Category: National

(NEW YORK) — The family of Malcolm X, the Black resistance leader who was assassinated in 1965, has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the U.S. government, they announced Friday.

Ilyasah Shabazz, Malcolm X’s daughter, who represented her family at a New York City press conference, and her lawyers claim that they have uncovered new evidence that they believe will prove that the NYPD and FBI conspired to kill Malcolm X.

“We fought primarily for our mother, who was here,” Ilyasah Shabazz said of Betty Shabazz, who died in 1997, from the site of the former Audubon Ballroom, where her father was killed. “My mother was pregnant when she came here to see her husband speak; someone who she just admired totally and to witness this horrific assassination of her husband …”

Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965, at the age of 39. He was shot a total of 21 times by a group of men in front of his wife and daughters.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family, said that the lawsuit alleges authorities engaged in a decades-long cover-up that deprived Malcolm X and his family of justice. The suit seeks accountability for the harm caused by the alleged unlawful and unconstitutional actions of these agencies and individuals.

According to the complaint, Mustafa Hassan, a witness to Malcolm X’s killing, revealed that when he and others tried to apprehend one of the alleged shooters, it appeared to him that the NYPD officers at the scene tried to help the shooter escape.

Lawyers representing the family said that authorities never bothered to take a statement from Hassan even though it was allegedly clear that he was present during the assassination, implying that law enforcement willfully neglected to conduct a proper investigation.

Attorneys also claim to have sworn affidavits from two of Malcolm X’s former personal security guards. They were allegedly entrapped and jailed by an undercover NYPD officer a week before Malcolm X’s death to ensure the assassination was successful, according to attorneys.

The NYPD declined to comment on the allegations due to the pending litigation.

The family’s lawyers said that there were nine FBI informants in the ballroom the day Malcolm X was killed. One of the shooters was heavily connected to the FBI and received favors by authorities after the assassination, according to attorneys.

Lawyers said a New York FBI special agent sent a letter to J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI director at the time, in December 1964 calling for extra surveillance of Malcolm X’s activities, since the Black resistance activist allegedly intended to have the oppression of Black Americans brought before the United Nations. About two months later, Malcolm X was assassinated.

According to The Washington Post, The FBI’s COINTELPRO, an acronym for Counter Intelligence Program, operated in secrecy for decades as investigators surveilled organizations and individuals that they deemed a threat to American interests. Targets of the program included civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and former Illinois Black Panther Party Deputy Chairman Fred Hampton.

The FBI did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for a statement.

Muhammad Abdul Aziz and Khalil Islam were originally convicted in the murder of Malcolm X but later exonerated in the 1965 assassination. They received a $36 million settlement in October 2022 after lawsuits were filed on their behalf in 2021 against both the city and the state of New York.

New York City agreed to pay $26 million in settling a lawsuit filed on behalf of Aziz and also Islam, who was exonerated posthumously in the killing. Meanwhile, the state of New York also agreed to pay an additional $10 million.

“I’m grateful on behalf of my sisters,” Ilyasah Shabazz said. “To stand here with a competent, ethical group of experts, legal experts, as we seek justice for the assassination of our father.”

ABC News’ Deena Zaru contributed to this report.

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(AUSTIN, Texas) — The execution of Robert Roberson — whose “shaken baby syndrome” murder conviction in the death of his 2-year-old daughter has come under scrutiny — can resume, according to a Texas Supreme Court decision Friday.

Roberson was set to become the first person in the U.S. executed for a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis murder conviction on Oct. 17 before the court intervened and a state House committee issued a subpoena for Roberson, halting the execution amid legal battles over his fate.

Roberson’s execution warrant was only valid through Oct. 17.

Roberson was found guilty of the 2002 murder of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki, in part based on the testimony of a pediatrician who described swelling and hemorrhages in her brain to support a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis.

However, Roberson’s legal team argued that newer evidence found that Nikki had pneumonia and had been prescribed respiratory-suppressing drugs by doctors in the days leading up to her death, leading to a case of severe viral and bacterial pneumonia that progressed to sepsis and then septic shock.

Roberson has long proclaimed his innocence. His fight for clemency has been backed by several state lawmakers, medical and scientific experts, and criminal justice advocates who have questioned the legitimacy of the use of the shaken baby syndrome diagnosis in his case, based on newer scientific evidence.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and other state officials have argued that “Roberson was lawfully sentenced to death” and that he has “exhausted every legally available appellate avenue.”

Paxton also argued that the jury did not convict Roberson solely based on shaken baby syndrome, though Roberson’s attorneys said that “shaken baby” was referred to by prosecutors and witnesses throughout the jury trial.

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(BURBANK, Calif.) — A woman is facing felony charges after she allegedly was hired as a nurse at several California hospitals using “a variety of false identities” despite not having a nursing license, according to the Burbank Police Department.

Amanda Leeann Porter, 44, allegedly impersonated a registered nurse at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. She allegedly applied for and obtained a nursing job at the medical center and was overseeing about 60 patients from April 8 to May 8, according to police.

Hospital staff then soon discovered she was impersonating a real registered nurse who lived out of state, according to police.

By the time she was terminated from the hospital, she had received two paychecks, police said.

She does not hold a nursing license and is on federal probation for a fraud violation committed in Virginia, police said.

During their investigation, police discovered she had previously obtained employment with various local hospitals using a variety of false identities, police said.

Porter was arrested on Nov. 7 after she bonded out of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s custody for a similar act committed at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Santa Clarita, police said.

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged Porter with felony identity theft, felony false impersonation and felony grand theft.

She was arraigned on Wednesday and is currently being held without bail at the Los Angeles County Central Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, police said.

Police believe she may have committed similar offenses in the Southern California area over the past year and are asking anyone with information to come forward.

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(COLUMBUS, OH) — A transgender bathroom ban has been sent to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk after passing through the state legislature.

The bill would require students in the state’s K-12 schools, as well as colleges and universities, to use the restroom or facility that aligns with their gender assigned at birth. The bill notes that it is not intended to prevent schools from building single-occupancy facilities and does not ban someone of the opposite gender from entering to help another person.

The Republican-backed bill passed 60-31 in the House and passed on party lines in the Senate, 24-7.

Supporters say their concerns lie in student’s privacy and protection.

“It protects our children and grandchildren in private spaces where they are most vulnerable. It is us using our legislative authority to ensure schools are, in fact, safe environments. After all, bathrooms, showers, changing rooms should all be safe places for our students,” said Republican state Sen. Jerry C. Cirino ahead of the bill’s passage.

Critics of the bill say that the bill is creating unfounded concerns about transgender students and may instead put trans students in danger of discrimination or violence.

“I am in disbelief that this is a top priority on our first session back from recess,” said Senate Democratic Leader Nickie J. Antonio in an online statement “There are so many other issues we should be working on. There should be no exception to liberty and justice for all, yet here we are telling our children that there are people who are less than. This bill is not about bathrooms. It’s about demonizing those who are different, and our children are watching and listening to the fearmongering.”

Several medical organizations, including the American Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatrics, have opposed policies preventing transgender individuals from accessing restrooms consistent with their gender identity.

DeWine, a Republican, has gone against state Republican legislators on transgender issues before. He vetoed a transgender youth care ban bill, which would have restricted gender-affirming puberty blockers, hormone therapy, or surgeries.

“These are gut-wrenching decisions that should be made by the parents and should be informed by teams of doctors who are advising them,” said DeWine, adding that he did not find any families or hospitals who were seeking or allowing surgeries for youth. “These are parents who have watched the child suffer sometimes for years and have real concerns that their child may not survive.”

DeWine’s office declined ABC News’ request for comment on the bill. He told reporters this past summer that he has to look at “specific language” in the legislation.

“I’m for people, kids, to be able to go to the bathroom with the gender assignment so that they have that protection, but I’ll have to look at the specific language,” DeWine told reporters .

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(ATHENS, Ga.) — A bench trial is set to begin Friday for the suspect accused of murdering 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia’s campus.

The suspect, Jose Ibarra, waived his right to a jury trial this week. Judge H. Patrick Haggard granted the defense’s motion for the bench trial on Tuesday, a day before jury selection had been scheduled to begin.

The case will now be presented in the Athens-Clarke County courtroom to Haggard, who will render a verdict.

Ibarra, 26, faces a minimum sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty to malice murder, felony murder and other offenses.

Police have said they believe Ibarra — a migrant from Venezuela who officials said illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 — did not know Riley and that this was a “crime of opportunity.”

Riley’s brutal death became a rallying cry for immigration reform from many conservatives, including President-elect Donald Trump. Trump mentioned her by name as recently as Nov. 3 when he campaigned in Macon, Georgia, in a final pitch to voters in the battleground state.

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.

Ibarra 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 denied a motion seeking to sever that charge from the case.

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

Ibarra has been held without bond at the Clarke County Jail since his arrest on Feb. 23.

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(NEW YORK) — An American Airlines flight had to “perform an expedited climb” in order to avoid a mountain during a routine departure out of Hawaii on Wednesday.

The plane had just departed from Honolulu International Airport and was on its way to Los Angeles International Airport.

Air traffic control can be heard telling the pilot “turn right and expedite your climb through terrain” on audio from the flight provided by LIVEATC.NET.

According to a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration, “An air traffic controller instructed American Airlines Flight 298 to perform an expedited climb after the crew did not make the assigned turn while departing from Honolulu International Airport.”

The FAA’s statement continued, “The controller’s actions ensured the aircraft remained safely above nearby terrain.”

“The safety of our customers and team members is our top priority,” American Airlines said in a statement.

“During the climb out of Honolulu on November 13, the crew of American Airlines flight 298 requested and received right-turn clearance and complied with controller instructions. There was no Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) alert as there were no issues with terrain clearance based on the trajectory of the aircraft,” the statement continued.

The incident occurred around 1 a.m. local time on Wednesday.

The FAA will continue to investigate.

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(WASHINGTON) — A former NFL linebacker who played for the Detroit Lions faces charges for allegedly engaging in a series of assaults on law enforcement during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, court records show.

Leander Antwione Williams, 31, was arrested Thursday in what appears to be the first newly filed Capitol breach case brought by federal prosecutors since Election Day.

His charges include assaulting officers, civil disorder and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, according to a criminal complaint filed last week.

Williams was a fifth-round draft pick for the Detroit Lions in 2016 and also played linebacker for the XFL’s DC Defenders, according to public reports.

In the charging document, which was unsealed Thursday following his arrest in Savannah, Georgia, prosecutors detailed how Williams allegedly joined the pro-Trump mob in engaging in several violent skirmishes with officers attempting to protect the Capitol.

In one instance, Williams was captured on police body camera footage pulling bike racks away from a police line and then striking an officer on the head, according to the complaint. Another video showed Williams grabbing and pulling against two officers who appeared to be trying to push him away, according to the complaint.

Williams was ultimately identified by the FBI following a series of tips submitted dating back to December of 2022, according to the complaint. Agents ultimately confirmed his identity in photos with the help of a signature key fob that he was seen wearing on his belt loop during the riot that they cross-referenced with other pictures from his social media profiles, according to the complaint.

Williams has not entered a plea to the felony charges he currently faces and did not have an attorney listed representing him as of Thursday afternoon.

His arrest is further evidence that the Justice Department plans to continue its prosecution of individuals found to have carried out assaults during the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol despite the election of former President Donald Trump, who has stated his intention to issue pardons or commute the sentences for his followers who joined in the attack once he takes office in January.

Prosecutors from the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s office have spent the past week arguing against a wave of filings from Jan. 6 defendants seeking to delay their cases in the hopes they’ll be pardoned once Trump enters office. In most, but not all instances, those requests have fallen flat with judges overseeing their cases.

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(NEW YORK) — The FBI searched the New York City home of Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan as part of a criminal investigation into the election betting platform, law enforcement sources told ABC News.

The investigation, at least in part, involves whether Polymarket violated a prior settlement with the U.S. government by allowing American-based users access to its platform.

The 2022 settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission required Polymarket to pay a $1.4 million penalty for operating an illegal unregistered “event markets” that allowed users to bet on events taking place in the future, such as who will win a presidential election.

Coplan posted on X, “It’s discouraging that the current administration would seek a last-ditch effort to go after companies they deem to be associated with political opponents.”

He added that the company is “deeply committed to being non-partisan.”

Polymarket correctly predicted Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election last week.

“This is obvious political retribution by the outgoing administration against Polymarket for providing a market that correctly called the 2024 presidential election, ” a company spokesman added. “Polymarket is a fully transparent prediction market that helps everyday people better understand the events that matter most to them, including elections. We charge no fees, take no trading positions, and allow observers from around the world to analyze all market data as a public good.”

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(NEW YORK) — Across hours of podcast and television interviews, Army veteran and Fox News host Pete Hegseth has articulated his plan for a “frontal assault” to reform the Department of Defense from the top down, including by purging “woke” generals, limiting women from some combat roles, eliminating diversity goals and utilizing the “real threat of violence” to reassert the United States as a global power.

As President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for the Secretary of Defense, Hegseth, 44, could have the chance to implement that vision, commanding the country’s more than a million active duty soldiers.

An infantry officer in the U.S. Army National Guard, Hegseth deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan before leaving the service with the rank of major, according to military records. Hegseth has worked for Fox News since 2014, where he co-hosts “FOX & Friends Weekend.” Once a critic of Trump’s foreign policy and military stances during Trump’s 2016 campaign, Hegseth grew to become one of Trump’s fiercest on-air defenders.

“Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First. With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice – Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down,” Trump said announcing the nomination.

A New York Times best-selling author, Hegseth has frequently commented on military policy and suggested one of his first orders of business would be firing any generals who supported the Pentagon’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

“First of all, you got to fire the Chairman Joint of the Chiefs and obviously going to bring in a new Secretary of Defense, but any general that was involved — general, admiral, whatever — that was involved in, any of the DEI woke s—, has got to go,” Hegseth said during a recent interview on the “Shawn Ryan Show” podcast. “Either you’re in for warfighting, and that’s it. That’s the only litmus test we care about.”

Hegseth had preemptively defended the move, saying it would be a return to normalcy for soldiers rather than a “MAGA takeover.”

While Hegseth has described countries like Russia and China as threats, he has framed the military’s biggest threat as an internal one, arguing that “wokeness” divided the military internally and created an issue that adversaries can exploit.

“I think our biggest threat is internal. I think we’re committing cultural suicide, and we’ve lost complete focus on the basics and building blocks of what made Western civilization in America exceptional, fruitful, prosperous, strong, free,” Hegseth said on the podcast.

Hegseth has proposed a wholesale purge of military officials who have supported DEI policies, urging a “frontal assault right back at what’s been done to this military from the top and to the bottom.”

“The dumbest phrase on planet Earth in the military is our diversity is our strength,” Hegseth said on the podcast, arguing that uniformity between soldiers is a key to the military’s strength.

“Every time I hear a military leader say [diversity is our strength], I throw up in my mouth a little bit more, because if they believe it, it shows you how sideways and how indoctrinated they are,” Hegseth said on “The Right Take With Mark Tapson” podcast.

While 17.5% of active-duty military personnel are women, Hegseth has argued that military leaders should acknowledge that their main constituency is “strong, normal men,” rebuffing efforts to diversify the ranks of the armed services.

“There aren’t enough lesbians in San Francisco to staff the 82nd Airborne like you need, you need the boys in Kentucky and Texas and North Carolina and Wisconsin,” Hegseth said on Tapson’s podcast earlier this year.

Hegseth was on the “Take It Outside with Jay Cutler and Sam Mackey” podcast and said that transgender soldiers are “not deployable” because they are “reliant on chemicals” and suggested that women should not serve in certain combat roles.

“Everything about men and women serving together makes the situation more complicated, and complication in combat means casualties are worse,” Hegseth said on Ryan’s podcast, arguing that men are “more capable” in combat roles because of biological factors.

An ardent defender of the president-elect, Hegseth has argued that the United States military under Trump was more effective by posing both “uncertainty” and the “real threat of violence.”

“At least under Trump, there were missiles falling on terrorists’ heads,” Hegseth said on the “Man of War” podcast with Rafa Conde. “They knew he meant business. Kim Jong Un, even though it didn’t work, knew Trump meant business. Fire and fury was a real thing. Uncertainty is a real thing. The real threat of violence is a real thing, and none of that exists under these globalists who think they can sanction their way.”

He has also criticized international institutions like the United Nations as a “farce” and “giant joke” while advocating a military policy that aims to end long-term conflicts through decisive action.

“We expect this clinically sanitized, you know, no civilian casualties. Everything’s going to be perfect. No one’s going to get hurt, everything. It’s just not how war operates, and that’s unfortunate,” Hegseth said on “The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe” podcast. “But if we try to do it with kid gloves or with surgical gloves, we’re never really going to get rid of, actually exterminate the enemies that we need to defeat to create a peace on the other side.”

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(NEW YORK) — The satirical website The Onion purchased InfoWars on Thursday, a capstone on years of litigation and bankruptcy proceedings following InfoWars founder Alex Jones’ defamation of families associated with the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

Those families backed The Onion’s bid to purchase InfoWars’ intellectual property, including its website, customer lists and inventory, certain social media accounts and the production equipment used to put Jones on the air. The Connecticut families agreed to forgo a portion of their recovery to increase the overall value of The Onion’s bid, enabling its success.

The families said the purchase would put an end to Jones’ misinformation campaign.

“We were told this outcome would be nearly impossible, but we are no strangers to impossible fights. The world needs to see that having a platform does not mean you are above accountability — the dissolution of Alex Jones’ assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for,” said Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie was killed in the Sandy Hook shooting.

In 2022, the families that brought the case against Jones in Connecticut secured a $1.4 billion verdict in their defamation lawsuit. A Texas bankruptcy court ruled on the liquidation of Jones’ assets in June of this year, handing over control to an independent trustee tasked with selling them off to generate the greatest possible value for the families.

“From day one, these families have fought against all odds to bring true accountability to Alex Jones and his corrupt business. Our clients knew that true accountability meant an end to Infowars and an end to Jones’ ability to spread lies, pain and fear at scale. After surviving unimaginable loss with courage and integrity, they rejected Jones’ hollow offers for allegedly more money if they would only let him stay on the air because doing so would have put other families in harm’s way,” said Chris Mattei, attorney for the Connecticut plaintiffs and partner at Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder.

Jones had filed for bankruptcy last year in a bid to avoid paying the billion-dollar judgment, but a judge ruled he still had to settle with the Sandy Hook families.

Bankruptcy often staves off legal judgments but not if they are the result of willful and malicious injury. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston decided that standard was satisfied in Jones’ case.

“[I]n Jones’s case, the language of the jury instruction confirms that the damages awarded flow from the allegation of intent to harm the Plaintiffs – not allegations of recklessness,” Lopez wrote in his ruling.

Jones had claimed on his InfoWars show that the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School — which killed 26 people, including 20 elementary students — was performed by actors following a script written by government officials to bolster the push for gun control.

ABC News’ Max Zahn contributed to this report.

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