Armed man arrested at Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles County: Authorities
A sign is posted in front of the Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles on June 16, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) – A man allegedly armed with a pistol was arrested after he was seen taking photos and videos of the Trump National Golf Club grounds in Los Angeles County over the weekend, authorities announced on Tuesday.
Following his arrest, detectives found more firearms and “multiple notebooks containing concerning statements” at the suspect’s residence, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The suspect was identified as 38-year-old Jeanine John Taele of Downey, California. Taele is being held on $250,000 bond and is expected to appear in court on Aug. 26.
Taele is charged in a federal criminal complaint with possession of an unregistered short-barreled rifle, a felony carrying a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
“While we are still investigating the motives of this individual, we are thankful he was apprehended before the President’s visit,” Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. attorney, said in a statement. “Federal and local law enforcement stepped in early and prevented what could have been a dangerous situation from occurring. This investigation remains ongoing.”
The golf club incident occurred on Sunday, the sheriff’s department said, a day before it was announced that President Donald Trump is set to visit the Rancho Palos Verdes property this week for a Republican National Committee dinner.
Deputies responded to the golf course Sunday afternoon after plainclothes federal agents reported a “suspicious individual” who was seen walking on the grounds, taking photos and videos and “appearing to monitor security-planning activities,” the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a release on Tuesday.
Deputies detained the suspect, later identified as Taele, and located his vehicle in the golf club’s parking lot, the sheriff’s department said.
Deputies recovered a 16-round magazine containing hollow-point ammunition from his pants pocket, as well as a loaded pistol with a round chambered and an additional loaded magazine containing hollow-point ammunition from his vehicle, authorities said.
Taele was arrested for carrying a concealed firearm and possession of armor-piercing/prohibited ammunition, the sheriff’s department said.
Detectives executed a search warrant at Taele’s residence Monday afternoon due to the “potential security implications surrounding the incident” and recovered more firearms and ammunition, as well as “multiple notebooks containing concerning statements,” body armor and two radio signal devices, the sheriff’s department said. It did not elaborate on what was allegedly found in the notebooks.
Taele remains in custody, authorities said. Investigators presented the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office earlier Tuesday for filing consideration.
The incident remains under investigation in coordination with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and the United States Secret Service, the sheriff’s department said. Authorities have “identified no credible threat to our communities,” it said.
Trump is planning to attend an RNC dinner at his Rancho Palos Verdes golf club Tuesday evening, where he is set to deliver an economics-focused speech, according to the White House.
Last year, a jury found a man guilty of trying to assassinate Trump at his Florida golf course. Prosecutors said Ryan Routh hid in the bushes of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach and pointed a military-grade SKS rifle towards Trump and a Secret Service agent. Routh was sentenced earlier this year to life in prison.
Jeffrey Epstein is seen in a photo released by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice. (New York State Sex Offender Registry)
(NEW YORK) — Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime executive secretary Lesley Groff told the House Oversight Committee Tuesday that the convicted sex offender was a “master manipulator” and that she was unaware of his crimes, according to multiple sources familiar with her closed-door testimony.
Groff is appearing as part of the committee’s ongoing inquiry into the federal government’s handling of investigations into Epstein and his alleged co-conspirators, which to date has included interviews with former Attorney General Pam Bondi, Epstein’s longtime personal assistant Sarah Kellen, and a prison guard who was on duty the night Epstein died in his jail cell.
Groff, who worked for Epstein in New York for more than 18 years, was once described by her boss as an “extension of my brain.”
Among her job requirements were scheduling Epstein’s frequent meetings with celebrities, scientists and politicians, booking Epstein’s daily massage appointments when he was in New York, and arranging travel for women linked to Epstein. She was one of four women listed as potential co-conspirators in Epstein’s controversial non-prosecution agreement in 2007.
According to federal prosecutors, “numerous victims [of Epstein] had indicated that she was responsible for scheduling massages during which they were sexually abused.”
Groff told lawmakers Tuesday that she never had a romantic or sexual relationship with Epstein and said the message appointments she scheduled for Epstein with young women and girls were with massage therapists, source said. Groff could not recall scheduling massages for anyone other than Epstein and former Goldman Sachs chief counsel Kathy Ruemmler at a spa, and said the masseuses were both male and female, sources said. She testified that she would receive the names of the massage therapists from Epstein, and that he instructed her to schedule the massages.
Sources said Groff told lawmakers that she scheduled most of the massages for Epstein’s New York residence. Groff testified that she never witnessed or knew of any sexual abuse.
Groff testified that she never met a single massage therapist in person and believes that Epstein — or Bella Klein, a one-time Epstein associate — would pay them with “petty cash,” sources said. Groff told lawmakers that she would occasionally send cash via couriers, said sources.
Groff testified that when Epstein was arrested in 2006, he told Groff that he was blackmailed, sources said. She told lawmakers that she did not know she was tied to the 2008 non-prosecution agreement as a listed co-conspirator, which she described that as a “scarlet letter” she wears to this day, according to sources.
Groff said Epstein told her again after the 2008 plea deal that he was blackmailed. Groff said she resigned in 2019 when Epstein was arrested again, sources said.
She described to lawmakers that her relationship with Epstein was strictly business, sources said. Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell told Groff that she should not associate with their friends or colleagues, and insisted their business was none of her business, sources added.
She told lawmakers that Epstein had a lot of people in his circle, and she did not find it odd that he had a “large” massage list for individuals across the world, sources said.
House Oversight Chairman James Comer said on his way in Tuesday morning that he believed Groff has “information that is very valuable to our investigation.”
“Hopefully, we’ll learn more today,” Comer said.
The chairman reiterated that the committee is conducting “the most thorough investigation ever of Epstein.”
“We’re bringing in the most important people in the whole Epstein criminal enterprise that are still alive, and hopefully we’ll get the truth to the American people. If there’s an opportunity for accountability, we sure want to see that happen,” he said.
Groff did not speak to reporters upon her arrival.
Last September at a press conference in front of the U.S. Capitol, Epstein survivor Marina Lacerda specifically called out Groff, alleging that Groff had called her so many times to go to Epstein’s place for a massage that she dropped out of high school before the ninth grade.
Lacerda — who was one of the key witnesses that led to Epstein’s 2019 indictment for child sex trafficking — told ABC News in an interview this week that Groff was the conduit to Epstein.
“Anything that had to do with Jeffrey Epstein,” Lacerda told ABC News in an interview, “had to go through Lesley Groff.”
Michael Bachner, a lawyer for Groff, declined comment in advance of her appearance on Capitol Hill. He previously told ABC News that Groff “never knowingly booked travel for anyone under the age of 18, and had no knowledge of the alleged illegal activity whatsoever.”
“Ms. Groff, a parent herself, is incredibly shocked and deeply upset about the alleged wrongdoings of Mr. Epstein,” Bachner said.
After Epstein’s arrest in July 2019, federal prosecutors included Groff in a list of potential co-conspirators and sent her a subpoena. Bachner informed the government, just four days after Epstein’s arrest, that his client “would invoke her Fifth Amendment privilege against compelled self-incrimination” if called to appear before a grand jury.
Groff, now 59, eventually interviewed with the investigators two years later, telling prosecutors that “making massage appointments was just another appointment she had to make” for Epstein, and said that scheduling massages was “around 1%” of her job.
Groff, who was hired by Epstein in 2001, told the FBI she was immediately struck by Epstein’s lifestyle and the company he kept, describing it as “pretty incredible to see all the people Epstein dealt with in politics, television, et cetera.”
“Groff felt, ‘Wow,'” according to an FBI account of her interview.
Groff was initially paid a salary of $60,000 a year, but saw it doubled to $120,000 by Epstein four years later, DOJ records show.
The New York Times reported in 2005 that Epstein bought Groff a new Mercedes and paid for a nanny to ensure she would keep working for him.
“There is no way that I could lose Lesley to motherhood,” Epstein said of Groff, according to the newspaper’s account.
Banking records included in the DOJ’s Epstein files indicate that Groff also received three payments of $100,000 and one for $110,000 from Epstein companies between 2016 and 2018, though the records do not indicate the reasons for the payments.
Bachner told the government that Groff stayed with Epstein after his first arrest in Florida in 2006 because she believed him when he said that “someone was trying to blackmail him.”
When he was again arrested in 2019, she resigned, her lawyer told prosecutors.
“She felt betrayed and disgusted once the indictment came out,” Bachner wrote.
According to documents released by the Justice Department in response to the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, one victim — who was a minor at the time of her alleged abuse — told the FBI that she felt Groff “knew that the massage appointments were sexual” and “felt it was pretty obvious Lesley knew what was going on,” according to the DOJ records.
Banking records included in the DOJ’s Epstein files indicate that Groff also received three payments of $100,000 and one for $110,000 from Epstein companies between 2016 and 2018, though the records do not indicate the reasons for the payments.
Bachner told the government that Groff stayed with Epstein after his first arrest in Florida in 2006 because she believed him when he said that “someone was trying to blackmail him.”
When he was again arrested in 2019, she resigned, her lawyer told prosecutors.
“She felt betrayed and disgusted once the indictment came out,” Bachner wrote.
According to documents released by the Justice Department in response to the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, one victim — who was a minor at the time of her alleged abuse — told the FBI that she felt Groff “knew that the massage appointments were sexual” and “felt it was pretty obvious Lesley knew what was going on,” according to the DOJ records.
Federal prosecutors in 2021 informed Groff that she would not be charged, according to a statement from her attorneys.
“After a more than two-year investigation by the Department of Justice into Jeffrey Epstein’s conduct, which included lengthy interviews of witnesses and a thorough review of relevant communications, we have been informed that no criminal charges will be brought against Lesley Groff,” the statement said.
Lacerda said she hopes the congressional investigators press Groff for answers.
“I just think that she should be honest about it so that we can have some accountability here,” she said.
A Frontier Airlines Airbus taxis to a gate at Denver International Airport (DEN) it times in history” due to the ongoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown. (Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images)
(DENVER) — The fatal collision in which a Frontier Airlines jet struck a person on the runway at Denver International Airport was a suicide, according to the medical examiner.
The man, who died of multiple blunt and sharp force injuries, has been identified as 41-year-old Michael Mott.
Mott was scientifically identified and police said they are talking to friends and family to better understand what had been going on in his life, the medical examiner said at a press conference Tuesday.
Mott was not an airport employee and no vehicle or bicycle was found nearby. Investigators are still trying to understand what he was doing in the area, according to the medical examiner.
The runway where the incident occurred is about 2 miles away from the terminal and is very remote. Police have searched nearby farmland for any notes or items from him, but have not found anything, according to the medical examiner.
Denver International Airport officials said they have had fence jumpers before, but they are typically caught rather quickly. The airport got an intrusion alarm alert on Friday, but when they looked, they saw a pack of deer, which is common in the area. They could not see Mott, officials said.
It took 15 seconds for Mott to jump over the 8-foot fence with barbed wire. It took two minutes from that first moment for him to reach the runway and be hit, according to officials.
If you or someone you care about needs to talk, contact the free National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at 1-800-273-8255.
William “Billy” Schmidt, 22, was shot in the chest at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday, according to Philadelphia police.
Authorities have not announced any arrests or any motive.
Billy Schmidt had been watching the NBA Finals game with his friends at a bar and was walking home when he was shot, his father, Bill Schmidt, told Philadelphia ABC station WPVI.
“He was a really good person who cared about everybody,” Bill Schmidt said. “… For him to get shot like that is a travesty.”
The vigil and protest, called “Justice for Billy,” will be held Thursday evening in Philadelphia.
“We are taking our streets back. … we won’t stop until our community is safe,” the flyer said.
The 22-year-old was studying digital journalism and media at Penn State World Campus, according to the university.
“We are heartbroken over the tragic death of William Schmidt, and we share our deepest condolences with his family and friends,” a Penn State spokesperson said in a statement.
ABC News’ Jessica Gorman contributed to this report.
