Category: National

(MINNEAPOLIS) — An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot a woman in a vehicle during operations in Minneapolis on Wednesday, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

The victim was a U.S. citizen who “was an observer” and was “watching out for our immigrant neighbors,” Minneapolis City Council member Jason Chavez told ABC News.

The woman was allegedly “attempting to run over our law enforcement officers” when an ICE officer fatally shot her, according to DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.

McLaughlin said the ICE officer fired “defensive shots,” referring to the woman as part of a group of “rioters.” She did not identify the woman killed or the ICE officer involved in the shooting.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed the incident was an “act of domestic terrorism.”

“What had happened was our ICE officers were out in enforcement action, they got stuck in the snow because of the adverse weather that is in Minneapolis,” she said during remarks at a press briefing in Texas. “They were attempting to push out their vehicle, and a woman attacked them and those surrounding them and attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement that he is aware of the shooting involving an ICE agent while demanding that ICE leave the city “immediately.”

“The presence of federal immigration enforcement agents is causing chaos in our city,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement on social media regarding the shooting. “We’re demanding ICE to leave the city immediately. We stand rock solid with our immigrant and refugee communities.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said his office is working to “gather information on an ICE-related shooting this morning.”

“We will share information as we learn more. In the meantime, I ask folks to remain calm,” he posted on X.

The city of Minneapolis said it is “aware of a shooting involving a federal agent” near East 34th Street and Portland Avenue and urged people to avoid the area.

“We are working to confirm additional information, but what we know is that the presence of federal immigration enforcement agents is causing chaos in our city and making our community less safe,” the city said in a statement.

A large law enforcement presence could be seen at the scene. Protesters have also gathered, with some seen getting pepper-sprayed by law enforcement.

The Twin Cities are seeing a massive deployment of ICE and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents to conduct immigration enforcement and fraud investigations, according to multiple sources familiar with the plans.

As many as 2,000 agents from ICE and HSI could be headed to the Minneapolis area but a source cautioned the number of agents could change.

Sources have told ABC News that as many as 600 HSI agents are being deployed and 1,400 ICE agents could be deployed as part of the increased enforcement operation.

The Trump administration has zeroed in on accusations of fraud at Somali-run childcare centers in recent weeks.

Noem was on the ground in Minneapolis on Tuesday conducting immigration enforcement.

ABC News’ Laura Romero contributed to this report.

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

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(LOS ANGELES) — Nick Reiner did not enter plea when he returned to court on Wednesday for the alleged murders of his parents, renowned director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Reiner.

The 32-year-old, who faces two counts of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of multiple murders, sat behind the glass, wearing a dark jumpsuit and sporting a buzz cut.

Nick Reiner’s defense attorney, Alan Jackson — who helped defend Karen Read in Massachusetts — withdrew from the case during Wednesday’s court appearance. Jackson is under a protective order to not talk about the case.

When asked if he agreed to delay the arraignment again, Nick Reiner said, “Uh, yeah, I agree.”

Nick Reiner is now assigned a public defender, Kimberly Green. He will return to court on Feb. 23 and remains in jail on no bail.  

A Reiner family spokesperson said, “They have the utmost trust in the legal process and will not comment further on matters related to the legal proceedings.”

On Dec. 17, Nick Reiner made a brief first court appearance and waived the right to a speedy arraignment.

Since his last appearance, sources told ABC News that law enforcement and defense attorneys had been working to piece together Nick Reiner’s psychiatric and substance abuse history.

Nick Reiner has a documented history of addiction and substance abuse treatment, and friends have told investigators that his mental health had been deteriorating prior to the murders.

Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner were found stabbed to death in their Brentwood home on Dec. 14.

The night before the murders, Nick Reiner — who had been living on his parents’ property — got into an argument with Rob Reiner at a holiday party, and was seen acting strangely, sources told ABC News.

Nick Reiner was taken into custody in downtown Los Angeles hours after the bodies were discovered.

Rob and Michele Reiners’ other children, Jake and Romy Reiner, said in a statement last month, “Words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing.”

“The horrific and devastating loss of our parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, is something that no one should ever experience. They weren’t just our parents; they were our best friends,” they said.

“We are grateful for the outpouring of condolences, kindness, and support we have received not only from family and friends but people from all walks of life,” Jake and Romy Reiner said. “We now ask for respect and privacy, for speculation to be tempered with compassion and humanity, and for our parents to be remembered for the incredible lives they lived and the love they gave.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Trump has been adamant that the U.S. will take control of Venezuela’s oil. Wednesday morning, Energy Secretary Chris Wright explained how the Trump administration envisions this will actually work, saying the U.S. will control the flow and sale of Venezuela’s oil and the revenue that comes from those sales.

“Instead of the oil being blockaded, as it is right now, we’re going to let the market, let the oil flow, sell that market to United States refineries and to around the world to bring better oil supplies, but have those sales done by the U.S. government and deposited into accounts controlled by the U.S. government,” Wright told an energy industry conference organized by Goldman Sachs in Miami.

“And then from there, those funds can flow back into Venezuela to benefit the Venezuelan people, but we need to have that leverage and that control of those oil sales to drive the changes that simply must happen in Venezuela,” Wright said.

Wright also said that he is in “active dialogue” with the Venezuelans and the oil and gas companies that were there before. 

“It is going to require this, this cooperation between and pressure between the United States and Venezuela. If we control the flow of oil, the sales of [that] oil, and the flow of the cash that comes from those sales, we have large leverage, but without large leverage, as we’ve seen in the last 25 years, you don’t get change,” he said. 

As for what happens to the revenue from those sales, which Wright said would be “deposited into accounts controlled by the U.S. government,” it would then “flow back into Venezuela to benefit the Venezuelan people, but we need to have that leverage,” he said. 

Wright did not detail how much of that revenue would ultimately flow back into Venezuela. He did say that several hundred thousand barrels of oil could start to flow from Venezuela in the “short to medium term.” 

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday night that Venezuela will turn over 30 to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil to the U.S. Sources told ABC News that those barrels represent the first tranche to be handed over to U.S. control.

Sources also confirmed to ABC News that some sanctions against Venezuela would be lifted to allow for the transport and sale of the oil on global markets, and that the revenue from those sales would be deposited into accounts controlled by the U.S., as Wright said.

The White House declined to comment but did not dispute the reports.

Wright on Wednesday echoed Trump in saying that some sanctions against Venezuela may be lifted, or at least that the U.S. would enable imports of some crucial equipment.

“And as we make progress with the government, you know, we will enable the importing of parts and equipment and services to kind of prevent the industry from collapsing, stabilize the production, and then as quickly as possible, start to see it growing again,” Wright said. 

Wright also described the current energy infrastructure in Venezuela as “not good,” saying that it had degraded under “decades of under-investment, decades of corruption.”

“It’s not, of course, just oil and gas. Think of the electricity grid. That’s the backbone of a society,” Wright further said, adding that he’s been talking to leaders in the oil industry about how to improve the infrastructure. 

“We’re either going to make that happen, make those changes in Venezuela and the capital will flow, or if we can’t successfully make those changes in Venezuela, the capital won’t flow,” Wright said.

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(CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas) — The criminal case against former Uvalde, Texas, school police officer Adrian Gonzales could be in jeopardy after defense attorneys accused prosecutors of withholding key information that was revealed during the first day of testimony on Tuesday.

Defense attorneys alleged prosecutors failed to disclose that a former Robb Elementary School teacher changed her original account of the shooting during testimony in the long-anticipated trial. 

Judge Sid Harle excused the jury and canceled the trial for Wednesday, and instead scheduled a special hearing for Wednesday afternoon to determine how the case could proceed in the wake of Tuesday’s events. Harle offered no indication of how he might rule, though he told the court there are several possibilities after defense attorneys suggested they could ask for a mistrial. 

Nineteen students and two teachers were killed in the May 24, 2022, shooting at Robb. Investigations faulted the police response and suggested that a 77-minute delay in police mounting a counterassault could have contributed to the carnage that day.

Gonzales, who was one of nearly 400 law enforcement officers to respond to the scene, was charged with 29 counts of child endangerment for allegedly ignoring his training during the botched police response. Gonzales has pleaded not guilty and his legal team maintains he’s being scapegoated. This case marks the second time in U.S. history that prosecutors have sought to hold a member of law enforcement criminally accountable for their response to a mass shooting.

The legal dispute on Tuesday stemmed from the testimony of former teacher Stephanie Hale, who told jurors she saw the shooter, Salvador Ramos, firing toward her and her students near the playground. 

“As we were all running into the classroom, I saw the — I don’t know if you call him — horrible person, walking,” she testified. She said she sheltered with her students in a classroom and armed themselves with safety scissors. 

Defense attorneys immediately objected, arguing that in an interview with state investigators four days after the shooting, Hale didn’t mention seeing the shooter or being shot at.

In a remarkable turn of events, the judge allowed defense lawyers to question District Attorney Christina Mitchell under oath in open court about the issue. Mitchell confessed that she was not aware the teacher’s testimony had changed. Prosecutors acknowledged that she mentioned seeing the shooter in interviews with investigators ahead of trial. 

While witnesses sometimes change their accounts of traumatic events without casting doubt on their entire testimony, prosecutors are under a legal obligation to turn over ahead of trial notes of their meetings with witnesses, experts say. Defense lawyers argue they did not receive any notes showing the change in testimony, which, they argue, is vital to their defense. 

Hale is the only witness so far who has placed the shooter on the south side of the school and in range of Gonzales.

“If she did report these things to the prosecution, we were entitled to that to prepare for this. And this is a trial by ambush,” defense attorney Jason Goss said. 

Gross was pointed in his questioning of the district attorney, saying, “Neither the prosecutor nor anyone in the room thought to ask her, ‘Where did you see the shooter?'”

“You know, you’re getting very nitpicky. … When we were prepping these witnesses, I was running a law office,” Mitchell responded. “I was in and out of interviews, so I can’t say that … ‘Oh my God,’ you know, it wasn’t that type of reaction for me.” 

Harle is set to decide the next steps during Wednesday afternoon’s hearing.

In an interview with reporters outside court on Tuesday, lead defense attorney Nico LaHood declined to say whether he would ask for a mistrial, though he noted the option was on the table. 

Local attorneys who spoke with ABC News described Hale, the judge overseeing the case, as a well-experienced jurist known for setting high standards for the lawyers who practice before him. The Texas law that requires prosecutors hand over witness statements to defense attorneys — known as the Michael Morton Act — stemmed from a case in which Harle, himself, exonerated a man wrongly accused of killing his wife. 

“He’s not going to do any favors,” Gerry Goldstein, an attorney for Morton, said of Harle. “He will call orders as he sees them.”

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(MINNEAPOLIS) — A shooting involving an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent occurred in Minneapolis on Wednesday, according to the city’s mayor.

“The presence of federal immigration enforcement agents is causing chaos in our city,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said on social media regarding the shooting. “We’re demanding ICE to leave the city immediately. We stand rock solid with our immigrant and refugee communities.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said his office is working to “gather information on an ICE-related shooting this morning.”

“We will share information as we learn more. In the meantime, I ask folks to remain calm,” he posted on X.

The city of Minneapolis said it is “aware of a shooting involving federal law enforcement” near East 34th Street and Portland Avenue while urging people to avoid the area.

A large law enforcement presence could be seen at the scene.

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

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(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge wants to know why Lindsey Halligan is still using the title of U.S. attorney despite a judge ruling in November that she is legally not in the position. 

Halligan, who was appointed by President Donald Trump to be the acting U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, was found by a judge to not be legally allowed to serve in the role because the law doesn’t allow the position to be filled by two interim nominees in a row. 

The ruling came two months after Halligan secured indictments against  former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, only to have them thrown out due to her unlawful appointment. 

The issue stems from a recent case in which Halligan, on the indictment, represents that she is the U.S. attorney and “did so despite a binding Court Order entered by Senior United States District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie on November 24, 2025, in which Judge Currie found that the ‘appointment  Ms. Halligan as Interim U.S. Attorney violated 28 U.S.C. § 546 and the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution,'” U.S. District Judge David Novak wrote in a filing Tuesday. 

Judge Novak said that while the government is appealing the ruling, it is not subject to being ignored. He ordered the government to explain why Halligan has identified herself as the U.S. attorney within seven days. 

“Ms. Halligan shall further explain why her identification does not constitute a false or misleading statement,” the judge wrote.

A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

Halligan, one of Trump’s former personal attorneys, was named U.S. attorney by Trump in September after Trump ousted her predecessor, Erik Siebert, who sources say had expressed doubts internally about bringing cases against James and Comey.

Because Siebert himself had been named interim U.S. attorney by Trump last January, Judge Currie ruled that Halligan’s appointment as interim U.S. attorney violated the Constitution’s Appointments Clause that limits how long prosecutors can serve without Senate confirmation.

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(LOS ANGELES) — Nick Reiner is expected to appear at an arraignment on Wednesday to enter a plea in the murders of his parents, renowned director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Reiner.

The 32-year-old faces two counts of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of multiple murders.

Nick Reiner made a brief first court appearance on Dec. 17 and waived the right to a speedy arraignment.

Since his last appearance, sources told ABC News that law enforcement and defense attorneys have been working to piece together Nick Reiner’s psychiatric and substance abuse history. Legal experts say California law allows defense attorneys to signal as early as Wednesday’s hearing whether they will seek to use mental health in their defense.

Nick Reiner has a documented history of addiction and substance abuse treatment, and friends have told investigators that his mental health had been deteriorating prior to the murders.

He could enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity Wednesday, though that could also come later.

Under California law, a jury can find a defendant not guilty by reason of insanity, which would result in confinement to a state psychiatric hospital rather than prison. That process can begin at arraignment but is not required to.

To pursue this defense, attorneys must demonstrate that the accused suffered from a mental illness prior to developing an addiction. A mental illness caused solely by addiction does not meet the legal standard.

Nick Reiner’s defense attorney Alan Jackson issued a statement last month, reading: “We ask that during this process, you allow the system to move forward in the way that it was designed … not with jumping to conclusions, but with restraint and with dignity and with the respect that this system and this process deserves and that the family deserves.”

Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner were found stabbed to death in their Brentwood home on Dec. 14.

The night before the murders, Nick Reiner — who had been open about battling drug addiction since he was a teenager, and had been living on his parents’ property — got into an argument with Rob Reiner at a holiday party, and was seen acting strangely, sources told ABC News.

Nick Reiner was taken into custody in downtown Los Angeles hours after the bodies were discovered.

Rob and Michele Reiners’ other children, Jake and Romy Reiner, said in a statement last month, “Words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing.”

“The horrific and devastating loss of our parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, is something that no one should ever experience. They weren’t just our parents; they were our best friends,” they said.

“We are grateful for the outpouring of condolences, kindness, and support we have received not only from family and friends but people from all walks of life,” Jake and Romy Reiner said. “We now ask for respect and privacy, for speculation to be tempered with compassion and humanity, and for our parents to be remembered for the incredible lives they lived and the love they gave.”

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The White House said Tuesday President Donald Trump and his advisers are discussing a range of options to acquire Greenland — adding “utilizing the U.S. military is always an option.”

“President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “The President and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the U.S. Military is always an option at the Commander in Chief’s disposal.”

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

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(MAINE) — One of the country’s top cryptocurrency kiosk vendors has agreed to pay the state of Maine nearly $2 million as part of a settlement to compensate victims of fraud, the state announced on Monday.

Bitcoin Depot, which operates more than 25,000 bitcoin ATMs across the country, will pay the state $1.9 million, which represents money “taken by third-party scammers who defrauded Maine consumers through their kiosks.”

Victims of fraud perpetrated using Bitcoin Depot kiosks may apply for compensation from the state. As part of the settlement, Bitcoin Depot admits to no wrongdoing or violation of state or federal laws.

Bitcoin ATMs, which allow users to insert cash and send it to a digital wallet anywhere in the world in only a few minutes, have emerged as scammers’ top go-to method for separating Americans from their cash, according to experts.

In a typical scam, fraudsters will convince their victims that they must make a payment or safeguard their cash by inserting it in a bitcoin ATM. Once the transaction is executed, experts say, the money can be nearly impossible to recover — making it an attractive method for prospective scammers.

In 2025, Americans lost more than $333 million to bitcoin ATM scams, the FBI recently told ABC News, representing a dramatic uptick from prior years.   

Maine has taken some of the nation’s most aggressive steps in limiting the proliferation of scams using bitcoin ATMs, including establishing daily deposit limits and capping transaction fees.

A spokesperson for Bitcoin Depot, which currently faces a separate lawsuit in Iowa, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

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(CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas) — Opening statements are underway in the criminal trial of former Uvalde, Texas, school police officer Adrian Gonzales, who is accused of endangering dozens of children during the police response to the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School. 

Gonzales, who is charged with 29 counts of child endangerment, is alleged to have neglected his duty and training during the chaotic response to the shooting, which left 19 children and two teachers dead. 

Prosecutor Bill Turner spoke softly and on the verge of tears at the start of his opening argument. His statement marked the first time prosecutors have provided their rationale for charging Gonzales, disclosing that a teacher came face-to-face with gunman Salvador Ramos before Ramos entered the school, and she tried to warn Gonzales.

“She’s face-to face with the gunman, and he fires on her, and she turns to run, and when she turns to run, she trips and she falls. And when she gets up, Adrian Gonzalez, the police officer, is there,” Turner said. “She says, ‘He’s over there.’ She urges him to go get him.” 

“He gets on the radio and says, ‘Shots are fired, he’s wearing black, he’s in the parking lot,'” Turner said. “He knows where he is, but Adrian Gonzalez remains at the south side of the school.”

As Turner walked the jury through the tragic minutes that followed that encounter — describing the number of gunshots fired by Ramos as Gonzales allegedly waited outside — Turner hammered at the point that Gonzales allegedly stayed where he was, rather than try to stop the shooting. 

Ramos “fired shots into a classroom full of children … Adrian Gonzalez remains,” he said. 

Despite nearly 400 officers responding to the shooting, law enforcement took 77 minutes to mount a counterassault to kill Ramos.

Judge Sid Harle seated a full jury after an emotionally fraught selection process on Monday. Dozens of potential jurors voiced frustration with the police response, and more than 100 excused themselves from the process, saying they did not believe they could be fair and impartial. 

“They were only protecting themselves more than they were protecting the children,” one dismissed juror told the court, as others cheered and clapped in agreement. “I would have sacrificed myself to save them, but they didn’t. They just sat there.”

Gonzales has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers argue he is being scapegoated for a broader law enforcement failure. During the jury selection process, some voiced frustration that more officers have not been charged in the years following the tragedy. 

“Are you saying this man is the whole problem? You are sticking it on his shoulders alone?” one dismissed juror remarked. “How many of them were out there? They should all be sitting there with him.”

Gonzales was charged last year, along with former Uvalde schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo, the on-site commander on the day of the shooting. Arredondo’s trial has been indefinitely postponed due to a pending civil lawsuit after the members of an elite tactical unit with the U.S. Border Patrol refused to speak with prosecutors about their involvement that day. 

The Gonzales case marks the second time in U.S. history that prosecutors have sought to hold a member of law enforcement criminally accountable for their response to a mass shooting. In 2023, a Florida jury acquitted Scot Peterson, a former Broward County sheriff’s deputy, who was charged with child neglect and culpable negligence for his alleged inaction during the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Peterson’s lawyers argued his role as an armed school resource officer did not amount to a caregiving post needed to prove child neglect in Florida, and that the response to the shooting was muddled by poor communication.

According to Bob Jarvis, a professor of law at Nova Southeastern University, prosecutors in the Gonzales case are likely to face the same legal hurdles that doomed the Peterson case. 

“What you’re really trying to do,” he said, “is argue … that being a coward is a crime, and that is very, very difficult.”

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