At Boston Marathon, authorities will be watching ‘broad set’ of potential targets
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(BOSTON) — At this year’s Boston Marathon, 12 years after the deadly marathon bombing, law enforcement will be watching “a broad set of potential soft targets for an attack,” according to a bulletin obtained by ABC News.
About 30,000 runners are participating in the April 21 race and another half-million spectators are expected along the route.
According to the bulletin, congested areas where the largest amount of people gather — particularly designated viewing areas — are likely the most vulnerable spots for a mass casualty attack, along with nearby publicly accessible areas, tunnels, pre-event gatherings and post-event celebrations.
A policy change may provide a motivation for an attack, the bulletin said, pointing to marathon organizers allowing runners to select “non-binary” regarding gender.
“Following this announcement, individuals posting content consistent with racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism posted online calling for an attack on the 2023 Boston Marathon, according to an organization that tracks violent extremist activity online,” the bulletin said. “Some of these individuals called for an attack similar to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings.”
Three people were killed and hundreds were injured by the powerful explosives detonated near the finish line during the 2013 marathon.
There are also symbolic anniversaries that coincide with the timing of the Boston Marathon, including the holidays of Easter, Ramadan and Passover, as well as anniversaries of prior attacks that occurred in the third week of April: the Columbine High School shooting massacre on April 20, 1999; the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995; the Branch Davidians’ compound fire in Waco, Texas, on April 19, 1993; and Adolf Hitler’s birthday on April 20.
“The significance of these holidays and key dates may be viewed as an opportune time for acts of violence for many threat actors,” the bulletin said, “and it may serve as motivation to disrupt or attack the Boston Marathon or the surrounding areas along the route.”
The bulletin said law enforcement officials are unaware of any specific or credible threats to high-profile attendees of the Boston Marathon but are highlighting the threat environment for these officials’ awareness.
“Absent a specific, actionable threat to the 129th Boston Marathon, the FBI and [the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis] are providing indicators to aid law enforcement and first responders in identifying and mitigating threats,” the bulletin said.
(NEW YORK) — A hotel security guard on Tuesday told the jury in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex-trafficking and racketeering trial that the rap mogul paid him $100,000 in an attempt to secure his silence and bury a video that is now the central piece of evidence in the criminal case that threatens to send him to prison for life.
In the video captured in 2016 by security cameras at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles — and shown to the jury during the testimony of three different witnesses — Combs is seen kicking and dragging his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura. Ventura, a musician who testified as the government’s star witness, said she was trying to escape Combs and one of his drug-fueled orgies, called “freak-offs.”
“When I chose to leave, I grabbed what I could and I got out,” Ventura testified during the second week of the trial. “Sean followed me into the hallway before the elevators and grabbed me up, threw me on the ground, kicked me, [and] tried to drag me back to the room.”
Combs has pleaded not guilty to the charges in the case. His lawyers have said that Combs takes “full responsibility” for the domestic violence captured in the video but argue that the rap mogul has not committed the sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and prostitution alleged by federal prosecutors.
Hotel security guard Eddy Garcia testified Tuesday that Combs frantically worked to make sure the CCTV video never saw the light of day, paying $100,000 to obtain what Combs thought was the only copy of the recording.
“He was concerned this video would get out and it would ruin his career,” Garcia testified. According to Garcia, Combs promised “he would take care of me” and ended up paying $100,000 in cash to the man he later referred to as “Eddy my angel.”
When the video was obtained by CNN last year, the condemnation was swift and led to Combs offering a public apology, saying he was “truly sorry” for his conduct and that he “sought professional help” after the incident.
Prosecutors have argued that Combs’ $100,000 payment to Garcia was a bribe and one of the underlying crimes at the heart of their allegation that the hip-hop superstar is guilty of racketeering conspiracy. They allege that Combs realized the episode could reveal years of criminal conduct and might pull back the curtain on how the mogul used his business empire to coerce women into sex, threaten them into silence, and protect his public reputation.
The trial is set to resume Wednesday when three more witnesses are expected to take the stand.
Frank Piazza, a video expert, is expected to be the first witness followed by Bryana Bongolan, who has alleged Combs threatened to kill her by dangling her over a balcony in the presence of Ventura. Bongolan made similar allegations in a civil case, which Combs has denied.
A woman being called “Jane” is expected to take the stand on Wednesday afternoon and to testify for as long as five days, according to prosecutors. Jane is expected to be the third and final alleged victim to testify against Combs.
Security guard testifies about Combs’ alleged effort to bury assault video
Garcia testified Tuesday that he heard about the assault shortly after he clocked in for his shift at the InterContinental Hotel on March 5, 2016. Garcia told the jury he understood law enforcement was not contacted at the time because Ventura did not request medical or police attention.
About an hour into his shift, Garcia explained to jurors that he got an unexpected call on his work phone from Combs’ assistant Kristina Khorram, who requested a copy of the security video. Despite telling her she would need to contact hotel management or get a subpoena to view the footage, Garcia testified Khorram arrived in the hotel lobby an hour later to watch the recording.
“She was asking about the video and if there was any way she could see it,” he said. “She wanted to know what they were dealing with.”
Garcia said he apologized and said he could not show it to her, though he testified he warned her, “Off the record: it’s bad.”
That evening, Garcia testified he once again received a call on his personal cell from Khorram. He told the jury within seconds, a noticeably “nervous” Combs came on the other end of the line, trying to explain his actions.
“He asked me if I knew who he was. I said yes,” Garcia said. “Mr. Combs sounded very nervous. Just was talking really fast. Was just saying that he had a little too much to drink and that I knew how things was with women when one thing led to another.”
Garcia testified, “He stated that I sounded like a good guy, that I sounded like I wanted to help, that something like this could ruin him. He was concerned this video would get out and it would ruin his career.”
He said he also remembered Combs telling him, “he would take care of me.” After Garcia informed Combs that he would accept $100,000 in exchange for the video, Garcia testified that Combs “sounded excited” and “referred to me as ‘Eddy my angel.'”
“He wanted the video as soon as possible,” Garcia told the court. He explained he was then given an address about a 20-minute drive from the InterContinental Hotel, where he was to make the trade.
Security guard recounts getting $100,000 in cash from Combs
Once he got to the designated location with a thumb drive containing what he said was the only copy of the video, Garcia told the court that someone who introduced himself as Combs’ bodyguard brought him up to an apartment. He testified he recalled seeing Combs “smiling, excited” and looking happy.
“Eddy my angel, he was smiling. He said ‘come in,’ making me feel comfortable,” Garcia testified Combs told him, adding that Combs instructed Khorram to make him a cup of tea.
After Garcia assured Combs the drive had the only copy of the video, the rap mogul allegedly contacted Ventura on FaceTime so she could communicate that she, too, wanted the video to go away.
She was wearing a hoodie, and the lighting wasn’t that great,” Garcia said of Ventura. “Before he passed the phone over to me he said, ‘Let him know that you want this to go away too.'”
“And how did Cassie respond?” prosecutor Mitzi Steiner asked.
“When I got passed the phone, I said, ‘Hi’, she said ‘Hi’ and she said she had a movie coming out and it wasn’t a good time for this to come out and she wanted it to go away,” Garcia responded.
Garcia told jurors that Combs demanded he sign a nondisclosure agreement, agree to a certification that there was only one copy of the video, and hand over his ID as well as the identifications of his supervisor and coworker. Garcia then testified Combs left the room and returned with a brown bag and a money counter, which Combs fed “stacks of $10,000 at a time.”
“In total, at the end it was $100,000,” he testified.
Garcia testified Combs and a bodyguard then accompanied him out of the suite and walked him to the valet where his car was parked.
“He asked me how I would spend the money, and I said I didn’t know,” Garcia testified. “He said not to make any big purchases.”
A few weeks later, Garcia testified he received a message from Combs. “Happy Easter, Eddy my angel. God is good,” Garcia remembered the message, saying Combs “proceeded to ask if anyone had asked about the video.” He said he had heard nothing.
Jury sees alleged paper trail of 2011 extortion payment
Following Garcia’s testimony about accepting a $100,000 payment from Combs, prosecutors called Combs’ longtime employee Derek Ferguson to drill down into the financial structure of Combs’ business empire. Prosecutors have argued that Combs’ companies doubled as a criminal enterprise that allowed the rap mogul to commit crimes for years with few repercussions.
Ferguson, who worked as the chief financial officer for Bad Boy Entertainment for 12 years, walked the jury through Combs’ bank accounts, financial arrangements, how the businesses managed cash and how employees were reimbursed for expenses charged to their corporate cards. Several of Combs’ personal assistants testified about being tasked with purchasing supplies for freak-offs, including gallons of baby oil, sexual lubricant, drugs and alcohol.
Jurors also saw documents showing a series of wire transfers in 2011 to and from Cassie Ventura’s mother. While Ferguson said he did not know the reason for the $20,000 payment, jurors last month heard directly from Regina Ventura, who testified that she and her husband took out a home equity loan to fund the payment. She testified Combs demanded to “recoup” money he had spent on Cassie Ventura “because he was angry that she had a relationship with Scott Mescudi.” Mescudi is also a well-known rapper, performing under the name Kid Cudi.
The jury saw a Dec. 14 transfer from an account set up to manage Combs’ home in Alpine, New Jersey, to Cassie Ventura for $20,000. On Dec. 23, the same account took in $20,000 from Ventura’s father. Four days later, on Dec. 27, the account transferred $20,000 for “return of funds.”
Regina Ventura testified that she decided to send the money because she feared for her daughter’s safety after Combs threatened to release explicit videos of her. Combs ultimately returned the money, she said.
During his cross examination, Combs’ attorney Marc Agnifilo tried to use Ferguson’s 19 years of experience working with Combs to cast doubt on the way the prosecutors have described Combs’ business empire. .
“Did you see anyone help Sean Combs commit crimes?” Agnifilo asked.
“No,” Ferguson answered.
“Did you see anyone help Sean Combs commit acts of violence?” Agnifilo asked.
“No,” Ferguson replied
“Did you see anyone make the company stronger through threats of violence?”
(WASHINGTON) — After generations of stigma and secrecy around sightings of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), or what the public calls UFOs, investigators probing hundreds of unsolved cases say the second Trump administration could be a turning point for transparency.
“We’re trying to get as much of the raw evidence out as we can without putting our partners’ equities at risk,” said Jon Kosloski, director of the Pentagon’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, the government-wide task force leading research into mysterious sightings.
“The office has hired additional personnel and we’re investing in automated security review software that can redact the sensitive information from videos,” he said of an effort to release more currently classified material related to the probes.
Congress established the Resolution Office in 2022 to “detect, identify and attribute” mysterious objects of interest in the air, outer space, and underwater, with special focus on mitigating potential threats to military operations and national security.
More than 1800 cases have been reviewed by the Pentagon so far, with the vast majority ultimately resolved as likely balloons, drones, debris or animals based on a comprehensive review of available data.
Kosloski says “several dozen” cases remain anomalous even after rigorous analysis of evidence. They continue to receive new reports of anomalies by military service members and the general public every month.
“It’s a potential problem, a national security problem, safety of flight issue,” Kosloski told ABC News. “We seem to have the full support of the administration” in pursuing answers.
Trump vows greater transparency
President Donald Trump has famously been a UFO skeptic. “It’s never been my thing. I have to be honest,” he told podcaster Joe Rogan in an October 2024 interview. “I have never been a believer.”
But the president, who has full access to all government secrets as commander in chief, has also hinted on several occasions that there may be more information than has previously been revealed about alleged extraterrestrial life and unusual technological capabilities.
“I won’t talk to you about what I know about it but it’s very interesting,” Trump told his son, Donald Trump Jr., in an online video during the 2020 campaign. “But Roswell’s a very interesting place with a lot of people that would like to know what’s going on.”
Since taking office a second time, Trump has vowed “radical transparency” across government. Last month, he ordered the release of all remaining classified files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy Jr.
Some UFO enthusiasts across the political spectrum are pushing for a similar release of government files related to extraterrestrial mysteries.
“When you have only certain information that’s shared with the American people, that’s when conspiracy theories happen. And it’s, in my opinion, that conspiracy theories can be detrimental,” said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., in April as she opened the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets.
Lawmakers from both parties have proposed legislation to force government agencies to disclose more information on UAPs, but Congress has yet to pass it.
“The issue is when we mix secrecy with a stigma, and that we create such a stigma around a phenomenon that it becomes difficult, if not impossible, for agencies, for people to look at the issue seriously,” said former Associate NASA Administrator Mike Gold, who served on the agency’s UAP Independent Study Team.
Gold, who is now part of the UAP Disclosure Fund, an independent group of scientific and national security experts, says Congress must fund more aggressive analysis of troves of existing government data.
“If we study UAP, not only can we help with national security,” Gold said, “but even if we don’t discover something exotic, what’s the worst case scenario? We discover an incredible new physical phenomenon?”
Whistleblowers, advocates allege secret evidence long denied
Critics of the Pentagon effort led by Kosloski say it has been hobbled by “staffing shortfalls,” bogged down by “bureaucratic confusion,” and mired in “excessive secrecy.”
In recent testimony before Congress, whistleblowers insist the government is still hiding evidence of non-human intelligence, which top officials have long denied.
Kosloski has accelerated the release of intensive investigations, publishing unclassified resolution reports for some of the most high-profile cases, detailing the technical and intelligence analysis behind the conclusion.
“Our hope is to be able to triage them, identify those that have the best scientific data, the nexus with national security interests and the true anomalies behind them, and focus our attention on those really anomalous cases,” Kosloski said.
Last year, the Pentagon completed a historic review of 80 years of records related to unidentified anomalous phenomena, concluding there is “no evidence that any U.S. government investigation, academic-sponsored research, or official review panel has confirmed that any sighting of a UAP represented extraterrestrial technology.”
“That stands true,” said Kosloski.
Government and private UAP investigators say it will take substantially more data to resolve the most persistent mysteries on file.
As for whether he can categorically rule out the existence of an intact spacecraft or part of a spacecraft in government possession, Kosloski said he has not been able to corroborate any claims but promised to push for public release of any likely findings of non-human intelligence.
“There’s no precedent for that, obviously, but I think that we would take that up through the Secretary of Defense and allow him to make that decision.”
Maddy Marr/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Sean “Diddy” Combs was the Michael Jordan of drug-fueled sex parties — at least, according to himself.
That revelation was included in another day of testimony from Combs’ ex-girlfriend, who alleges she was forced to participate in degrading sex with male prostitutes for Combs’ voyeuristic gratification.
Testifying under the pseudonym “Jane,” the ex-girlfriend has spent four days walking a federal jury in Manhattan through a life that was funded by Combs and centered on his sexual appetites. She said she spent so much time participating in sexual encounters that Combs compared her, himself and a male escort to well-known sports stars.
A male escort they frequently hired was, to Combs, “Shaquille O’Neal.” Jane was compared and labeled “Kobe Bryant.” Combs considered himself to be “Jordan,” Jane testified.
The athletic comparisons capped off the 24th day of the rap mogul’s sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial, as defense attorneys tried to cast doubt on Jane’s claims that she was coerced to participate in the sex parties. Jane is a critical part of the authorities’ case against the onetime cultural icon, who has been locked up since his arrest last September.
Prosecutors have argued that Combs used his wealth and influence to pressure women like Jane into sex, then used his money and violence to keep them quiet to protect his reputation. Combs has pleaded not guilty and claims he has never coerced anyone into sex.
After three days of testimony about the trauma she said she endured during her relationship with Combs, Jane was challenged during a full court session Tuesday by Combs’ defense team. They repeatedly tried to highlight Jane’s apparently loving messages sent to Combs and her apparent willingness to engage in his sexual fantasies.
“I wish you were here. We can play our videos on tv and lock each other in the room all day,” Jane texted Combs. “I never c— so hard like that in my life.”
The cross examination took on a sharper tone as defense attorney Teny Geragos argued the lavish gifts undercut Jane’s allegations of trauma, coercion and force.
“No, I only got trauma,” Jane fired at Geragos when asked about Combs’ giving another girlfriend a Chanel handbag.
When Geragos asked about another luxury handbag Bottega Veneta, Jane fired at the attorney, “I’m sure you have one,”
“How much do Bottega bags run?” Geragos asked Jane.
Jane snapped: “How much does my body cost?”
The testimony is set to resume on Wednesday afternoon with additional questioning by Combs’ lawyers. Defense attorneys told the judge overseeing the case that they would likely conclude their questions for Jane on Thursday.
Jane said she believed Combs was a ‘cuckold’
Jane told jurors that she was regularly jealous of Combs for spending more quality time with other women. She said she believes Combs was “polyamorous.”
“What was hard for me was the imbalance in treatment,” Jane said. “I didn’t sign up to date a man who was in a public relationship.”
Though she said she was frustrated that the majority of her time with Combs was dominated by prolonged sexual encounters with other men that Combs observed, Jane told jurors that she sought to understand why Combs enjoyed watching her have sex with other men.
Jane explained to the jury, “I was trying to deep-dive on all the reasons why they drew such pleasure watching their woman with other men.”
She told the jury she came upon the word “cuck,” which she described as a “man who is in a relationship and is turned on by watching a woman have sex with another man.”
Geragos asked, “What did that word mean to you?”
Jane answered, “I was just like this is spot on.”
The testimony about Combs’ sexual desires comes as defense attorneys seek to highlight what they argue is Jane’s willingness to participate in sex acts with Combs by learning what he liked sexually, potentially undercutting the prosecution’s claim that she was coerced into the drug-fueled encounters she called “hotel nights.”
Jane also testified that there were parts of the orgies she enjoyed and that the evenings satisfied Combs’ sexual desires.
“I loved when we would make love and said he wanted me,” Jane said. “He would say things like he never wanted me to leave and so many nice, loving things.”
Jane distances Combs’ employees from alleged sex trafficking
Defense attorney Geragos peppered her cross examination with questions about the role of Combs’ employees during their three-year relationship, seemingly trying to distance the rap mogul’s assistants and security from the alleged illegal acts at the center of the prosecution’s case.
“It was important that none of his employees knew about the entertainers from these nights?” Geragos asked about the male escorts Combs hired for “hotel nights.”
“Right,” Jane said, emphasizing how Combs began hosting the sex parties in private residences insead of hotel rooms to ensure the events would be secretive.
Despite testifying that Combs’ chief of staff Kristina Khorram functioned as Combs’ “right brain” and was generally apprised of his activities, Jane told the jury that Combs tried to keep her out of the process for booking and paying escorts for the sexual romps.
“Did [Khorram] have any knowledge that escorts were joining the hotels?” Geragos asked.
“I don’t think so,” Jane answered.
By distancing Combs’ employees from the rap mogul’s alleged crimes, the testimony could help defense attorneys as they try to cast doubt on the prosecutors’ allegation that Combs used his business empire to carry out his crimes. To convict Combs on racketeering conspiracy, jurors would need to find that Combs relied on others, like his security guards or assistants, to commit at least two related crimes.
