Category: National

(WASHINGTON) — A Secret Service agent tasked with protecting former President Barack Obama knowingly and repeatedly breached his duties while trying to woo a love interest — and living a double life, according to a new memoir by the agent’s former girlfriend.

In “Undercover Heartbreak: a Memoir of Trust and Trauma,” Koryeah Dwanyen describes a series of potential security lapses, including a time when she said she was invited to join the senior agent at the Obamas’ beachfront property in Hawaii in 2022 while they were away.

He had already sent her “several photos” of the house a week earlier, and suggested a tour, according to the book.

“No one will know. If anything, I’m the one who could get in trouble,” says the agent in the memoir, where he is given the pseudonym “Dale.”

He then tried to get her to fool around in the first lady’s bathroom, according to Dwanyen.

“We should have sex in Michelle [Obama]’s bathroom, like a mile-high club,” Dwanyen claims he said.

The senior agent’s alleged violations of fundamental regulations prompted an internal investigation by the Secret Service.

The self-published memoir was released on Oct. 28, adding another reputational shiner to the agency after a major security lapse in the summer led to calls for operational reform.

The Secret Service had faced intense scrutiny since a gunman attempted to assassinate Donald Trump while the former president campaigned at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July. That incident, which prompted the ouster of the agency’s director, was called a “historic security failure by the Secret Service” in an independent review by the Department of Homeland Security.

“The U.S. Secret Service’s top priority is ensuring the safety and security of our protectees, and any actions that compromise this commitment are addressed with the utmost seriousness,” Anthony Guglielmi, the agency’s chief of communications, told ABC News.

Guglielmi confirmed that an incident matching the book’s Hawaii anecdote had occurred – and that upon finding out, a probe was launched and the agent involved was ultimately fired.

“On Nov. 6, 2022, a Secret Service agent involved in protective functions brought an individual who did not have authorized access into a protectee’s residence without permission,” Guglielmi said. “As soon as the Secret Service became aware of the incident, the agent involved was immediately suspended and after a full investigation, terminated.”

“Although the protectees were not present at the time of the incident, these actions were an unacceptable violation of our protocols, our protectees’ trust and everything we stand for,” he continued.

The former agent and prominent character in the book did not respond to requests for comment from ABC News.

According to her memoir, Dwanyen first met the Secret Service agent while he was assigned to the security detail of the Obama family and while she was vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard in 2022.

He said that he was divorced and had been for nearly a decade, Dwanyen said.

As their relationship developed, the author said, so did her concerns about the man that she had fallen for. She would later come to find out that the agent was still married, according to the book.

“There were major red flags — breaches of trust and of his job,” the author said in a phone interview with ABC News. “One of my friends has joked, ‘You were a walking national security risk.’”

Finally, Dwanyen said, she sent an email to his boss outlining her fears related to the agent’s safety — as well as his family’s and her own.

She wrote that, by then, she had met the agent’s boss “several times” in Hawaii, and she explained that she had his “direct contact information” from emails that the agent had shared with her.

The agent’s boss immediately set up an exhaustive interview with agents in the Inspection Division of the Secret Service’s Office of Professional Responsibility, Dwanyen told ABC. The meeting would last “nearly four hours,” she wrote in her book.

“They realized that not only had ‘Dale’ shared photos of the Obamas’ house, but he had also brought me there,” Dwanyen wrote. She “showed them photos on my phone to corroborate what I was saying,” scrolling through “pictures of Alicia Keys’ house, Steven Spielberg’s boats, Melinda Gates, Tyler Perry and Amal Clooney.”

“He was really oversharing,” Dwanyen recalled one of the agents saying.

The agent told her “personal tidbits he should not have,” Dwanyen said on the phone with ABC News. Those “tidbits” he shared spanned across protectees, she said: ranging from information about background on Mike Pence — whom the agent had been assigned to during his vice presidency under Trump — to details about the Obamas.

“I knew their code names. I knew what day Orange Theory was, what day [Michelle Obama] had private tennis lessons and when her personal trainer came,” Dwanyen said. “Things that I should not have been privy to as a civilian.”

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(ALBUQUERGUE, N.M.) — A school bus attendant for Albuquerque, New Mexico, Public Schools has been arrested after she was seen in surveillance video repeatedly hitting an autistic student.

Debbie Chavira, 64, is accused of striking the child dozens of times over the course of 10 days, according to an incident report.

Police said Chavira struck the student in his face, torso and arms a total of 59 times between Aug. 26 and Sept. 4. On Sept. 4, school officials reported her after the child showed up “with fresh scratch marks on the back of his neck,” the incident report states.

While investigating the alleged abuse, officials viewed additional surveillance footage, where they say Chavira was seen repeatedly hitting the child over the span of 10 days.

Chavira struck the child “open-handed, closed fisted, and with a plastic (yellow) ‘child check’ sign,” and did so “intentionally and without justifiable cause,” according to the incident report.

Investigators were unable to interview the child due to him “being autistic and non-verbal” and unable to “communicate through writing either,” the report states.

Chavira resigned from her job Sept. 5, according to Albuquerque ABC affiliate KOAT, and was arrested on Oct. 4. She has been released from jail and is now under pretrial supervision.

She has been charged with five counts of abandonment or abuse of a child. A representative could not immediately be found for Chavira.

In a statement to ABC News, Martin Salazar, a spokesperson for Albuquerque Public Schools, said the school district does “not tolerate this kind of behavior.”

“Upon discovering what was happening, we immediately placed bus attendant Debbie Chavira on leave and notified the APS Police Department. APS Police launched an investigation and filed criminal charges. Ms. Chavira resigned shortly after being placed on leave,” Salazar said.

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(YEMASSEE, S.C.) — More than half of the rhesus macaque monkeys that escaped from a South Carolina lab have been recovered.

As of Tuesday evening, 32 of the 43 furry runaways, that broke loose Wednesday from the Alpha Genesis Primate Research Center in Yemasee, have now successfully been captured.

“Efforts to safely capture the remaining primates will continue throughout the evening and as long as necessary, ” a spokesperson for the Yemassee Police Department said.

A team of veterinarians, which have been brought in to conduct wellness exams, said all the recovered primates are in good health.

“As the monkeys are recaptured, they are given snacks. A favorite is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,” police said.

Yemasee officials said that “a significant number” of the escaped primates were located in a facility near where the rescued animal was found and were “jumping back and forth over the facility’s fence.”

“Alpha Genesis management and staff are on-site, actively feeding and monitoring the animals, and they will continue these efforts throughout the weekend,” the town’s officials said in a statement.

“The primates continue to interact with their companions inside the facility, which is a positive sign,” they added.

Alpha Genesis CEO Greg Westergaard said the monkeys were having a nap Saturday afternoon.

“They are coming down to the ground a bit more now. It is a slow process,” he said.

The creatures escaped when a new employee at the Alpha Genesis center left the door to their enclosure open, Yemassee Town Administrator Matthew Garnes said during a briefing Thursday with town officials.

The primates are all very young females weighing 6 to 7 pounds each who have never been tested, according to police. There is no public health threat, police said.

Recovery efforts will continue until all the monkeys are recovered, police said, and requested the public call 911 if they spot any of the remaining animals.

“We thank the public for their cooperation in avoiding the area and kindly ask that drones not be used in the vicinity,” police said.

ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.

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(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — At least 11 people were reported injured in an explosion at a manufacturing facility in Louisville, Kentucky, police said.

A “hazardous materials incident” was reported Tuesday afternoon at the address of a Givaudan Sense Colour facility, according to the Louisville Metro Emergency Services.

The cause of the explosion, which occurred around 3 p.m. local time, is unknown at this time, officials said.

All those injured are employees of Givaudan Sense Colour, a natural food coloring plant, officials said.

One person who was trapped following the explosion was rescued, while several others were evacuated, officials said.

No fatalities have been reported in the incident.

Residents within two blocks of the facility, located at 1901 Payne St., have been evacuated, officials said.

A shelter-in-place order was also issued for those within a 1-mile radius of the facility but it has since been lifted, officials said.

Agents with Louisville’s division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are responding and assisting with the “critical incident,” the agency said.

Air monitoring is clear at this time, officials said.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear urged those in the area to follow guidance from local officials “while responders work to secure the area” and said he is “praying for the safety of all involved.”

Givaudan Sense Colour makes colors used in food, and other applications, according to its website.

ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(BOSTON, Mass.) — Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman who prosecutors said “perpetrated one of the most significant and consequential violations of the Espionage Act in American history,” was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The prison sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release.

Judge Indira Talwani issued the sentence on Tuesday in Boston federal court.

Teixeira pleaded guilty in March to six counts of willfully retaining and transmitting national defense information.

Prosecutors had asked the judge to impose the maximum prison sentence of 200 months — more than 16 years — in prison.

“The harm the defendant caused to the national security from his disclosures of national defense information is extraordinary,” prosecutors said in a memorandum filed ahead of the sentencing hearing. “By posting intelligence products on the social media platform Discord to feed his own ego and impress his anonymous friends, Teixeira caused exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States. The scope of his betrayal is breathtaking.”

The defense sought the minimum sentence, citing Teixeira’s autism and ADHD. They also argued he did not intend to harm the country, only to educate his online friends about world events.

“Jack is still essentially a child — at the very least, a ‘youthful offender’ — who has his whole life in front of him,” defense attorneys Michael Bachrach and Brandan Kelley stated in a memorandum presented to the judge ahead of sentencing. “At 22 years old, a sentence of 132 months’ imprisonment would provide more than enough time for him to grow and mature; informed by his behavior as well as from his punishment.”

“With the support of his family and mental health treatment providers, Jack should have little trouble living a productive life inside prison and upon his eventual release,” the memorandum continued.

Teixeira is also currently negotiating a disposition to his parallel, but related, military prosecution, the memo said.

According to the signed plea agreement filed with the court, Teixeira agreed to plead guilty to all six counts charging him with willful retention and transmission of national defense information. In exchange, prosecutors agreed not to charge him with additional counts under the Espionage Act.

Teixeira “accessed and printed hundreds of classified documents” and posted images of them on Discord prior to his arrest in April 2023, a prosecutor said during the plea hearing.

As part of his plea agreement, Teixeira must sit for a debrief with the Defense Department and the Justice Department and give back any sensitive materials that might remain in his possession.

Federal prosecutors have made clear Teixeira had no business peering at classified information because his low-level job did not require it.

“The defendant’s job was to troubleshoot computer workstations,” Assistant United States Attorney Jason Casey said during a March hearing.

Still, Casey said, Teixeira accessed “hundreds” of classified documents inside the secure facility where he worked and “purposefully removed classified documents and information despite admonishments from his superiors to stop.”

Teixeira has admitted in court to knowing the documents were marked classified.

Without mentioning specifics, federal prosecutors said Teixeira exposed information about the compromise by a foreign adversary of certain accounts belonging to a U.S. company and information about equipment the U.S. was sending to Ukraine, how it would be transferred and how it would be used upon receipt. Prosecutors said he also posted material about troop movements in Ukraine, a plot by a foreign adversary to attack U.S. forces abroad, and Western deliveries of supplies to the Ukrainian battlefield.

Teixeira enlisted in the Air National Guard in 2019, according to his service record, and had top secret security clearance beginning in 2021, according to the Department of Justice.

The Justice Department said he began posting classified documents online in January 2022.

Teixeira will also face a military court-martial on charges alleging he violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice, according to the U.S. Air Force.

The U.S. military reserves the right to separately prosecute a service member who has already been convicted in a federal court.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Federal Aviation Administration has banned U.S. flights to Haiti for 30 days in the wake of Monday’s gunfire incidents, according to a Notice to Air Mission issued Tuesday.

“U.S. civil aviation operations in the territory and airspace of Haiti below 10,000 feet” will be prohibited, according to the FAA.

The move comes after a Spirit Airlines plane flying from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Haiti was diverted after it was struck by gunfire while attempting to land in Port-au-Prince, according to the the Haitian National Office of Civil Aviation.

The plane was struck by gunfire four times while attempting to land at Touissant Louverture Airport in the capital city of Port-au-Prince, OFNAC said.

The Spirit Airlines plane “diverted and landed safely in Santiago, Dominican Republic,” Spirit Airlines said in a statement Monday, adding that no passengers reported injuries and one flight attendant onboard the plane reported unspecified “minor injuries” and was undergoing medical evaluation.

The plane came within 550 feet of the runway before aborting its landing and diverting to the Dominican Republic, according to data on FlightRadar24.

The FAA on Monday had confirmed in a statement that the Spirit Airlines flight landed safely in the Dominican Republic “after the plane was reportedly damaged by gunfire while trying to land” at the Port-au-Prince airport.

On Monday, a JetBlue flight from Haiti to New York City was also hit by a bullet, the airline said in a statement to ABC News. JetBlue said it would suspend all flights to and from Haiti through Dec. 2 due to the civil unrest in the country.

ABC News’ Aicha El Hammar Castano contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Louisiana’s new law requiring all public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments was temporarily blocked on Tuesday by a judge who called it “unconstitutional on its face and in all applications.”

A multi-faith group of Louisiana families with children in public schools sued the state to challenge the law, HB 71, which mandates that public schools — from kindergarten to the collegiate level — display the religious text in every classroom on “a poster or framed document that is at least 11 inches by 14 inches.”

The lawsuit argues that requiring poster-sized displays of religious doctrine in classrooms violates the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights and the separation of church and state.

The suit further argues that the law violates a U.S. Supreme Court precedent, pointing to the Stone v. Graham case in which the court overturned a similar 1980 Kentucky law, holding that the separation of church and state bars public schools from posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

Supporters of the law say the Ten Commandments have historical significance to the foundation of U.S. history and are not just a religious text.

In July, both parties agreed that the Ten Commandments would not be posted in any public school classroom and that defendants — including the state’s Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education — would not publicly move forward on the law’s implementation until the court’s decision in November.

The legislation is one of several recent conservative-backed efforts to incorporate Christianity or religion into the classroom across the country.

In June, Oklahoma’s state superintendent ordered educators to incorporate the Bible into their lessons, an order that is also in the midst of a legal battle.

Florida also recently passed a policy which allowed volunteer religious chaplains to serve as student counselors. The ACLU has expressed “grave concerns” over Florida’s policy but legal challenges have yet to be filed in that matter.

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(HAUSER, Ore.) — A search is underway for a 5-year-old boy in Oregon who has been missing since Saturday.

Joshua McCoy went missing from his home in Hauser, according to the Coos County Sheriff’s Office. He and his mother had taken a nap Saturday afternoon, but when his mother woke up around 5:30 p.m. local time, Joshua was missing, according to the sheriff’s office.

Joshua has autism and may not respond when called, the sheriff’s office said.

The sheriff’s office has activated CORSAR — the California Oregon Regional Search and Rescue Task Force — to help search for the child.

Drones and K-9 resources have been involved in the search. The sheriff’s office said it has also requested assistance from state and federal agencies, with additional resources expected to arrive on Tuesday.

The sheriff’s office said they have found “some clues” so far during the search, though “nothing definitive.”

“Nothing is being ruled out at this time as we are considering all possible avenues,” the Coos County Sheriff’s Office said in an update on Monday. “We maintain hope that Joshua will be found alive and well.”

Joshua, who turns 6 on Saturday, was described by authorities as 3 feet, 6 inches tall and 50 to 60 pounds, with brown eyes and brown shoulder-length hair.

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(ATHENS, Ga.) — The suspect accused of killing 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia’s campus has waived his right to a jury trial.

The judge granted the defense’s motion for a bench trial for the suspect, Jose Ibarra, during a hearing in Athens-Clarke County on Tuesday.

The bench trial is scheduled to begin on Friday before Judge H. Patrick Haggard, who will render a verdict in the case.

Jury selection had been scheduled to start in the case on Wednesday.

When asked by Haggard if he understood the waiver of jury trial, and if it was “freely, knowingly and intelligently signed and considered,” Ibarra said yes.

The defense also said they agree with their client’s decision to waive a jury trial, and confirmed that the form had been translated appropriately into Spanish by a court interpreter for Ibarra.

Last month, Haggard denied the defense’s motion for a change of venue in the high-profile case.

Ibarra, 26, was indicted by an Athens Clarke County grand jury on malice murder and felony murder and other offenses in May. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Riley, a student at Augusta University, was found dead in a wooded area on the Athens campus on Feb. 22 after she didn’t return from a run. The indictment alleges Ibarra killed her by “inflicting blunt force trauma to her head and by asphyxiating her” and seriously disfigured her head by striking her “multiple times” with a rock.

Additional charges in the 10-count indictment include aggravated battery, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, obstructing or hindering a person making an emergency telephone call and tampering with evidence. The latter charge alleged that he “knowingly concealed” evidence — a jacket and gloves — involving the offense of malice murder.

He was also charged with a peeping tom offense. The indictment alleges that on the same day as Riley’s murder, he spied through the window of a different person who lived in an apartment on campus. The judge last month also denied a motion seeking to sever that charge from the case.

Ibarra was denied bond following his arrest on Feb. 23 and is being held at the Clarke County Jail.

Police have said they do not believe Ibarra — a migrant from Venezuela who officials said illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 — knew Riley and that this was a “crime of opportunity.” Her death has become a rallying cry for immigration reform from many conservatives, including now President-elect Donald Trump.

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(NEW YORK) —  A federal judge in New York on Tuesday set a trial date for April 14 in the libel lawsuit that Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee, brought against The New York Times.

The trial date was decided over the objections of both the plaintiff and defense, who asked for a date in July to give the two sides time to possibly reach a settlement out of court.

“This case should not require very much preparation since it’s a retrial,” Judge Jed Rakoff said during a conference Tuesday.

A federal judge in New York on Tuesday set a trial date for April 14 in the libel lawsuit that Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee, brought against The New York Times.

The trial date was decided over the objections of both the plaintiff and defense, who asked for a date in July to give the two sides time to possibly reach a settlement out of court.

“This case should not require very much preparation since it’s a retrial,” Judge Jed Rakoff said during a conference Tuesday.

“We just wanted to take some of the pressure off,” Turkel said.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this summer that Palin can again try to hold the paper liable for a 2017 editorial that wrongly suggested she incited the 2011 mass shooting that killed six people and wounded then-Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

The federal appeals court said Rakoff made errors during the first trial that “impugn the reliability” of the jury’s verdict finding the Times not liable.

“If you’re seriously interested in settling you can settle in a matter of days,” Rakoff said Tuesday. “If you want to be referred to a magistrate for discussions I can do that on 24 hours’ notice.”

Rakoff, in a brief order last week, said the new trial “under no circumstances will be later than February 2025, and, if the parties prefer, can be as early as mid-December 2024.”

The appellate court said Rakoff erred when he excluded evidence about James Bennet, who oversaw the newspaper’s editorial board. Palin argued the evidence could help her show the Times acted with actual malice, the standard a public figure must meet to prevail in a libel case.

The 2017 editorial, entitled “America’s Lethal Politics,” linked the 2011 shooting of Giffords to a digital graphic of a crosshairs over Democratic congressional districts published in March 2010 by Palin’s political action committee. A relationship between the crosshairs map and the shooting was never established. Rather, at the time of the editorial, the attack was widely viewed as a result of the shooter’s mental illness.

Palin’s original defamation lawsuit was dismissed but, in 2019, the 2nd Circuit vacated the dismissal. The case went to trial in 2022, and Rakoff granted the Times’ motion for a directed verdict days before the jury found the newspaper was not liable for defaming Palin.

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