Appeals court revives Trump’s effort to remove hush money case to federal court
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(NEW YORK) — A federal appeals court on Thursday ordered a lower court to take another look at whether President Donald Trump’s criminal hush money prosecution in Manhattan deserved to be heard in federal court.
After Trump was convicted last year on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, he sought to move the case into federal court from state court due to the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling last year granting the president immunity for official acts.
U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied the request, concluding that Trump failed to show good cause for move after the jury had rendered its verdict.
On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Hellerstein to reconsider.
“We cannot be confident that in doing so, the District Court adequately considered issues relevant to the good cause inquiry so as to enable meaningful appellate review,” the opinion said. For example, the District Court did not consider whether certain evidence admitted during the state court trial relates to immunized official acts or, if so, whether evidentiary immunity transformed the State’s case into one that relates to acts under color of the Presidency.”
Trump was found guilty last year of orchestrating an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 presidential election by directing his personal lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, to pay $130,000 to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to prevent her from publicly discussing a long-denied sexual encounter with Trump, and then falsifying New York business records to cover up that alleged criminal conduct.
New York Judge Juan Merchan, on the eve of Trump’s inauguration in January, sentenced him to an unconditional discharge — the lightest possible punishment allowed under New York state law — saying it was the “only lawful sentence” to prevent “encroaching upon the highest office in the land.”
Trump is separately appealing his conviction in a New York appellate court, arguing that it was based on evidence the Supreme Court later decided should have been off limits.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in newly designed vehicles arrive ahead of a scheduled speech by U.S. President Donald Trump at the Park Police Anacostia Operating Facility on August 21, 2025 in Washington, DC. The Trump administration has deployed federal officers and the National Guard to the District in order to place the DC Metropolitan Police Department under federal control and assist in crime prevention in the nation’s capital. (Photo by Andrew Leyden/Getty Images)
(DES MOINES, Iowa) — An Iowa superintendent who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents last week will resign, his attorney said Tuesday.
Ian Roberts, 54, announced his immediate resignation as superintendent of the Des Moines Public Schools in a letter released through his attorney on Tuesday.
“Out of concern for his 30,000 students, Dr. Roberts does not want to distract the Board, educators, and staff from focusing on educating DMPS’s students,” the letter to the Des Moines School Board stated.
The letter will be sent to the board on Tuesday, according to Roberts’ attorney, Alfredo Parrish.
Roberts was detained on Friday, with ICE saying he is in the country illegally from Guyana and was working as a superintendent despite having “a final order of removal and no work authorization.”
On Monday, the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners said it revoked Roberts’ administrator license. The Des Moines School Board voted unanimously Monday evening to put him on unpaid administrative leave and gave his attorney until noon Tuesday to provide proof that he is authorized to work in the U.S. or face termination.
Parrish said his office on Monday filed a motion in immigration court in Omaha, Nebraska, to stay the educator’s order of removal.
“This is a very complex case,” Parrish said during a press briefing on Tuesday. “It’s complex, it’s difficult and there are a lot of what I would call a myriad of issues that are involved.”
“What I would do is encourage people, as they review this case, to be patient, to take it a step at a time,” he added.
Parrish also shared a letter with reporters purportedly sent from Roberts’ previous attorney in Texas in March, stating that his immigration case “has reached a successful resolution” and was closed. The letter did not contain any further details on the resolution.
Parrish said his office plans to file a motion to reopen Roberts’ immigration case on Tuesday.
Roberts entered the U.S. on a student visa in 1999 and a judge gave him a “final order of removal” in May 2024, ICE said in a statement.
Roberts joined the Des Moines district in July 2023 and had previously held leadership positions in school districts across the U.S. for 20 years, according to school board chair Jackie Norris.
Norris said during Monday’s school board meeting that the board received documentation from the Department of Homeland Security that day indicating Roberts is an unauthorized worker in the U.S. It also received documentation of Roberts’ final order of removal issued by an immigration judge, she said.
The board was not aware of Roberts’ immigration issues at the time of his hiring, according to Norris, who said the board is taking ICE’s allegations “very seriously.”
“I want to be clear, at no point was any DMPS employee or board member notified that Dr. Roberts was not eligible to work by a federal agency or Dr. Roberts,” Norris said.
Norris said when Roberts applied for the superintendent position, he stated that he was a citizen and provided a driver’s license and a Social Security card as documentation. A law firm reviewed the information presented by Roberts and did not raise any concerns about his eligibility to work, she said.
Asked how Roberts had a social security number, Parrish said he didn’t want to respond, though went on to say, “As you may or may not know, certain people coming into this country are entitled to get a Social Security number.”
“That’s not our concern at the moment,” he added.
When Roberts was taken into custody on Friday, he was in possession of a loaded handgun and $3,000 in cash, ICE said.
Asked about the allegation of the loaded firearm, Parrish said he also could not comment on the facts of that, though he went on to say Roberts was in the military in Guyana and “led some of the most difficult raids on the biggest criminals.”
“In doing that type of work, he was a target, on some occasions, to be taken out by the cartel,” Parrish said.
According to the ICE detainee locator, Roberts is currently being held at the Woodbury County Jail in Sioux City, Iowa. He is in “good spirits,” Parrish said.
“We want you to know that Dr. Roberts’ greatest concern is about his students who he actually loves, and the students who love him back,” Parrish said.
Meanwhile, Iowa Rep. Zach Nunn said Tuesday a “state-level investigation” into Roberts’ hiring is underway.
“Local leaders owe parents an explanation, and we need stronger safeguards to ensure that positions of public trust are filled by individuals who are properly vetted and legally authorized to serve,” he said in a statement.
The firm that performed the background check on Roberts prior to his hiring by Des Moines Public Schools told ABC News it was “not contracted to perform I-9 or work eligibility verification.”
“By standard practice, the employer is solely responsible for completing I-9 verification and determining employment eligibility,” Baker-Eubanks CEO Kim Cockerham said in a statement.
“We identified and disclosed all publicly available criminal records at that time, and those findings were provided to J.G. Consulting, the executive search firm, which then shared the information with its client, the Des Moines School District. The District ultimately chose to proceed with the hire despite having received the disclosed criminal record information,” Cockerham said.
Roberts has weapon possession charges from February 2020, according to ICE.
Prior to serving as superintendent in Des Moines, Roberts was superintendent of the Millcreek Township School District in Pennsylvania from August 2020 through June 2023.
The Millcreek Township School District said in a statement Monday that Roberts went through an FBI background check, completed I-9 eligibility forms and supplied documentation to support his eligibility to work. The district said it “never received any information or notification regarding the expiration of Dr. Roberts’ work authorization” and called reports of his detention “deeply concerning.”
Iryna Zarutska, who is not pictured, was stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack while riding the light rail in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. (Charlotte Area Transit System)
(CHARLOTTE, N.C.) — North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein said Monday he was “appalled” by the unprovoked murder of a Ukrainian woman on Charlotte’s light rail system late last month, with the recent release of the attack on video causing outrage nationwide.
“I am heartbroken for the family of Iryna Zarutska, who lost their loved one to this senseless act of violence, and I am appalled by the footage of her murder. We need more cops on the beat to keep people safe,” Stein said in a statement on Monday.
Zarutska, 23, was fatally stabbed on Aug. 22 just before 10 p.m. while riding the Lynx Blue Line in Charlotte, according to an affidavit obtained by ABC News.
According to the affidavit, Zarutska boarded the train and sat in an aisle seat directly in front of the suspect, 34-year-old Decarlos Brown Jr., who is seen in a window seat wearing an orange sweatshirt.
The train travels for “approximately four and half minutes before the suspect pulls a knife out of his pocket, unfolds the knife, pauses, then stands up, and strikes at the victim three times,” according to an affidavit obtained by ABC News.
Prior to the stabbing, there appeared to be “no interaction between the victim and defendant,” the affidavit said.
Zarutska was pronounced dead at the scene and a witness directed officials to the location of the suspect, the affidavit said.
Brown was arrested after he was released from the hospital with “non-life-threatening injuries sustained at the time of the incident” and was charged with first-degree murder, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
The suspect’s next court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 19, according to court records. It is unclear whether Brown has an attorney who can speak on his behalf.
Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles said the murder was a “senseless and tragic loss” and Lyles’ “prayers remain with [Zarutska’s] loved ones as they continue to grieve through an unimaginable time.”
“Like so many of you, I’m heartbroken — and I’ve been thinking hard about what safety really looks like in our city. I remain committed to doing all we can do to protect our residents and ensure Charlotte is a place where everyone feels safe,” Lyles said in a statement on Saturday.
The Charlotte Area Transit System, or CATS, confirmed to ABC News there was not security on board the train at the time of the attack, with a spokesperson saying a security team “patrols the system, they are not stationed in one area.”
“At the time of the incident they were riding on a train directly in front of where the incident occurred,” a spokesperson for CATS told ABC News.
According to Zarutska’s obituary, she was born in Ukraine and emigrated to the U.S. with her mother, sister and brother to “escape the war, and she quickly embraced her new life in the United States.”
The 23-year-old, who was described as a “gifted and passionate artist,” will be remembered for her “kindness, her creativity and the lasting impression she left on everyone she met,” according to her obituary.
(NEW YORK) — Hurricane Gabrielle, which has now rapidly intensified into a major Category 4 storm, is the second major hurricane of the 2025 Atlantic season, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Gabrielle, currently located southeast of Bermuda, now has maximum sustained winds of 140 mph.
Gabrielle is also the second tropical system to undergo rapid intensification this year.
On average, the second major hurricane forms around Sept. 19, meaning Gabrielle’s status aligns with what is typically expected during the Atlantic hurricane season.
As the system continues to track over warm waters and favorable atmospheric conditions, Gabrielle could strengthen even more on Monday before it begins to weaken by Wednesday.
There are currently not any tropical alerts for Bermuda as the storm is expected to pass to the east, keeping rain and wind away from the island.
As the storm passes east of Bermuda, Gabrielle will produce large swells and rip currents along the island through early this week.
The storm could also bring rip currents to the East Coast on Monday, with a high risk from the Jersey Shore to the Carolinas, along with parts of Florida’s East Coast.
The hurricane will push northeast and back out to the central Atlantic in the coming days and will weaken in the process. The storm could sweep along or north of the Azores — a group of islands west of Portugal — on Thursday night and Friday.
As of Monday, Gabrielle does not pose a threat to the United States.
ABC News’ Kenton Gewecke and Melissa Griffin contributed to this report.
