Kremlin that “people and families around the world should pay more for food or go hungry.”
Russia announced it is withdrawing from the U.N.-brokered grain deal in response to a drone attack Saturday in the waters of the Sevastopol Bay, in the Black Sea near Crimea.
Russia’s decision, Blinken said, is jeopardizing grain shipments he described as “life-saving.”
“In suspending this arrangement, Russia is again weaponizing food in the war it started, directly impacting low- and middle-income countries and global food prices, and exacerbating already dire humanitarian crises and food insecurity,” Blinken said in a statement released Saturday night.
He said 9 million metric tons of food has been shipped under the agreement, which was signed and launched in July. He said the shipments have reduced food prices around the world.
“We urge the Government of Russia to resume its participation in the Initiative, fully comply with the arrangement, and work to ensure that people around the world continue to be able to receive the benefits facilitated by the Initiative,” Blinken said.
Blinken’s statement echoed what President Joe Biden said earlier Saturday, calling Russia’s withdrawal from the initiative, “purely outrageous.”
“It’s going to increase starvation. There’s no reason for them to do that, but they’re always looking for some rationale to be able to say the reason they’re doing something outrageous is because the West made them do it. And it’s just not,” Biden said. “There’s no merit to what they’re doing. The UN negotiated that deal and that should be the end of it.”
(WASHINGTON) — The District of Columbia filed a consumer protection lawsuit against the Washington Commanders, team owner Daniel Snyder, the National Football League and league commissioner Roger Goodell, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine announced Thursday.
The defendants are being sued “for collusion to deceive residents of the District of Columbia about their investigation into a toxic workplace culture that impacted employees, especially women,” Racine said at a press conference.
The D.C. AG alleges in his complaint that “The Commanders, Snyder, the NFL, and Goodell misled fans about what was being done to address decades of sexual harassment and toxicity in the Commander’s organization.” He also alleges “Snyder and the Commanders lied to consumers when they denied knowing anything about the long-standing hostile work environment and culture of sexual harassment.”
Racine, who is leaving the office on Jan. 2, 2023, said the lawsuit will continue regardless of the team’s ownership.
Attorneys for the Washington Commanders told ABC News in a statement Thursday, “Over two years ago, Dan and Tanya Snyder acknowledged that an unacceptable workplace culture had existed within their organization for several years and they have apologized many times for allowing that to happen.”
The statement added, “We agree with AG Racine on one thing: the public needs to know the truth. Although the lawsuit repeats a lot of innuendo, half-truths and lies, we welcome this opportunity to defend the organization — for the first time — in a court of law and to establish, once and for all, what is fact and what is fiction.”
Brian McCarthy, the vice president of communications for the NFL, told ABC News in a statement that the independent investigation into workplace misconduct allegations at the Washington Commanders was “thoroughly and comprehensively conducted” by attorney Beth Wilkinson and her law firm, Wilkinson Walsh + Eskovitz.
“Following the completion of the investigation, the NFL made public a summary of Ms. Wilkinson’s findings and imposed a record-setting fine against the club and its ownership,” the statement said.
He added, “We reject the legally unsound and factually baseless allegations made today by the D.C. Attorney General against the NFL and Commissioner Goodell and will vigorously defend against those claims.”
Racine’s office began looking into Snyder’s team and the NFL in the fall of 2021 related to allegations of sexual harassment and workplace misconduct. He says his office has reviewed thousands of internal documents from the Commanders and the NFL.
The lawsuit is based on D.C.’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act (CPPA), which prohibits unfair and deceptive trade practices, Racine said. OAG has broad authority under the CPPA to hold accountable any company or any head of a company if they mislead or lie to District consumers, regardless of where they are located.
A spokesperson for the Washington Commanders told ABC News on Wednesday ahead of the scheduled press conference, “the Commanders have fully cooperated with the AG’s investigation for nearly a year. As recently as Monday, a lawyer for the team met with the AG who did not suggest at that time that he intended to take any action and, in fact, revealed fundamental misunderstandings of the underlying facts.”
The attorney general told reporters Thursday, “What Mr. Snyder sought to do is what he does all the time. Deflect attention from his own misconduct. impute a motivation or intention onto someone else.”
Former team employees Meghan Imbert and Melanie Coburn spoke to reporters after the press conference.
Coburn, who testified in February at a House Oversight Committee hearing on the allegations against the Commanders, was a former director of marketing and cheerleader with the team.
“These allegations have also been going on for quite some time,” she said. “And of course, the [House Oversight] committee has been working on this for a very long time and I have full confidence that they’re gonna come out with some sort of information for the public. That’s what they intended to do.”
Imbert, a former production manager for the team’s TV department, told reporters that the issues when it comes to workplace culture aren’t just with the NFL but with society. She says the announcement Thursday proves to her that there might be a path for accountability.
“This is bigger than the NFL. This is a societal issue. The NFL is a microcosm of society,” she said.
The House Oversight Committee declined to comment Thursday.
