(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge in Boston said he denied the request to block the buyout offer because the federal unions who brought the case lacked standing to sue and because the District Court lacks jurisdiction to review the case.
Three federal employee unions — with the support of 20 Democratic attorneys general — have argued in a lawsuit that the Office of Personnel Management’s deferred resignation offer is an “unlawful ultimatum” to force the resignation of government workers under the “threat of mass termination.”
According to U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole Jr., the federal unions who challenged the policy are not directly impacted by the buyout offer; rather they are subject to collateral impacts such as a reduction in union membership and needing to answer their members’ questions about the policy.
“The unions do not have the required direct stake in the Fork Directive but are challenging a policy that affects others, specifically executive branch employees. This is not sufficient,” the judge wrote.
The judge also determined that the district court lacks jurisdiction to review the dispute because the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute sets out an administrative review process before courts can take over.
“According to this complex scheme, disputes must first be administratively exhausted before the employing agency and the relevant administrative review board and any further challenges are properly heard in a court of appeals,” the order said.
O’Toole Jr. did not include any interpretation about how the buyout deadline is impacted in his order.
“This Boston Buyout Ruling is the first of many legal wins for the President. The Court dissolved the injunction due to a lack of standing. This goes to show that lawfare will not ultimately prevail over the will of 77 million Americans who supported President Trump and his priorities,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday.
During an hour-long hearing Monday, a lawyer for the Department of Justice framed the deferred resignation offer as a “humane off-ramp” for federal employees before President Donald Trump enacts sweeping changes to “rebalance and reorganize the federal workforce.”
“President Trump campaigned on a promise to reform the federal workforce,” DOJ attorney Eric Hamilton said, outlining Trump’s plan to reduce the size of the federal government and his return-to-office executive order. “We understand these announcements may have come as a disappointment for some in the federal workforce.”
Hamilton argued that any further delay of the buyout would cause irreparable harm because the Trump administration plans to enact the next steps of reshaping the federal government as soon as the buyout window closes.
Elena Goldstein, a lawyer representing the unions that brought the challenge, hammered the Trump administration for attempting to enforce an “unprecedented program” with a “slapdash exploding deadline”
“For the last two weeks, confusion has rained for millions of career civil servants,” Goldstein said. “This is a program of unprecedented magnitude that raises questions about the rationality of OPM’s decision-making.”
The buyout offer, part of Trump’s effort to trim the size of government through billionaire Elon Musk’s newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, was sent out two weeks ago in an email with the subject line “Fork in the Road” — the same language Musk used when he slashed jobs at Twitter after taking over that company in 2022.
The offer from the Office of Personnel Management offered full pay and benefits until September for any federal employee who accepted a deferred resignation by Feb. 6, with no obligation to work after they accepted the agreement.
While Goldstein acknowledged that Trump has the right to downsize the federal government, she emphasized that OPM has not gone through any of the steps necessary to carry out such a sweeping move — including analyzing the cost and benefits of their approach, evaluating its impact on the government’s function, and accessing potential conflicts of interest for Musk. She added that the exact terms of the buyout are “shifting” for thousands of employees who have gotten inconsistent guidance from their agency.
“OPM appears to be making this up as they are going along,” she said. “When the government wants to decide, there are ways to do this correctly … none of that happened here in the two weeks since they enacted this program.”
Arguing for the government, Hamilton criticized the plaintiffs’ argument as “legally incoherent and at odds with their theory of the case,” because a further delay of the buyout would “insert more uncertainty” into the lives of federal employees.
While the plaintiffs raised concerns that the buyout program violates federal law by using money that Congress never appropriated, Hamilton attempted to push back on the claim that the buyout changes the government’s financial obligations.
“Nothing about the voluntary resignation changes anything about the federal government’s financial obligations. It just changes what employees are expected to do and not do during their period of employment,” Hamilton said.
Goldstein argued that a preliminary injunction is necessary to prevent what she said was an unlawful offer to reshape the federal government while the Trump administration continues to “put additional pressure on employees.”
“This is an unprecedented action taken on an unprecedented timeline,” she said.
Just hours ahead of Thursday’s original deadline for employees to accept the offer, Judge O’Toole — who was nominated to the bench by President Bill Clinton — temporarily blocked the offer until Monday so he could consider issuing a temporary restraining offer pausing the order.
“I enjoined the defendants from taking any action to implement the so-called ‘Fork Directive’ pending the completion of briefing and oral argument on the issues,” Judge O’Toole said in his ruling. “I believe that’s as far as I want to go today.”
The Trump administration, in response, “extended” the deadline for the offer, which more than 65,000 federal employees have already taken.
The unions who brought the lawsuit argued that Trump exceeded his authority as president with the offer, which they described as a “slapdash resignation program.”
According to the plaintiffs, Trump’s offer violates federal law, lacks congressionally appropriated funding, and does not offer employees reassurance that the president would follow through with the offer. Their claim in part relies on a federal law from the 1940s called the Administrative Procedure Act that governs how federal agencies create and enforce rules.
“In the tech universe, ‘move fast and break things’ is a fine motto in part because they’re not playing with the public’s money, and it’s expected that most initiatives are going to fail,” Loyola Marymount law professor Justin Leavitt told ABC News. “Congress knows that, so in 1946 they basically said, ‘When agencies do stuff … they have to be careful about it. They’ve got to consider all aspects of the problem.”
The plaintiffs also argued that the buyout is unlawful because it relies on funding that Congress has yet to appropriate, violating the Antideficiency Act.
“Defendants’ ultimatum divides federal workers into two groups: (1) those who submit their resignations to OPM for a promised period of pay without the requirement to work, and (2) those who have not and are therefore subject to threat of mass termination,” the lawsuit said.
Lawyers for the federal government have pushed back on those claims, arguing that Trump has the legal authority to provide the buyout for employees within the federal branch, and that any further delay would do more harm than good.
“Extending the deadline for the acceptance of deferred resignation on its very last day will markedly disrupt the expectations of the federal workforce, inject tremendous uncertainty into a program that scores of federal employees have already availed themselves of, and hinder the Administration’s efforts to reform the federal workforce,” DOJ attorney Joshua E. Gardner wrote in a filing last week.
(NEW ORLEANS) — An Army veteran who was “hell-bent” on killing as many people as possible drove a rented pickup truck around a parked police car serving as a barricade and plowed through a crowd of New Year’s revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, leaving at least 15 dead and injuring dozens of others early Wednesday, city and federal officials said.
After mowing down numerous people over a three-block stretch on the famed thoroughfare while firing shots into the crowd, the suspect — identified by sources as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42 — allegedly got out of the truck wielding an assault rifle and opened fire on police officers, law enforcement officials briefed on the incident told ABC News. Officers returned fire, killing Jabbar, a U.S.-born citizen from Texas, sources said. At least two police officers were injured, one by gunfire and the other when the officer was pinned by the truck, authorities said.
Althea Duncan, assistant special agent in charge of FBI New Orleans field office, said investigators do not believe Jabbar acted alone.
“We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible,” Duncan said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon. “We are aggressively running down every lead, including those of his known associates. That’s why we need the public’s help. We are asking if anybody had any interaction with Shamsud-Din Jabbar in the last 72 hours that you contact us.”
Addressing what he called “this heinous act” in a brief appearance before reporters Sunday night at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, President Biden said that the FBI told him that “mere hours before the attack, [Jabbar] posted videos on social media indicating that he’s inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill.”
Biden also said “law enforcement and the intelligence community” were investigating whether there was “any possible connection” between the New Orleans attack and the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck Sunday outside of the Trump Las Vegas hotel.
“Thus far, there’s nothing to report on that score,” Biden said.
Biden also said that the suspect was “an American citizen, born in Texas. He served in the United States Army on active duty for many years. He also served in the Army Reserve, until a few years ago.”
The FBI is studying the videos President Biden referenced in his remarks, which the suspect appears to have recorded while driving from Texas to Louisiana, law enforcement sources confirmed to ABC News.
The videos are dark so the suspect isn’t seen but he can be heard talking about his divorce and a desire to kill members of his family before ultimately deciding to carry out the attack on Bourbon Street, according to the law enforcement sources.
The suspect is also heard talking about ISIS, the sources said.
A spokesperson for the consulting firm Deloitte confirmed to ABC News that Jabbar worked for the company in a “staff-level role” since 2021.
“We are shocked to learn of reports today that the individual identified as a suspect had any association with our firm,” the statement said. “Like everyone, we are outraged by this shameful and senseless act of violence and are doing all we can to assist authorities in their investigation.”
A separate source at Deloitte confirmed to ABC News that Jabbar was still employed by the consulting firm as of Sunday morning and had the job title of “senior solution specialist.”
The FBI offices in New Orleans and Houston released statements late Wednesday announcing searches related to the New Orleans attack.
“FBI special agents and our law enforcement partners are currently conducting a number of court authorized search warrants in New Orleans and other states,” the FBI’s New Orleans field office said in a statement, adding that they planned to hand over the New Orleans crime scene to local authorities by Thursday morning.
Meanwhile the FBI in Houston posted on X that they and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office were “continuing a court-authorized search of a location near the intersection of Hugh Road and Crescent Peak Drive.”
“At this time, no arrests have been made, and FBI personnel will be at the scene for several more hours,” the post continued.
New Orleans police have reviewed surveillance video that appears to show several people planting potential explosive devices in advance of the vehicle attack, which led them to believe he was not “solely responsible,” sources said. Investigators are urgently working to identify the individuals who were seen on camera and take them into custody.
Duncan said Jabbar was an Army veteran. In addition to the assault rifle, Jabbar was allegedly armed with a handgun, sources told ABC News.
Authorities are also working to determine whether there may be a link between the New Orleans attack and a Tesla Cybertruck explosion on Wednesday outside the Trump Las Vegas hotel in Nevada, which is being investigated as a possible act of terror, an official said.
Multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News that the Cybertruck that exploded in Las Vegas was rented on Turo — the same app sources said was used to rent the pickup truck used in the deadly attack in New Orleans.
Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters that investigators are trying to determine whether there is a connection to the New Orleans attack.
“We are heartbroken by the violence perpetrated in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and our prayers are with the victims and families,” a Turo spokesperson said in a statement in response to an ABC News request for comment. “We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents.”
“We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat,” the statement continued. “We remain committed to maintaining the highest standards in risk management, thanks to our world-class trust and safety technologies and teams that include experienced former law enforcement professionals.”
New Orleans Coroner Dr. Dwight McKenna released a statement late Wednesday afternoon that said “As of now, 15 people are deceased.”
“It will take several days to perform all autopsies. Once we complete the autopsies and talk with the next of kin, we will release the identifications of the victims,” McKenna’s statement continued.
Rep. Troy Carter, D-Louisiana, told ABC News earlier Wednesday afternoon that the number of people killed in the incident had risen from 10 to 15. He said another 25 people were hospitalized with injuries.
On Wednesday afternoon, the FBI in Houston and the Harris County, Texas, Sheriff’s Office, posted a message on social media that they are “currently conducting law enforcement activity near the intersection of Hugh Road and Crescent Peak Drive in north Houston.”
“We have secured a perimeter in that area and are asking people to avoid the area,” the notice said. “FBI Houston personnel and specialized teams will be on-site for several hours. This activity is related to this morning’s New Orleans attack, but due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, no further information can be provided.
Security bollards not working at the time
New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said during Wednesday’s news conference that security bollards were not working at the time because they were in the process of being replaced for the upcoming Super Bowl. She confirmed that the suspect drove on the sidewalk to get around a police car blocking the intersection.
“We did indeed have a plan but the terrorist defeated it,” Kirkpatrick said.
Duncan said improvised explosives devices (IEDs) and other weapons were found inside the pickup truck. She said two additional IEDs were discovered in the French Quarter and rendered safe.
The IEDs found in and around the scene on Bourbon Street were apparently determined to be viable and investigators were looking for more in the city’s French Quarter, multiple law enforcement sources tell ABC News. The FBI said two devices were found and rendered safe. Crude pipe bombs stuffed with coils and nails were found at the scene along with a grenade, sources said.
In a YouTube video posted in 2020, the suspected attacker said he was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, and spent a decade working in the U.S. military before becoming a realtor in the Houston area. His years in the military, he said in the video that has since been removed from YouTube, were spent working as a human resources and IT specialist.
It appears that the truck the suspect rented was spotted in Texas on Tuesday, but it was not clear if the suspect was in the vehicle at the time, according to a source citing preliminary law enforcement information. An ISIS flag was attached to the vehicle’s rear hitch, Duncan said, adding that the FBI is trying to assess the suspect’s connection to the terror groups.
The Sugar Bowl between the University of Georgia and Notre Dame has been postponed from Wednesday night to Thursday, Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Hundley announced at Wednesday’s news conference. The game was set to kickoff Wednesday night at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, where police remain focused on securing the French Quarter after the vehicle ramming attack.
Jason Williams, the district attorney of Orleans Parrish, which includes New Orleans, told ABC News that investigators are conducting a grid search to determine if other explosive devices were planted.
New Orleans police and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobaco, Firearms and Explosives have cordoned a home believed to be an AirBnB in the St. Roch neighborhood about 2 miles from downtown. It was not immediately clear if the suspect is associated with the AirBnB rental.
Investigated as terror attack
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell described the horrific incident a “terrorist attack” and the FBI said it was being investigated as an act of terror. The bloodshed comes on the heels of a deadly vehicle ramming attack in Germany. Fears of such attacks were a growing concern among law enforcement as well as attacks by lone actors at winter holiday events.
Police Superintendent Kirkpatrick said the driver had attempted to kill as many people as possible. The truck used in the attack appeared to be a F-150 Lightning, an electric vehicle.
“He was hell-bent on creating the carnage that he did,” Kirkpatrick said at a news conference early Wednesday.
The New Orleans Police Department said the attack occurred despite the force being “staffed 100%” for New Year’s Eve and the Sugar Bowl, a college football game played annually on New Year’s Day. An additional 300 officers were on duty from partner agencies, the police department said.
President Joe Biden has been briefed on the attack and has been in touch with Cantrell to offer support, according to the White House.
“I will continue to receive updates throughout the day, and I will have more to say as we have further information to share,” Biden said in a statement. “In the meantime, my heart goes out to the victims and their families who were simply trying to celebrate the holiday. There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nation’s communities.”
President-elect Donald Trump posted a statement on his Truth Social platform, saying, “Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil!”
Local authorities asked the FBI for assistance early on Wednesday, a senior federal law enforcement source told ABC News. A command center was being set up, the source said. The FBI was set to lead the investigation.
‘Horrific act of violence’
“A horrific act of violence took place on Bourbon Street earlier this morning,” Gov. Jeff Landry said, adding that his family was praying for the victims and first responders.
Witness Dan McFee said he had just walked out of his hotel to get an Uber and was standing on Canal Street near Bourbon Street, when he heard squealing tires and turned to see the white pickup truck turning onto Bourbon Street and heading right toward him and a female friend.
“It made a right-hand turn onto Bourbon and it was heading directly towards me and a female friend I had with me, and [I] basically wrapped my arms around her and threw ourselves to the right of the vehicle,” McFee told ABC News. “I don’t remember exactly if it hit me or some debris, but we were flown into the air and came down on the sidewalk. The vehicle did hit a gentleman that I was standing beside. While we were down on the ground, it appeared that he was breathing and then the woman behind him didn’t appear to be breathing and the vehicle continued down the road.”
Moments later, he said he heard gunshots.
Asked if he saw the driver’s face, McFee said, “All I could remember, and it’s replaying in my head, is seeing the front of the truck coming at us.”
McFee said he and his friend suffered bumps and bruises in the incident.
Asked if he saw the steel barricades up on Bourbon Street at the time of the incident, McFee said, “I don’t believe they were up. I didn’t see any that were up.”
“I was kind of surprised that the vehicle was able to get as far as it did just considering the amount of people that were on Bourbon Street,” McFee said. “They did have those metal gates that they were able to move back and forth. I don’t know if they were down just for the Uber drivers and the Lyft drivers to get through, but I don’t remember seeing them up.”
Witness Jimmy Cothran of New Orleans told ABC News that he and a friend were walking on Bourbon Street when the truck attack began. He said they ducked into a bar and within minutes, four frantic women pushed through security, rushed into the bar and hid under tables.
“When we got on the balcony, what we saw was insanity,” Cothran, a certified emergency medical technician, said. “I mean it was something out of a movie, the graphic nature of it. It was unbelievable. We instantly counted I’d saw 10 bodies, six clearly graphically deceased and the others yelling with no one around. Everyone had just cleared the street completely.”
Cothran said he tried to go out and help the injured but was stopped by security.
Another witness, who requested to be identified only as Paul S., told ABC News he was startled awake by the sound of what he initially thought was fireworks.
“Around 3:15 [a.m.], we heard a ‘pop, pop, pop, pop’ sound followed by a sound that sounded like fireworks going off, like big fireworks all at once,” Paul S. said. “Then it turned out that was the crash.”
He said he looked outside his hotel window and saw a chaotic scene, with bodies strewn on the street below.
“What I saw was, if you can imagine a street with brick and whatnot littered all around the sidewalk, and then there were bodies laid up next to garbage cans and people rushing to give aid,” Paul S. said.
He said he observed a man who had been thrown from his wheelchair lying on the ground next to the truck involved in in the attack writhing in pain.
“There was also a body underneath a scissor lift,” Paul S. said.
Truck rented through app
The Ford F-150 Lightning truck used in the attack was apparently rented through the Turo app — a car sharing company, according to Rodrigo Diaz, the owner of the truck. Diaz told ABC News he rented the truck to an individual through the app and is currently talking to the FBI. He declined further comment.
Diaz wife, Dora Diaz, told ABC News that she and her husband are devastated by the incident.
“My husband rents cars through the Turo app. I can’t tell you anything else. I’m here with my kids, and this is devastating,” Dora Diaz said.
Preliminary information put together by law enforcement indicates the truck apparently involved in the New Orleans attack was observed Tuesday in north Harris County, Texas, a source briefed on the investigation told ABC Houston station KTRK. The truck was seen in Harris County around 10:15 a.m. and again 11:10 a.m., the source said. Just after noon on Tuesday, the truck was spotted in Baytown, Texas, heading east on Interstate 10 in the direction of New Orleans, according to the source.
Law enforcement has not said whether the suspected attacker was in the vehicle when it was spotted in Texas.
Deploying ‘every available resource
Attorney General Merrick Garland confirmed the FBI is investigating the incident as an act of terrorism. He said the the Justice Department’s National Security Division, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana are working with local law enforcement and “will deploy every available resource to conduct this investigation.”
“The country woke up this morning to news of a terrible tragedy in New Orleans that killed at least 10 people and injured many more,” Garland said in a statement. “My heart is broken for those who began their year by learning people they love were killed in this horrific attack, and my prayers are with the dozens who were injured, including the New Orleans Police Department Officers who risked their lives to save others.”
Leading up to the holidays, federal law enforcement and intelligence had warned police around the country that low-tech vehicle ramming at public events was a key area of concern and that they needed to prepare — and that was before the German Christmas market attack on Dec. 20, in which five people were killed and hundreds were injured.
In a Dec. 9 assessment for the Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration, federal and local agencies wrote: “We remain concerned about the use of vehicle ramming against high-profile outdoor events…Vehicle ramming has become a recurring tactic employed by threat actors in the West, marked by a continued interest by (terrorists, extremists) and lone offenders in targeting crowded pedestrian areas.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — The jury in the Daniel Penny trial will begin deliberations over whether he committed criminally negligent homicide when he placed Jordan Neely in a chokehold on a subway car last year, after the jury was deadlocked on the more serious charge of manslaughter last week.
At the request of prosecutors on Friday, Judge Maxwell Wiley dismissed the second-degree manslaughter charge – which carried a maximum 15-year sentence – and directed the jury to turn to the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide, which has a four-year maximum sentence. Neither crime has a minimum sentence.
“What that means is you are now free to consider count two. Whether that makes any difference or not, I have no idea,” Wiley said before sending the jury home for the weekend.
Prosecutors allege that Penny killed Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man who had previously been a Michael Jackson impersonator, when he placed him in a six-minute-long chokehold on a subway car in May 2023, holding Neely for at least 51 seconds after his body went limp. Assistant district attorney Dafna Yoran argued Penny knew his actions could kill Neely but continued to hold him in a chokehold for “way too long” and “didn’t recognize his humanity.”
The city’s medical examiner concluded Penny’s chokehold killed Neely. The defense argued Neely died from a genetic condition and the synthetic marijuana found in his system.
Penny has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Defense attorney Steven Raiser told jurors that Penny “acted to save” subway passengers from a “violent and desperate” Neely, who was acting erratically and “scared the living daylights out of everybody.” Raiser argued that Neely was fighting back, and Penny continued to hold on because he feared he would break free, though he didn’t intend to kill Neely.
Last week, the jury spent more than 23 hours across four days deliberating whether Penny, a 26-year-old former Marine and architecture student, committed second degree manslaughter before repeatedly signaling that they could not reach a unanimous verdict.
Wiley ultimately granted prosecutors’ request to dismiss the first count while Penny’s defense attorneys unsuccessfully pushed for a mistrial, arguing that continued deliberations could lead to a “coercive or a compromised verdict” by “elbowing” jurors to convict on the lesser charge.
Manslaughter would have required proving that Penny acted recklessly and grossly deviated from how a reasonable person would behave, while proving criminally negligent homicide requires the jury to be convinced that Penny engaged in “blameworthy conduct” that he did not consider would lead to the risk of death.
(WASHINGTON) — Internet-connected cameras made in China are giving the Chinese government the ability to “conduct espionage or disrupt US critical infrastructure,” according to a Department of Homeland Security bulletin obtained by ABC News.
The cameras typically lack data encryption and security settings and, by default, communicate with their manufacturer. It’s believed there are tens of thousands of Chinese-made cameras on the networks of critical U.S. infrastructure entities, including within the chemical and energy sectors, the bulletin said.
Chinese cyber-operatives have previously exploited internet-connected cameras and the fear is China could gain access and manipulate systems without tighter restrictions on these cameras, the DHS warns.
“A cyber actor could leverage cameras placed on IT networks for initial access and pivot to other devices to exfiltrate sensitive process data that an actor could use for attack planning or disrupting business systems,” the bulletin said. “A cyber actor could use cameras placed on safety systems to suppress alarms, trigger false alarms, or pivot to disable fail-safe mechanisms.”
So far, China has successfully kept U.S. regulators from blocking the use of internet-connected cameras made in China through the use of a practice known as “white labeling,” where the cameras are imported after they’re packaged and sold by another company, according to the bulletin.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
