Category: National

(WASHINGTON) — Over the weekend, the former chief of staff of the Justice Department — who was one of Attorney General Pam Bondi’s top advisers during her first seven months on the job — issued a public call for lawyers who “support President Trump” to join the Justice Department’s ranks.

In a post on X, the former chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, seemed to suggest he could help such applicants become career federal prosecutors — who by law are supposed to be apolitical.

“DM me,” Mizelle wrote, referring to direct messages sent privately to him. “We need good prosecutors.”

Forty minutes later, one of President Donald Trump’s top policy advisers, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, reposted Mizelle’s message, adding, “Patriots needed.” And then on Monday, the current U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jason Reding Quinones, also reposted Mizelle’s message, saying, “We are hiring!”

There are political appointees within the Justice Department, including certain leaders based in Washington and the U.S. attorneys who oversee offices around the country — but the assistant U.S. attorneys, or AUSAs, who investigate and prosecute cases in those offices are supposed to be nonpolitical and nonpartisan.

Appearing on a conservative podcast on Monday, Mizelle said he has received “hundreds and hundreds of inquiries already” from lawyers looking to become AUSAs. But his posting, and the subsequent promotion of it by current senior government officials, has roiled some former federal prosecutors on both sides of the political spectrum.

“We shouldn’t have a favorite politician in the Justice Department; we should have a favorite document, and that’s the Constitution,” former prosecutor Perry Carbone told ABC News.

Carbone, who spent more than three decades as a federal prosecutor and until May was the chief of the criminal division at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, said that Mizelle’s post has “generated a lot of discussion” among former federal prosecutors, who are concerned about its implications.

“It’s dangerous,” he said of what the post could mean. “The day that Department of Justice lawyers are hired based on loyalty to a person … is the day the rest of us should get very nervous.”

He said the message in Mizelle’s post — and the reposts by Reding Quinones and Miller — “flatly contradict” federal laws and regulations pertaining to the hiring of career federal employees.

He cited federal laws, including the Civil Service Reform Act, that specifically prohibit favoring or discriminating against applicants for federal civil-service jobs based on their “political affiliation.”

“The law is very clear,” Carbone said.

He also cited the Justice Department’s own manual, which says, “All personnel decisions regarding career positions in the Department must be made without regard to the applicant’s or occupant’s partisan affiliation.”

“Efforts to influence personnel decisions concerning career positions on partisan grounds should be reported to the Deputy Attorney General,” the manual states.

Andy McCarthy, a conservative commentator and frequent Trump critic who himself served as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York for nearly two decades, also blasted Mizelle’s post.

“If support for [the current] president is now a condition of enforcing federal law, Congress should defund DOJ. DOJ should only exist if it’s nonpartisan. Too dangerous to liberty otherwise,” McCarthy wrote.

“If AG Garland’s office had posted this, MAGA & GOP would be calling for impeachment,” he added, referring to Merrick Garland, the Biden administration’s attorney general.

Appearing on former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s podcast Monday, Mizelle defended his post, saying that Article II of the Constitution explicitly states that “all executive power shall be vested in a president of the United States,” so “any time an executive branch officer is using executive power — an AUSA indicting somebody or … bringing criminal evidence against somebody — all of that is executive power that’s included.”

Mizelle said that when he was working for Bondi last year, his “job as chief of staff” was to “root out a lot of this stuff,” so, “On Day 1 we dismissed about 100 people who we thought were working against Donald J. Trump,” and then “thousands” more left.

“That’s how government should work. It should work that if you can’t follow the wishes of the duly elected president of the United States, then you need to leave. And all we’re looking for now are people who want to follow his agenda,” Mizelle said.

But Carbone said he rejects Mizelle’s analysis of the Constitution and the work of federal prosecutors under changing administrations. While policies may change, prosecutors “have to exercise independent professional judgment, not political obedience,” he said.

That’s underscored by a 2008 report from the Justice Department’s inspector general, who launched an investigation at the time into allegations that the Justice Department under President George W. Bush had been improperly using political affiliations to screen candidates for an apolitical summer internship program and a program that hired recent law graduates without prior legal experience.

In his report, the inspector general noted that “both DOJ policy and civil service law prohibit discrimination in hiring for DOJ career positions on the basis of political affiliations,” and said courts have considered “political affiliation” to include “commonality of political purpose, partisan activity, and political support.”

After his office’s investigation, the inspector general concluded that two political appointees in the department “took political or ideological affiliations into account in deselecting candidates in violation of Department policy and federal law.”

As for Mizelle’s recent post, Carbone said it is “just another symptom” afflicting a Justice Department that “has been building this reputation of independence for 50 years, since Watergate, and now here we are in a place where we’ve taken a giant step back.”

Mark Rotert, an AUSA in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago during the 1980s and 1990s, who was also on his office’s hiring committee, agreed, calling Mizelle’s post “disgraceful.”

“It never would have occurred to us to explore what the candidate’s views were about the president, or what kind of job the president is doing,” Rotert said of his time on the hiring committee. “Partisan politics were never considered a relevant or even an appropriate discussion point.”

Carbone also said that while Mizelle may not work at the Justice Department anymore, the boost it received from Miller, a senior White House official, and Reding Quinones, a U.S. attorney, shows how connected Mizelle still is — or at the least how his message “is supported by high-level people in the Justice Department.”

Mizelle’s post comes as the Justice Department faces increasing pressure over its handling of a wide array of politically charged matters, including firing prosecutors and investigators who were involved in previous Trump-related investigations; filing federal charges against or otherwise investigating many of President Trump’s political enemies; failing to initially investigate the officer who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis last month; and most recently last week’s FBI seizure of ballots and other records related to the 2020 election from an elections office in Fulton County, Georgia.

A Justice Department spokesman did not respond to a message from ABC News seeking comment. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida also did not respond to a message seeking comment from ABC News.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The two brothers of Renee Good, the 37-year-old Minneapolis woman killed by a federal immigration officer in January, spoke on Capitol Hill Tuesday, telling lawmakers of the effect their sister’s death had on their family.

“The deep distress our family feels because of Renee’s loss in such a violent and unnecessary way is complicated by feelings of disbelief, distress and desperation for change,” said one brother, Luke Ganger.

Luke and Brent Ganger’s remarks were part of a special public forum organized by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Robert Garcia of D-Calif., as part of an inquiry into the tactics and use of force by Department of Homeland Security agents.

Good’s killing intensified protests in Minneapolis that have continued into this month and were compounded by the fatal federal agent-involved shooting of Alex Pretti.

The Department of Homeland Security has said that agents in the interaction with Good acted in self-defense after Good tried to ram them with her car in an act of “domestic terrorism.” Local and state officials have disputed federal officials’ claims.

Good, a Minneapolis mother of three, was in the driver’s seat of her Honda Pilot in the middle of a residential street when an ICE agent opened fire. 

Luke Ganger said his family initially took “consolation” that Good’s death “would bring change in our country. And it has not.”

“The completely surreal scenes taking place on the streets of Minneapolis are beyond explanation. This is not just a bad day or a rough week or isolated incidents. These encounters with federal agents are changing the community and changing many lives, including ours, forever,” he said.

He added that Good’s wider family could serve as an example to the rest of the country as it represents “a very American blend” of different faiths and political affiliations. Yet despite their differences, family members “treat each other with love and respect.”

Brent Ganger read portions of the eulogy he gave at Good’s funeral. He described Good as an “unapologetically hopeful” person whose children “were and are her heart … she made sure they felt safe and valued and endlessly loved.”

“She had a way to make you feel you were understood, even if you don’t have words yet. She believed in second chances. She believed tomorrow can be better than today,” he said. “When things were hard, Renee looked for the light.”

Sen. Blumenthal called the hearing “extraordinary and unprecedented” because Good and Pretti were “murdered by their own government” and “were killed in cold blood.”

He called for a complete overhaul of DHS and a revamping of policies, resulting in bodycams for each ICE agent, “masks off all the time,” and additional training and monitoring for all officers.

“These stories are not just about Minneapolis,” he said. “The nation is Minneapolis. We are all Minneapolis. These stories are a call to action.”

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Savannah Guthrie’s friends and colleagues are offering their support as the search continues for the “Today” show host’s mom, Nancy Guthrie, who investigators say appears to have been kidnapped from her Arizona home.

The 84-year-old was last seen Saturday night, and investigators believe she was abducted in her sleep early Sunday morning, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said. A motive is not known, with Sheriff Chris Nanos saying Tuesday, “We’re looking at all leads.” 

Savannah Guthrie’s “Today” co-anchors and fellow journalists are speaking out on social media to show their support and share photos of Nancy Guthrie.

Authorities said Nancy Guthrie suffers from some physical ailments and could die without access to her medication.

Savannah Guthrie said in a statement Monday night, “Thank you for lifting your prayers with ours for our beloved mom, our dearest Nancy, a woman of deep conviction, a good and faithful servant. … Bring her home.”

Anyone with information is urged to call 911 or the Pima County Sheriff’s Department at 520-351-4900.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW CASTLE COUNTY, Del.) — Former first lady Jill Biden’s ex-husband has been charged with murdering his wife following an “extensive weeks-long investigation,” police in Delaware announced on Tuesday.

Police officers responding to a “reported domestic dispute” at a home in the Wilmington community of Oak Hill on Dec. 28 found Linda Stevenson, 64, unresponsive on the living room floor, according to police. Her husband, William “Bill” Stevenson, had called 911, police said at the time. 

A grand jury in New Castle County on Monday indicted Stevenson, 77, with first-degree murder in connection with his wife’s death, according to police.

The indictment alleges he “did intentionally cause the death” of his wife.

Detectives took Stevenson into custody at his home without incident, police said. He has since been arraigned and is being held in the Howard Young Correctional Institution in Wilmington after failing to post $500,000 bail, police said.

It is unclear if Stevenson has an attorney.

Officers responded to the Stevensons’ home after 11 p.m. on Dec. 28 and attempted lifesaving measures, but Linda Stevenson was later pronounced dead, police said.

Detectives from the New Castle County Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Unit responded to the scene to assume the investigation, officials said.

No additional details, including the cause of death, have been released.

Linda Stevenson ran a bookkeeping business and was “deeply family-oriented,” according to her obituary, which did not mention her husband.

Bill Stevenson founded a popular bar and music hall in the early 1970s in Newark, Delaware. He is the former husband of Jill Biden, the Delaware Department of Justice confirmed to ABC News. The two were married for five years before divorcing in 1975.

Jill Biden married former President Joe Biden two years later, in 1977.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(MOMENCE, Ill.) — Investigators are searching for a man believed to be behind the fatal shooting of a rural bar owner in Momence, Illinois.

Courtney Drysdale, 30, was pronounced dead at a bar near the Illinois-Indiana state line on Monday shortly before noon, according to the Kankakee County Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators have released photos of the suspect and his vehicle that were captured by security footage at the bar.

Deputies responded to a report of a possible dead individual and classified the incident as a homicide based on evidence gathered during a preliminary examination on Monday, according to the sheriff’s office.

Drysdale was preparing to open the bar just before 11 a.m. when a suspect entered the bar and brandished a firearm, demanding money from the cash register, Kankakee County Sheriff Mike Downey said at a press conference Tuesday.

Despite Drysdale’s cooperation, the suspect allegedly shot her twice “execution style,” Downey said.

Before fleeing the scene, the suspect attempted to remove what he believed was a digital recording device from a wall, but investigators were able to recover video evidence, Downey said.

No one else was in the bar at the time of the killing, Downey said.

The suspect was seen leaving the scene with a firearm and is believed to be armed and dangerous, according to Downey. The suspect was last seen traveling east toward Indiana in a white Ford or BMW sedan, with a sunroof and “distinctive dark rims,” Downey said.

Investigators are reviewing footage from the bar to determine if the suspect had previously been to the bar, according to Downey.

A $5,000 reward is being offered to anyone who can help positively identify the person or vehicle, according to the sheriff’s office. Anyone who sees the suspect is asked to keep their distance and contact authorities.

Anyone who has information related to the murder is asked to contact CrimeStoppers at (815) 932-7463.

“Courtney was deeply loved not only by her family and her young daughter, but also by the many patrons and friends whose lives she touched,” Downey said.

“We are fully committed to bringing the person responsible to justice,” Downey said.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Domestic partners are “increasingly likely” to use chemical and biological toxins to kill or harm their partners, a trend so alarming that the Department of Homeland Security issued a warning to law enforcement.

The warning came in a January intelligence note, obtained by ABC News, that said people intent on harming or killing their domestic partners are turning to poisons like cyanide or ricin to do it, which are “often sourced from online black markets or made at home.”

“The use of chemical and biological toxins in domestic violence cases poses a significant challenge for detection and prosecution due to the often subtle and delayed onset of symptoms,” the intelligence note said.

The document highlighted as an example the case of a Colorado dentist convicted of first-degree murder last year after gradually poisoning his wife with a mix of arsenic, cyanide and tetrahydrozoline, the latter a medication commonly found in over-the-counter eye drops. The dentist secretly dosed his wife by adding the poisons to her protein shakes, according to prosecutors, resulting in her being hospitalized three times in a 10-day span, and then gave her a fatal dose of cyanide while she was ill in the hospital.

“Incidents using chemical or biological toxins to harm or kill are driven by several factors including accessibility of online information, ease of obtaining certain chemicals, and perceived difficulty in detection,” the DHS note said. It also listed an additional 16 cases in the U.S. since 2019 in which individuals were accused or convicted of poisoning current or former spouses, domestic or romantic partners, or family members, 10 of which resulted in the victim’s death.

Substances most often used in domestic poisoning incidents are antifreeze, eye drops, the synthetic opioid fentanyl and the prescription medication colchicine, as well as cyanide and the chemical element thallium, according to the note.

“These substances are often chosen for their ability to mimic natural illnesses, complicating detection and investigation,” the note said.

“If the trend of using chemical or biological toxins to kill or harm continues, we may see an increase in fatalities and long-term health consequences among survivors,” as well as an increase in the “need for specialized training and equipment for first responders,” according to the DHS note.

“The recurring use of these toxins by domestic partners highlights the need for more awareness, regulation, and forensic expertise to address this trend in domestic partner violence,” the note further said.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Investigations are continuing on Tuesday after the mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie disappeared over the weekend in what authorities believe was a possible abduction from her Arizona home, police said.

Nancy Guthrie was last seen in the Catalina Foothills area on Saturday night, according to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. Her family reported her missing on Sunday around noon local time, authorities said.

Investigators do not believe Nancy Guthrie left her home willingly and that she was abducted in her sleep early Sunday morning, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department told ABC News.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said investigators processed Nancy Guthrie’s home on Sunday and “saw some things at the home that were concerning to us,” and that it is considered a crime scene.

“She did not leave on her own, we know that,” Nanos said during a press briefing on Monday.

DNA samples collected from Nancy Guthrie’s home have been confirmed to belong to her, though authorities have not yet confirmed if they were blood, the sheriff’s department said Tuesday.

The sheriff is planning to hold a briefing on the case at approximately 1:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

Nancy Guthrie is described as having some physical ailments and limited mobility, but does not have cognitive issues, her family said, according to the sheriff.

She takes medication that if she doesn’t have in 24 hours, “it could be fatal,” Nanos said Monday.

Authorities said they are reviewing the home’s security cameras and have Nancy Guthrie’s cell phone.

Sources briefed on the probe told ABC News that investigators are focusing on Nancy Guthrie’s electronic devices to see if there is data that could point to an assailant or a specific time when the abduction would have occurred.

Investigators are also paying attention to the condition of the home and whether things were moved or left out of place, which could suggest that someone with greater strength or agility was in the home and when, sources said.

“Right now, we don’t see this as a search mission, as much as we do a crime scene,” Nanos said.

In an Instagram post on Monday night, Savannah Guthrie asked her followers for prayers amid the investigation.

“Thank you for lifting your prayers with ours for our beloved mom, our dearest Nancy, a woman of deep conviction, a good and faithful servant. raise your prayers with us and believe with us that she will be lifted by them in this very moment,” the talk show host wrote, alongside a prayer. 

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(PHILADELPHIA) — U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe, who is overseeing Philadelphia’s federal lawsuit against the Trump administration over the removal of a slavery exhibit at the President’s House, ordered the federal government to “mitigate any further deterioration or damage” to the exhibit’s panels after inspecting their condition.

Rufe filed an inspection report on Monday evening, where she wrote that the 34 panels, both glass and metal, are stored in a “secure” place at the National Constitution Center and have not been “destroyed,” but Rufe noted that some panels “exhibited damage.”

“Still to be determined by the Court is the extent of any damage and the integrity of the exhibits regarding their amenability to being restored to their original condition,” Rufe wrote.

Counsel for the Trump administration and for the city of Philadelphia attended the inspection, after which Rufe told reporters that she observed some “marks” on the panels but could not determine when or how they were made.

The panels, which were removed by the National Parks Service on Jan. 22, tell the stories of the nine enslaved Africans who were held by President George Washington at the President’s House, an open-air outdoor exhibit and memorial at Independence National Historical Park that was built where Washington’s mansion originally stood.

The memorial honors the lives of Austin, Christopher Sheels, Giles, Hercules, Joe Richardson, Moll, Oney Judge, Paris and Richmond, all of whom were held at the site by Washington.

Rufe ordered the federal government on Monday to “securely store all removed panels and to mitigate any further deterioration or damage.”

During a hearing on Friday, Rufe said that she planned to inspect the panels as she considers whether NPS’s removal caused “irreparable harm” as she considers a motion for a preliminary injunction filed by the city of Philadelphia. The injunction would block the Trump administration from making any further changes to the President’s House as the lawsuit moves forward.

Rufe filed a post-hearing order on Monday, barring any further “removal and/or destruction of the President’s House” site “until further order from the court.”

Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, an advocacy group founded in 2002 by attorney Michael Coard, launched the 2002 campaign to urge the city to include a slavery memorial in the building of the President’s House. The group, which filed a motion to file an amicus brief in support of the city’s lawsuit, also participated in the inspection.

Coard told reporters on Monday that seeing the panels stored in a room against a wall was “completely disrespectful, demoralizing, defiling.”

“There were scratches and marks on several of the 34 items we saw, there was no cushioning. They were up against the wall. They were on the cement floor,” Coard said. “Had they slipped, the glass items would have fallen to the ground.”

“I can’t say, being quite candid, that there was any damage, there was no damage, but there was desecration, and for me, it’s the same thing,” Coard said.

Asked how he defines “desecration,” Coard said, “The Sixth and Market Street site where America’s first White House stood is historical holy ground. And anytime you defile holy ground, you desecrate it.”

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Observers from the New York Attorney General’s office will monitor and document federal immigration enforcement actions across the state, Letitia James announced Tuesday.

The legal observers, drawn from volunteers in the attorney general’s office, will not interfere with enforcement actions, and wear easily identifiable vests as they document Immigration Customs and Enforcement activity, she said.

“We have seen in Minnesota how quickly and tragically federal operations can escalate in the absence of transparency and accountability,” James said in a statement. “My office is launching the Legal Observation Project to examine federal enforcement activity in New York and whether it remains within the bounds of the law.”

The legal observers are meant to compile independent records of ICE conduct in the state that could, where potential violations occur, assist the attorney general’s office in any litigation.

The attorney general also urged New York residents to submit videos and other documentation of federal immigration enforcement to her office’s website.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.