New Hampshire governor and her security detail help after fiery crash at toll plaza: Police
A burning car is seen following a crash at the Bedford Toll Plaza in Bedford, New Hampshire, March 31, 2026. (New Hampshire State Police)
(NEW HAMPSHIRE) — New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte and her security detail were among those who assisted in a fiery crash at a New Hampshire toll plaza on Tuesday — with a state trooper on her detail and two other bystanders helping pull the driver from the burning vehicle, according to state police.
The “dangerous” collision occurred at the Bedford Toll Plaza on the Everett Turnpike shortly before noon, according to New Hampshire State Police Director Col. Mark Hall.
The vehicle, a 2026 Lucid electric vehicle, “immediately became engulfed in flames,” Hall said during a press briefing on Tuesday.
The governor and her security detail came upon the accident just after the vehicle crashed into the toll plaza, Hall said. A New Hampshire state trooper assigned to her detail and two other bystanders helped pull the male driver — the lone occupant — out of the burning vehicle through the window, according to Hall.
Hall said he is not identifying the trooper due to the nature of the assignment.
“It is a veteran trooper, and certainly their actions were heroic in what they did — without hesitation, put themselves in danger to render aid to somebody that clearly was in need of it,” Hall said.
The governor and other witnesses also provided assistance at the scene, according to Hall.
“The governor did get out of the vehicle and tried to assist in any way that she could,” Hall said, adding he believed she tried to get a fire extinguisher from a vehicle to help put the fire out.
The driver was transported to an area hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
Photos released by police showed the burning vehicle and firefighters at the scene.
The northbound lanes of the turnpike remain closed in the wake of the crash, and the New Hampshire Department of Transportation is assessing the damage to the toll plaza from the collision and fire, Hall said.
The crash remains under investigation.
ABC News has reached out to the governor’s office for comment and did not immediately receive a response.
Tony Herbert (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Eric Adams may no longer be mayor of New York City, but the alleged corruption in his administration is extending beyond his time in City Hall.
On Tuesday, federal prosecutors charged Tony Herbert, a former official in the Office of the Mayor, with bribery in connection with two separate pay-to-play schemes.
Herbert was arrested Tuesday morning and due in court later in the day for arraignment.
In the first alleged scheme, the indictment said Herbert solicited and received $11,000 in cash from a security company executive in exchange for pressuring other city officials to give the company security contracts at public housing projects.
In the second, the indictment said Herbert took $5,000 in kickbacks from the director of a funeral home in exchange for approving financial assistance for burial services for low-income families.
“To prevent these schemes from coming to light, Anthony Herbert, the defendant, filed false financial disclosure forms that omitted his receipt of thousands of dollars from both the Security Company Executive and the Funeral Home Director,” the indictment said.
Federal prosecutors said Herbert allegedly abused positions he held from 2022 to 2025 in both the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit and as citywide public housing liaison.
The indictment quoted Herbert allegedly telling the security executive, “This is what we do, bro. This is what we do. I mean it’s, ain’t nobody gonna do it for us.”
Herbert is charged with bribery, honest services wire fraud, extortion under color of official right, federal program fraud and wire fraud.
“New Yorkers deserve honest and competent public officials,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. “As alleged, at a time when Anthony Herbert was serving as City Hall’s liaison to the City’s public housing residents, he engaged in blatant pay-to-play schemes to enrich himself.”
In addition to the pay-to-play schemes, Herbert is charged with submitting a fraudulent loan application for a purported baked good business to obtain a $20,000 loan under the COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program.
Adams was indicted in October 2024 on federal corruption charges, to which he pleaded not guilty. His case was dismissed in April and he later dropped his reelection bid.
High U.S. temperatures through the week (ABC News)
(NEW YORK) — As a deep freeze continued Tuesday from the Northeast to the Southeast, Southern California and other parts of the West are expected to see another day of balmy weather.
Some areas in the West are poised to break daily high temperature records. Burbank, California, is expected to hit 87 on Tuesday and Long Beach could hit 89.
Other parts of the West, including San Diego, Portland, Oregon, and Great Falls, Montana, could also surpass daily record-high temperature records on Tuesday.
On Monday, several cities in the West set new daily high temperature records, including Escondido, California, which hit 92 degrees, and Phoenix, Arizona, which saw temperatures climb to 85.
The warm weather in the West is expected to continue on Wednesday. While not expected to see a record-breaking daily temperature, Los Angeles is forecast to reach 89 degrees.
Wind advisories are in place for parts of Southern California, especially along the mountain ranges from southeast Los Angeles down to the Mexico border. San Bernardino, Riverside, Corona and Anaheim are expected to see gusts up to 45 mph and isolated gusts of up to 55 mph from 4 a.m. Pacific time on Wednesday through noon on Thursday.
The warm weather in the West will slowly spread through the middle of the country next week.
Meanwhile, some areas of Florida will get a break from the cold before cooler temperatures return on Thursday and Friday. Orlando is forecast to top 70 on Wednesday.
Much of Florida remained under a freeze warning on Tuesday morning. A cold weather advisory was also in place for Miami.
On Monday, several cities throughout the Southeast set daily low temperature records, including Gainesville, Florida, which recorded a low of 22; Fayetteville, Arkansas, which saw the temperature plummet to 12; and Greensboro, North Carolina, which got down to 3.
Freezing temperatures are expected to continue in other parts of the East and Northeast this week as another cold blast is expected on Wednesday, Thursday and into the weekend.
Les Wexner speaks onstage at the 2016 Fragrance Foundation Awards presented by Hearst Magazines – Show on June 7, 2016 in New York City. (Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images for Fragrance Foundation)
(WASHINGTON) — Members of the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday are set to depose retail billionaire Leslie Wexner, whose wealth fueled Jeffrey Epstein’s fortune before an alleged multimillion dollar theft ended their relationship, newly revealed documents suggest.
After learning that Epstein stole hundreds of millions from him in 2007, Wexner opted to quietly resolve the issue with Epstein, who at the time was being investigated by federal prosecutors for both sex crimes and money laundering, according to emails and a memo later drafted by prosecutors.
A vitally important person in the transformation of Epstein from college dropout to multimillionaire adviser to the ultra-wealthy, Wexner — a businessman behind brands like Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works — has received substantial scrutiny over his association with Epstein since Epstein’s arrest and death by suicide in 2019.
Years after the two severed ties, prosecutors in New York initially included Wexner in a group of potential co-conspirators to be investigated after Epstein was arrested in July 2019, though they later determined there was “limited evidence regarding his involvement,” according to a recently-released 2019 email from an FBI agent who was part of the sex crimes investigation.
“The Assistant U.S. Attorney told Mr. Wexner’s legal counsel in 2019 that Mr. Wexner was neither a co-conspirator nor target in any respect,” a spokesperson for Wexner told ABC News in a statement following the release of Epstein files by the Department of Justice last month. “Mr. Wexner cooperated fully by providing background information on Epstein and was never contacted again.”
Lawyers for Wexner, in a meeting with federal prosecutors about two weeks after Epstein’s arrest, claimed that Wexner “had no knowledge of any inappropriate or unlawful activity with young women by Epstein” and that Wexner’s dealings with Epstein were “more professional than social,” according to a December 2019 prosecution memo summarizing the investigation into Epstein’s potential collaborators.
Wexner’s attorneys said the two ended their relationship after Wexner learned that “Epstein had stolen or otherwise misappropriated several hundred million dollars” from him, according to the memo. The memo stated that Epstein personally profited by repeatedly purchasing properties for the Wexners before buying them for himself at a fraction of the cost.
“The Wexners then decided to cut off Epstein,” prosecutors wrote in the memo summarizing their discussion with Wexner’s counsel.
‘All I can say is I feel sorry’ Epstein was — throughout 2007 — the subject of an ongoing investigation in Florida into sex crimes involving minors that had expanded to probe potential financial crimes and money laundering. The Wexners did not report the alleged theft of their funds to law enforcement and instead resolved the matter privately, according to prosecutors.
Wexner was contacted by federal prosecutors in Florida as early as August 2007 regarding the Epstein investigation, according to handwritten notes released last month by the Department of Justice. Notes from an August 2007 call between an attorney for Wexner and a DOJ representative suggest that prosecutors inquired about Wexner’s interactions with his “money manager,” documentation of their meetings, and whether Wexner ever visited Epstein’s home.
At the time, prosecutors had begun to broaden their investigation to not only cover sex crimes but also potential money laundering and wire fraud, documents suggest.
“She just wanted to know if Les has been to my house,” Epstein emailed his associate Ghislaine Maxwell in August 2007, in an apparent reference to the prosecutor’s contact with Wexner’s lawyer, according to emails obtained by DDOSecrets, a transparency website that received a cache of Epstein emails that were not included in the DOJ’s disclosures.
“That’s odd?? Why” Maxwell responded.
“It’s bulls—, she just wanted to let him know about an investigation is my guess,” Epstein wrote back.
It is unclear if Wexner was aware of the investigation into financial crimes when his attorney was contacted, but in the following months, Wexner began the process of ending Epstein’s role as his money manager, according to emails in the DDOSecrets collection between lawyers for Epstein and Wexner.
“All I can say is I feel sorry. You violated your own number 1 rule … Always be careful,” Wexler emailed Epstein in 2008 days before Epstein reported to prison for soliciting underage sex, according to documents included in DDOSecrets collection.
“No excuse,” Epstein replied.
‘She pretty much wants everything’ According to a 2019 prosecution memo, Wexner’s wife began to look into Epstein’s management of their money after Epstein claimed he was “having legal problems involving an overly aggressive police chief and some sort of massage.”
According to the memo, Abigail Wexner discovered Epstein “misappropriated a significant amount of the family’s funds,” including by purchasing property on the Wexners’ behalf before selling it to himself at a fraction of the cost.
“When confronted, Epstein tried to convince Wexner’s wife that she did not understand the financials and insisted that he had the Wexners’ best interests at heart,” the memo said. “The Wexners did not want to bring unnecessary public attention to the issue, so they withdrew the power of attorney, and hired counsel to negotiate a private settlement with Epstein.”
Epstein resigned from the foundation and all of his roles with Wexner in September 2007, according to an independent review conducted in 2020 of Epstein’s involvement with the Wexner Foundation.
“Mr. Wexner terminated Epstein as his financial advisor, revoked his power of attorney, and directed that he be removed from all bank accounts,” a spokesperson for Wexner said in a statement to ABC News.
As early as October 2007, emails indicate that Epstein began transferring assets back to Wexner.
“When speaking with [Abigail Wexner], she pretty much wants everything,” Wexner’s financial controller told an attorney for Epstein.
Later that year, an attorney for Wexner pushed the process along, telling an attorney for Epstein that his client “is eager to execute documents,” according to the DDOSecrets cache.
Prosecutors wrote in a 2019 memo that Epstein returned $100 million to Wexner by January 2008.
Though the dispute with Wexner was privately resolved by January 2008, Epstein’s attorneys appeared to have mounted a pressure campaign to discredit the prosecutor pursuing a money laundering investigation into Epstein, according to emails in the DDOSECRETS collection. Epstein had signed a non-prosecution agreement in September 2007, but his lawyers continued to negotiate with the government over its terms for several more months.
“In what can only be seen as an attempt to intimidate Mr. Epstein, Ms. Villafana [an assistant U.S. Attorney] then added money-laundering and unlicensed wire-transmittal to the list of violations under investigation even though there was no evidence against Mr. Epstein concerning these charges,” attorneys for Epstein wrote in a letter to the Office of Professional Responsibility dated Feb. 11, 2008.
By June 2008, Epstein began his jail sentence in Palm Beach after reaching the controversial plea deal that allowed him to avoid federal charges.
‘You and I had gang stuff for over 15 years’ Although Epstein and Wexner appear to have severed ties following Epstein’s plea deal, documents released by the DOJ suggest that Epstein may have attempted to rekindle their relationship in subsequent years by drafting a letter reminding Wexner of shared experiences and alleged secrets. In the letter, Epstein wrote that he protected him when he was questioned by Wexner’s wife about his management of their money.
“You and I had ‘gang stuff’ for over 15 years. A great deal of it, that she was unaware of. I had no intention of divulging any confidence of ours, no matter what accusations she made. And she made quite a few,” Epstein wrote in the draft note. Based on publicly available documents, it is unclear whether Epstein ever sent the note to Wexner.
Wexner publicly addressed his relationship with Epstein in August 2019 amid mounting public pressure, saying in a letter to his charitable foundation that he was “deceived” by Epstein.
“As the allegations against Mr. Epstein in Florida were emerging, he vehemently denied them. But by early fall 2007, it was agreed that he should step back from the management of our personal finances. In that process, we discovered that he had misappropriated vast sums of money from me and my family. This was, frankly, a tremendous shock, even though it clearly pales in comparison to the unthinkable allegations against him now,” Wexner wrote.
