(WEST PALM BEACH, FL) — A Florida man was arrested for allegedly making online threats to President Donald Trump, according to police.
Shannon Depararro Atkins, 46, was taken into custody on Friday following a traffic stop near his home in West Palm Beach, a short distance from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
Atkins had allegedly posted “violent rhetoric” about Trump on his Facebook account, West Palm Beach Police Department Chief Tony Araujo said during a press conference on Saturday.
At least one of the posts, which Araujo showed reporters, consisted of a meme relating to the assassination attempt on Trump in July 2024.
Police said Atkins admitted to writing the posts but said he had just been “joking.”
“Folks, this is not a joke. Nothing of that sort is a joke,” Araujo said.
Police said they became aware of the posts after another man, from Okeechobee, Florida, sent in a tip to the FBI.
Atkins was taken into custody without incident Friday night. He was found with cocaine on him, according to police.
It was not immediately clear if Atkins has retained an attorney. ABC News has reached out to him for comment.
Araujo said the U.S. Secret Service was notified of the arrest and is looking into it to determine if federal charges should be filed.
“In today’s climate, you really can’t say things like this,” Araujo said. “We have incident after incident, example after example, of when these threats become real, and we take these very seriously.”
Police are hunting for a suspect who was allegedly caught on camera violently robbing an 83-year-old woman of her lottery winnings shortly after claiming them from a convenience store, police said. Via Facebook / Orange County Sheriff’s Office
(ORLANDO, Fla.) — Police are hunting for a suspect who was allegedly caught on camera violently robbing an 83-year-old woman of her lottery winnings shortly after claiming them from a convenience store, police said.
The incident occurred on Wednesday morning shortly after 8 a.m. outside a store on Curry Ford Road, near the intersection of S. Goldenrod Road in Orlando, Florida, according to a statement from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities posted surveillance footage of the violent robbery on social media where the unnamed 83-year-old woman is seen walking out of the store to her car with what looks to be the lottery winnings she had just collected.
It was then that the suspect, who authorities named as Diego Stalin Tavarez Fleury, can be seen walking directly toward the woman and attempting to forcibly take the winnings from her hand as she tried to defend herself.
Another man who was in the convenience store is then seen coming outside and appears to intervene between the victim and the suspect, causing Fleury to further attack the woman in an attempt to steal the money while the good Samaritan tried to pull him off of the victim.
Fleury, however, can be seen dragging the woman from her car further into the parking lot before ultimately stealing her winnings and running off.
The suspect is currently at large and wanted for robbery, sudden snatching and battery on a person 65 or older, authorities said, and anyone with information on Fleury’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
(WASHINGTON) — Special counsel David Weiss slammed President Joe Biden’s characterization of his probe as being infected with “raw politics” in his final report detailing his investigations into the president’s son Hunter Biden, which was released Monday by the Justice Department.
Weiss’ work culminated in two separate criminal convictions of Hunter Biden that his father wiped clean with a sweeping pardon in early December, just weeks after Election Day. In July 2024, Weiss’ office secured a guilty verdict from a Delaware jury on three felony gun charges, and months later, on the eve of trial, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to numerous tax crimes, including six felonies.
Weiss’ report — 27 pages in length plus hundreds of pages of public filings — caps a yearslong and politically fraught probe that remained a source of seemingly endless fodder for President Biden’s political opponents in Congress and elsewhere. Weiss’ prosecutors examined Hunter Biden’s years of drug and alcohol abuse, his controversial foreign business dealings, and his procurement of a gun in 2018.
When President Biden issued a pardon for Hunter Biden in early December, he claimed that “raw politics has infected” the investigation into his son.
“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong,” Biden wrote.
Weiss, in the report, criticized the president’s assertion.
“Other presidents have pardoned family members, but in doing so, none have taken the occasion as an opportunity to malign the public servants at the Department of Justice based solely on false accusations,” Weiss wrote.
Weiss defended his work as “thorough, impartial investigations, not partisan politics.”
“Eight judges across numerous courts have rejected claims that they were the result of selective or vindictive motives,” Weiss wrote. “Calling those rulings into question and injecting partisanship into the independent administration of the law undermines the very foundation of what makes America’s justice system fair and equitable. It erodes public confidence in an institution that essential to preserving the rule of law.”
“These prosecutions were the culmination of thorough, impartial investigations, not partisan politics. Eight judges across numerous courts have rejected claims that they were the result of selective or vindictive motives,” Weiss wrote.
“Calling those rulings into question and injecting partisanship into the independent administration of the law undermines the very foundation of what makes America’s justice system fair and equitable. It erodes public confidence in an institution that is essential to preserving the rule of law,” wrote Weiss. “These baseless accusations have no merit and repeating them threatens the integrity of the justice system as a whole.”
Weiss says because of the pardon, he was prevented from making “additional charging decision” regarding Hunter Biden’s ‘s conduct over an 11-year span, suggesting there were other cases he could have pursued against the president’s son. However, because of the pardon, “it would thus be inappropriate to discuss whether additional charges are warranted,” he wrote.
Hunter Biden’s legal team said they were not given an opportunity to read Weiss’ report prior to its release.
Federal investigators began looking into the younger Biden’s taxes in 2018, before his father launched his successful presidential bid. That probe grew to include scrutiny of his overseas business dealings in China, Ukraine, and elsewhere, ABC News previously reported.
In the summer of 2023, prosecutors in Weiss’ office struck a plea deal with Hunter Biden that would have allowed him to plead guilty to a pair of tax-related misdemeanors and avoid prosecution on one felony gun charge.
But that deal fell apart under questioning by a federal judge — and within months, Weiss secured special counsel status from Attorney General Merrick Garland and filed charges in both cases.
Over the course of his probe, Weiss emerged as one of those rare figures in politics who attracted scrutiny from across the political spectrum. Republicans loyal to Donald Trump accused him of failing to bring more serious and substantial charges against the Biden family, while Democrats complained that a GOP-led pressure campaign influenced Weiss’ prosecutorial decisions.
Sentencing in both cases had been scheduled to take place just weeks after President Biden issued his pardon, with Hunter Biden facing the possibility of years in prison and more than a million dollars in fines.
Weiss also brought a third successful case against a former FBI informant who pleaded guilty to spreading lies about the Bidens’ business dealings. Last week a federal judge sentenced the former informant, Alexander Smirnov, to six years in prison.
Scott Suchman for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Michelin-starred chef Tommy Banks said he’s out of 2,500 pies after thieves stole his van containing the baked goods and later ditched the vehicle.
According to an Instagram video posted by Banks, the pies were ruined.
“It’s pretty badly damaged,” Banks said. “And unfortunately, the bin in the back and all of the pies are pretty damaged as well.”
The refrigerated van was stolen from a storage unit with 2,500 pies in boxes that had Banks’ name written all over them, he said. The pies were worth about £25,000, Banks said, which is equivalent to just over $31,000.
Banks wishes the outcome was different, he said. But he is grateful for the outpouring support he received from other business owners and people watching online.
“I’d just like to say a massive thank you to everyone. I mean, so many people have been interested in trying to find these pies, and I think the response from people have been amazing, especially for the business owners who’ve offered to lend us everything from vans to pastry to flour to meat, everything to make it, make it work,” Banks said.
Banks declined ABC News’ request for an interview.
ABC News reached out to the North Yorkshire Police and was directed to a statement on their website.
“To recap, North Yorkshire Police received a report on 2 December that a refrigerated vehicle containing valuable food stock including pies, had been stolen from a business park in Melmerby near Ripon over the weekend of 29 November to 2 December 2024,” the police department said in a statement.
The statement added, “Initial enquiries revealed that the van, a white Fiat Ducato, was found abandoned with false number plates in the Hemlington area of Middlesbrough and was recovered by Cleveland Police on 29/30 November.”
The vehicle was stored by Cleveland Police and inquiries were ongoing as to the contents of the van when it was recovered, the New Yorkshire Police said.
The New Yorkshire Police said the van has been returned to the owner.
Cleveland Police said the investigation is ongoing and anyone with information should contact police.
Prior to the van being found, Banks uploaded a video on Instagram calling for the thieves to donate the pies to a charity for those in need.
He adds that the burglars “probably didn’t bargain for nearly ton of pies in the back of it.”
“These guys probably stole the van, right? Because that’s what they do,” Banks said.”They steal vans or cars or whatever, but they probably didn’t bargain for the nearly ton of pies that is in the back of it.”
Banks said that the pies were for York Christmas Market and it’s unfortunate because a lot of work went into the pies, he said.
“It’s kind of sad because that’s a lot of meat and a lot of flour and eggs and a lot of work,” Banks said. “Like so much work. So like 25,000 pounds worth of a stock in the back of this van.”
According to Banks’ video, a rising trend of vans being stolen has mustered up and he encourages everyone to stay safe.
“A lot of crime going around at the moment, a lot of vans being stolen,” Banks said. “And I did an interview on the radio earlier. People were saying how many vans are getting stolen. So I think especially at this time of year, just be vigilant. Definitely lockdown. I think we certainly learnt a few lessons and won’t be leaving stock in our vans overnight for sure.”
