Appeals court says judge had no jurisdiction to order Mahmoud Khalil’s release
Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — A federal appeals court ruled Thursday a judge had no jurisdiction to order Columbia University pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil released from immigration detention last summer, a decision that could lead to his re-arrest.
Khalil, a green card holder who is married to an American citizen, was released from ICE custody last June following his arrest by ICE agents in New York City in March.
U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz issued an order on June 20 granting Khalil ‘s release on bail after determining that he presented neither a danger nor a flight risk and that extraordinary circumstances justified his temporary release while his habeas case proceeded — a decision that was sharply criticized by the Trump administration.
On Thursday, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Judge Farbiarz to dismiss a petition Khalil had filed challenging his detention, on the grounds that Farbiarz lacked jurisdiction in the case.
“On consideration whereof, it is now ORDERED and ADJUDGED that the District Court’s orders entered on April 29, May 28, June 11, June 20, and July 17, 2025, are hereby VACATED and the case is REMANDED to the District Court with instructions to dismiss the petition for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction,” the opinion said.
Khalil was picked up at his Columbia University housing complex last March and jailed as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests. He spent about three months in a Louisiana detention center and missed the birth of his son.
Khalil was detained on the basis of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s determination that Khali’s speech would “compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest.” Judge Farbiarz granted Khalil’s request for a preliminary injunction after concluding that he would continue to suffer irreparable harm if the government continued efforts to detain and deport him.
Prior to ordering his release, the judge also found that Khalil was likely to succeed on the merits of his constitutional challenge to his detention and attempted deportation on the “foreign policy ground.”
“Today’s ruling is deeply disappointing, but it does not break our resolve,” Khalil said in a statement Thursday. “The door may have been opened for potential re-detainment down the line, but it has not closed our commitment to Palestine and to justice and accountability. I will continue to fight, through every legal avenue and with every ounce of determination, until my rights, and the rights of others like me, are fully protected.”
Khalil’s lawyers said they are now considering whether to pursue an appeal to the full circuit — an interim step before a possible appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Today’s decision is deeply disappointing, and by not deciding or addressing the First Amendment violations at the core of this case, it undermines the role federal courts must play in preventing flagrant constitutional violations,” said Bobby Hodgson, deputy legal director at the New York Civil Liberties Union.
“The Trump administration violated the Constitution by targeting Mahmoud Khalil, detaining him thousands of miles from home, and retaliating against him for his speech,” Hodgson said. “Dissent is not grounds for detention or deportation, and we will continue to pursue all legal options to ensure Mahmoud’s rights are vindicated.”
Stock image of police lights. Douglas Sacha/Getty Images
(PUEBLO, Colo.) — At least five people are dead following a pile-up crash involving dozens of vehicles in Colorado that occurred as high winds blew dirt, making for low to zero visibility, authorities said.
The incident occurred around 10 a.m. local time Tuesday on I-25 near Pueblo, which is about 40 miles south of Colorado Springs, authorities said.
Over 30 vehicles, including seven semis, were involved in the crash, according to Colorado State Patrol.Pickups pulling horse trailers, SUVs and passenger vehicles were also involved, according to Maj. Brian Lyons with Colorado State Patrol.
The pile-up occurred during “adverse weather conditions,” Lyons said, with heavy winds blowing dirt and causing “brownout” conditions.
“Visibility was next to nothing,” Lyons said during a press briefing Tuesday.
There were four fatalities in separate vehicles — two men from Walsenburg, Colorado, and two women, one from Rye and one from Pueblo — authorities said Tuesday.
A fifth person who had been transported to a hospital later succumbed to his injuries, Colorado State Patrol said Wednesday.
Another 28 people were transported to area hospitals, with moderate to serious injuries, Colorado State Patrol said.
Authorities were working to account for everyone in the vehicles involved in the crash, Lyons said.
One of the vehicles was a pickup hauling a gooseneck trailer containing 32 goats, Colorado State Patrol said. Four of the goats died, while the rest were safely removed, it said.
Northbound I-25 was closed for several hours as crews worked to clear vehicles, before reopening late Tuesday.
“Due to low visibility, drivers are urged to delay traveling until conditions improve,” Colorado State Patrol said. “If travel is necessary, avoid I-25 in this area, use caution, and reduce speed.”
High wind warnings were in effect for the region on Tuesday. The National Weather Service in Pueblo warned that “significant blowing dust” was possible on the plains, where gusts could be up to 65 mph. Gusts of at least 85 mph were also forecast for mountain areas, it said.
The entrance to a U.S. Immigration and Customs detention facility in Dallas, Texas (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
(DALLAS) — An Afghan immigrant who died after being in immigration custody for one day worked alongside U.S. forces during the war in Afghanistan, according to an immigrant advocacy group.
Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal, 41, died last week at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Dallas, Texas. He is the 43rd person to die in ICE custody during the second Trump administration, according to lawmakers.
According to ICE, 36 detainees have died in ICE custody since Jan. 23, 2025. By federal law, ICE makes public all reports regarding detainee deaths while in custody within 90 days, according to the agency.
“For many years, Nazeer worked alongside American forces during the war in Afghanistan,” the group AfghanEvac said in a statement on behalf of Paktyawal’s family. “It was dangerous work, but he believed in helping bring stability to his country and protecting the people around him. After Afghanistan fell, the United States helped evacuate our family in 2021, and we came here hoping for safety and a better life.”
An ICE statement Sunday said that Paktyawal died Saturday morning at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas, following his arrest the day before. It described Paktyawal as “a criminal illegal alien from Afghanistan” who had “a known criminal history,” including an arrest for alleged SNAP fraud and another for alleged theft, both last year.
The ICE statement did not address whether Paktyawal had assisted U.S. troops in Afghanistan, as AfghanEvac claimed.
AghanEvac said in their statement that Paktayawal had an open asylum application and did not have any criminal convictions. ABC News has so far been unable to independently confirm claims about Paktayawal’s alleged criminal record.
The Department of Homeland Security on Monday confirmed that Paktayawal entered the U.S. in 2021 but said that his parole expired in August 2025. The agency did not address questions about an active asylum application.
“In the late evening of March 13, ICE contacted Emergency Medical Services when Paktiawal [sic] began complaining of shortness of breath and chest pains while in an ICE Dallas Field Office processing hold room,” the ICE statement said. “He was immediately transported to Parkland Hospital and received breathing treatment. The ER doctor recommended that he remain in the hospital for observation.”
“Early March 14, Paktiawal was eating breakfast when medical staff noted that his tongue had become swollen, prompting a medical response. After multiple lifesaving efforts were attempted, he was declared deceased at 9:10 a.m.,” according to the ICE statement.
Paktyawal “did not report any prior medical history” at the time of his arrest, the ICE statement said.
In a statement to ABC News on Monday, DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said Paktyawal’s tongue was swollen and said that he “received an epinephrine drip.”
“Later that day, medical staff began cardiopulmonary resuscitation,” Bis further said. “At approximately 9:10 a.m. CDT, a physician at Parkland Hospital pronounced Paktyawal deceased after multiple resuscitative efforts, including mechanical device and medical professional interventions.”
“No one in ICE custody is denied access to proper medical care,” Bis added. “It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody.”
AfghanEvac stated that Paktyawal was preparing to drive his children to school when he was detained March 13.
“His children watched as he was surrounded and taken away,” the group said. “We still cannot understand how this happened. He was only 41 years old and was a strong and healthy man.”
Paktyawal served as an Afghan special forces soldier beginning in 2005 and worked alongside U.S. Army Special Forces for more than a decade, according to AfghanEvac, and was evacuated by the U.S. on Aug. 30, 2021, and resettled in Texas through Catholic Charities. Paktyawal had completed his asylum interview and held a work authorization and a valid Social Security number, AfghanEvac said.
The group said Paktyawal contacted his family members shortly after being detained on March 13 and said that he was not feeling well. He was admitted to a local hospital in Dallas that night and the family was informed on March 14 that Paktyawal had died.
“Mr. Paktyawal’s asylum case remained pending with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services at the time of his detention,” AghanEvac said in a statement.
“While ICE’s statement focuses on past allegations, the circumstances surrounding Mr. Paktyawal’s detention and death remain unclear,” the group added. “According to information currently available, those arrests did not result in criminal charges nor had Mr. Paktyawal been convicted of any crimes.”
Jeffrey Epstein is seen in this image released by the Department of Justice in Washington, December 19, 2025 (U.S. Justice Department)
(NEW YORK) — Even as investigators took Jeffrey Epstein into custody in July 2019, they were already turning their attention to others in the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender’s vast orbit who might also be involved in his crimes, according to a massive new trove of files released by the Justice Department early Tuesday morning.
The fresh batch of files also add new details to the Epstein saga not previously known, including operational details that went into planning for his 2019 arrest; how some federal officials reacted to his death by suicide in jail; and images of the fake Austrian passport Epstein held under a pseudonym.
And the files included a 2020 heads up from a federal prosecutor that Trump had traveled with Epstein more than was previously known at the time.
The latest DOJ disclosure under the Epstein Files Transparency Act includes more than 10,000 files totaling more than 10 gigabytes of material, ranging from internal government emails to investigative materials, to a blueprint of Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse used by officials executing their search.
The DOJ posted the new materials just after midnight ET on Tuesday morning, marking the latest cache of materials released under a congressional mandate. The law, which President Donald Trump signed in November, required the DOJ to release all the documents by Friday, Dec. 19, although the department has said the vetting process required to protect Epstein’s victims has slowed their delivery.
A statement from alleged victims said the DOJ “violated the law” by “failing to redact survivor identities.”
Epstein, the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender, died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019. A co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking of minors and other offenses.
Investigation into potential co-conspirators
Hours after Epstein had been arrested at Teterboro Airport and his Manhattan home had been raided, investigators also sought to ramp up their pursuit of others who might also potentially be involved in his alleged crimes.
Though it has previously been reported that investigations of possible Epstein co-conspirators were a focus after his death, the new disclosures indicate that those efforts had already begun by the time he was arrested — and were in fact well underway.
“When you get a chance can you give me an update on the status of the 10 co-conspirators?” someone from the FBI’s New York office wrote in an email at 12:24 p.m. July 7, 2019 — the day after Epstein’s arrest. The reply: That contact had been made with some of the alleged accomplices, and investigators were efforting others. Most of the names are redacted; however some are not.
The documents the DOJ chose to release Tuesday do not detail the information investigators sought from these individuals, nor the basis for characterizing them as potential co-conspirators.
“Attempts were made to [redacted] and Brunel,” the update said, referring to Jean-Luc Brunel, a now-disgraced modeling agent and Epstein associate, who would be arrested the following year in Paris and charged with rape of minors over the age of 15 and sexual harassment. It’s not clear if the charges related specifically to any Epstein victim. Brunel, who maintained his innocence, was found dead by suicide in his Paris prison cell in February 2022.
“Attempts to [Ghislaine] Maxwell are being made in Boston today,” the July 7 email said.
“I do not know about Ohio contacting Wexner,” the email added — referring to Leslie Wexner, the Ohio billionaire for whom Epstein served as a longtime personal financial adviser.
Wexner has previously denied any knowledge of Epstein’s behavior and said he had cut ties with him in 2007. “I condemn his abhorrent behavior in the strongest possible terms and am sickened by the revelations I have read over the past weeks,” he said in a written statement to his foundation after Epstein’s arrest, obtained by ABC News at the time. The founder and chairman of L Brands said after Epstein’s death that he was “embarrassed” to have ever been associated with the disgraced sex offender.
Wexner has never been charged and was not identified at Maxwell’s trial as a co-conspirator.
In another email exchange, dated July 9, 2019, a member of the FBI’s Crimes Against Children Human Trafficking Unit received an update on the 10 alleged co-conspirators.
“3 have been located in FL and served GJ subpoenas; 1 in Boston, 1 in NYC, and 1 in CT were located and served,” the email said. “4 of the 10 are outstanding with attempts having been made. 1 is a wealthy business man in Ohio, a lead is being sent to CV; the remaining 3 are currently out of pocket.”
The email added that teams of special agents and prosecutors were shortly flying out to “various locations” in Florida “to interview approximately 25 victims.”
About month later, Epstein would be found dead by suicide in his New York jail cell. But his death did not halt investigations into his associates, according to the files.
In September 2019, prosecutors exchanging updates noted the investigation into Epstein’s alleged co-conspirators was “ongoing,” and that they had had conversations with several people who would cooperate in the investigation. Prosecutors later detailed a seven-page “memo on co-conspirators we could potentially charge” as well as a 86-page “co-conspirator update memo,” according to the files.
In July 2020, Maxwell would be arrested by the FBI in New Hampshire. She was charged by the Southern District of New York with conspiring to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking of a minor and other offenses. She was convicted in 2021 on five of six counts and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
No alleged co-conspirator other than Maxwell has ever been charged, and the Department of Justice said in July that there were no credible allegations that would lead to charges against others.
A heads-up about Trump’s travel
Six months after Maxwell’s arrest, prosecutors receiving Epstein-related records discovered that the onetime friend and current sitting president had in the 1990s traveled with Epstein far more than they had previously known.
“For your situational awareness, wanted to let you know that the flight records we received yesterday reflect that Donald Trump traveled on Epstein’s private jet many more times than previously has been reported (or that we were aware), including during the period we would expect to charge in a Maxwell case,” according to the Jan. 7, 2020, email to recipients whose names and email addresses are redacted.
“In particular, he is listed as a passenger on at least eight flights between 1993 and 1996, including at least four flights on which Maxwell was also present,” the email said. “He is listed as having traveled with, among others and at various times, Marla Maples, his daughter Tiffany, and his son Eric. On one flight in 1993, he and Epstein are the only two listed passengers; on another, the only three passengers are Epstein, Trump, and then-20-year-old [redacted]. On two other flights, two of the passengers, respectively, were women who would be possible witnesses in a Maxwell case. We’ve just finished reviewing the full records (more than 100 pages of very small script) and didn’t want any of this to be a surprise down the road.” It’s not clear if there was any response to the message.
The flight records of Epstein’s private aircraft documents referenced in that email would later become public exhibits during Maxwell’s 2021 trial. There was no allegation raised during those proceedings that Trump’s travels on Epstein’s plane were in any way connected to the charges against Maxwell.
Prosecutors press for interview with Prince Andrew
One of the documents included is an extensive email exchange in September and October 2020 between an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York and a lawyer representing then-Prince Andrew of Britain.
In the email exchange — which took place a few months after Maxwell’s arrest — Andrew’s lawyer lays out restrictions on the manner of the interview, including Andrew only providing a signed witness statement, and the topics he would agree to discuss.
Prosecutors pushed for a live in-person or virtual interview, according to the files. Andrew’s lawyer appeared to refuse, agreeing only to written answers. In the last email of the exchange, the assistant U.S. attorney writes, “[B]ecause the written statement you propose to provide will not assist our investigation, we intend to move forward with our MLA request seeking a compelled interview of your client.” An MLA request, or Mutual Legal Assistance, is a request from one country to another for assistance in a legal matter. It’s not clear from the newly-disclosed files if prosecutors followed through on the MLA request.
The fact that Andrew, who has been stripped of his title as prince, had offered a written statement, and that the SNDY had declined that format and intended to pursue an MLA request were reported at the time — but these communications reveal an extensive inside look at the process of those negotiations.
Details of Epstein’s arrest
Meticulous planning went into the undercover operation that would ultimately take Epstein into custody, according to the newly released DOJ files.
Among the documents is an “Operations Order Form,” dated July 2, 2019 — four days before he would be arrested — that strategizes how it might all go down upon his return from overseas.
“Epstein is presently out of the country. A silent hit notification with [Customs and Border Protection] has been put into effect for his return to the US. Upon Epstein’s return to the US, CBP will detain him at an airport. Agents and NYPD detectives will coordinate with FBI Newark and CBP, then respond to effect the arrest of Epstein,” the document said.
“Once Epstein is in custody, a search warrant for his premises in New York will be sworn out,” the document said. “Agents and NYPD detectives will knock and announce their presence at the subject premises. Upon entry, the subject premises will be secured and the search warrant will be executed. Teams will then break off to conduct interviews.”
The order mentions a “tactical brief” scheduled for July 8. But agents got word Epstein’s return home was imminent, according to the files.
“We received a hit notification that our sub will be landing at Teterboro at 1720 tomorrow, 7/6/2019,” according to a July 5, 2019, email from an FBI special agent. The agent then goes on to suggest that they should plan to meet at the airport at 3:30 p.m. “in case of an early landing.”
The exchange noted Epstein used a private plane and was a “frequent flier out of Teterboro. Ideally we would like to pick him up when he arrives.” Because Epstein would be arriving on an international flight, CBP would need to initiate the arrest, the agents noted.
Also included in the documents is the arrest warrant for Epstein dated July 2, 2019, and issued by SDNY. Epstein was arrested July 6, 2019, when he landed at Teterboro.
Epstein’s alter ego, ‘Marius Fortelni’’
The new disclosure also includes several photographs of a fake Austrian passport bearing a photograph of Epstein — but in the name of Marius Robert Fortelni — who listed his occupation as “Manager” and his residence as Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
The passport was issued in 1982 and was valid until 1987. On the inside pages are stamps from airport arrivals in Paris and Nice, France, in the early 1980s as well as entry stamps for England and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
After Epstein’s arrest in 2019, prosecutors said they had discovered that passport in a safe in Epstein’s New York mansion, along with three U.S. passports, 48 loose diamonds and $70,000 in cash.
Epstein’s defense attorneys, seeking to secure bail for their client, said that two of the US passports were expired. The foreign passport, they claimed, was given to Epstein “by a friend,” and he had never used it to travel. They argued he received it in the 1980s for personal protection when traveling in the Middle East.
Internal government reaction immediately after Epstein’s death
Internal communications sent in the hours after Epstein was found unresponsive at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan in August 2019 show how some people with federal email addresses reacted to the news, with one stating that they could not understand how it happened.
“His victims deserve some sort of modicum of justice and this is not how it should have gone down,” one unidentified individual wrote.
The names and email addresses of the people who sent the messages were redacted.
“In separate news and not to be crass but Epstein! Wow. Can we still pursue forfeiture against the estate?” one of the emails said.
“We can bring a civil forfeiture against the properties IF we’re within statute, which we may not be. We’ll have to look at it, but we’ve got some time, since I’m pretty sure no one’s going to want to have that be was our immediate reaction to his suicide,” another person responded. “We can’t pursue any kind of general money judgment against the estate – there we’re out of luck.”
One person wrote in an email that it had not been a “great year” for the Bureau of Prisons in the New York area.
“It’s just slightly more awkward where he was somehow allowed to commit suicide on a second try in two weeks by a branch of our government,” the email noted.
