Special counsel files sealed court brief supporting his Jan. 6 case against Trump
(WASHINGTON) — Special counsel Jack Smith’s lengthy court brief seeking to justify his latest superseding indictment against former President Donald Trump on charges that he sought to subvert the 2020 election has been filed under seal with U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, a spokesperson for Smith’s office confirmed to ABC News Thursday.
“We have complied with the court’s order,” spokesperson Peter Carr said.
The brief presents Smith’s argument on how the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity applies to the former president’s criminal case.
Whether any portions of the filing will be made public now rest in Judge Chutkan’s hands.
Smith has also filed a proposed redacted version of the filing that his office determined would be appropriate for public release.
Trump’s defense attorneys will have a chance to make their own counterarguments objecting to the release of information in the brief.
Chutkan on Tuesday granted Smith’s request to file an oversized 180-page brief, exceeding the standard 45-page limit.
In July, the Supreme Court ruled in blockbuster decision that Trump is entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts undertaken while in office — effectively sending the case back to Chutkan to sort out which charges against Trump can stand.
Smith then charged Trump, in a superseding indictment, with the same election interference offenses in the original indictment, but pared down and adjusted to the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling.
Chutkan subsequently ruled that Smith could file a comprehensive brief supporting his presidential immunity arguments.
A new bomb threat prompted officials Sunday at Clark State College in Springfield, Ohio, to close the campus this week and hold classes virtually, the school said.
Clark officials said it received an email of a bomb threat to the Springfield campus on Sunday, a day after it received another emailed threat on Saturday threatening a possible shooting.
“We took immediate action with the Springfield Police Department and they have ensured our campus is secure and safe,” the college said in a statement.
The college said that “out of an abundance of caution,” it will conduct all instruction virtually and close all of its campuses for the week of Sept. 16-20, adding, “We will always prioritize the safety and wellness of our students, employees and community.”
“We understand the anxiety that such incidents can cause and we are treating this matter with the utmost seriousness and care,” Clark officials said. “As a proactive measure, Springfield Police will also increase their security presence on campus, and we are working with our wellness team and partners to provide additional counseling services.”
Bomb threats made on Saturday targeted three medical facilities, an unspecified fourth facility and Wittenberg University, a small private liberal arts college in Springfield, officials said.
Wittenberg officials canceled all activities scheduled for Sunday due to a threat that “targeted Haitian members of our community,” the university said in an alert on Saturday.
“Wittenberg University is currently taking extreme precautions following an email that threatened a potential shooting on-campus tomorrow,” the university said in a statement on Saturday.
An FBI spokesperson confirmed to ABC News that the FBI “is working in coordination with the Springfield Police Department and Wittenberg University to determine the credibility of recent threats, share information, and take appropriate investigative action. We encourage the public to remain vigilant and to report anything they consider suspicious to law enforcement.”
As a result of the threats, local police conducted sweeps of the colleges and medical facilities targeted and cleared them. Some have already reopened, a police official told ABC News.
Springfield Regional Medical Center, Ohio Valley Surgical Hospital and Kettering Health Springfield were listed by authorities as targets.
The Springfield Police Division has beefed up its staffing as it deals with threats stemming from unsubstantiated claims about the Haitian migrant community.
Two elementary schools were evacuated and a middle school was closed on Friday in the wake of a threat sent via email in Springfield, according to the school district and the mayor.
The elementary schools released students to their parents, officials said.
It’s unclear if the person who sent Friday’s threat is the same person who sent the other threats, Springfield Mayor Rob Rue told ABC News.
On Thursday morning, bomb threats were sent via email “to multiple agencies and media outlets” in the city, according to the city commission office.
Explosive-detecting K-9s helped police clear multiple facilities listed in the threat, including two elementary schools, City Hall and a few driver’s license bureaus, Springfield Police Chief Allison Elliott told reporters. The county court facilities were also cleared “out of an abundance of caution,” she said.
The FBI is working with local police to help identify the source of the threat, Elliott said.
The mayor said there’s a lot of fear in Springfield in the wake of the threats.
“This is a very concerning time for our citizens, and frankly, a lot of people are tired of just, you know, the things that have been spread about our community that are just negative and not true. We need help, not hate,” Rue told ABC News on Friday.
The mayor said he believes these threats are directly connected to the baseless rumors spread online in the wake of viral social media posts claiming Haitian migrants were abducting people’s pets in Springfield in order to eat them. The rumors were amplified by right-wing politicians, including former President Donald Trump and his running mate Sen. JD Vance.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” Trump said at Tuesday night’s presidential debate. “The people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
A spokesperson for the city of Springfield told ABC News these claims are false, and that there have been “no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals in the immigrant community.”
“Additionally, there have been no verified instances of immigrants engaging in illegal activities such as squatting or littering in front of residents’ homes,” the spokesperson said. “Furthermore, no reports have been made regarding members of the immigrant community deliberately disrupting traffic.”
The mayor added, “Your pets are safe in Springfield.”
Springfield estimates there are around 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants living in the county; migrants have been drawn to the region because of the low cost of living and work opportunities, according to the city. The rapid rise in population has strained housing, health care and school resources, according to the city. City officials also said the migrants are in the country legally and that many are recipients of Temporary Protected Status.
The Haitian Bridge Alliance condemned the “baseless and inflammatory” claims about Haitian migrants, arguing they “not only perpetuate harmful stereotypes but also contribute to the dangerous stigmatization of immigrant communities, particularly Black immigrants from the Republic of Haiti.”
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who dispelled the rumors this week, said the state would send more resources to Springfield.
The mayor stressed, “Anybody on the national stage that takes a microphone, needs to understand what they could do to communities like Springfield with their words. They’re not helping. They’re hurting communities like ours with their words.”
ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.
(OROVILLE, Calif.) — A 26-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of starting a massive Northern California wildfire in July that destroyed 26 homes and businesses and prompted the evacuation of nearly 30,000 people, officials said.
Spencer Grant Anderson of Oroville, California, was arraigned on Monday on charges of arson of an inhabited structure, arson of forest land and arson causing multiple structures to burn, according to the Butte County District Attorney’s Office.
Anderson was ordered to return to court on Wednesday after he has a chance to speak to his court-appointed attorney, prosecutors said.
“It was a long-term investigation. There are a lot of moving parts. Right now it’s an accusation and everybody has a right to a trial,” Anderson’s attorney, Larry Pilgrim, told ABC News on Tuesday as he waited at the Butte County Jail to speak to his client for the first time.
Pilgrim said he plans to ask for a continuance in the case to allow him to review the evidence. He said Anderson will enter a plea at a later date.
Investigators from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) identified Anderson as a possible suspect a day after the Thompson Fire ignited near the town of Oroville on July 2, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said at a news conference on Monday.
“For 50 days, Cal Fire devoted four to six investigators per day, brought in from around the state, to continuously watch Anderson as other investigators meticulously built the case,” Ramsey said. “If Anderson had chosen to light another fire, we were confident the surveillance personnel would be able to detect and stop the fire before it could get out of control.”
Anderson was taken into custody on Aug. 22 when Cal Fire investigators executed search warrants and “located evidence further implicating Anderson in starting the Thompson fire,” prosecutors said in a statement without elaborating on the evidence.
Ramsey said that on the day the fire was ignited, Cal Fire investigators pinpointed the area where the fire started near the intersection of Cherokee and Thompson Flat roads in a rural area northeast of Oroville and quickly determined the “fire was caused by an intentional human act.”
“Arson by its very terms is a very difficult crime to solve because it burns up the evidence,” Ramsey said, praising the work of investigators on the case.
Ramsey said several 911 callers and witnesses in the area at the time the fire started reported seeing a blue Toyota driving in the area and investigators determined the fire was most likely started by a flaming object thrown from the Toyota as it drove southbound on Cherokee Road.
Using automatic license plate readers in the area, investigators were able to identify the Toyota and trace it to Anderson, Ramsey said.
“Anderson was arrested and questioned. He admitted that on the morning of the fire, he purchased fireworks from a firework stand in Oroville, then went up to Cherokee Road to ‘test one’ by throwing it out his car window,” prosecutors said in the statement.
In addition to destroying 26 structures, including 13 homes, the Thompson Fire damaged eight structures and burned 3,789 acres before it was fully contained on July 8, according to Cal Fire. Two firefighters were injured battling the blaze, Cal Fire said.
If convicted of the charges, Anderson faces a maximum sentence of 21 years in prison, according to prosecutors. Anderson has been ordered to be held without bail at the Butte County Jail.
The Thompson Fire was the second wildfire deliberately set in Butte County in July. On July 24, the Park Fire was deliberately started in Bidwell Park near Chico and spread to more than 429,000 acres across Butte, Tehama, Shasta and Plumas counties.
Ronnie Dean Stout II, 42, was arrested on a felony count of arson of an inhabited structure or property, according to the Butte County District Attorney’s Office. Stout has pleaded not guilty.
Stout was allegedly spotted pushing a car that was on fire down a gully called “Alligator Hole” in Bidwell Park, igniting the Park Fire, now the fourth largest wildfire in California history, according to prosecutors.
(NEW YORK) — Harvey Weinstein was rushed from Rikers Island, where he is being held, to Bellevue Hospital for emergency heart surgery after experiencing chest pains, his representatives told ABC News.
“Mr. Weinstein was rushed to Bellevue Hospital last night due to several medical conditions,” Weinstein representatives Craig Rothfeld and Juda Engelmayer said in a statement. “We can confirm that Mr. Weinstein had a procedure and surgery on his heart today however cannot comment any further than that.”
They continued, “As we have extensively stated before, Mr. Weinstein suffers a plethora of significant health issues that need ongoing treatment. We are grateful to the executive team at the New York City Department of Correction and Rikers Island for acting swiftly in taking him to Bellevue Hospital.”
The emergency comes as Weinstein, 72, is due in court this week in New York, where prosecutors had been presenting evidence to a grand jury as they work to secure a new indictment against Weinstein on sex crimes charges.
Weinstein has denied any wrongdoing and has said his sexual encounters with women were consensual.
Weinstein has appeared in court recently in a wheelchair and has asked to stay in custody at Rikers, where he has been undergoing medical care.
In a shocking move this April, the New York Court of Appeals, in a scathing 4-3 opinion, overturned Weinstein’s conviction on sex crimes against three women, finding the trial judge “erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes.”
The court said that testimony “served no material non-propensity purpose” and “portrayed defendant in a highly prejudicial light.”
However, the Manhattan district attorney’s office has since presented evidence to a grand jury that could return a new indictment against Weinstein over an alleged sexual assault that occurred sometime in a four-month time period between late 2005 and mid-2006 in a lower Manhattan residential building, according to a transcript of an unannounced court hearing last week.
Prosecutors also indicated during a hearing on Sept. 3 that they were aware of two other potential offenses: a sexual assault in May 2016 in a hotel in Tribeca and a potential sexual assault that occurred at the Tribeca Grand hotel.
This isn’t the first time Weinstein has been rushed to a hospital recently. In July, he was transferred to Bellevue after testing positive for COVID-19 and double pneumonia, according to his Rothfeld.