Supreme Court rejects Mark Meadows’ request to move Georgia election interference case into federal court
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(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a request from Mark Meadows, the one-time chief of staff to former President Donald Trump, to move his Georgia election interference case into federal court.
Meadows was charged alongside Trump and 18 others last year in the Fulton County racketeering case over their alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state. Meadows and the others pleaded not guilty to all charges, and four defendants subsequently took plea deals.
Meadows for months has sought to move his case into federal court based on a law that calls for the removal of criminal proceedings when someone is charged for actions they allegedly took as a federal official acting “under color” of their office.
Meadows had argued to the Supreme Court that a lower court erred when it rejected Meadows’ request to move the case out of state court and into federal court, in part by pointing to the court’s recent landmark ruling granting Trump some immunity for official acts.
“Just as immunity protection for former officers is critical to ensuring that current and future officers are not deterred from enthusiastic service, so too is the promise of a federal forum in which to litigate that defense,” the 47-page filing states.
Both a lower court and appeals court have rejected that claim, with one judge writing that Meadows’ actions charged in the indictment “were taken on behalf of the Trump campaign” and were not his official duties.
The Fulton County election interference case is largely on pause pending an appeal of ruling that allowed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to remain on the case after Judge Scott McAfee declined to disqualify her due to a “significant appearance of impropriety” stemming from a romantic relationship between her and a prosecutor on her staff.
A spokesperson for the DA’s office recently declined to comment when asked by ABC News for their views on the future of the case, given Trump’s reelection last week.
(WHITESBURG, Ky.) — The Kentucky sheriff accused of fatally shooting a judge in his chambers last week could face the death penalty if convicted, according to a special judge appointed to preside over the case.
Letcher County Sheriff Shawn Stines, 43, made his first court appearance Wednesday, where he pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges.
On Thursday, Stines allegedly killed Kentucky District Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, inside his chambers in the Letcher County Courthouse, officials said. The shooting allegedly occurred “following an argument inside the courthouse,” according to Kentucky State Police, and investigators are still searching for a motive.
Stines did not appear to show emotion during the brief hearing on Wednesday, where he appeared over Zoom wearing a jail uniform alongside his public defender, who entered the not guilty plea on Stines’ behalf.
He is expected back in court on Oct. 1.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(ORLANDO, Fl) — The mayor of Orlando, Florida, is cracking down in the city’s entertainment district after two people were killed and several others injured in a Halloween night shooting.
The suspect, 17-year-old Jaylen Dwayne Edgar, has been taken into custody, Orlando police said.
Officers responded to reports of shots fired just after 1 a.m. Friday, and within minutes, the officers witnessed a second shooting, police said.
One person was killed at the first scene and the second victim was killed at the second scene, police said.
Nine people, aged 18 to 39, were injured, some critically, police said.
The suspect walked by more than 10 officers just before opening fire, Orlando Police Chief Eric Smith said.
Surveillance video captured the chaos of people fleeing the scene as officers apprehended the suspect.
Edgar has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder with a firearm and six counts of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm, police said.
A motive is unknown, Smith said.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said he’s issuing a local state of emergency for establishments in the downtown entertainment area, which will ban alcohol sales after midnight and implement a curfew from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m.
“It’s unfortunate that the changes in the state concealed weapons laws [in 2023] have made it even easier for people to carry guns,” Dyer said at a news conference.
“You can legally carry a firearm unless you fall into a certain kind of category: underage, convicted felon,” Smith explained. “For most people, it allows them, without getting a concealed weapons permit, to carry a gun concealed.”
ABC News’ Jason Volack contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — A Secret Service agent tasked with protecting former President Barack Obama knowingly and repeatedly breached his duties while trying to woo a love interest — and living a double life, according to a new memoir by the agent’s former girlfriend.
In “Undercover Heartbreak: a Memoir of Trust and Trauma,” Koryeah Dwanyen describes a series of potential security lapses, including a time when she said she was invited to join the senior agent at the Obamas’ beachfront property in Hawaii in 2022 while they were away.
He had already sent her “several photos” of the house a week earlier, and suggested a tour, according to the book.
“No one will know. If anything, I’m the one who could get in trouble,” says the agent in the memoir, where he is given the pseudonym “Dale.”
He then tried to get her to fool around in the first lady’s bathroom, according to Dwanyen.
“We should have sex in Michelle [Obama]’s bathroom, like a mile-high club,” Dwanyen claims he said.
The senior agent’s alleged violations of fundamental regulations prompted an internal investigation by the Secret Service.
The self-published memoir was released on Oct. 28, adding another reputational shiner to the agency after a major security lapse in the summer led to calls for operational reform.
The Secret Service had faced intense scrutiny since a gunman attempted to assassinate Donald Trump while the former president campaigned at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July. That incident, which prompted the ouster of the agency’s director, was called a “historic security failure by the Secret Service” in an independent review by the Department of Homeland Security.
“The U.S. Secret Service’s top priority is ensuring the safety and security of our protectees, and any actions that compromise this commitment are addressed with the utmost seriousness,” Anthony Guglielmi, the agency’s chief of communications, told ABC News.
Guglielmi confirmed that an incident matching the book’s Hawaii anecdote had occurred – and that upon finding out, a probe was launched and the agent involved was ultimately fired.
“On Nov. 6, 2022, a Secret Service agent involved in protective functions brought an individual who did not have authorized access into a protectee’s residence without permission,” Guglielmi said. “As soon as the Secret Service became aware of the incident, the agent involved was immediately suspended and after a full investigation, terminated.”
“Although the protectees were not present at the time of the incident, these actions were an unacceptable violation of our protocols, our protectees’ trust and everything we stand for,” he continued.
The former agent and prominent character in the book did not respond to requests for comment from ABC News.
According to her memoir, Dwanyen first met the Secret Service agent while he was assigned to the security detail of the Obama family and while she was vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard in 2022.
He said that he was divorced and had been for nearly a decade, Dwanyen said.
As their relationship developed, the author said, so did her concerns about the man that she had fallen for. She would later come to find out that the agent was still married, according to the book.
“There were major red flags — breaches of trust and of his job,” the author said in a phone interview with ABC News. “One of my friends has joked, ‘You were a walking national security risk.’”
Finally, Dwanyen said, she sent an email to his boss outlining her fears related to the agent’s safety — as well as his family’s and her own.
She wrote that, by then, she had met the agent’s boss “several times” in Hawaii, and she explained that she had his “direct contact information” from emails that the agent had shared with her.
The agent’s boss immediately set up an exhaustive interview with agents in the Inspection Division of the Secret Service’s Office of Professional Responsibility, Dwanyen told ABC. The meeting would last “nearly four hours,” she wrote in her book.
“They realized that not only had ‘Dale’ shared photos of the Obamas’ house, but he had also brought me there,” Dwanyen wrote. She “showed them photos on my phone to corroborate what I was saying,” scrolling through “pictures of Alicia Keys’ house, Steven Spielberg’s boats, Melinda Gates, Tyler Perry and Amal Clooney.”
“He was really oversharing,” Dwanyen recalled one of the agents saying.
The agent told her “personal tidbits he should not have,” Dwanyen said on the phone with ABC News. Those “tidbits” he shared spanned across protectees, she said: ranging from information about background on Mike Pence — whom the agent had been assigned to during his vice presidency under Trump — to details about the Obamas.
“I knew their code names. I knew what day Orange Theory was, what day [Michelle Obama] had private tennis lessons and when her personal trainer came,” Dwanyen said. “Things that I should not have been privy to as a civilian.”
