Death of Colts owner Jim Irsay now under federal investigation: Sources

(NEW YORK) — The Transportation Security Administration rolled out a new video at airports across the country Friday warning travelers of longer-than-usual wait times and staffing shortages, blaming Democrats for the partial government shutdown.

“You may be experiencing longer-than-average wait times due to the ongoing Democrat shutdown of TSA and the Department of Homeland Security,” the agency’s video message says.

At several airports nationwide, passengers have seen security wait times ranging from 20-30 minutes to as long as two hours at certain points, with travelers being advised to arrive at the airport early to allow adequate time for screening.

The roughly 30-second video message was released as TSA officers begin receiving their first $0 paycheck Friday, with the length of the shutdown nearing a month. The message also encourages travelers to show gratitude toward the TSA officers.

“The TSA Officers you are interacting with have shown up to work despite having missed paychecks. Please take the opportunity to thank the dedicated men and women of the TSA when you fly today,” the video message says.

Assaults on TSA officers have increased during the shutdown, Acting Deputy Administrator Adam Stahl told ABC.

“We’ve seen increases in assaults on our TSA officers which is always completely unacceptable, particularly unacceptable right now,” he said in an interview. “And so we just ask our passengers to please be respectful, thank them because they’re doing an incredibly difficult job under incredibly difficult circumstances.”

Stahl said the agency has “zero tolerance” for such behavior and works with the law enforcement authorities, including the Department of Justice, so those responsible face ramifications for their actions.

Though the rate of unscheduled absences by TSA officers has more than doubled since the shutdown began, Stahl said there are no safety concerns about TSA’s operations and that the agency’s focus remains on the impact to wait times.

“We don’t have any significant concerns about the integrity of the screening process right now as it stands, but again this is going to continue to worsen as the days continue and we’re really focused and really urge Senate Democrats to get back to the drawing table, get back to negotiating table, so we can get back to normal operations,” Stahl said.

A similar video featuring outgoing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was rolled out by the agency during last year’s government shutdown. It received pushback from several major airports that refused to play it, citing the Hatch Act — a law that restricts the political activities of federal employees, as well as some state and local employees who are involved in or work in federally funded programs.

On Thursday, Senate Democrats blocked a fourth vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security, refusing to fund the agency without any reforms to ICE and CBP.

The package would have provided funding for the Department of Homeland Security through September. The agency has been shut down since Feb. 14.

Ahead of the vote, Democrats once again attempted to get support to fund other agencies, besides ICE and CBP, that are a part of DHS and that have been shut down. After their effort to fund all other agencies besides CBP and ICE was blocked Wednesday by Republicans, Democrats took a piecemeal approach Thursday, making individual requests to pass funding for TSA, CISA, Coast Guard and FEMA.

“What Republicans are saying is that we want to hold TSA, our airports, the protection of our coastline, the defense of this nation from cyberattacks and our response to emergencies hostage to their determination to continue to fund a law enforcement operation at ICE that is out of control,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said during a speech on the floor as part of the Democratic effort to pass the bills to fund the individual agencies.

Republicans blocked each of those efforts, arguing that the whole of DHS should be funded.

“To my Democrat colleagues, if you have a bill that you want to defund ICE with, put it on the floor. I guarantee you it will get voted down because it is an extremely unpopular position. We are not going to let you get to that result by way of holding everyone else hostage. If you want to support all the agencies in this negotiated bill you have a way to do it,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mont., said.

ABC News’ Allison Pecorin contributed to this story.

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(FLORIDA) — The man accused of killing two University of South Florida doctoral students allegedly asked ChatGPT about disposing of a body three days before the victims were last seen alive, according to court filings.

Hisham Abugharbieh, 26, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder with a weapon in the deaths of his roommate, Zamil Limon, and Nahida Bristy, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said. The two 27-year-old students were last seen alive on April 16, and a mutual friend reported them missing the following day after being unable to reach them both, authorities said.

Detectives located Limon’s remains on the side of a Tampa bridge on Friday, according to the motion. His naked body was in “numerous black utility trash bags and was in advanced stages of decomposition,” according to a motion for pretrial detention filed by prosecutors. There were deep cuts at his hips “to permit folding of the legs into the bag,” and his wrists and ankles appeared to be bound, according to the filing. 

The Pinellas County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed Limon had sustained numerous lacerations and stab wounds to his abdomen and lower back and his cause of death was “multiple sharp force injuries,” the filing stated.

Human remains were recovered from waterways near the bridge on Sunday amid a search for Bristy, 27, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. Positive identification has not been determined at this time, authorities said.

Bristy is “believed to have been disposed of in a similar way’ to Limon, the motion stated.

Motion outlines evidence of alleged premeditated murder

The 23-page motion detailed digital and physical evidence — including phone, shopping and other activity — that prosecutors allege show Abugharbieh committed premeditated murder.

On April 13, three days before the two students were last seen alive, the suspect allegedly asked ChatGPT, “What happens if a human has a put in a black garbage bag and thrown in a dumpster,” according to the motion. 

Prosecutors noted that ChatGPT answered “that it sounds dangerous,” and then Abugharbieh allegedly asked, “How would they find out.”

Two days later, he allegedly asked, “Can a VIN number on a car be changed,” according to the filing.

On the day the two students were last seen alive, detectives determined Abugharbieh’s vehicle was in the same area in Clearwater Beach, around the same time of the last pinged location of Limon’s phone, it noted.

Shortly before 11 p.m. that night, Abugharbieh allegedly received a Doordash delivery at the apartment of items purchased from CVS — “trashbags, Lysol wipes, Febreze, Funyuns, and Irish Spring Body Wash” — according to the motion. He had also allegedly ordered duct tape, fire starter, charcoal, trash bags and lighter fuel from Amazon earlier in the month, according to the motion. 

Around 12:26 a.m. on April 17, he allegedly asked ChatGPT, “are cars checked at the Hillsborough River state park.”

About an hour later, around 1:30 a.m., his phone stopped on the Howard Frankland Bridge, according to the filing. It was on the bridge again nearly three hours later, including in the exact location where Limon’s body was found a week later, according to the filing.

A third roommate in the apartment reported seeing Abugharbieh dispose of multiple cardboard boxes from his room to a compactor dumpster on site sometime late on April 16 or early on the morning of April 17, according to the motion. Limon’s wallet and glasses, bloodied clothing and Bristy’s iPhone case were among the items located in trash bags in the compactor, according to the filing. 

On April 19, the suspect allegedly asked ChatGPT, “will Apple know who is the new iPhone user after the previous user,” according to the filing.

On April 23, he asked, “What does missing endangered adult mean,” according to the filing. That day, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office announced it had elevated the status of the two missing USF students to endangered. 

Other ChatGPT messages noted in the filing focused on firearms, according to the motion. Abugharbieh allegedly asked on April 15 if you can “keep a gun at home with out a license,” and, on April 19, “will my neighbors hear my gun” and “Has there been someone who survived a sniper bullet to the head,” according to the motion.

OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Suspect denies any role in disappearance

Blood evidence was uncovered in the apartment, including the suspect’s room, where there were two “distinct patterns on the floor which appeared to have a relatively humansized shape,” the filing stated.

Trash bags found under the suspect’s bed were similar to the ones located in the compactor and on the bridge, according to the filing.

Abugharbieh was interviewed by detectives multiple times and denied having anything to do with their disappearance, according to the motion.

When asked about his vehicle being in Clearwater Beach on April 16, he allegedly initially said he was fishing, according to the filing. When confronted about Limon’s phone also being in the area, he allegedly said he drove Limon and Bristy to Clearwater Beach at Limon’s request, and said that they were “both alive when he dropped them off,” the filing stated. 

When asked about the boxes in the compactor, Abugharbieh “advised he removed old clothing he no longer wanted,” the filing stated.

He had lacerations on his left pinky, which he allegedly told detectives were from cutting onions, as well as his upper tricep area and left and right legs, according to the filing.

“Based on the totality of the circumstances, interviews, evidence, and data, evidence would show Hisham Abugharbieh utilized a bladed instrument to fatally wound Zamil Limon and Nahida Bristy multiple times which caused their deaths,” the filing stated.   

The motion does not state an alleged motive in the crime.

Prosecutors seek no bond

Abugharbieh is being held without bond and his next detention hearing is set for Tuesday morning.

The Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office said prosecutors “will argue that Abugharbieh remains a danger to our community and should be held without bond until trial.”

“Our hearts are with both students’ families during this incredibly difficult time, and we are keeping them in our thoughts as they await answers,” State Attorney Suzy Lopez said in a statement.

The suspect has been assigned a public defender. The public defender for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Abugharbieh was arrested on Friday. He had barricaded himself at a residence and surrendered following a brief standoff, authorities said. He was seen exiting the home with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist.

The suspect is not a current USF student or employee, school officials said.

A family member told investigators that Abugharbieh “was known to struggle with managing his anger and was violent with family in the past,” according to the motion.

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(WASHINGTON) — The FBI’s application for the warrant that led to the search and seizure of more than 650 boxes of 2020 election records from a Fulton County, Georgia, election site in January lacked any kind of evidence of intentional misconduct and relied on incorrect information, an elections expert with twenty years of experience told a federal judge Friday.

Testifying as Fulton County’s first witness in its lawsuit against the Trump administration, Ryan Macias told the court that his review of the claims made by the FBI in their application lacked a “basis in reality.”

“The content of the witnesses is incorrect and in many cases contradictory,” he said. “The information in there is not based in reality.”

Lawyers with the Department of Justice attempted to cast doubt on Macias’ testimony by arguing he lacks direct knowledge of the testimony in the case and is inexperienced in criminal investigations, though he was only qualified as an expert on election administration. Macias worked for both the federal government and California to administer elections as well as consulted for Fulton County in 2020.

Assistant Attorney General Tysen Duva broadly claimed, without citing any examples, that criminal investigations regularly stem from matters where initial investigations found no evidence of wrongdoing.

“Are you aware that happens all the time?” Duva asked Macias.

“No,” Macias responded.

“That’s because you don’t know,” Duva responded.

During his direct examination, Macias went through each of the claims made in the FBI’s application for the warrant to debunk and cast doubt on each allegation.

“Do ballot images have any impact on the final tabulation of ballots?” asked attorney Kamal Ghali, referencing the claim that election officials produced inconsistent numbers of ballot images from the 2020 election.

“No they do not,” Macias said.

“Is the absence of ballot images evidence of misconduct?” Ghali asked.

“No it is not,” he responded.

Attorney Abbe Lowell, representing the Fulton County officials, argued that the search was based on incorrect information from unreliable witnesses related to claims that are years beyond the statute of limitations.

“A week doesn’t go by without someone in the administration making an allegation of voter fraud,” Lowell said before reminding the judge that the investigation itself originated from an attorney who tried to overturn the 2020 election who was previously sanctioned for making false claims about the outcome. Lowell said the reliance on the unreliable witnesses would make “George Orwell smile in his grave.”

DOJ attorneys have insisted that the search was based on evidence of potential misconduct and accused Fulton County officials of speculating about “some kind of grand conspiracy.”

“It just seems like a loosey-goosey theory,” said DOJ attorney Michael Weisbuch. “They don’t like the vibe of what’s happening because that’s not a constitutional standard.”

U.S. District Judge JP Boulee, a Trump appointee, will decide on Fulton County’s request to force the Trump administration to return the sensitive records taken from the election site.

After election officials raised concerns about the basis for the January 2026 search, Judge Boulee last month ordered the Department of Justice to publicly release the application for the warrant, which revealed that the investigation was triggered by an attorney and close ally of President Trump who sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

According to the unsealed court records, the investigation centers on long-debunked allegations of voter fraud that have already been thoroughly investigated.

Fulton County election officials have since pushed for the return of the records, arguing that the investigation focuses on “human errors that its own sources confirm occur in almost every election … without any intentional wrongdoing whatsoever.”

“The Affidavit omits numerous material facts — including from the very reports and publicly-disclosed investigations that the Affiant cites — that confirm the alleged conduct was previously investigated and found to be unintentional,” attorneys for the Fulton County officials argued.

In a late setback ahead of Friday’s hearing, Judge Boulee quashed an attempt to force the FBI agent behind the search warrant to testify, concluding that questioning the agent could reveal “process and scope of the DOJ’s investigation,” which remains ongoing.

President Donald Trump has long criticized the outcome of the 2020 election results in Georgia, personally pushing to overturn the results after his loss and later being indicted in two criminal cases over his actions. Those cases have since been dismissed, and Trump has continued to push for criminal accountability for what he baselessly alleged was a stolen election.

Through a call with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard — who was present at the January raid — President Trump personally addressed some of the agents who conducted the search and told them they were doing great work by investigating Georgia’s elections, ABC News previously reported.

“I was at Fulton County, sir, at the request of the president and to work with the FBI to observe this action that had long been awaited,” Gabbard told lawmakers earlier this month when asked about her presence at the search. “It is my role based on statute that Congress has passed to have oversight over election security to include counterintelligence.” 

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