Category: National

(LOS ANGELES) — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has called for 2028 Los Angeles Olympics chair Casey Wasserman to step down following the release of the Hollywood mogul’s emails with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for child sex trafficking and other offenses.

Some flirtatious emails sent between Wasserman and Maxwell in 2003 surfaced through the Department of Justice’s release last month of millions of Epstein-related documents. They followed a previously known trip to Africa that Wasserman took on Epstein’s plane in 2002 alongside former President Bill Clinton for a humanitarian mission with the Clinton Foundation.

The LA28 Executive Committee of the Board said last week it stands by Wasserman after its review found that his relationship with Epstein and Maxwell “did not go beyond what has already been publicly documented.”

In an interview with CNN on Monday, Bass said she disagrees with the board.

“The board made a decision. I think that decision was unfortunate. I don’t support the decision,” Bass said. 

The mayor, who noted that she is not able to fire Wasserman, said she thinks that “we need to look at the leadership” of LA28 and that her job is to ensure the city is “completely prepared” to host the Summer Olympics.

Wasserman heads LA28, the organizing committee responsible for delivering the 2028 Games, including securing corporate sponsors and other funding. He was previously the LA Olympic Bid Committee president.

“My opinion is, is that he should step down,” Bass said. “That’s not the opinion of the board.”

ABC News has reached out to Wasserman’s spokesperson and LA28 for comment regarding Bass’ remarks and has not yet received a response.

Maxwell was convicted of child sex trafficking and other offenses in connection with Epstein in 2021.

In the newly publicized emails, sent nearly 20 years before Maxwell’s arrest, Wasserman told her in one exchange, “I think of you all the time… So what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?”

Since the emails came to light, Wasserman’s eponymous sports marketing and talent management company has lost several clients, including the singers Chappell Roan and Orville Peck and the former soccer player Abby Wambach.

Wasserman apologized for what he called his “past personal mistakes” in a message to his staff last week obtained by ABC News through his spokesperson.

“Hopefully by now you know the facts about my limited interactions with those two individuals,” he said. “It was years before their criminal conduct came to light, and, in its entirety, consisted of one humanitarian trip to Africa and a handful of emails that I deeply regret sending. And I’m heartbroken that my brief contact with them 23 years ago has caused you, this company, and its clients so much hardship over the past days and weeks.”

Wasserman said in his message to his staff that he believes he has become a “distraction” and has started the process to sell his company while he devotes his “full attention to delivering Los Angeles an Olympic Games in 2028 that is worthy of this outstanding city.”

The LA28 Executive Committee of the Board said last week that it “takes allegations of misconduct seriously” and conducted a review of Wasserman’s past interactions with Epstein and Maxwell with the help of outside counsel. 

“We found Mr. Wasserman’s relationship with Epstein and Maxwell did not go beyond what has already been publicly documented,” the board said in a statement, citing the 2002 flight to Africa on Epstein’s plane and the 2003 emails with Maxwell.   

“The Executive Committee of the Board has determined that based on these facts, as well as the strong leadership he has exhibited over the past ten years, Mr. Wasserman should continue to lead LA28 and deliver a safe and successful Games,” the board said.

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(GEORGIA) — In often tearful and painful testimony, students wounded in a 2024 mass shooting at a Georgia high school took the witness stand on Tuesday in the murder trial of the alleged gunman’s father.

As the defendant, 55-year-old Colin Gray, sat just feet away listening, the students recounted the horror they endured on Sept. 4, 2024, at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, allegedly at the hands of Gray’s then 14-year-old son, Colt.

Judge Nicholas Primm, who is presiding over the case, ordered the media not to show the students’ faces during the televised trial. The defense did not cross-examine any of the students who testified.

All of the students who testified Tuesday said they were in algebra teacher Cassandra Ryan’s class when they heard a loud bang outside their classroom door.

“I remember standing up and turning my back towards the door, and that’s when I saw him, Colt. He was pointing the weapon, just aiming anywhere, I guess,” testified Melany Delira-Castaneda, who was a freshman at the time of the shooting.

The now 16-year-old girl testified that she didn’t realize she had been shot until after the gunshots subsided.

“I remember standing up and I turned around. I didn’t know I was shot, but I was. My body was telling me to hold my arm, so I was holding my arm,” Delira-Castaneda testified. “I think I was just in shock and scared.”

She said she was shot in the shoulder.

“I feel like just seeing a lot of what I saw that day, it just sticks with me, and not being able to trust certain people,” Delira-Castaneda told the court.

Prosecutors called the students to testify in an effort to show what Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith described in his opening statement as the “horrific consequences” of the alleged actions or inaction Colin Gray took with his son leading up to the shooting.

Gray is the latest parent that prosecutors in various U.S. states have attempted to hold criminally culpable for their children’s alleged deadly actions.

The father is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Gray’s son, Colt, now 16, has been charged as an adult and is awaiting a separate trial on multiple counts of felony murder and aggravated assault. He has pleaded not guilty.

Killed in the shooting were math teacher and football coach Richard Aspinwall, 39; math teacher Cristina Irimie, 53; and students Mason Schermerhorn, 14, and Christian Angulo, 14, officials said.

Angulo was also in Ryan’s class when he was shot and killed.

“This case is about this defendant and his actions – his actions in allowing a child that he has custody over access to a firearm and ammunition after being warned that his child was going to harm others,” Smith said in his opening statement on Monday.

Prosecutors allege that despite repeatedly being warned about his son’s mental deterioration and that he was a danger to himself and others, Colin Gray gave the boy an AR-15-style rifle as a Christmas present and allowed him to keep the weapon propped against a wall in his bedroom. The rifle, prosecutors allege, was used in the mass shooting at Apalachee High School.

Nautica Walton, another student in Ryan’s algebra class on the day of the shooting, testified on Tuesday that when she heard a loud bang outside the classroom door, “I realized something was wrong.”

“I remember my teacher falling to the floor, and then Taylor, [a student] in front of me, I remember seeing her fall down before I turned around and saw there was somebody at the door with a weapon,” Nautica, now 16, testified.

She told the court that she got on the ground next to Melany Delira-Castaneda.

“I remember Melany, she had blood all on her arm. I remember her blood was getting on the side of me because I was lying on the side of her,” Walton testified.

Walton further testified that she was shot in the leg during the episode and recalled going in and out of consciousness.

“I remember my teacher telling me to stay awake because I was feeling really tired,” Walton said on the witness stand. “I remember Natalie [another student] lying on the floor, saying she was hit and crying with a big puddle of blood,” said Walton, adding that a classmate took off her jacket and wrapped it around her leg.

“And then I passed out after that,” she testified.

Walton also told the court that since the shooting, she has been unable to play sports and has been “very paranoid.”

“I don’t like being in front of doors at school. I don’t use the bathroom at school,” testified Walton, adding that she had nightmares for months after the shooting.

Student Taylor Jones, now 16, testified that when she realized she had been shot in the leg, she asked a classmate to hold her hand “because I was scared.”

She told the court that she remembers being on the classroom floor before she passed out and then waking up at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, where she was flown to by a medical helicopter.

Jones, a one-time volleyball player on her school team, told the court that she has since undergone multiple surgeries and has been unable to play sports.

Natalie Griffith, now 16, recalled to the court looking down at her hand during the shooting and seeing a hole and blood near her wrist.

“I didn’t know this at the time, but I had another one up on my shoulder,” she testified of a second bullet wound. “I was also worried that I was going to die and how that would affect my parents because my dad has a heart problem.”

Griffith told the court that as she was being carried out of the classroom, she saw Colt Gray on the floor being detained with his hands behind his back.

“I said a lot of curse words. I was very angry at the time because I thought they were going to have to amputate my hand,” Griffith testified. “I remember yelling at him that we were kids, because we were kids.”

Jaxxon Beaver, 16, another student in the algebra class, testified that he was also shot in the leg.

“I noticed that when I was hurt, I looked down and saw a hole in my shorts and noticed I was bleeding,” Beaver said on the stand.

Beaver further testified that he was unable to go to school for at least three months after the shooting, and eventually gave up on going back.

“Every time I went back to school, I would feel like something bad was going to happen again. I couldn’t wait and had to go home, like right after,” Beaver testified.

Ronaldo Vega, now 16, recalled to the court seeing Colt Gray at the door wearing yellow gloves and firing a rifle that had a scope.

“He shot, I don’t know how many times. I went down to duck,” Vega testified.

Vega testified that when the shooting stopped, he barricaded the classroom door with desks and chairs. He said he saw Christian Angulo curled up on the floor motionless near the door.

“A girl was screaming that he was dead,” Vega told the court.

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(NEW YORK) — Storms are hitting Southern California with heavy rain that flooded roads, as millions are on alert for damaging winds on Tuesday. Meanwhile, in the North, millions are preparing for a winter storm.

Heavy thunderstorms in Southern California brought 1 to 3 inches of rain to the area, with the highest elevations seeing more than 3 inches.

Damaging winds gusted between 50 and 70 mph during the strongest thunderstorms. The highest wind gust reported was 81 mph in the hills above Malibu. This toppled trees and caused roof damage. 

Issues popped up throughout the region, including flooded businesses in the Fairfax District, stranded drivers in Commerce, and a massive tree that fell on a car in Crestline, according to ABC News Los Angeles affiliate KABC.

A flood watch is in effect for the Santa Barbara and Los Angeles areas again Tuesday night due to the risk of flash flooding, debris flows and mudslides — especially in burn scar areas. 

Two more rounds of rain are expected across the Southern California area this week. The first is forecast to arrive Tuesday evening and continue overnight. The second is expected to arrive on Thursday morning to early afternoon. 

This rain will be shorter-lived and less impactful than Monday’s event. Winds will be calmer, too. An additional 0.5 to 2 inches is possible through Thursday.

It will remain dry and sunny, with a warming trend through the weekend before more rain arrives Monday through Wednesday of next week. 

In Sierra Nevada, heavy snow, strong winds and avalanche dangers have closed mountain roads and forced ski lodges to close as well.

The heavy snow will continue through the week, with snow accumulations of 4 to 8 feet through Friday.

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(WASHINGTON) — An 18-year-old man was apprehended after running toward the U.S. Capitol with a loaded shotgun, according to Capitol police.

Just after noon on Tuesday, the man parked a white Mercedes SUV, got out of the car and started running toward the Washington, D.C. building, Capitol Police Chief Michael Sullivan said at a news conference.

As he approached the building, officers with the Capitol police saw him and ordered him to drop the weapon, the chief said.

“He immediately complied,” Sullivan said, noting that the man put down the gun, got on the ground and was then taken into custody.

The man had additional rounds with him, as well as a tactical vest and tactical gloves, according to Sullivan. A Kevlar helmet and gas mask were found in his car, he added.

“Who knows what could’ve happened” if the officers were not standing guard, Sullivan said.

Officers cleared the area, which has since reopened, according to police.

“There does not appear to be any other suspects or ongoing threat,” authorities said.

Both chambers of Congress are out of session this week. 

A motive is not clear, Sullivan noted.

The man, who does not live in the area, was not known to Capitol police, he said.

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(NEW YORK) — Ian Maxwell, the brother of convicted Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, is speaking out on his sister’s ongoing effort to overturn her conviction, her recent Congressional deposition, her transfer to a federal prison camp in Texas, and more in a broad interview Tuesday with ABC News.

Ian Maxwell’s comments come a week after his sister invoked the Fifth Amendment during a closed-door virtual deposition before the House Oversight Committee last Monday, where she was asked questions about her relationship with Epstein and her involvement in the late sex offender’s criminal activity.

“The legal advice was absolutely clear. And you need to think about this quite carefully,” Ian Maxwell said of his sister’s decision to not answer the questions, reiterating that she did speak with United States Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in July.

“He asked her over two days of questioning several hundred questions. She didn’t fail to answer a single one of those,” he said.

During her interview with Blanche, a former personal attorney for President Donald Trump, Maxwell continued to deny any involvement in Epstein’s sexual exploitation and said she had not witnessed any wrongdoing by any other man — including Trump or former President Bill Clinton.  Maxwell was granted limited immunity for the interview as long as she answered questions truthfully.

Ian Maxwell also touched on the possibility of President Trump pardoning his sister, though he noted she had not asked Trump for a pardon. He said the idea that she could exonerate Trump and Clinton of any wrongdoing with her testimony was attributable to a former lawyer of Maxwell’s.

“Ghislaine has not asked President Trump for a pardon. The fact of the matter is that the Epstein scandal is being used by both sides of the aisle to beat the present president and the former president,” he said.

Ian Maxwell also discussed a petition pending in federal court in New York that seeks to overturn her conviction or reduce her sentence.

The petition alleges nine separate grounds — including juror misconduct and government suppression of evidence — for Ghislaine Maxwell’s contention that constitutional violations undermined the integrity of her 2021 trial.

“I am hopeful that the petition will reach the judge presiding over the petition based on the evidence, the evidentiary record,” he said.

In the interview, the British businessman addressed Ghislaine Maxwell’s transfer from a federal prison in Florida to a federal prison camp in Texas over the summer.

“Ghislaine is possibly the most notorious prisoner in the U.S. federal system today,” he said. “We know that prison is a very violent place. Jeffrey Epstein died. Ghislaine did have many threats in Tallahassee where she was. It was a notoriously violent and dangerous place for her own safety. She had to be moved.”

At the time of the move, the reason for the transfer was not made clear. FCI Tallahassee in Florida, where Maxwell had been held, is a “low security” prison for men and women, while FPC Bryan is a “minimum security” camp just for women.

Ian Maxwell disputed the idea that his sister was transferred as any sort of reward for protecting Trump.

“President Trump has not done anything wrong. You tell me, have you found anything wrong in the papers yet? I haven’t seen anything there,” he said regarding the recent release of Epstein files by the Justice Department.

Ian Maxwell also discussed the authenticity of a photograph of his sister with the former Prince Andrew and his late accuser Virginia Giuffre.

“I would maintain that Ghislaine continues to have tremendous doubt about the picture that was published and believes that it is not the original and may have been doctored in some way. We don’t know,” said Ian Maxwell, who backs his sister’s stance that she was not responsible for introducing the former prince to Epstein.

Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted in December 2021 on five of six counts related to the abuse and trafficking of underage girls. In his interview, Ian Maxwell maintained that his sister “did not receive a fair trial” and said that “the verdict is deeply unsafe.”

Ian Maxwell was asked to elaborate on claims made in Ghislaine Maxwell’s pending petition that as many as 25 other men settled claims privately with Epstein accusers.

“The only person who is in jail, the only person whose been tried and found guilty is a woman, my sister,” Ian Maxwell said. “All of these men have disappeared into the ether.”

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(NEW YORK) — The United States military says it hit three more vessels suspected of carrying drugs in the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean Sea, killing 11 men.

U.S. Southern Command says in an online post that the vessels were traveling along drug-trafficking routes and “engaged in narco-trafficking.”  A video accompanying the strike shows the three separate strikes.

Officials said four men were killed in the strike on the first vessel in the Eastern Pacific, four on the second vessel in the Eastern Pacific and three on the third vessel in the Caribbean.

No U.S. military forces were harmed, according to SOUTHCOM.

According to the government’s count, the U.S. has killed a total of 144 people in the strikes, which are now being led by U.S. Southern Command Gen. Francis Donovan.

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(WASHINGTON) — A person with what appeared to be a gun was arrested near the front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., according to Capitol police.

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

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(NEW YORK) — As Khelin Marcano was preparing for her routine scheduled appointment with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in December, she debated packing a bag full of her 1-year-old daughter’s clothes. While she and her husband had been attending appointments without issue, she knew others were being detained at government buildings by immigration authorities.

“When they told us we were being detained, it felt like we already knew, all along,” Marcano told ABC News.

The family, including 1-year-old Amalia, was quickly sent from El Paso to Texas’ Dilley immigration detention center, where they were detained for 60 days — joining hundreds of other families that the government has held for durations that advocates say exceed the limits established by federal court rulings.

Those restrictions stem from the Flores Settlement, a 1997 legal agreement that a federal court has interpreted to mean that the government generally should not hold children in immigration custody for more than 20 days.

As of last month, there were about 1,400 people being held at Dilley, including children and parents, according to RAICES, a legal immigrant advocacy group. The facility was closed during the Biden administration and was re-opened last year as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown ramped up. 

The 60 days that Marcano, her husband Stiven Prieto, and their daughter were held there is three times the general legal limit permitted by the settlement.

“The Trump administration is holding children and families in detention for prolonged periods of time, weeks, months,” Elora Mukherjee, the family’s lawyer, told ABC News. “Children and families at the Dilley facility don’t have access to sufficient clean drinking water, where they don’t have access to sufficient nutritious food, [and] don’t have access to adequate medical care.

‘Why does this happen to us?’
The family entered the U.S. using the Biden-era Customs and Border Protection app in 2024, according to court documents. They were processed and granted parole to live in the country while applying for asylum. The family was released last week after their 60-day detention and their first court date is scheduled for 2027, according to their attorney.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said the family “was released into the country under the Biden administration,” and confirmed their detention.

“For years, the Flores consent decree has been a tool of the left to promote an open borders agenda,” the DHS spokesperson said. “It is long overdue for a single district in California to stop managing the Executive Branch’s immigration functions. The Trump administration is committed to restoring common sense to our immigration system.”

Early on during their detention, the family says 1-year-old Amalia developed a persistent fever. Marcano told ABC News that despite her repeated pleas for medication, the medical staff dismissed the symptoms.

“The doctor told me that fever was a good sign because it meant she was actively fighting a virus,” Marcano said in Spanish. “I got really upset … and told her that whatever the case was, a fever is not a good thing. If she didn’t know that fever could kill people, or that fever could cause convulsions, fever would never be good.”

In a habeas petition Marcano filed against the government, she and her attorney claimed the Dilley facility lacked basic hygiene and nutrition, and that they saw bugs in the food. They alleged that the tap water smelled so strongly of chlorine that the family spent their limited funds on bottled water for their daughter. 

Marcano told ABC News that at one point during their detention, Amalia seemed to lose her strength and collapsed in her arms.

“I grabbed her and I dressed her and I took her back to the clinic, and I began to argue with the doctors, asking who would be responsible for my daughter if something happened to her,” Marcano said.

Marcano said it was only then that staff at Dilley transported her and Amalia by ambulance to a regional hospital, and later to a larger hospital in San Antonio. The 1-year-old was diagnosed with COVID-19 and a respiratory virus.  according to the family and their habeas petition.

According to Marcano’s complaint, hospital staff provided her with a nebulizer and Albuterol to treat Amalia’s respiratory distress — but when they returned to the Dilley facility, the staff immediately confiscated both the nebulizer and the medication.

“They took her treatment away,” Marcano said. “Why does this happen to us if we have done everything right? I was begging the officers to please help me get out of there, and no one listened to me.”

The family was released together shortly after they filed a habeas petition. Marcano told ABC News that, while inside the facility, she met families with pregnant women and saw children as young as 2 months old.

Long-term effects
Several immigrant advocates and attorneys told ABC News that the Trump administration is keeping children and families who are seeking asylum and other forms of legal relief in prolonged detention.

In Minneapolis, where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was detained along with his father on their way home from school last month, local school officials told ABC News that immigration authorities had detained four other students from the district. One of them, 11-year-old Elizabeth Zuna Caisaguano, was detained along with her mother for more than one month, according to the family’s attorney, Bobby Painter.

“They were pulled over by ICE and pulled out of their car, thrown on an airplane and sent to Dilley, all in the span of maybe 24 hours,” the attorney said.

Some families have been held for months, attorneys told ABC News.

“The effects of detention are long-term on children,” Mukherjee, Marcano’s attorney, told ABC News. “Children who are with their parents and who are safe with their parents should never be detained when it’s not in a child’s best interest.”

The DHS, in a statement, said “being in detention is a choice.”

“We encourage all parents to take control of their departure with the CBP Home App,” the spokesperson said. “The United States is offering illegal aliens $2,600 and a free flight to self-deport now.”

Since being released, Marcano said her daughter hardly cries at night anymore like she did when they were at the detention center.

“We’re feeling very good and thank god for his blessings,” she told ABC News. “We’re still a little on edge about what we were planning to do given everything ahead. So we’re left here thinking about what is going to happen to us and that gives us a bit of fear.”

“Are they going to leave us alone?” Marcano said. “That’s what we hope, but we don’t know.”

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(CHICAGO) — A Chicago teen who fought for her father’s release from immigration detention while she was battling stage 4 cancer, has died, a representative for her family says.

Ofelia Torres died Friday at age 16, according to the family representative. The cause of death was metastatic alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma — a rare and aggressive form of cancer.

Torres grabbed the national spotlight last fall after her undocumented father, Ruben Torres-Maldonado, was detained by immigration agents during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz.” Torres posted a video on social media calling for his release, and was also interviewed on ABC News’ “Nightline.”

A representative for Torres’ family said that just three days before she died, an immigration judge ruled that her father was conditionally entitled to receive cancellation of removal, which could provide a pathway to a green card. Torres watched the hearing virtually, the family said.

In the “Nightline” interview last fall, Torres said she initially tried to keep her cancer diagnosis private, but said she was speaking out to defend her father. 

“I need the world to know my dad’s story and if that means letting the world know I have cancer, so be it. I don’t care,” she said. “I need my dad.”

In a statement, Kalman Resnick, the attorney representing Torres’ father, said: “Ofelia was heroic and brave in the face of ICE’s detention and threatened deportation of her father. We mourn Ofelia’s passing, and we hope that she will serve as a model for us all for how to be courageous and to fight for what’s right to our last breaths.”

Torres-Maldonado was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at a Home Depot in Niles, Illinois, outside Chicago on Oct. 18 before being released on bond about two weeks later.

Resnick, who represented Torres-Maldonado, told reporters at a press conference last fall that federal agents surrounded Torres-Maldonado’s truck, smashed a window and dragged him into a vehicle at gunpoint. 

At the time, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin alleged that Torres-Maldonado had backed into a government vehicle while attempting to flee. 

DHS maintained Torres-Maldonado was a “criminal illegal alien” with a history of  driving without insurance, driving without a valid license and speeding.

In the “Nightline” interview Torres said that despite how her father was treated, she had “nothing but love” for the federal agents who arrested her father.

“To the ICE agents who smashed my dad’s window, to the ICE agent who pointed a gun at my dad, I’m not mad at you … I just want you to know that that was not the right thing to do,” she told ABC News’ Stephanie Ramos.

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