5 stabbed at New York City’s Penn Station, suspect in custody: Sources

(NEW YORK) — The White House’s new policy for preserving presidential records risks allowing the Trump administration to “unlawfully destroy important records,” a group of Senate Democrats warned in a letter to the White House Counsel on Wednesday.

Thirteen Senate Democrats are seeking assurances from the White House that it would continue to preserve presidential records, saying they had grown “deeply concerned” with recent steps the Trump administration had taken to loosen rules dictating document retention.

The Democrats’ missive comes after the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) wrote an opinion this month that deemed the Presidential Records Act — a Watergate-era law that changed the legal ownership of presidential records from private to public — to be unconstitutional and “untethered from any valid and identifiable legislative purpose.” 

One day after the opinion was issued, White House Counsel David Warrington issued new guidance for White House staffers to adopt new document retention policies based on the DOJ’s new determination about the legality of the Presidential Records Act.

“The 1978 law is a significant departure from historical practice. For 200 years the presidency existed without the legislative branch invading the rights of the executive branch,” Warrington said in a memo that was later included in a court filing.

Led by Sen. Adam Schiff of California, the Democrats wrote to White House Counsel David Warrington that they feared “the President and his staff” will use the OLC option to “unlawfully destroy important records covered by the [Presidential Records Act].”

Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement that the Democrats’ letter reflects “a fundamental misunderstanding of the Administration’s policy.”

“The new White House records retention policy makes it clear that important records will be preserved,” Jackson added.

The senators, in their letter, alluded to what they characterized as President Donald Trump’s “unlawful personal retention and mismanagement of classified documents” in requesting a briefing from White House officials on their “records management procedures” at some point before the end of his term. Trump was indicted after his first term for allegedly storing classified records at his Mar-a-Lago estate and obstructing investigators, though the case was dismissed over U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s concerns about the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith. 

Drafted in the wake of the Watergate scandal, the Presidential Records Act was passed in 1978 to ensure the preservation of presidential records. Every president since Ronald Reagan has been subject to the law, which places the National Archives and Records Administration in control of the official records — such as emails, phone records, and other documentary material created by the president and his staff in the course of their duties — once the president leaves office.

Under the PRA, which is overseen by Congress, former presidents have up to 12 years after leaving office to turn over all their presidential records.

During President Trump’s current term, his administration has moved to unwind record retention protocols. Earlier this month, Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser wrote an opinion that would upend the established process for ensuring the public ownership of presidential records, arguing that “the PRA exceeds the oversight power [of Congress] because it serves no identifiable and valid legislative purpose.”

With three years left in Trump’s second term, his Department of Justice now says the president “need not further comply” with the law governing the handover of his presidential records once he leaves office. 

The day after the publication of the Justice Department’s opinion, Warrington issued new guidance for the Executive Office of the President regarding the preserve of records going forward. While the memo said that staff could use policies developed under the PRA, Warrington said the new policy would cover the retention of both classified and unclassified material going forward.

In their letter to Warrington on Wednesday, the senators asserted that administration “does not have the authority to override Supreme Court rulings or unilaterally overturn laws passed by Congress.”  

Within a week of the OLC opinion and new White House guidance, the country’s largest group of a historians and a watchdog organization brought a lawsuit seeking to force the Trump administration to comply with the PRA.

“The Executive Branch has nullified the determinations of the other two branches of government so that the President may claim these official government records to be his own,” the lawsuit said.

Lawyers with the Department of Justice have defended the policy in court filings, arguing the PRA is an “unconstitutional and ahistorical imposition on presidential autonomy.”

As part of the lawsuit, the Trump administration released the new White House guidance on document retention. The Director of Archival Operations at the National Archives, meanwhile, said that the agency continues to “preserve all Presidential records in its custody” and plans to continue processing requests to access those records. 

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(SAN DIEGO) — Investigators are continuing to build a picture of the two suspects in the deadly Monday shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego which killed three people, and which law enforcement officials say may have been driven by nihilistic and accelerationist extremism.

Three men, one of whom was a security guard, were killed in the shooting on Monday, authorities said, with investigators saying they are currently considering the incident as a hate crime.

Two suspects, aged 17 and 18, were found dead in a vehicle nearby, police said. Authorities are investigating two teenagers, Cain Clark and Caleb Vazquez, as the suspected attackers in the shooting, several sources told ABC News.

Authorities are reviewing a video apparently posted online by one of the suspects in Monday’s shooting that appeared to capture a livestream of the attack and its aftermath, sources told ABC News.

Sources said a video posted to an online gore site allegedly shows the suspects approaching the center and then opening fire, with a person believed to be suspect Clark wearing camouflage fatigues and a plate carrier.

In a later portion of the video, sources said the person believed to be Clark can be seen reaching into the backseat of the vehicle and then shooting Vazquez, before chambering a second round and taking his own life.

The video and items found with the suspects’ bodies appeared to indicate associations with extremist ideology, law enforcement officials said.

A Sonnenrad patch, depicting a neo-Nazi symbol, and what analysts assess is likely a patch for a militant accelerationist group, are both visible on the plate carrier being worn by the person believed to be Clark, according to sources. Additionally, writings are visible on a gun, including drawings of SS bolts and neo-Nazi insignias, sources said.

Further symbols associated with neo-Nazism and militant accelerationism were found at the scene of the shooting, including a flag with a Sonnenrad on it and a gas can with SS bolts drawn on it, according to sources.

Investigators are examining a lengthy document circulating online that is comprised of two hate-filled essays totaling 75 pages allegedly written by the suspected shooters, sources told ABC News.

Both essays promote white nationalism and express a hatred for immigrants, racial minorities and others, as well as anger toward women who prefer taller men, according to sources. Vazquez allegedly writes he is an “accelerationist” in his essay, echoing nihilistic rhetoric, sources said.

It’s unclear when the essays were actually written — a section intended to identify the “targets” is left blank, sources said.

Social media accounts believed to be tied to Clark reflect possible associations with nihilistic violent extremist ideology, sources also told ABC News.

Early last year, police in Chula Vista, California, spoke with Vazquez after someone who knew him expressed concerns that he was interested in extremist ideology and mass-casualty attacks, though the concerns at that point didn’t meet the threshold for making an arrest, sources told ABC News.

A spokesperson for the Chula Vista Police Department told ABC News on Tuesday that the department “extends its deepest condolences to all those affected by this tragedy” but declined to answer questions about the prior contact.

The suspects met online and discovered they both lived in the San Diego area, according to Mark Remily, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Diego Field Office. They appear to have been radicalized online and had a “broad hatred” toward a wide array of races and religions, Remily said during a press briefing Tuesday.

“They didn’t discriminate on who they hated,” Remily said.

Investigators have recovered writings that outline “religious and racial beliefs of how the world they envision should look,” Remily said. Authorities are in the process of analyzing their writings to learn what led to the attack and how to prevent future ones, as well as looking into “how the radicalization occurred,” he said.

It’s too early in the investigation to tell if the mosque was the specific target, authorities said.

“We’re still looking through electronics to give us the answers, but again, what I can say is they definitely had a broad hatred towards a lot of folks,” Remily said.

San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said law enforcement is still working to determine the scope of the “threat picture,” when asked if the Islamic center’s schools were the intended target.

Police are investigating how the suspects obtained firearms in the shooting, Wahl said Tuesday. The guns belonged to the parents of one of the suspects, he said.

During searches of two residences associated with the suspects, authorities seized “numerous pistols, rifles, shotguns, ammunition, tactical gear, as well as electronics,” Remily said.

“So far in this investigation, we’ve seized over 30 guns and a crossbow,” he said.

The shooting was reported shortly before noon Monday, police said.

A video review shows that the suspects got into a “gun battle” with the security guard, who was killed outside the mosque, according to Wahl.

The security guard had managed to put out a “lockdown protocol,” which along with the sound of gunfire, allowed those in the main common areas of the mosque to go into hiding, he said. There were some 140 children inside at the time, he said.

The suspects moved room by room once inside, but did not run into anyone, the police chief said. At one point, they are seen looking out a window, with one pointing to the window, before running out a nearby door, at which point they “immediately engage” the two other victims outside in the parking lot, he said.

Amin Abdullah, the security guard killed, has been hailed as a hero.

“His actions, without a doubt, delayed, distracted and ultimately deterred these two individuals from gaining access to the greater areas of the mosque where as many as 140 kids were within 15 feet of these suspects,” Wahl said Tuesday.

The two other victims killed in the shooting — identified by authorities as Mansour Kaziha and Nadir Awad — “drew the attention” of the suspects into a parking lot “where they were unfortunately unable to flee,” Wahl said. They were cornered by the suspects and killed, Wahl said.

Police are investigating a potential motive but said the shooting is currently being considered as a hate crime.

“There was definitely hate rhetoric that was involved,” Wahl said during a Monday press briefing.

Anti-Islamic writings were found in the vehicle with the two teens, sources told ABC News.

About two hours before the shooting at the mosque, San Diego police received a call involving the 17-year-old suspect, about a runaway juvenile, according to Wahl. The teen’s mother reported that “several of her weapons” and her vehicle were missing, he said. The mother also found a note, Wahl said, the contents of which the police chief did not share.

The mother told police that her son was with another individual and that they were both “dressed in camo,” Wahl said.

Officers were attempting to track down the vehicle and dispatched police to a mall and to a school with which one of the teens was associated, when the shooting at the mosque was reported, he said.

The Islamic Center of San Diego says it is the largest mosque in San Diego County.

“We have never experienced a tragedy like this before,” Taha Hassan, Imam and Director of Islamic Center of San Diego, said of the center at a news conference.

“It is extremely outrageous to target a place of worship. Our Islamic center is a place of worship. People come to the Islamic center to pray, to celebrate, to learn, not only Muslims, but we have people from all walks of life,” Hassan added.

“The religious intolerance and the hate, unfortunately, that exists in our nation is unprecedented,” Hassan said.

“We strongly condemn this horrifying act of violence,” Tazheen Nizam, the executive director of the San Diego chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with everyone impacted by this attack. No one should ever fear for their safety while attending prayers or studying at an elementary school.”

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria told ABC News that “we immediately have increased patrols around religious sites, both our Muslim, Jewish and other faith communities across the city. And I imagine we’ll maintain that posture for some time.”

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(WASHINGTON) –A federal appeals court on Tuesday halted a criminal contempt inquiry into former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other officials for last year’s deportation of more than 200 Venezuelans to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison, marking the second time in less than a year that the probe has been frozen.

A divided panel of judges on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered an end to the inquiry, concluding that the probe into whether the officials knowingly defied a court order with the deportations “encroaches on the autonomy” of the executive branch.

The Trump administration, in March 2025, invoked the Alien Enemies Act — an 18th century wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with little-to-no due process — to deport two planeloads of alleged migrant gang members by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order and ordered that the planes be turned around, but Justice Department attorneys said his oral instructions directing the flight to be returned were defective, and the deportations proceeded as planned.

Boasberg subsequently sought contempt proceedings against the government for deliberately defying his order, and had concluded that “probable cause exists to find the government in criminal contempt” — but his inquiry was frozen by the same appeals court last year.

When Boasberg attempted to continue with his probe within the confines of the court’s order, the Trump administration filed an interlocutory appeal to stop the investigation outright.

“The district court proposes to probe high-level Executive Branch deliberations about matters of national security and diplomacy,” Judge Neomi Rao, one of two Trump appointees on the panel who ruled in favor of the government, wrote in Tuesday’s order. “These proceedings are a clear abuse of discretion, as the district court’s order said nothing about transferring custody of the plaintiffs and therefore lacks the clarity to support criminal contempt based on the transfer of custody.”

Judge J. Michelle Childs dissented from the majority and argued that Boasberg should have the latitude to proceed with basic fact-finding into the deportations.

“There is no question that there could be much to fear in a factual inquiry about the actions of potential contemnors who may have defied a court order. However, that does not mean that this court must intervene to end a criminal case before it begins, even for the Executive Branch,” she wrote.

In a sharply worded dissent, she argued that “the fate of our democratic republic” depends on whether courts can properly investigate and punish contempt.  

“Without the contempt power, the rule of law is an illusion, a theory that stands upon shifting sands,” she said.

Lee Gelernt, the lead counsel representing the Venezuelans, said in a statement, “The opinion is a blow to the rule of law. Our system is built on the executive branch, including the president, respecting court orders. In this case there is no longer any question that the Trump administration willfully violated the court’s order.”

The Venezuelan nationals were ultimately released to their home country from CECOT in a prisoner swap last July.

ABC News’ Armando Garcia contributed to this report.

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