Category: National

(PORTLAND, Ore.) — Ballot boxes in Oregon and Washington were set on fire with incendiary devices early Monday in what authorities believe are connected incidents, police said.

The two arson incidents, which occurred near the Oregon-Washington border, are also believed to be connected to a third ballot box incident that occurred earlier this month in Vancouver, Washington, police said.

In the first reported incident on Monday, Portland police responded to a fire at a ballot box around 3:30 a.m. local time, police said. Security at the Multnomah County Elections Division responded and extinguished the fire, officials said.

“Our officers quickly determined that there was an incendiary device that had been attached to the ballot box, and that is what ignited this fire,” Portland Police Bureau spokesperson Mike Benner said at a press briefing on Monday.

The bureau’s explosive disposal unit cleared the device, police said.

Fire suppressant prevented further damage and protected “virtually all the ballots,” though three were damaged, the Multnomah County Elections Division said in a press release.

Elections officials will contact the three impacted voters so they can receive replacement ballots, the division said.

“We have multiple systems and security measures in place to ensure your ballot is safe,” Multnomah County Elections Director Tim Scott said in a statement.

Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade said the limited impact to ballots “shows that our systems are safe and secure.”

“Make no mistake, an attack on a ballot box is an attack on our democracy and completely unacceptable,” Griffin-Valade said in a statement. “Whatever the motivation behind this incident, there is no justification for any attempt to disenfranchise voters.”

No other ballot boxes or official drop sites in Multnomah County were affected, the division said.

The Portland Fire Investigations Unit is investigating.

About a half hour later, around 4 a.m. local time, officers in Vancouver, Washington, responded to a report of a ballot box that was smoking and on fire, police said.

“Officers arrived and located a suspicious device next to the box,” which was on fire, the Vancouver Police Department said in a statement.

The fire was extinguished, and members of the Metro Explosive Disposal Unit safely collected the device, police said.

“Hundreds” of ballots are believed to have been damaged on Monday, though an official number has not yet been determined, Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey said at the press briefing.

Fire suppression devices are also installed in ballot drop boxes in the county, though they do not appear to have worked well, said Kimsey, who added that they’re going to try to obtain better fire suppression devices.

The Clark County Auditor’s Office will be working to ensure impacted voters have replacement ballots in time, officials said.

“We take the safety of our election workers seriously and will not tolerate threats or acts of violence that seek to undermine the democratic process,” Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said in a statement. “I strongly denounce any acts of terror that aim to disrupt lawful and fair elections in Washington state. Despite this incident, I have complete confidence in our county elections official’s ability to keep Washington’s elections safe and secure for all voters.”

Monday’s incident is similar to an incident that occurred on Oct. 8 in Vancouver, in which a ballot box was smoking and on fire with a “device” next to it, Vancouver interim Police Chief Troy Price said during the press briefing.

“We do believe the incident here [in Portland] is connected to the two incidents in Vancouver,” Benner said.

Police have identified a suspect vehicle, a possible Volvo that was captured on surveillance footage near the ballot box in Portland, Benner said.

A motive remains unclear, Portland Assistant Chief Amanda McMillan said.

“We do know that acts like this are targeted and they’re intentional, and we’re concerned about that intentional act trying to affect the election process,” she said at the press briefing on Monday. “We’re dedicated to stopping that kind of behavior, and we’re working toward that today.”

The FBI is also investigating the incidents “to determine who is responsible,” an agency spokesperson said.

Both Oregon and Washington are one of several vote-by-mail states, with ballots returned by mail or at an official drop box. Washington also has voting centers open to accept ballots.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(MINNEAPOLIS, Mn)  Police in Minneapolis arrested a man early Monday morning on charges of second-degree attempted murder for allegedly shooting his neighbor following a year-long dispute.

The arrest came after an intense standoff between a SWAT team and the suspect, 54-year-old John Herbert Sawchak, who surrendered peacefully on Monday, according to police.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, whose office is prosecuting the case, confirmed to ABC News on Monday that Sawchak is in custody and is being held on suspicion of second-degree attempted murder after allegedly shooting his neighbor, Davis Moturi, on the evening of Oct. 23, 2024.

“It was a very traumatic moment,” Moturi told ABC News in an interview on Sunday from his hospital bed. “Just to realize that like, you’ve been injured like that. Not only, not only shot, but shot in your neck and the people are fighting to save your life. And you don’t know if you can make it.”

According to a probable cause statement obtained by ABC News, Moturi’s’ wife told police that her husband was shot while he was outside pruning a tree near the couple’s property line. The incident was captured on surveillance video that was obtained by ABC News.

The suspect allegedly told Davis Moturi, “Touch my tree again and I’ll kill you,” Moturi’s wife told police, according to the probable cause statement.

Police said that the incident came after a year-old dispute between Moturi and Sawchak.

“Defendant has made countless other threats and engaged in almost constant harassment of the victim and his wife since they purchased their home in September 2023,” the probable cause statement said, referencing at least 19 other incidents of “vandalism, property destruction/theft, harassment, hate speech, verbal threats and threatened physical assaults” – the oldest of which dates back to October 2023.

“Even before [the shooting], it had a major impact on my life,” Moturi told ABC News, referencing the ongoing dispute with his neighbor.

According to charging documents obtained by ABC News, Sawchak is facing three additional felony charges for stalking, harassment and assault.

Minneapolis Police Department Chief Brian O’Hara said during an early morning press conference on Monday that there were multiple warrants out for Sawchak’s arrest, but he evaded police for four days and refused to emerge from his home.

“Minneapolis police exhausted all of our efforts to peacefully bring this situation to a resolution without prior to escalating the use of force with a SWAT team and special tactics,” O’Hara said.

“Thankfully, our officers were able to peacefully arrest this individual tonight after several hours of a SWAT operation,” he added.

ABC News’ attempts to reach out directly to Sawchak were unsuccessful and it is unclear if he has retained an attorney. Hennepin County District Attorney Mary Moriarty told ABC News on Monday that Sawchak is in custody and is scheduled to make his first appearance in court on Tuesday afternoon.

O’Hara said on Monday that police made “dozens of attempts” to arrest Sawchak since April but “were unable to make contact with this individual.”

O’Hara acknowledged that law enforcement “failed” to protect Moturi in this case.

“We were unsuccessful,” O’Hara said, in reference to prior attempts to arrest the suspect. “And so in that sense, yes, we failed. We failed this victim. He should not have been shot. But I will say this – we had no reason to suspect that he would shoot … the neighbor from inside the house.”

 

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(Delphi, IND) — No DNA was found at the site of the Delphi, Indiana, double murders to tie the suspect, Richard Allen, or anyone else to the crime scene, a forensic scientist testified Monday during Allen’s trial.

Best friends Libby German, 14, and Abby Williams, 13, were walking along a hiking trail in rural Delphi when they were stabbed to death and left in the woods on Feb. 13, 2017. Allen was arrested in 2022 and has pleaded not guilty to murder.

Rape kits were performed on Abby and Libby; no semen was found and there was no DNA evidence the girls were sexually assaulted, Indiana State Police forensic scientist Stacy Bozinovski said on the stand Monday.

Some swabs showed a possible presence of male DNA, Bozinovski said, but the amount was insufficient, and she told the court she didn’t do a confirmatory test because she wanted to make the most of the sample.

Bozinovski noted that she did find male DNA in genital swabs and fingernails, but she said that is not entirely unusual because it could have come from shared clothing. She said it yielded very little DNA.

Bozinovski said hair found in Abby’s hand matched Libby’s sister.

According to police analysis, a .40-caliber unspent round discovered by the girls’ bodies came from Allen’s gun.

Bozinovski said she tested the unspent round found at the crime scene, but the DNA found on the cartridge was insufficient for further testing.

Allen has admitted to being on the trail the day the girls were killed but he denies any involvement in the murders.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK CITY) — Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe came under fire for comments made about Latinos and Puerto Rico at former President Donald Trump’s Sunday campaign rally in New York City’s Madison Square Garden.

After making a vulgar joke about how Latinos “love making babies,” Hinchcliffe later turned to the Caribbean island.

“I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”

That joke came after Trump made a similar comment last Thursday, calling the U.S. a “garbage can for the world” in an escalation of his anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Hispanic groups on both sides of the aisle called Hinchcliffe comments “derogatory,” “offensive” and “disrespectful.”

An estimated 36.2 million Latinos are eligible to vote this year, making up about 15% of the electorate, according to Pew Research Center. Puerto Ricans who live in the U.S. territory do not have the right to vote in the presidential election — but key swing states like Florida and North Carolina are home to prominent Hispanic and Latino communities.

“The Trump campaign’s tolerance for offensive humor, especially against Puerto Rico and its residents, highlights a disturbing pattern of disregard toward the island’s people and its challenges,” the League of United Latin American Citizens said in a statement to ABC News. “Such careless words not only deepen wounds but also normalize harmful rhetoric.”

The Republican National Hispanic Assembly also condemned the remarks.

“Such ignorant comments not only fail to capture Puerto Rico’s resilience but also misrepresent the commitment shown to the island by President Trump and his administration,” its statement read. “Puerto Ricans deserve respect and recognition for their resilience and contributions to this great Nation.”

Frankie Miranda, president and CEO of Hispanic Federation, noted in a statement to ABC News that the Trump campaign gave Hinchcliffe a platform to make his remarks on the same day the Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign introduced a plan for resolving issues impacting Puerto Rico.

“Millions of Puerto Ricans in states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida and New York may no longer live on the island, but they still revere it as their ancestral and cultural home, and you cannot continue to disrespect us and think that we are not going to remember that when we go to the ballot box,” Miranda said.

Hinchcliffe also made jokes targeting other racial or religious minorities, including both the Black and Jewish communities. He defended his jokes online in a response to criticism from Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Harris’ running mate Tim Walz.

“These people have no sense of humor,” Hinchcliffe wrote in an X post. “Wild that a vice presidential candidate would take time out of his ‘busy schedule’ to analyze a joke taken out of context to make it seem racist. I love Puerto Rico and vacation there. I made fun of everyone … watch the whole set. I’m a comedian Tim … might be time to change your tampon.”

The Trump campaign distanced itself from Tony Hinchcliffe’s joke against Puerto Rico.

“This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” Trump campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez wrote in a statement to ABC News.

Other GOP figures, including María Elvira Salazar, denounced the jokes online.

“This rhetoric does not reflect GOP values,” Salazar said on X.

The joke came shortly after Harris announced an “Opportunity Economy” plan for Puerto Rico, which was applauded online by prominent Hispanic figures with tens of millions of followers, including singers Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez and Luis Fonsi.

Her plan includes the creation of a new task force for Puerto Rico with the goal of rebuilding and modernizing the territory’s energy grid, expanding access to clean energy, building affordable housing and more.

Trump has been criticized for how he handled Hurricane Maria in 2017, during his first term. He’s long overstated how much disaster funding Puerto Rico received after the storm and also came under fire for infamously tossing paper towels into a crowd of Puerto Ricans at a relief center in the hurricane-ravaged territory after Maria hit.

Additionally, FEMA lost track of more than a quarter-billion dollars in food and supplies intended for Puerto Rico over the course of its response to 2017 hurricanes Irma and Maria, according to a Department of Homeland Security report that found delays and mismanagement in the disaster response efforts.

However, Trump’s White House approved nearly $13 billion in federal aid to help rebuild Puerto Rico’s electrical grid system and the education system in 2020.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(PORTLAND, Ore.) — Ballot boxes in Oregon and Washington were set on fire early Monday, police in both states said.

It is unclear if the two arson incidents, which occurred near the Oregon-Washington border, are connected.

In the first reported incident, a ballot box in Portland, Oregon, was set on fire with an incendiary device, police said.

Portland police responded to reports of a fire at a ballot box around 3:30 a.m. local time on Monday. Security at the Multnomah County Elections Division responded and extinguished the fire, officials said.

“Officers determined an incendiary device was placed inside the ballot box and used to ignite the fire,” the Portland Police Bureau said in a statement.

The bureau’s explosive disposal unit cleared the device, police said.

Fire suppressant prevented further damage and protected “virtually all the ballots,” though three were damaged, the Multnomah County Elections Division said in a press release.

Elections officials will contact the three impacted voters so they can receive replacement ballots, the division said.

“We have multiple systems and security measures in place to ensure your ballot is safe,” Multnomah County Elections Director Tim Scott said in a statement.

No other ballot boxes or official drop sites in Multnomah County were affected, the division said.

The Portland Fire Investigations Unit is investigating.

About a half hour later, around 4 a.m. local time, officers in Vancouver, Washington, responded to a report of a ballot box that was smoking and on fire, police said.

“Officers arrived and located a suspicious device next to the box,” which was on fire, the Vancouver Police Department said in a statement.

The fire was extinguished, and members of the Metro Explosive Disposal Unit safely collected the device, police said.

The extent of damage to ballots remains unclear.

The FBI is investigating the incident, police said.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(FRESNO, Calif.) — A Central California police sergeant was in a hospital recovering from bullet wounds Monday after he was “ambushed” over the weekend by a gunman who was killed in a subsequent shoot-out and later linked to a homicide victim found inside a residence, authorities said.

The shooting unfolded on Saturday in Fresno after the sergeant and two patrol officers were dispatched to investigate a ShotSpotter gunshot detection call at about 5:23 p.m., according to Fresno Interim Police Chief Mindy Castro.

Castro said the sergeant, a 21-year veteran of the Fresno Police Department, and the other officers had spent about an hour searching for evidence of a shooting in the neighborhood east of downtown Fresno when the ambush occurred. She said the suspect wielding an AR-style pistol drove by in a car and, without warning, opened fire on the sergeant who at the time was sitting in a parked patrol vehicle working on his computer.

“A Fresno police sergeant was ambushed here tonight,” Castro said as she began a news conference near the shooting scene.

Castro said two other officers were standing in the street searching for shell casings when gunfire erupted.

“The sergeant was in his car when the suspect returned completely unexpectedly and began firing shots at the sergeant,” said Castro, adding that the sergeant’s patrol car was riddled with bullets.

Castro said the sergeant, whose name was not released, suffered bullet wounds to his lower extremities.

The gunman, whose name was also not released, attempted to flee the scene, but crashed about a block away, Castro said.

Despite being wounded, the sergeant and the other officers chased the suspect and ended up in a shoot-out with him after the gunman got out of his wrecked car and opened fire on the officers, Castro said.

A Ring doorbell camera video from a residence obtained by ABC Fresno station KFSN captured what sounded like a dozen shots fired in the incident.

Castro said that after the suspect was shot and fell to the ground, the injured sergeant collapsed and radioed for an ambulance for them both.

The suspect was later pronounced dead at a hospital, Castro said.

A statement posted on the police department’s Facebook page Sunday evening said the sergeant remained in the hospital in stable condition.

Castro said she viewed the sergeant’s body camera video and described the sergeant’s and the other officers’ actions in engaging the suspect as a “picture of courageousness and calm.”

Before the gunfight, police obtained surveillance video that captured the suspect holding a gun as he exited a house near the shooting scene and got into a car matching the one involved in the ambush, Castro said.

Following the shooting, officers went to the house seen in the security video, forced their way in and discovered a homicide victim inside, Castro said.

Castro said it remains under investigation whether the ShotSpotter activation that initially drew the officers to the scene was caused by the shooting inside the residence.

“We’re still working to investigate that crime as well as the ambush shooting of one of our officers,” Castro said.

The identity of the homicide victim was pending an autopsy.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(PITTSBURG,, P.A.) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday commemorated six years since the deadly shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue.

“This unspeakable act – fueled by antisemitic hate – was the deadliest attack on the American Jewish community in our Nation’s history,” Harris said in a statement, in part.

On Oct. 27, 2018, a white supremacist gunman opened fire inside the synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, killing 11 people and wounding six others during Shabbat services.

In her statement Sunday, Harris mourned the lives that were taken that day and also hailed the resiliency and enduring strength of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community. She also noted the rise in antisemitic incidents since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel and vowed to continue to combat antisemitism.

“I will always work to ensure the safety and security of Jewish people in the United States and around the world, and will always call out antisemitism whenever and wherever we see it,” Harris said. “Doug and I are proud to have worked alongside President Biden to combat antisemitism, including through the National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.”

“Today, Doug and I stand in solidarity with the survivors of this attack, the families who lost loved ones, and the entire Jewish community,” Harris added, referring to her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff.

Earlier Sunday, President Joe Biden also marked the anniversary of the Tree of Life attack, saying in a statement that the shootings “shattered families, pierced the heart of the Jewish community, and struck the soul of our nation.”

“For the families of the victims and the survivors, this difficult day of remembrance brings it all back like it just happened – and our country holds them and their loved ones close in our hearts,” Biden added.

Biden said his administration remains committed to aggressively implementing the National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.

“As the Talmud says, ‘It is not your duty to finish the work but neither are you at liberty to neglect it,'” Biden said in the statement. “On this solemn day of remembrance for the attack in the Tree of Life Synagogue, let us come together as Americans to ensure antisemitism and hate in all its forms have no safe harbor in America – for all the lives we have lost and all those we can still save.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(PENSACOLA, Fla.) — A NASA astronaut who experienced a “medical issue” following the successful Space X Crew-8 mission has been released from the hospital, NASA officials said Saturday.

“After an overnight stay at Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola in Florida, the NASA astronaut was released and returned to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston Saturday. The crew member is in good health and will resume normal post-flight reconditioning with other crew members,” NASA said in a statement.

NASA has not publicly named the astronaut.

NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps and Russian astronaut Alexander Grebenkin were in the SpaceX Dragon capsule when it splashed down on Earth on Friday, NASA said.

After a medical evaluation, three of the crew members departed from the facility and arrived at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, NASA said.

One remaining astronaut remained in the hospital and is in stable condition and is under observation as a precautionary measure, NASA said.

Recovery of the crew and spacecraft went without incident, according to NASA.

An additional medical evaluation of the astronauts was requested out of an abundance of caution, NASA said.

The crew completed a 235-day mission into space.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — The former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model who has accused former President Donald Trump of groping her in front of Jeffrey Epstein in the early 1990s is offering more details about what she claims she observed about Epstein’s relationship with the current presidential candidate and what she says Epstein told her.

“I would say that he talked about having just seen Donald or having just done something, I mean, every time we spoke,” Stacey Williams, who worked as a professional model in the 1990s, told ABC News in an interview.

Williams went public this week with an allegation that Trump groped her in front of Epstein after she said Epstein, who would later be known as a serial sex offender, brought her to Trump Tower in the early 1990s.

‘I felt so humiliated’

In her interview with ABC News, Williams said that during her several-month relationship with Epstein, who she said she met in 1992, Trump was among three people who Epstein talked to her about the most, with one of the other two being Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate who has since been sentenced to prison for 20 years for recruiting and grooming the underage girls who Epstein sexually abused.

The third person, Williams said, was Leslie Wexner, the billionaire retail magnate who once employed Epstein to manage his fortune.

“The people he spoke about the most were his boss, or whatever that person was, Les Wexner, hard to understand that role. And then Ghislaine, again, a little ambiguous weird relationship. And then Donald Trump,” Williams told ABC News. “Those are the people he spoke about the most.”

The details come after Williams first publicly discussed the alleged incident in detail on a public “Survivors for Kamala” Zoom call last Monday night in support of Vice President Kamala Harris. The group is not officially affiliated with Harris’ presidential campaign.

In a statement to ABC News, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt denied Williams’ allegations, stating in part, “These accusations, made by a former activist for Barack Obama and announced on a Harris campaign call two weeks before the election, are unequivocally false.”

Asked about the claim that Epstein spoke frequently about Trump, a Trump campaign spokesperson said, “It is widely known that President Trump banned Jeffrey Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago Club when revelations about his sex trafficking became public.”

On the Zoom call, which ABC News obtained a video of, Williams, who first began speaking publicly about the alleged incident with Trump and Epstein in Facebook posts dating back to 2020, said she felt like the alleged groping incident was a “twisted game” between Trump and Epstein.

“I felt so humiliated and so sick to my stomach and was so upset, and as I absorbed what happened a few minutes later, I felt like that was some sort of sick bet or game between the two of them,” Williams said. “I was rolled in there like a piece of meat for some kind of challenge or twisted game, and I felt horrendous.”

“I figured it was time to share this and I’m ready to win this election,” Williams, a longtime Democrat who has been active in politics, said on the Zoom call. “The thought of that monster being back in the White House is my absolute worst nightmare.”

‘It was orchestrated’

Williams told ABC News the alleged encounter, when she was 24, lasted no more than ten minutes. “I was in shock and I was frozen,” Williams said.

“He just put his arms out and pulled me towards him and his hands on some part of my body the entire time,” Williams claimed in the interview. “His hands would touch the sides of my breasts, not the front, but the sides of my breasts, my waist, and then slid down to my butt and just kept kind of running up and down my body while the two of them were carrying on a conversation.”

Speaking with ABC News, Williams explained that shortly after the alleged incident, she began to suspect that the encounter with Trump and Epstein had been “orchestrated,” but went into denial about it because of the shame it made her feel.

“Now there’s no doubt in my mind it was orchestrated,” Williams said.

Not long after the alleged incident, Williams said Trump sent her a handwritten postcard featuring his Mar-a-Lago estate that read, “Stacey — Your home away from home. Love Donald.” A photo of the postcard was shared with ABC News.

Two friends confirmed to ABC News in interviews that Williams told them years ago about the alleged incident with the former president. Longtime friend Allison Gutwillinger told ABC News in an interview that in 2015 Williams invited her over to her home to tell her about the alleged incident after Trump had announced his run for office.

“I came over to her house. There was a postcard on the kitchen counter, with what looked like Mar-a-Lago on the cover. I turned it over, and there was a handwritten note signed ‘Love Donald,'” Gutwillinger said. “She then told me he groped her in Trump Tower.”

‘Not a fan of his’

Trump eventually distanced himself from Epstein, who in 2019 died by suicide in prison while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Authorities say that, in the early 2000s, Epstein sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in New York and Florida, among other locations.

In 2002, Trump told New York magazine, “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy.”

“He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” Trump said at the time.

Epstein was questioned about his relationship with Trump during a March 2010 deposition in a civil suit against Epstein filed by some of Epstein’s victims.

Epstein answered, “Yes, sir,” when asked if he had socialized with Trump. When asked if he “ever socialized with Donald Trump in the presence of females under the age of 18” Epstein replied, “Though I’d like to answer that question, at least today I’m going to have to assert my Fifth, Sixth and 14th Amendment right, sir.”

By the time Epstein was charged in 2019, then-President Trump told reporters at the White House he was “not a fan of his, that I can tell you” and that he hadn’t “spoken to him in 15 years.”

A year later, Trump wished Ghislaine Maxwell “well” after being asked by a reporter if the longtime Epstein associate should reveal the names of powerful people who were associated with the serial sex offender.

“I don’t know,” Trump said. “I haven’t really been following it too much. I just wish her well, frankly.”

In 2021, Maxwell was convicted on five of six counts related to the abuse and trafficking of underage girls.

During Maxwell’s trial, flight logs released as evidence showed that Trump was listed as a passenger on Epstein’s private jets at least seven times: four times in 1993, once in 1994 and 1995, and a previously known time 1997.

At least 18 women have accused Trump of varying degrees of inappropriate behavior, including allegations of sexual harassment or sexual assault. During Trump’s first run for the White House, a 2005 video surfaced where he discussed groping women, in which Trump can be heard telling former “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush, “When you’re a star they let you do it.”

“I’m automatically attracted to beautiful women, I just start kissing them, it’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything,” Trump said, including “grab ’em by the p—-.”

Trump apologized at the time after the comments were made public, saying in a video, “Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am,” adding, “I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize.”

Trump has long vehemently denied all of the women’s accusations. In some cases, he and his team members have specifically denied individual accusations, but they have also repeatedly issued blanket denials against all the allegations, calling the women liars.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.