Judge orders Steve Bannon to explain why he switched attorneys close to fraud trial
Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Steve Bannon must appear in court next week to explain why he switched lawyers so close to trial, a judge in New York ordered.
Bannon, once a senior adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, is scheduled to stand trial Feb. 25 on charges he defrauded donors of “We Build the Wall,” an online fundraising campaign to support a wall along the U.S. southern border.
Bannon hired Arthur Aidala after his prior attorneys moved to withdraw from the case and Judge April Newbauer said she wanted to “make an inquiry of the defendant” before she decided whether to allow it.
Aidala asked the judge to delay the trial’s start to give him time to read up on the case, insisting Bannon was “not looking to intentionally delay anything.”
The Manhattan district attorney’s office saw it differently, arguing Bannon was “trying to make a substitution of counsel for the purpose of delay.”
Bannon’s money laundering and conspiracy case was originally scheduled for trial in 2023 but has been repeatedly delayed.
When trial does begin, prosecutors said they would ask for an anonymous jury.
A six-count indictment in 2022 charged Bannon and “We Build the Wall” itself with two counts of money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of five to 15 years in prison. There are additional felony counts of conspiracy and scheme to defraud along with one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to defraud.
(LOS ANGELES) — A perfect storm of weather and climate conditions made the California wildfires nearly impossible to contain once they ignited, according to experts.
In a typical fire management scenario, containing the fire by setting up a perimeter and trying to keep it from spreading further is often the first line of defense for firefighters to get the blaze under control, according to Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources’ team of experts on fire research in California.
But a confluence of events — hurricane-force winds, low humidity levels and dry conditions — allowed the fires to explode after the initial spark, Rachel Cleetus, policy director for the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told ABC News.
Trying to contain the fire under the wind scenario was “untenable,” Quinn-Davidson said.
“Keeping people safe was the No. 1 objective — evacuating people, keeping firefighters safe,” Quinn-Davidson said.
The fires have prompted mandatory evacuation orders for tens of thousands of people and ripped through entire neighborhoods in a matter of hours. At least five people have died and several others were injured as a result of the fires, according to officials.
What we know about the containment of the wildfires so far
Five separate wildfires in the same region is proving difficult for firefighters to contain as they battle the flames amid high Santa Ana winds.
The Palisades Fire, which had burned through at least 300 structures and more than 17,000 acres in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood in Los Angeles County, was 0% contained as of Thursday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as CAL Fire.
Also in Los Angeles County, the Eaton Fire has burned more than 10,000 acres near the Altadena and Pasadena neighborhoods and is 0% contained, according to the state fire agency.
The Hurst Fire, burning near Diamond Road and Sylmar in Los Angeles County, was about 10% contained on Thursday as it neared 1,000 acres burned, according to Cal Fire.
On North Woodley Avenue and Sepuleveda Basin in Los Angeles County, the Woodley Fire was 0% contained after sparking on Wednesday,
The Lidia Fire, on Canyon Road in Los Angeles County, was 40% contained on Thursday, according to Cal Fire.
“Right now, it is still a very, very dangerous situation, and anybody in that zone needs to evacuate,” Cleetus said.
Why firefighters weren’t able to contain the fires immediately
Several meteorological impacts contributed to the inability to contain the fires quickly, including humidity as low as 10% and a windstorm with gusts up to 100 mph that carried embers far and wide to ignite a tinderbox landscape Just 0.16 inches of rain has fallen in the region since May, according to meteorology and fire experts, leaving the landscape parched.
Containing the fire as winds gusted at those speeds in some spots would have been virtually impossible, the experts said.
“This is just a catastrophic influence of factors that has made it really, really difficult to contain these fires,” Cleetus said.
In addition, the urban setting makes managing these types of fires much more difficult, the experts said.
In Northern California, where fires tend to be fueled by large amounts of brush in forests and wildlands, firefighters can better manage them through fire-suppression activity, Quinn-Davidson said.
But in a populated region like Los Angeles County, the spread is moving quickly from house to house as people try to evacuate — in this case even ditching cars that block roads in an attempt to outrun the flames, Quinn-Davidson said.
“There’s nothing more dangerous and difficult than fighting in close and urban settings,” Cleetus said.
In addition, the firefighters have been using residential water supplies and have seen some instances where hydrants ran dry, Quinn-Davidson said.
Climate change also played a role in the severity of the fires
Wildfires are a natural and necessary part of Earth’s cycle, but climate change and other more direct human influences have increased their likelihood, research shows.
Wildfires in the western U.S. have become larger, more intense and more destructive in recent decades due to a combination of factors, including rapid urbanization and human-amplified climate change, according to the federal government’s Fifth National Climate Assessment, a breakdown of the latest in climate science, published in November 2023.
Warming temperatures, drier conditions and shifts in precipitation are contributing to an increase in the frequency of large wildfires and acres of land burned in the U.S. each year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Police officers investigate the scene where UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot/Photo credit: Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Police appear to be closing in on an identity of the man suspected of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan, sources told ABC News on Thursday.
Police have sought a search warrant for a location in New York City where they believe the suspect may have been staying, sources said.
The masked gunman shot Thompson several times at close range on Wednesday morning outside a Hilton Hotel where he was attending a conference.
The “brazen, targeted attack” was “premeditated,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. The motive remains unknown, police said.
Detectives believe the gunman is not a professional killer, sources said. Bullet casings found at the scene had the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” written on them, police sources said.
Thompson, 50, was in New York City for the UnitedHealthcare investors conference, which was scheduled to start at 8 a.m. His schedule was widely known, police sources said.
The suspect — who was caught on surveillance cameras before, during and immediately after the shooting — had been lying in wait near the hotel.
Thompson was shot at about 6:40 a.m. After the shooting, the shooter fled on foot into an alley, where a phone believed to be linked to the suspect was later recovered, police sources said.
The suspect then fled on a bike and he was last seen riding into Central Park at 6:48 a.m., police said.
The shooter was caught on surveillance video at 5 a.m. the morning of the shooting outside Frederick Douglass Houses, a public housing project on the Upper West Side, sources told ABC News. That footage showed the suspect carrying what appeared to be an e-bike battery.
Police have recovered a water bottle and candy wrapper from the scene of the shooting which they believe are linked to the gunman. Fingerprint and DNA tests on the items are ongoing, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Thompson’s wife, Paulette Thompson, said in a statement that she was “shattered” by the “senseless killing.”
“Brian was an incredibly loving, generous, talented man who truly lived life to the fullest and touched so many lives,” she said. “Most importantly, Brian was an incredibly loving father to our two sons and will be greatly missed.”
Police urge the public to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS with any information.
ABC News’ Mark Crudele and Josh Margolin contributed to this report.
(LAS VEGAS) — Matthew Livelsberger — the suspected driver of the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded on New Year’s Day outside the Trump International Las Vegas Hotel — died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound prior to the blast, officials said at a Thursday press briefing.
Investigators had already collected significant evidence that Livelsberger was behind the wheel of the vehicle before publicly confirming their suspicions.
Officials found credit and identification cards in his name, purchase records identifying him as the owner of weapons found in the destroyed vehicle and identified tattoos similar to Livelsberger’s on the driver’s body, physical injuries to which slowed the identification process.
The Clark County Coroner ultimately identified Livelsberger — of Colorado Springs, Colorado — as the driver on Thursday. His cause of death was a self-inflicted intraoral gunshot wound.
No one else was seriously hurt, though seven bystanders sustained minor injuries, officials said.
An active-duty Army soldier, Livelsberger was found with a gun at his feet. Two firearms — one handgun and one rifle — were found in the vehicle “burnt beyond recognition,” Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said.
Both weapons were purchased legally on Monday, he added.
Livelsberger rented the Tesla vehicle on Saturday in Denver via the Turo app, before driving to Las Vegas through cities in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. His progress was tracked through Tesla charging stations, officials said.
The vehicle first pulled into the Trump International Las Vegas Hotel valet area just after 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, officials said. It then left the area, driving along Las Vegas Boulevard, before returning to the valet area at about 8:39 a.m., exploding 17 seconds after its arrival.
Livelsberger served as a Green Beret in the Army and was on approved leave from serving in Germany at the time of his death, a U.S. Army spokesperson said Thursday.
He received extensive decorations in combat, including the Bronze Star with a “V” device for valor, indicating heroism under fire. Livelsberger received four more standard Bronze Star medals, according to Army records. He also earned the Afghanistan Campaign Medal with three stars. Each star represents service in a separate campaign in Afghanistan.
The Las Vegas incident is not believed to have any direct connection to the New Year’s Day truck attack in New Orleans that killed 14 people — as well as the suspect — and injured 35 others, according to the FBI. The truck used in the New Orleans attack was also rented using the Turo app, officials said.
“At this point, there is no definitive link between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas,” the FBI’s Christopher Raia said Thursday morning at a press conference on the New Orleans attack.
The two drivers may have overlapped at Fort Liberty or in Afghanistan, though no evidence suggests the two ever were assigned together or knew each other, McMahill said.
President Joe Biden, in remarks Thursday, said federal investigators have not any evidence of a connection between the attacks but said he had directed them to keep looking.
Livelsberger was a supporter of President-elect Donald Trump, an official briefed on the probe told ABC News. His wife, who investigators spoke to in Colorado Springs, said he had been out of the house since around Christmas after a dispute over allegations of infidelity, the official said.
His wife told officials she did not believe Livelsberger would want to hurt anyone, the official told ABC News.
Livelsberger is believed to have told the person he rented the truck from that he was going camping at the Grand Canyon, the official told ABC News.
Investigators are still looking to determine how the items in the truck were detonated, but with the contents of the vehicle so badly burned, it may be a slow process, according to the official.
The sheriff said Tesla CEO Elon Musk helped the investigation by having the truck unlocked after it auto-locked in the blast and by giving investigators video of the suspect at charging stations along its route from Colorado to Las Vegas.
McMahill said police believe the explosion was an “isolated incident” and that “there is no further threat to the community.” He also said police do not believe anyone was helping the Las Vegas suspect.
“We believe everything is safe now,” McMahill said.
Video played at the Las Vegas news conference showed a load of fireworks-style mortars, gasoline cans and camping fuel canisters in the back of the truck.
The property is the subject of frequent threats and heightened security given its connection to Trump.
