Pakistani national charged with alleged plot to assassinate Donald Trump, federal prosecutors say
(NEW YORK) — A Pakistani national with purported ties to Iran was arrested last month on charges he plotted to assassinate former President Donald Trump and multiple other public officials, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court.
While the criminal complaint does not mention Trump by name, multiple sources familiar with the case told ABC News one of the intended targets of the alleged plot was Trump.
After spending time in Iran, Asif Merchant flew from Pakistan to the U.S. to recruit hitmen to carry out the alleged plot, according to a detention memo. The person he contacted was a confidential informant working with the FBI, according to the criminal complaint.
Merchant, 46, is charged with murder for hire.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(CHICO, Calif.) — A Northern California wildland fire that exploded overnight into the state’s largest blaze this wildfire season, destroying structures and prompting thousands of evacuations, was allegedly started by a man who pushed a burning car into a gully, authorities said Thursday.
The 48-year-old arson suspect charged with starting the Park Fire in Butte County near the city of Chico was arrested Thursday morning and jailed without bail, said Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey. The suspect’s name was not immediately released.
The suspect was allegedly spotted just before 3 p.m. local time on Wednesday, pushing a car that was on fire down a gully called “Alligator Hole” in Bidwell Park, near Chico, Ramsey said.
“The car went down an embankment approximately 60 feet and burned completely, spreading flames that caused the Park Fire,” Ramsey said in a statement.
A man who was later identified as the suspect was seen calmly leaving the area by blending in with other park visitors fleeing the rapidly evolving fire, Ramsey said.
The suspect is scheduled to be arraigned next week, Ramsey said.
The Park Fire in Butte County, California, and the Durkee Fire in Oregon, the largest fire burning in the nation, continued filling West Coast skies Thursday with smoke as gusty winds and treacherous terrain were dealing challenges to firefighters battling both blazes, officials said.
Park Fire becomes largest 2024 wildfire in the state
The Park Fire started around 3 p.m. Wednesday northeast of the city of Chico in Bidwell Park and by Thursday afternoon had burned 71,489 acres, destroyed an undetermined number of structures and caused the Butte County Sheriff’s Department to order evacuations for rural foothill communities in the area, including nearly the entire town of Cohasset, which has a population of about 400.
More than 1,100 firefighters were fighting the flames Thursday morning, using helicopters and cutting fire lines with bulldozers in a desperate attempt to prevent the fire from spreading to homes in the densely populated areas of north Chico, authorities said.
The Park Fire was just 3% contained Thursday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).
“The fire is well established. Fire personnel are currently focusing on evacuations and structure defense while concurrently building direct containment lines utilizing bulldozers, fire crews and fire engines,” Cal Fire said in an updated statement Thursday morning. “More resources have been ordered and are inbound from various areas throughout Northern California.”
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
At least 3,800 people were under evacuation orders in Butte and Tehama counties, officials said.
The Park Fire rapidly grew into the state’s largest conflagration this wildfire season, surpassing the Lake Fire near Santa Barbara in Southern California that started on July 5. As of Thursday morning, the Lake Fire had burned 38,664 and was 90% contained, according to Cal Fire. The blaze destroyed four structures and left at least six firefighters injured, Cal Fire reported.
The Butte County blaze was one of 64 new fires that erupted in California Wednesday, according to Cal Fire.
Rick Carhart, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, told ABC News Thursday that hot temperatures and steep, rugged terrain in the burning area are making things difficult for firefighters.
Carhart — who described the fire activity as “dynamic” — said the temperature in the area this week has been 100 to 110 degrees.
Officials said that in the first 12 hours of the fire, flames were burning 4,000 acres per hour.
“It’s very, very hot. It’s bone dry and pretty much every spark that hits the ground is going to start a fire,” Carhart said.
He said the area where the fire is most active hasn’t burned in 20 years, providing an abundance of dry vegetation that is feeding the blaze.
Cal Fire officials said the number of acres burned so far in this wildfire season is 15 times more than at this time in 2023. There have been nearly 800 more fires this year compared to last, including 54 that resulted in arson arrests, according to Cal Fire, in
Durkee fire is largest in the nation
In Oregon, the Durkee Fire in Baker County, which was sparked by a lightning strike on July 17, had grown to nearly 270,000 acres, or about 400 square miles, as of Thursday morning. The fire burning near the Idaho border was 0% contained and had spread into neighboring Malheur County, according to the Oregon Fire Marshal’s Office.
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek announced on Wednesday that she has invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act to increase resources to battle the Durkee Fire and the Battle Mountain Complex Fire, which consists of three active fires that have burned a total of about 64,000 in the same area of Umatilla County in Eastern Oregon.
Kotek said she has also deployed the National Guard to the Durkee and Battle Mountain fires.
Kotek said in a statement that resources necessary for fighting the fires are beyond local capabilities.
“The wildfires in Eastern Oregon have scaled up quickly,” Kotek said. “We are facing strong erratic winds over the region that could impact all fires. Rain is not getting through. Some communities do not have power. The situation is dynamic, and the teams on the ground are taking it day by day. I have deployed resources from the National Guard that are currently serving eastern and southwestern Oregon. I know these communities are supporting one another, doing their part to heed the guidance from officials and showing tremendous gratitude for our firefighters.”
Kotek said the Durkee fire has merged with another large fire in the area, the Cow Valley Fire, creating one monster-size blaze.
The Baker County Sheriff’s Office said evacuation orders for residents living in the fire zone, including all 500 residents of the town of Huntington.
During a community briefing Wednesday night, fire officials said the Durkee fire was burning so hot it had created its own weather system.
Jonathan Chriest, a National Weather Service meteorologist assigned to the Durkee fire, said at a briefing that wind gusts fanning the fire were expected to reach 75 mph Wednesday night.
Temperatures in the area have been in the high 90s to triple-digits. Chriest said a cold front was moving into the area of the Durkee Fire that could lower temperatures through the weekend but could bring northwest winds of 30 to 45 mph and flash flooding.
“That fire has just not cooperated with us in terms of the weather. I don’t like making excuses and I don’t like fires outpacing me, so that’s a hard thing to admit,” Tyson Albrecht of the U.S. Forest Service, the incident commander on the Durkee Fire for Northwest Team 6, said at the briefing. “This fire and the weather that we’ve been experiencing has been really challenging. It will continue to challenge us, but we will continue to keep swinging away out there to minimize those impacts.”
(NEW YORK) — A couple in their 50’s were kidnapped and assaulted this weekend while house hunting in Connecticut, police have said.
The incident occurred on Sunday afternoon in the city of Danbury, when a group of six men intentionally rear-ended the couple’s Lamborghini sports car before forcing them into the back of a van.
The men — all of whom live in Florida — beat the couple with a baseball bat, duct taped their hands and feet and covered the male victim’s eyes. Some members of the group then drove off with the Lamborghini while the others sought to escape with the victims in the van.
“It seems like they were struck with a bat,” Sgt. Steven Castrovinci said of the kidnapped couple, as quoted by ABC News’ New York City station WABC-TV. “The male victim was pretty bruised, pretty swollen and they indicated they were struck with a bat several times.”
A witness alerted law enforcement and followed the van until it lost control and crashed. Police were then able to apprehend the four men in the van and free the kidnapped couple. The other two men were arrested later.
Police told WABC that the two victims were taken to the hospital and are recovering from their injuries, which are not life-threatening.
All six suspects now face charges including first-degree assault, first-degree kidnapping and reckless endangerment. The motive remains unclear, and there is no clear connection between the suspect and the victims.
WABC named the arrested men as Angel Borrero, 23; Reynaldo Diaz, 22; Anthony Pena, 23; Josue Romero, 26; Ricardo Estrada, 21; and Michael Rivas, 18.
(NEW YORK) — In early July, a man wearing a gator face mask, sunglasses, and camera equipment attached to a vest walked into the elections building in King County, Washington, and began to take videos and photos of the employees and their surroundings.
The man, according to a video obtained by ABC News, approached a counter and began harassing the election workers as he recorded them with his equipment.
After he left, the man posted a video of the interaction on YouTube and published some of the staff’s names, emails, and phone numbers, which officials said resulted in “dozens of calls and emails” to election workers.
The incident, which left King County employees feeling uneasy, is an example of the ongoing harassment and threats election workers are facing as they prepare for November’s election.
Experts and election workers say the threats began after baseless claims of election fraud proliferated following the 2020 election, and they have not slowed down. And with the potential misuse of artificial intelligence and the threat of deadly opioids being mailed to election offices, election workers ABC News spoke with said they are feeling even more unnerved.
The concerns from election workers come months after former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss won a $148 million judgment after a judge found former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani guilty of defaming them. In an interview with ABC News’ Terry Moran in 2022, the mother and daughter described how threats of violence, both online and in person, temporarily drove Freeman from her home and drove them both from their work as election officers.
“Election workers are still dealing with a lot of lies that are being told about the elections, and are in many ways bearing the kind of the consequences of those lies with harassment, abuse and sometimes threats,” said Lawrence Norden, senior director of the Elections and Government Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, a bipartisan public policy think tank.
Stocking up on Narcan
Last August, when King County received an envelope with a suspicious substance in the mail, it also came with an unsettling message: “Enjoy some complimentary WHITE POWDER! Not saying what it is but I HIGHLY RECOMMEND ASKING AROUND FOR A NARCAN!”
“There must be: NO MORE ELECTIONS!” the letter said.
After law enforcement confirmed the envelope contained traces of fentanyl, election officials in the county implemented robust safety protocols and stocked up on Narcan — a drug that’s sprayed directly into the nostrils of someone experiencing an overdose by touching or inhaling an opioid, which blocks the effects of opioids and can quickly restore breathing.
Two months later, the county was targeted again with another letter in an envelope that was also laced with the deadly opioid.
“It was terrifying,” said Julie Wise, the director of elections for King County.
After election offices in four other states received envelopes with fentanyl and other dangerous substances last year, election workers added Narcan to the safety measures they’re implementing heading into the election.
In Washoe County, Nevada, interim registrar of voters Cari Anne Burgess told ABC News the county has 35 kits of Narcan.
“We absolutely have our Narcan kits,” Burgess said. “We’ve all been trained on it and we’ve also been trained on ‘Stop the Bleed.'”
“Fentanyl is of big concern these days,” said Josh Zygielbaum, the clerk and recorder for Adams County, Colorado. “We now have Narcan everywhere, and have changed our mail-opening processes due to some concerns that we could be a target for potential biological or chemical threat.”
Zygielbaum said that since the 2020 election, he has worn a bulletproof vest to work every day — an extreme measure he felt he had to take to feel safe.
“It’s sad, but I love what I do,” Zygielbaum said. “Without having safe and secure elections, we don’t have a democracy. And so it really is the front line of the fight to preserve democracy.”
Fighting the threat of AI
While election officials work to combat physical threats, experts say artificial intelligence could potentially pose an even greater danger to the electoral process.
In January, AI-generated robocalls that appeared to impersonate the voice of President Joe Biden targeted voters in New Hampshire to discourage them from voting in the primary.
“The threat from AI is potentially a change in the degree of what [election workers] have seen before,” Norden from the Brennan Center told ABC News.
Zygielbaum, who said he is increasingly concerned about AI, said his county has been working with local schools that have STEM programs to learn more about the technology and how to make voters more aware of its dangers.
In King County, Wise told ABC News that AI has been a boon to the county’s election operation — but she’s still concerned about its misuse.
“AI has allowed us to save at least $100,000 in taxpayer dollars to use towards translation services,” Wise said. “So there’s certainly pros and cons to this technology and it’s definitely been a big conversation in the election community nationwide.”
At the same time, Wise, said, “We’re poised really well to react to any mis- or disinformation that can result from AI.”
Wise and other officials told ABC News that the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is working with election workers across the country to teach them about AI and how to identify potential threats and disinformation created with the technology.
According to a report from the Brennan Center, AI has the potential to threaten election security not only by more effectively spreading disinformation, but also by more easily exploiting cyber vulnerabilities in election systems.
“The misinformation, the threats, the attempts to intimidate election officials — that all existed before,” said Norden. “It’s just that now, AI makes it easier to do at a larger scale and in a more sophisticated way.”