Attempted rapist told victim he was an ICE agent: Police sources
The NYPD is searching for a man who allegedly tried to rape a woman in Brooklyn on Feb. 11, 2025. NYPD
(NEW YORK) — Authorities in New York City are searching for a man who allegedly impersonated a federal immigration enforcement agent before trying to rape a 51-year-old woman in broad daylight, according to police sources.
The victim was waiting for a cab outside a Brooklyn CityMD just before 11 a.m. Tuesday when the suspect approached and said he was an ICE agent and needed to talk to her, according to police sources.
The man allegedly forced her into a basement stairwell, punched her and tried to rape her, the NYPD said.
He took her phone, her purse and a chain before fleeing the scene, police said.
The woman suffered lacerations to her face, bruising and scratches, and was hospitalized in stable condition, police sad.
The suspect never showed any identification, according to police sources.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge sentenced a tearful former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez to 11 years in prison Wednesday on corruption charges after being convicted of abusing the power of his office in exchange for bribes in the form of gold bars, a luxury car and other items.
“You stood at the apex of our political system,” Judge Sidney Stein said in issuing the sentence. “Somewhere along the way, you lost your way.”
Menendez, 71, was found guilty on all 16 counts last year in his federal trial, becoming the first sitting member of Congress to be convicted of acting as a foreign agent. His children, Alicia and Rob, were in court to witness the sentencing.
“The fact that he was a public office holder who held a position of great public trust has to be taken into account,” Stein said as he explained how he calculated the sentence.
Stein said Menendez “became a corrupt politician” as he ticked off the spoils of the corruption: the gold bars, the cash, the convertible.
“When there’s wrongdoing of this magnitude there are serious consequences,” Stein said.
Ahead of the former senator’s sentencing Wednesday afternoon, two New Jersey businessmen convicted of paying bribes to Menendez received lengthy prison sentences. Wael Hana was sentenced to eight years in prison and Fred Daibes to seven years.
Menendez calls prosecution a ‘witch hunt’
Outside the court following his sentencing, a defiant Menendez called the prosecution a “political witch hunt.”
“Regardless of the judge’s comments, today, I am innocent, and I look forward to filing appeals on a whole host of issues,” Menendez said.
Menendez referred to the Southern District of New York, which prosecuted the case, as the “Wild West of political prosecutions” while outlining grievances with the evidence and witnesses in the trial.
“President Trump is right — this process is political and it’s corrupted to the core,” Menendez said. “I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores the integrity to the system.”
Danielle Sassoon, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement that Wednesday’s sentences were the result of “an egregious abuse of power” at the highest levels of the government’s legislative branch.
“Robert Menendez was trusted to represent the United States and the State of New Jersey, but instead he used his position to help his co-conspirators and a foreign government, in exchange for bribes like cash, gold, and a luxury car,” she said. “The sentences imposed today send a clear message that attempts at any level of government to corrupt the nation’s foreign policy and the rule of law will be met with just punishment.”
Menendez says he’s a ‘chastened man’
Menendez sat at the defense table in a suit and tie with hands folded across his stomach before he stood at his seat to address the judge ahead of his sentencing.
“Your honor you have before you a chastened man,” Menendez said as his voice began to break. “We sat in this court room for nine weeks, but you really don’t know me.”
The once-powerful Democrat introduced himself as the son of Cuban immigrants and explained his political biography, occasionally sniffling and choking up while reading from a prepared statement with hands stuffed in his pockets.
“This is who I truly am, judge. A man devoted to service,” Menendez said, becoming emotional as he spoke of family and of constituents he helped. “I have lost everything I have cared about. For someone who spent a life in public service, every day is a punishment.”
The judge said Menendez will not have to report to prison until June 6 so he can be available when his wife, Nadine, goes on trial on similar corruption and bribery charges on March 18.
Menendez’s lawyer adjusted the defense’s request for leniency following the imposition of lengthy prison sentences for his co-defendants.
Menendez previously sought a sentence of no more than two years in prison, citing his “extraordinary public service,” but earlier Wednesday the two New Jersey businessmen convicted of paying the bribes were sentenced perhaps more harshly than the defense anticipated.
“The good outweighs the bad in the arc of Bob’s life,” defense attorney Adam Fee told the judge. “We would ask the court to sentence Bob to no more than eight years in prison.”
Prosecutor Paul Monteleoni had asked for 15 years in prison, arguing Menendez “believed that the power he wielded belonged to him.”
“The offense conduct reflects a truly grave breach of the trust placed in Menendez by his fellow senators, by the people of New Jersey,” Monteleoni told the court. “There are not many people who had power on the scale of Menendez.”
‘Rare gravity’ of the crimes
Menendez had potentially faced decades in prison. Sentencing guidelines called for more than 24 to 30 years in prison, with the U.S. Probation Office recommending 12 years’ imprisonment for Menendez, according to court filings.
Federal prosecutors have said the Democrat deserves 15 years in prison for his “naked greed” and the “rare gravity” of the crimes.
“This case is the first ever in which a Senator has been convicted of a crime involving the abuse of a leadership position on a Senate committee,” federal prosecutors wrote in a memo to the judge earlier this month. “It is the first ever in which a Senator — or any other person — has been convicted of serving as a foreign agent while being a public official.”
Prosecutors asked the court to impose a substantial prison sentence “to provide just punishment for this extraordinary abuse of power and betrayal of the public trust, and to deter others from ever engaging in similar conduct.”
Menendez’s attorneys had sought leniency, urging the court to even consider whether a non-custodial sentence — such as “home detention and rigorous community service” — would suffice.
“Probation’s recommended sentence of 12 years’ imprisonment would be draconian — likely a life and death sentence for someone of Bob’s age and condition,” his attorneys wrote in a memorandum to the judge earlier this month. “Bob is deserving of mercy because of the penalties already imposed, his age, and the lack of a compelling need to impose a custodial sentence.”
The defense noted that Menendez is helping his wife battle cancer and argued he is no longer in a position to be a repeat offender, given that he was convicted of crimes that arose from his position as a U.S. senator.
“With this case, his political and professional careers have ended; his reputation is destroyed; and the latter years of his life are in shambles. He is certain never to commit future offenses,” his attorneys wrote. “And his current state — stripped of office and living under a permanent shadow of disgrace and mockery — are more than sufficient to reflect the seriousness of the offenses and to promote respect for the law.”
The former New Jersey senator, who resigned in the wake of his conviction, has maintained his innocence.
“I have never violated my oath,” Menendez said outside the courthouse following the verdict in the nine-week trial. “I have never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country. I have never, ever been a foreign agent.”
Menendez twice unsuccessfully bid for a new trial ahead of his sentencing, most recently last week, with Stein finding the trial was fair while denying his request.
Menendez had also tried unsuccessfully to postpone his sentencing until after his wife stands trial.
Co-defendants get lengthy prison sentences
Two New Jersey businessmen who were found guilty in the case were also sentenced on Wednesday. Hana was sentenced to eight years in prison and Daibes to seven years — significantly more than what the defendants had sought and slightly less than what prosecutors recommended.
Prosecutors said Menendez promised to use his power as a senator to help Hana, who is originally from Egypt, by preserving a halal meat monopoly granted to Hana by Egypt.
Prosecutors said the former senator also promised Daibes that he would interfere with Daibes’ federal prosecution and help the government of Qatar by supporting a Senate resolution praising the country.
Daibes’ fingerprints were found on the envelopes of cash found at Menendez’s home and serial numbers on the gold bars traced them to Daibes and Hana, according to prosecutors.
In issuing the sentences, Judge Stein called the evidence against Hana “substantial” and had strong words for Daibes.
“You are an American success story. You grew up in a refugee camp in Lebanon. But there is a dark side to what you have done,” Stein said of Daibes. “You bribed Sen. Menendez multiple times.”
Another New Jersey businessman, Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty in the case ahead of trial. Prosecutors said Uribe paid for Menendez’s $60,000 Mercedes-Benz convertible in exchange for helping disrupt a criminal investigation by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office related to Uribe.
(LOS ANGELES) — Los Angeles residents who fled devastating wildfires are facing a huge recovery and rebuilding effort, as they gather what they can from ruins that were once their homes.
As firefighters continue a massive effort to contain and subdue the historic infernos, Angelenos are grappling with unthinkable loss.
Mike Geller and his 18-year-old son spoke with ABC News among the rubble of Palisades Village, where their family’s 50-year-old jewelry business once stood.
“My family has been doing jewelry servicing of the community for almost three generations,” Geller explained as he pointed to the school next door. “My mother ran this business prior to me, when I was going to elementary school here.”
Now 48, Geller said he’s facing the reality of being forced to start over completely. His business — Jaimie Geller Jewelry — his home, car, truck, motorcycle and the personal belongings of his family of five all burned in the Palisades Fire.
“Thank God I was able to retrieve my birth certificate,” he said. “But every possession my children have accumulated… gone, decimated.”
“I’m in shock,” Geller added. “I’m not even sure how I’m talking to you. I’m absolutely in shock. I’m just going through the motions. It hasn’t really set in yet.”
Geller filed personal insurance claims, though he said he has no clue when any of them will be processed.
Geller said he and many of the older people in the Palisades don’t have the means to wait months — if not years — and rebuild.
“There are people on the Alphabet Streets who bought their homes for $75,000, $50,000,” Geller said. “Those people will not be able to come back. And if they do and they have insurance, will they rebuild? Look, if I’m 75, 80 years old… how much time do I have?”
“It’s about quality of life,” he continued. “If it takes me three years to rebuild, how much more time do I actually have left at that point?”
The Palisades Fire that consumed Geller’s home and business is still burning. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the blaze was at 23,713 acres with only 14% containment as of Monday morning.
The Eaton Fire north of Pasadena — at 14,117 acres and 33% containment — is also still raging, as is the Hurst Fire near San Fernando, which is now 799 acres in size though 89% contained.
More than 12,000 structures are believed to have been damaged or destroyed, with at least 24 people killed. About 105,000 people remain under mandatory evacuation orders and another 87,000 are under evacuation warnings as of Monday morning.
A preliminary damage estimate by AccuWeather put the economic losses so far between $135 billion and $150 billion, which would put the fires among the costliest natural disasters in American history. High winds forecast through Wednesday threaten to spread the fires further.
Geller’s family and many others are now trying to piece together a plan, even as the smoke from the wildfires hangs heavy over their ravaged neighborhood.
“My wife and I are even considering whether or not we rebuild, really, but at this point with the insurance companies, it’s a smoother transaction,” Geller said. “It’s a smoother road if you rebuild.”
In the meantime, he’s staying in a hotel. Fire victims here are in desperate need of affordable housing, according to Geller. He’s found shelter but said it’s not sustainable.
“It’s insanity,” he said. “Hotels are packed to the gills. Shelters are packed to the gills.”
“Hopefully a lot of these elderly have children,” Geller said. “I pray that they have some means of finding a place to stay, you know — get in and be a home base and just somewhere where they can just recuperate their mindset.”
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from orchestrating its plan to place 2,200 employees of the United States Agency for International Development on leave at midnight.
In an order late Friday, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols — a Trump appointee — issued a temporary restraining that prevents Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency from placing the employees on administrative leave as had been planned. The judge also ordered the reinstatement of some 500 USAID workers who had already been put on administrative leave and ordered that no USAID employees should be evacuated from their host countries before Feb. 14 at 11:59 p.m.
The judge’s order came several hours after a hearing Friday afternoon during which Nichols said he would issue the temporary restraining order.
Two foreign service unions had sued the federal government amid the Trump administration’s attempts to reduce USAID’s workforce from 14,000 to only 300 employees as part of its efforts to slash government spending.
Earlier Nichols had said the order would prevent the “accelerated removal” of USAID employees from their posts overseas.
“This is about how employees are harmed in their capacity as employees — in the employee/employer relationship — and it seems to me that, for reasons I will discuss in this order, that I will enter there, the plaintiffs have established at least that there is irreparable harm as it relates to that relationship,” Nichols said at the hearing.
Lawyers from the Department of Justice acknowledged that 500 employees from USAID have already been placed on leave, with 2,000 more set to go on leave at midnight.
Acting assistant attorney Brett Shumate told the judge the layoffs were necessary because “the president has decided there was corruption and fraud at USAID.”
“He doesn’t have to justify to the plaintiffs and the court how he exercises his foreign affairs,” Shumate argued. “The president has determined, in his view, significant serious action needs to be taken tonight to prevent taxpayer funds from being sent outside the United States, used for purposes that he doesn’t think are appropriate.”
The American Foreign Service Organization and the American Federation of Government Employees filed the lawsuit in D.C. federal court Thursday, alleging that Trump engaged in a series of “unconstitutional and illegal actions” to systematically destroy USAID.
“Children are being pulled out of school during the middle of the school year at developmentally fragile time periods,” plaintiffs’ attorneys told the judge Friday. “People are being cut off from their access to health care without being able to make arrangements for new health care providers when they have serious health conditions. People are being asked to go back to the United States where they may not have housing they don’t have a home to come back to, and they’re being asked to do that with no source of income or in prospects.”
These actions have generated a global humanitarian crisis by abruptly halting the crucial work of USAID employees, grantees, and contractors. They have cost thousands of American jobs. And they have imperiled U.S. national security interests,” the lawsuit said.
The plaintiffs said Trump has unilaterally attempted to reduce the agency without congressional authorization, arguing that Congress is the only entity with the authority to dismantle USAID.
The lawsuit reads like a timeline of the last two weeks, laying out each step that formed the groundwork to break USAID, beginning with Trump’s first day in office. Shortly after Trump froze foreign aid via an executive order on his first day, he began to target USAID by ordering his State Department to begin issuing stop work orders, the lawsuit said.
“USAID grantees and contractors reeled as they were — without any notice or process — constrained from carrying out their work alleviating poverty, disease, and humanitarian crises,” the lawsuit said.
Next came the layoffs, the lawsuit alleges, with thousands of contractors and employees of USAID losing their jobs, leading medical clinics, soup kitchens, and refugee assistance programs across the world to be brought “to an immediate halt.”
“The humanitarian consequences of defendants’ actions have already been catastrophic,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit alleges the Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk — who boasted about “feeding USAID into the woodchipper” — made the final move to gut the agency, locking thousands of employees out of their computers and accessing classified material improperly.
While each step to dismantle the organization differed, the lawsuit alleged that they were unified by one thing: “Not a single one of defendants’ actions to dismantle USAID were taken pursuant to congressional authorization.”
The plaintiffs have asked the court to declare Trump’s actions unlawful and issue an order requiring the Trump administration to “cease actions to shut down USAID’s operations in a manner not authorized by Congress.”
