West Virginia death toll rises amid deadly flash flooding, building collapse
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(WHEELING, W.Va.) — The death toll in West Virginia has climbed to six after heavy rains and devastating flash flooding struck the state, according to Gov. Patrick Morrisey.
Two people are unaccounted for, according to the governor’s office, and a state of emergency is in effect.
Flash flooding occurred throughout the city of Wheeling and the towns of Triadelphia and Valley Grove. Roughly 3 to 4 inches of rain fell in the area in a short period of time, prompting significant flash flooding along US 40 (National Road), Middle Wheeling Creek, Little Wheeling Creek and various runs and streams through Ohio County.
On Sunday, a residential building in the city of Fairmont, in Marion County, partially collapsed, prompting the emergency declaration, according to the governor.
Footage from the scene showed water rushing out of the severely damaged structure as emergency crews responded to the scene.
“As flash floods continue throughout North Central West Virginia, emergency officials are on the scene in Marion County at a partial apartment collapse,” Morrisey said in his emergency declaration.
“State resources are being dispatched to the region immediately. Please — stay off the roads. Do not underestimate the strength and speed of these floods. Pray for our friends and neighbors during this challenging time for our state.”
There have been no hospitalization for injuries due to the collapse and an emergency shelter for those who were living in the apartment building has been set up in the Falcon Center on the Fairmont State campus, according to ABC Clarksburg, West Virginia, affiliate, WBOY-TV.
Multiple cars in the apartment parking lot were also totaled, the outlet reported.
Morrisey mobilized the National Guard to support local emergency operations.
ABC News’ Darren Reynolds and Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Plans for a new air traffic control system were announced Thursday by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy amid a spotlight on the out-of-date ATC system and the air traffic controller shortage.
The Transportation Department said in a statement the current ATC system is “antiquated” and said the new “state-of-the-art” system will improve safety and cut back on delays.
Changes include swapping out old telecommunications for “new fiber, wireless and satellite technologies”; “installing new modern hardware and software”; replacing 618 old radars; and building six new air traffic control centers and replacing towers, the Transportation Department said.
The announcement comes as an outage at Newark Liberty International Airport last week caused ATC computer screens to go dark for roughly 60 to 90 seconds and prevented controllers from talking to aircraft during that time, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the incident. As a result, the Federal Aviation Administration briefly halted all departures to the airport.
Following the outage, several controllers went on medical leave, calling the experience a traumatic event. The controllers are entitled to at least 45 days away from the job and must be evaluated by a doctor before they can return to work.
The facility where controllers work the airspace around Newark airport is located in Philadelphia and was already short on air traffic controllers.
(NEW YORK) — One year ago today, a jury of 12 New Yorkers convicted Donald Trump for falsifying business records as part of an alleged hush money scheme to influence the 2016 election.
The conviction left an indelible mark on Trump — making him the first president or former president to be found guilty of a crime — and his fight to erase that legacy continues to this day.
On June 11, a federal appeals court in Manhattan is set to hear oral arguments in the president’s renewed legal fight to move his criminal case from state to federal court.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg opposes the move — arguing that a case can’t be removed to federal court after conviction — but Trump’s lawyers have argued the “unprecedented criminal prosecution of a former and current president of the United States belongs in federal court.”
Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts after prosecutors alleged that he engaged in a “scheme” to boost his chances during the 2016 presidential election through a series of hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and the falsification of New York business records to cover up that alleged criminal conduct.
“I did my job, and we did our job,” Bragg said following Trump’s conviction. “There are many voices out there, but the only voice that matters is the voice of the jury, and the jury has spoken.”
Ten days before Trump was sworn in as president last November, New York Judge Juan Merchan sentenced him to an unconditional discharge — without prison, fines or probation — saying it was the “only lawful sentence” to prevent “encroaching upon the highest office in the land.”
“I won the election in a massive landslide, and the people of this country understand what’s gone on. This has been a weaponization of government,” Trump told the court during his sentencing.
Trump continues to vehemently deny any wrongdoing, and his lawyers have argued that his conviction relied on evidence and testimony that related to his official acts as president, including social media posts from his official Twitter account as president and testimony from his former communications director Hope Hicks.
The trial took place one month before the Supreme Court delivered a landmark ruling expanding the scope of presidential immunity, and Trump’s lawyers have argued that the evidence would have not been permitted based on the high court’s ruling.
Trump’s lawyers attempted to use that argument to throw out the case before Trump’s January sentencing, but the argument was rejected by Judge Juan Merchan, two New York appeals courts, and the Supreme Court.
“The alleged evidentiary violations at President-Elect Trump’s state-court trial can be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal,” the Supreme Court said in a brief unsigned opinion, though four justices said they would have granted Trump’s application.
For Trump’s criminal defense, he relied on then-defense attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who now serve as the deputy attorney general and principal associate deputy attorney general. Earlier this week, Trump announced that he plans to nominate Bove — who led a purge of career law enforcement officials before the Senate confirmed his nomination to help run the DOJ — to the United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.
With his former defense attorneys now working for the government, Trump earlier this year tapped the elite Manhattan law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell to handle his criminal appeal.
Lawyers with the Department of Justice also filed an amicus brief in the case this week to argue that the case should be heard — and thrown out — by a federal court because the jury’s conviction relied on evidence that was covered by presidential immunity.
“That President Trump’s defense in fact takes the form of a new constitutional immunity announced by the Supreme Court after his trial ended, rather than a new statute enacted by Congress, should if anything cut in the President’s favor,” lawyers with the Department of Justice argued in a brief submitted on Tuesday.
The appeal — as well as the ongoing appeal of Trump’s $83 million judgment in the E. Jean Carroll civil case and half-billion-dollar civil fraud case — is proceeding on uncharted legal grounds as Trump wields the power of the presidency in his defense. He has characterized the prosecutors who pursued the cases against him as politically motivated, and has touted his electoral victory last November as a political acquittal.
“The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people,” Trump told reporters as he left court following his conviction last year. “And they know what happened here, and everybody knows what happened here.”
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge in Washington, D.C., temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s recent executive order aimed at Susman Godfrey, the law firm that has for years represented Dominion Voting Systems — the leading supplier of election technology across the U.S.
The decision from Judge Loren AliKhan on Tuesday is the latest win for one of the few law firms that have fought back against Trump’s orders instead of striking a deal.
Trump’s executive order seeks to block the firm’s access to government buildings and cancel government contracts, among others, over their “previous activities.”
Susman Godfrey has represented the voting machine company Dominion, famously securing a $787.5 million settlement from Fox News to settle allegations the network aired false claims about the company rigging the 2020 election.
Notably, the firm still represents Dominion in its active cases against a number of Trump’s allies — including Rudy Giuliani, Mike Lindell and others.
In her ruling, Judge AliKhan delivered a strong repudiation of the order, noting it “chills the firm’s speech and advocacy” as well as “threatens reputational harm.”
“The executive order is based on a personal vendetta… and frankly I think the Framers of the Constitution would see this as a shocking abuse of power,” she said.
During the hearing on Tuesday afternoon, attorneys representing Susman Godfrey said that Trump’s order was “one of the most brazenly unconstitutional exercises of executive power in the history of this nation.”
“The executive is wielding an axe, and we don’t know exactly when that axe is going to fall but they’re ready to bring it down,” said Donald Verrilli, an attorney representing Susman from the firm Munger, Tolles, and Olson.
Deputy Associate Attorney General Richard Lawson, a political appointee who previously worked for Attorney General Pam Bondi, argued repeatedly that the order fit squarely in the administration’s free speech rights.
“I would urge great caution from the court on the judiciary policing the executive branch’s speech, that is just a very tricky area that is extremely difficult to try and implement,” Lawson said.
He argued the judge should wait until the administration issued formal guidance to agencies on their interactions with the firm before issuing a temporary restraining order barring any kind of enforcement.
Despite this, Judge AliKhan said the TRO would remain in effect for 14 days and ordered the government to rescind any memos or guidance that had already gone out on the order.
Susman Godfrey said of the judge’s decision in a statement to ABC News,”This fight is bigger and more important than any one firm. Susman Godfrey is fighting this unconstitutional executive order because it infringes on the rights of all Americans and the rule of law.”
“This fight is right, it is just, and we are duty-bound to pursue it. We are grateful the court directly addressed the unconstitutionality of the executive order by recognizing it as a ‘shocking abuse of power,'” the firm said.
The hearing comes as the Trump administration has ramped up pressure against several law firms and universities.
Since Trump began targeting law firms, nine of the country’s largest law firms — including Paul Weiss, Kirkland & Ellis, Willkie Farr and Latham & Watkins — have agreed to provide a combined $940 million in legal services to promote causes supported by the president.
The firms also agreed to remove Diversity, Equity and Inclusion from hiring practices and vow not to deny representing clients based on politics.
Alternatively, three other major U.S. firms — Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, and Jenner & Block — are fighting the president’s action against law firms in federal courts, which have temporarily paused the orders from taking effect.
