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(NEW YORK) — Meta, the parent company of Facebook and WhatsApp, has pledged to remove imposter accounts tied to scams that were recently flagged by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, following a phone call between the two parties this week, the DA’s office told ABC News Friday.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg last week accused Meta of failing to remove imposter accounts that Bragg said pose as organizations like Catholic Charities to offer fake immigration services that scam money from unsuspecting victims. 

“These imposter accounts have led to tens of thousands of dollars of fraudulent transfers,” Bragg said in a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg demanding the company take action after requests to remove false profiles were declined.

“Scammers frequently target immigrant populations because they are perceived to be, and often are, more vulnerable to fraud and in need of a specific type of legal assistance,” Bragg wrote.

In some instances, scammers create public Facebook accounts that mirror real accounts belonging to pro bono legal services organizations, Bragg said. In others, they create WhatsApp profiles posing as immigration lawyers associated with those same organizations, frequently using the names and logos of legitimate organizations to give the appearance of credibility.

“Your company has made representations about the importance of the safety and security of your platform for its users,” Bragg’s letter to Zuckerberg said. “If you sincerely wish to protect the safety of your users from fraud, we urge you to take necessary, proactive steps.”

In a statement issued in response to Bragg’s letter, a Meta spokesperson said, “Account impersonation violates our policies, and we take action against people and groups that attempt to misuse our platforms. We’re committed to engaging constructively with all levels of government, law enforcement and cross-sector partners to tackle this industry-wide challenge.”

Bragg is the latest prosecutor to go public with criticism of Meta for failing to protect the public from criminals lurking on its social media platforms. New Mexico recently won a $375 million civil case that held Meta liable for failing to police its sites for child predators, and a jury in Los Angeles found Meta, along with Google, liable for a 20-year-old woman’s social media addiction. 

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(WASHINGTON) — Attorneys for President Donald Trump say they are “in discussions” with the Department of Justice to potentially resolve a $10 billion lawsuit that Trump, two of his sons, and his company filed against the Internal Revenue Service earlier this year.

According to a court filing on Friday, lawyers for the Trumps requested a deadline extension so they can “engage in discussions designed to resolve this matter and to avoid protracted litigation.” 

President Trump, his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., and the Trump Organization filed a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department in January related to the unauthorized disclosure of tax information during Trump’s first term.

A government contractor with the IRS pleaded guilty in 2023 to stealing the tax information of Donald Trump and other wealthy Americans and leaking it to media outlets in 2019 and 2020. 

“Defendants have caused Plaintiffs reputational and financial harm, public embarrassment, unfairly tarnished their business reputations, portrayed them in a false light, and negatively affected President Trump, and the other Plaintiffs’ public standing,” the Trumps said in their lawsuit, which requested $10 billion in damages. 

“The Parties are engaging in discussions and need time to work through how to ensure those discussions can take place productively to avoid protracted litigation,” the attorneys said in Friday’s filing with the consent of the DOJ lawyers. “This brief period will allow the Parties to initiate and structure those discussions in a manner that best serves the interests of all Parties and the Court.”

The Department of Justice had not yet responded to the lawsuit and faced an impending deadline this month. Friday’s filing said both sides agreed to the 90-day extension. 

A group of former government officials last month filed an amicus brief with the court to raise concerns about the ethics of the president suing his own government for billions. 

“This case is extraordinary because the President controls both sides of the litigation, which raises the prospect of collusive litigation tactics,” the amicus filing said. “To treat this case like business as usual would threaten the integrity of the justice system and the important taxpayer and privacy protections at the heart of this case.” 

The Trumps, in the suit, argued that the IRS and Treasury Department should have had “appropriate technical, employee screening, security, and monitoring” to prevent the theft of tax information.

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(HOUSTON) — A man is at large after allegedly killing a woman who was 8 months pregnant with his baby, according to authorities.

Ashanti Allen, a 23-year-old Houston woman, was reported missing on April 10, Houston police said. Allen’s pregnancy was considered high-risk, according to the search and recovery organization Texas EquuSearch, whose members helped in the search.

On Thursday, police said a 23-year-old woman was found dead near a Houston community center. Police did not confirm the identity, but the family confirmed the victim was Allen, and Texas EquuSearch said the victim is believed to be Allen and her unborn child, Jackson.

The father of her baby, 24-year-old Kevin Faux, is charged with murder, police said, noting that Faux is not in custody.

Faux has a history of assault charges, according to court records obtained by Houston ABC station KTRK, including a September 2025 case when he allegedly assaulted Allen.

Allen’s cause of death is pending an autopsy, police said.

“My body’s been numb ever since I received the phone call,” Allen’s father, Edward Allen, told reporters. “We was hoping for the best. But now we’ve heard the worst.”

“Being pregnant, eight months, with my first grandson… I can’t even tell you how I feel,” Edward Allen said. “… I love my baby girl. She’s my only girl.”

He said the 23-year-old was excited to be a mother.

“Her life was going somewhere,” he said.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends as they navigate through this very difficult time,” Texas EquuSearch said in a statement. “Thank you for all who were involved and members who showed up each day, giving it their all.”

Houston police ask anyone with information about the case or information on Faux’s whereabouts to call the department at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.

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(MIAMI) — A top career prosecutor in Miami has been removed from overseeing the Justice Department’s investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan after she allegedly expressed doubts about the viability of the probe, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.

Attorneys for several subjects involved in the probe were informed Friday that Maria Medetis Long would not longer be handling the case moving forward, sources said.

The news, according to sources, took some attorneys by surprise as there were additional interviews scheduled in the coming days as the department moves closer toward deciding whether to bring charges against Brennan.

News of Medetis Long’s departure was first reported by CNN. An attorney for Brennan did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. A DOJ spokesperson also did not immediately respond.

The investigation is believed to center around congressional testimony from Brennan about his role in crafting a 2017 assessment by the intelligence community that detailed Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election to the benefit of President Donald Trump.

Trump has long singled out Brennan, a vocal critic, as among those he believes was involved in illegally conspiring to accuse him of colluding with Russia, resulting in the special counsel probe that cast a cloud over much of Trump’s first term in office.

Brennan has denied wrongdoing and said he continues to stand by the 2017 intelligence community assessment that determined Russia’s interference in the 2016 election was aimed at denigrating Hillary Clinton to the benefit of Trump’s candidacy. A separate bipartisan report from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence largely affirmed the findings of the 2017 assessment.

The probe of Brennan is part of a larger investigation being run out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida that sources say is examining whether former officials engaged in a “grand conspiracy” to violate Trump’s rights dating back to his 2016 campaign for the presidency.

Scores of subpoenas have been issued by the office in recent months to former officials previously involved in the Russia investigation, though the effort has yet to result in any criminal charges or other allegations of wrongdoing.

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