FBI, DHS warn ‘lone offenders’ are likely carrying out Tesla attacks
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(WASHINGTON) — Attacks on Tesla dealerships, cars and equipment are “rudimentary” and require little planning, according to an FBI and Department of Homeland Security assessment, which says lone offenders are the ones carrying out the attacks.
“These criminal actions appear to have been conducted by lone offenders, and all known incidents occurred at night, making identification and arrest of the actors difficult,” the assessment says.
It comes as incendiary devices were found at a Tesla showroom in Austin, Texas, on Monday.
“While they may perceive these attacks as victimless property crimes, these tactics can cause accidental or intentional bodily harm,” the assessment dated March 21 and obtained by ABC News says. “Some individuals with political or social goals are likely to view the publicity surrounding these past incidents as validation that these tactics are successful in drawing public attention, and they may be galvanized to engage in similar violence.”
The bulletin also says that collaboration between state and local law enforcements can help track down the ones responsible.
“As of late March, the FBI and its law enforcement partners continue to investigate these incidents, and DHS and FBI are working with federal, state, and local law enforcement partners to disrupt and deter future incidents,” the assessment says. “In the next twelve months, incidents targeting Tesla EVs and dealerships potentially pose an increased risk of injuries to civilians and first responders.”
On Monday, the FBI announced a task force to investigate the attacks on Tesla dealerships, cars and equipment.
The FBI’s task force encompasses agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and FBI counterterrorism agents.
“The FBI has been investigating the increase in violent activity toward Tesla, and over the last few days, we have taken additional steps to crack down and coordinate our response,” FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X. “This is domestic terrorism. Those responsible will be pursued, caught, and brought to justice.”
President Donald Trump has called those carrying out the attacks “terrorists” and suggested those found guilty of participating in Tesla-related crimes could be sent to prison in El Salvador, referring to the administration’s controversial move to deport alleged gang members to the country.
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(WASHINGTON) — Amid ongoing turmoil inside the U.S. Agency for International Development, sources told ABC News that Department of Government Efficiency staffers have moved to take over offices, escalating tensions as more senior staff members are locked out of internal systems, additional employees are placed on administrative leave, and the agency’s newly appointed chief of staff resigned as the Elon Musk-led agency works to assert control over the USAID, which oversees foreign aid, disaster relief and international development programs.
On Friday night, a dramatic scene played out when a group of individuals who identified themselves as State Department employees and DOGE representatives arrived at the USAID offices in the Ronald Reagan Building and demanded immediate access to every office, according to sources familiar with the incident. It is unclear what legal authority, if any, DOGE representatives have to make such demands.
“It looked like people who dressed up for their first job interview,” a source said.
After initially being denied entry, the group told security guards that if they were not granted entry, they would call the U.S. Marshals Service, sources said. The guards ultimately complied, the source said.
Two top security officials at USAID were placed on administrative leave after they refused to comply on Saturday amid the ongoing turmoil at the agency, sources told ABC News.
Sources told ABC News that more USAID employees were also placed on administration leave, and many were locked out of internal systems amid clashes with DOGE representatives working to take over the agency.
Amid the upheaval, USAID Chief of Staff Matt Hopson resigned just days after Trump appointed him to the position, sources said. It was not immediately clear if Hopson’s resignation was due to changes inside the agency.
However, Musk has been joining USIAD staff calls during the week amid the shakeup at the agency, according to a source familiar with the matter. And as reports emerged over clashes inside USAID, Musk unloaded a barrage of attacks against the agency across his social media platform, X.
“USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die,” Musk wrote in one post.
When shown Musk’s posts on X targeting USAID, a senior official for the agency told ABC News, “The warp-speed of this mafia-like takeover has shaken USAID staff to the core.”
“We are not criminals. Where are Republican Senators like Senator Graham and Risch who have supported the good work of this agency in the past? Will they speak out?” the official asked. “Yes, USAID needs reform, like all agencies, but we’d expect this to come with a degree of thought and involvement from Congress.”
Inside the Ronald Reagan Building, posters and flags featuring USAID were taken down and stacked in hallways, sources who were in the building told ABC News. Some USAID employees who were placed on administrative leave had their ID badges and work computers seized, the sources said.
In response to reports on DOGE’s activity at USAID, DOGE spokesperson Katie Miller wrote on X, “No classified material was accessed without proper security clearances.” The USAID press office did not respond when asked for comment.
The group gained access to USAID’s internal systems on Friday, including the agency’s website and several critical databases, according to sources familiar with the matter. Among the systems was the Development Evaluation Clearinghouse, which houses reports on past and ongoing USAID programs, as well as the Development Information Solution (DIS) — a system used to track congressionally mandated and performance-related data for all USAID programs worldwide.
Sources also said that the group also seized control of a software system called Phoenix, a program for USAID’s financial management system used to track and manage the agency’s budgeting, accounting and financial transactions. The system was down over the weekend, sources said, which has sent shockwaves across contractors for USAID who are fearful they won’t be paid for their work. Major firms that manage global supply chains, including those for initiatives like antiretroviral (ARV) drugs and other essential medicines to combat HIV/AIDS, rely on Phoenix.
Sources told ABC News the Trump administration’s foreign aid cuts are being overseen by Peter Marocco, a campaign ally in the Office of Foreign Assistance who was reportedly caught on camera inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Sources also told ABC News that Trump ally Mark Kevin Lloyd has been placed as acting assistant administrator for the Bureau of Conflict Prevention and Stabilization (CPS) at USAID, which oversees a considerable budget. Lloyd, a Tea Party activist, was Trump’s Virginia field director in 2016 and later appointed USAID religious freedom adviser in 2020.
The chaos inside the agency has led those familiar with USAID to question whether the overhaul of the agency marks the end of U.S. international development efforts or a strategic consolidation of resources under the State Department. Some see the potential for the administration to leverage USAID’s existing infrastructure — its contracting officers, global footprint and established contract mechanisms — to rapidly redirect aid programs in a way that far exceeds the capacity of the State Department.
After the USAID website went dark on Saturday, the agency’s chief information officer sent an internal email stating that the website is “currently unavailable” and that they have no information on when it will be restored, according to an email obtained by ABC News.
“M/CIO is informing users that USAID.gov is currently unavailable. We will send a follow-up notice once there is more information. At this time there is no update on when the site will be available,” the email, which was sent Saturday evening, reads.
A source told ABC News that these notices would typically detail that the team is working to restore access, but that was missing from this notice.
Some staff are taking the “no update” on when the site will be brought back as “a decision made to turn out the (internet) lights.”
(NEW YORK) — A dangerous, multiday severe weather outbreak is set to bring tornadoes, flash flooding and damaging winds to the Midwest, the South and the East Coast, with the worst of the weather hitting the South on Saturday.
This is the first outbreak of this magnitude this year and is only the third time the National Weather Service has issued a high risk warning one day ahead.
The severe weather begins in the Midwest on Friday evening.
Residents from Davenport, Iowa, to Peoria, Illinois, and St. Louis to Memphis, Tennessee, are in the bull’s-eye for strong tornadoes. Destructive winds from thunderstorms could reach 90 mph and hail could be as large as baseballs.
On Saturday, the highest threat for tornadoes moves into the Deep South, focusing on eastern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle.
In a rare warning, the highest risk level for severe weather/tornadoes has been issued from Jackson, Mississippi, to Birmingham, Alabama, where Gov. Kay Ivey issued a state of emergency. Those in the area should brace for numerous, significant tornadoes, some of which could be long-track and potentially violent.
The most dangerous tornado threat will begin in Louisiana and Mississippi late Saturday morning and the early afternoon. The threat spreads into Alabama in the late afternoon and evening and then reaches Florida and Georgia late Saturday night.
Destructive winds up to 80 mph and large hail are also in the forecast.
The severe storms will cover a large area, spreading as far north as Atlanta and Nashville, Tennessee.
On Sunday, the severe storms will be weaker as they target the East Coast from Florida to Pennsylvania.
The tornado threat will be focused on the Carolinas and Georgia in the afternoon.
Storms with the potential for damaging winds will reach the Northeast by the evening and last through early Monday morning.
(OXFORD, OHIO) — A fraternity at Miami University in Ohio has been suspended after a student complained of “inhumane” hazing, according to a hazing incident report obtained by ABC News.
According to the report, which was made by a member of another fraternity, an unnamed student was “coerced and forced into accepting a Bid at Sigma Alpha Epsilon,” after which he was allegedly “hazed for multiple days and was forced to cut communication with all others.”
The student was allegedly “required to ingest an entire can of chewing tobacco and then do a handstand.” He vomited as a result, and “was then told to eat the throw up,” though the report states he did not.
Students pledging the fraternity were also “forced to do wall sits while covered in baby oil” and forced to drink every time they slipped, the report states.
They were allegedly also forced to stay in a basement and not permitted to leave except for food and showers, it states.
In a message the alleged victim showed the reporting student, an active member allegedly threatened a pledge, saying he would hold a “12 gauge down his throat and watch his brain splatter.”
As a result of the alleged hazing, the unnamed student contacted the student who made the report and asked to join his fraternity instead, saying Sigma Alpha Epsilon “was not the right fit for him,” the report states.
“During this phone call I noticed that his voice sounded shaky and fearful,” it states.
Upon informing Sigma Alpha Epsilon he would be dropping out of the pledging process, members allegedly tried to convince him to stay, according to the report.
Members “said things such as ‘the first week is always the hardest’ ‘you’ll see why we do all the things we do’ ‘we all had to go through it’ ‘some of the guys haze just to haze,'” the report states.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon was suspended as a result of the hazing incident report, the student newspaper, The Miami Student, first reported.
A spokesperson for the university did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News but confirmed the suspension in a statement to local ABC affiliate WCPO.
“A Miami University Greek organization (Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity) is under investigation and its activities have been summarily suspended by the Office of Community Standards for allegations of hazing,” the statement said.
The fraternity chapter, as well as the national organization, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
