30 more people charged in connection Minnesota church incident: DOJ
In this Jan. 30, 2026, file photo, Cities Church is shown in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images, FILE)
(NEW YORK) — Thirty more people have been charged in connection with an incident last month in which anti-ICE protesters disrupted a service at a Minnesota church, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday.
“At my direction, federal agents have already arrested 25 of them, with more to come throughout the day,” Bondi said in a post on X after a superseding indictment in the case was unsealed. “YOU CANNOT ATTACK A HOUSE OF WORSHIP. If you do so, you cannot hide from us — we will find you, arrest you, and prosecute you.”
The Justice Department had previously charged nine others, including former CNN journalist Don Lemon, for their alleged roles in the incident. Lemon and several others pleaded not guilty to federal civil rights charges earlier this month.
The incident unfolded on Jan. 18, when protesters entered Cities Church in St. Paul. The protesters said one of the pastors is the acting field director of the St. Paul ICE field office. Protesters were heard chanting “Justice for Renee Good” inside the church, referencing the woman fatally shot by a federal agent in Minneapolis in early January.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Epstein and Maxwell in one of the images released by the US Department of State . (Photo by The US Justice Department / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Bank of America has reached a proposed, non-binding settlement in a lawsuit that alleged the bank helped facilitate Jeffrey Epstein’s trafficking operation, according to court records.
The proposed class-action complaint, filed in October 2025, alleged that Bank of America “knowingly provided the financial support and the veneer of institutional legitimacy” to Epstein and ignored suspicious transactions by the late disgraced financier.
A notice on the case’s docket said that lawyers for the bank and the victims “reached a settlement in principle.” The terms of the settlement were not immediately disclosed and would need to be approved by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff had previously scheduled the case to go to trial on May 11.
A court hearing to consider the settlement proposal is scheduled for April 2 in federal court in New York, according to the docket.
Bank of America declined to comment on the proposed settlement to ABC News. An attorney for the victims called the proposed settlement “one more step on the road to much-deserved justice.”
“The women entrapped and abused by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell started a monumental reckoning with their brave voices and fearlessness. The road to justice for these women has been long and trying,” attorney Sigrid McCawley said in a statement.
Though the terms of the settlement are unknown, a proposed resolution of the case would likely scuttle an upcoming deposition of Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black, who was scheduled to sit for questioning on March 26. Black resigned from his role at Apollo in 2021 after an inquiry into his relationship with Epstein, which found that Black paid Epstein $158 million for tax and estate planning advice.
In a statement from January, Black’s attorney said that his client “had no awareness of Epstein’s criminal activities” and that there is “absolutely no truth to any of the allegations against Mr. Black.”
The lawsuit against Bank of America alleged that those payments from Black and other transactions by Epstein should have raised concern by the bank, which “failed to alert law enforcement as to Epstein’s crimes before it was far too late.”
“Epstein committed these crimes by means of not only his own extraordinary wealth and power, but through access to funding and financial support from both individuals and institutions, including Bank of America. Egregiously, Bank of America had a plethora of information regarding Epstein’s sex trafficking operation but chose profit over protecting the victims,” the lawsuit alleged.
Bank of America had unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the court to dismiss the case by arguing that the suit was “based on nothing more than allegations that it provided routine services to customers who at the time had no known connection to Epstein’s sex trafficking.”
“Bank of America opposes trafficking in all its forms. But this suit attempts to radically expand liability for banks, holding them liable for providing ordinary banking services to individuals one or more steps removed from a trafficker,” a November 2025 filing from the bank’s lawyers said.
Lindsey Halligan, holds ceremonial proclamations to be signed by US President Donald Trump, not pictured, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, March 6, 2025. Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge wants to know why Lindsey Halligan is still using the title of U.S. attorney despite a judge ruling in November that she is legally not in the position.
Halligan, who was appointed by President Donald Trump to be the acting U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, was found by a judge to not be legally allowed to serve in the role because the law doesn’t allow the position to be filled by two interim nominees in a row.
The ruling came two months after Halligan secured indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, only to have them thrown out due to her unlawful appointment.
The issue stems from a recent case in which Halligan, on the indictment, represents that she is the U.S. attorney and “did so despite a binding Court Order entered by Senior United States District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie on November 24, 2025, in which Judge Currie found that the ‘appointment Ms. Halligan as Interim U.S. Attorney violated 28 U.S.C. § 546 and the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution,'” U.S. District Judge David Novak wrote in a filing Tuesday.
Judge Novak said that while the government is appealing the ruling, it is not subject to being ignored. He ordered the government to explain why Halligan has identified herself as the U.S. attorney within seven days.
“Ms. Halligan shall further explain why her identification does not constitute a false or misleading statement,” the judge wrote.
A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
Halligan, one of Trump’s former personal attorneys, was named U.S. attorney by Trump in September after Trump ousted her predecessor, Erik Siebert, who sources say had expressed doubts internally about bringing cases against James and Comey.
Because Siebert himself had been named interim U.S. attorney by Trump last January, Judge Currie ruled that Halligan’s appointment as interim U.S. attorney violated the Constitution’s Appointments Clause that limits how long prosecutors can serve without Senate confirmation.
(NEW YORK) — A person was shot in an incident involving U.S. Border Patrol in Arizona, a Pima County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson told ABC News.
The shooting occurred early Tuesday morning, the Santa Rita Fire District said. Emergency responders provided first aid at the scene and the person was taken to a hospital in unknown condition, officials said.
The sheriff’s office said it’s working with the FBI and Customs and Border Protection.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
