(NEW YORK) — Disgraced former Congressman George Santos asked a judge on Friday to delay his sentencing in his federal fraud case.
Santos is currently scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 7 in Central Islip, New York, after pleading guilty to federal fraud, campaign finance and embezzlement charges.
His attorneys asked the judge to postpone the sentencing by six months, until August, to give Santos more time to make money so he can meet the nearly $600,000 he owes in restitution and forfeiture, according to a new court filing.
“Mr. Santos now has a viable path to making meaningful progress on satisfying his obligations,” his lawyers stated in a motion filed on Friday, citing the launch of a new podcast, “Pants on Fire with George Santos.”
Federal prosecutors did not immediately respond, though the defense noted that the government opposes a delay.
The former New York representative pleaded guilty in August to claiming relatives had made contributions to his campaign when, in fact, they had not. Santos conceded he was trying to meet the fundraising threshold to qualify for financial help from the National Republican Congressional Committee.
He told reporters at the time that the guilty plea was the “right thing to do.”
“This plea is not just an admission of guilt,” Santos said. “It’s an acknowledgment that I need to be held accountable like any other American that breaks the law.”
Santos also stipulated that he committed other fraud, including charging donor credit cards without authorization and convincing donors to give money by falsely stating the money would be used for TV ads. He also stipulated he stole public money by applying for and receiving unemployment benefits during the pandemic to which he was not entitled.
Santos conceded in a statement to the court his actions “betrayed” his constituents and others.
He faces a sentence of 75-87 months, including a mandatory minimum two-year sentence for aggravated identity theft.
He also must pay restitution of nearly $374,000 and forfeiture of more than $200,000.
Santos’ lawyers flagged in the final moments of his plea hearing on Aug. 19 that the former congressman may not be able to pay over $200,000 in restitution.
He is required to pay the restitution 30 days before his sentencing on Feb. 7 and could face additional sanctions if he fails to pay in time.
Santos represented New York’s 3rd Congressional District, which includes parts of Queens and Nassau counties, beginning in January 2023, before being expelled from Congress on Dec. 1, 2023.
The suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, drove a pickup truck onto a sidewalk and around a parked police car serving as a barricade to plow into pedestrians over a three-block stretch of the iconic street, according to police.
Jabbar exited the vehicle armed with an assault rifle and opened fire on police officers, law enforcement said. Officers returned fire, killing Jabbar. At least two officers were injured, authorities said.
Alexis Scott-Windham was among those injured in the attack. She spoke to ABC News’ Whit Johnson about the intense experience on Thursday.
ABC NEWS: We are joined now by a young woman who, like so many others, was here on Bourbon Street ringing in the new year when the unthinkable happened. Alexis Scott-Windham is joining us now.
And Alexis, thank you so much for your time tonight. We truly appreciate it. I can’t imagine what you’ve been through over the past 24 hours here. Can you first just walk us through those first moments when you knew something was going wrong?
ALEXIS SCOTT-WINDHAM: OK, so we were on a corner by a pizza place and we noticed a loud boom, boom, boom noise and we looked to the left and somebody said “Move!” And by the time they said move, the truck was coming down and he was halfway on the sidewalk, halfway down the street.
By the time he came down the side, by the time I looked to the left, he came down the sidewalk, he had hit me on the back of my right leg, because I stepped on my left, he hit me by the right leg. And I don’t even know how did I get shot because I fell to the ground. I got up and tried to run once I heard the bullets. And once I got up, I tried to run, but my foot was leaking.
ABC NEWS: And describe what you were experiencing emotionally at the time. Obviously, you knew you were injured, but seeing, seeing the seriously wounded and, and people who had lost their lives all around you, what was going through your mind?
SCOTT-WINDHAM: Well, what was going through my mind? I was just thankful, I was just thanking Jesus, I was just telling the Lord, “Let me make it home to my daughter,” I was just thanking God. But once I got up, I seen the bodies on the ground, I was just — it was like a movie. I just couldn’t believe this happened.
Because before all this happened, everything was just going so nice, everybody was telling everybody “Happy New Year.” All the tours, like random people was telling me “Happy New Years.” I even met people from Chicago that was down here. That’s why it was just so crazy.
ABC NEWS: I’m, forgive me. I’m having a little trouble hearing you. But, but could you describe how your friends are doing today? What are their conditions?
SCOTT-WINDHAM: So me and my friend Brandon, we both got injured. I got shot in the foot and hit from the side.
And Brandon, I think he got hit by the car. His whole right side is just messed up; his left, his right leg is messed up. His back is messed up. His shoulder is messed up. He also has a little gash right here [indicating the right side of her forehead]. He’s still in the hospital, in New Orleans. He’s at Touro hospital.
ABC NEWS: And I understand that, that, forgive me. I understand that you are, you’re home today and you have a young daughter as well. As you look back on this, you know, how are you going to explain what happened to her?
SCOTT-WINDHAM: Well, when I was going through that, in my mind, I was just telling the Lord, “Just let me make it home to my daughter.” I don’t know how I’m going to explain it to her. All I can tell her is “You can still go out and have fun, but don’t be on your phone and always watch your surroundings.”
ABC NEWS: All right, Alexis Scott-Windham. Well, we are, we are so thankful that you are OK today. And thank you so much for, for taking the time to share with us what happened to you and the people you were with.
(LAS VEGAS) — Matthew Livelsberger — the driver of the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded on New Year’s Day outside the Trump International Las Vegas Hotel — shared personal and political “grievances” in two letters found on a phone in the vehicle and called the attack a “wake up call,” authorities said Friday.
Livelsberger, an active-duty Army soldier, said the country was being led by the “weak” and those out to “enrich themselves,” while also claiming the incident was not meant as a terrorist attack, according to excerpts of the two letters shared by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
“I know everyone is very eager to try to understand and be able to explain what happened,” Las Vegas Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren said during a press briefing on Friday. “We still have a large volume of data to go through, a lot of content to go through.”
The department said they would release the two letters to the public.
“You’ll see that he actually calls it a stunt, in one of these documents that we’re going to release to you, that he was trying to get the attention of the American people because he was upset about a number of different things,” Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said during Friday’s briefing. “But I’ll let those writings speak for themselves.”
Livelsberger died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound prior to the blast, the Clark County coroner confirmed Thursday evening. No one else was seriously hurt, though seven bystanders sustained minor injuries, officials said.
The evidence shows Livelsberger “thoughtfully prepared” and acted alone in the incident, Spencer Evans, special agent in charge for the FBI’s Las Vegas division, said during Friday’s press briefing. Livelsberger was not on the FBI’s radar prior to the incident, Evans said.
“Although this incident is more public and more sensational than usual, it ultimately appears to be a tragic case of suicide involving a heavily decorated combat veteran who was struggling with PTSD and other issues,” Evans said.
Authorities are also looking into a letter purportedly sent by Livelsberger and shared by the military-themed “Shawn Ryan Show” podcast on Friday. That information was sent to the FBI following the attack, Evans confirmed.
“We still have not conclusively determined that that’s from the subject, but feel confident, based on evidence that we’re uncovering on his devices, that that was, in fact, from Livelsberger,” Evans said.
In the Cybertruck, officials found credit and identification cards in Livelsberger’s name, evidence he owned the weapons found in the destroyed vehicle and identified tattoos that appeared to match Livelsberger’s body, however, severe physical injuries slowed the identification process.
The Clark County coroner ultimately identified Livelsberger — of Colorado Springs, Colorado — as the driver on Thursday. His cause of death was a self-inflicted intraoral gunshot wound.
Livelsberger was found with a gun at his feet. Two firearms — one handgun and one rifle — were found in the vehicle “burnt beyond recognition,” McMahill said.
Both weapons were purchased legally on Monday, he added.
Two phones were recovered from the vehicle, including one containing the two letters, Koren said. Investigators have been unable to access the other phone at this time, he said.
It is unclear why Livelsberger chose a Tesla or the route he took, authorities said Friday.
Livelsberger rented the Tesla vehicle on Saturday in Denver via the Turo app, before driving to Las Vegas through cities in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. His progress was tracked through Tesla charging stations, officials said.
The vehicle first pulled into the Trump International Las Vegas Hotel valet area just after 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, officials said. It then left the area, driving along Las Vegas Boulevard, before returning to the valet area at about 8:39 a.m., exploding 17 seconds after its arrival.
Livelsberger served as a Green Beret in the Army and was on approved leave from serving in Germany at the time of his death, a U.S. Army spokesperson said Thursday.
He received extensive decorations in combat, including the Bronze Star with a “V” device for valor, indicating heroism under fire. Livelsberger received four more standard Bronze Star medals, according to Army records. He also earned the Afghanistan Campaign Medal with three stars. Each star represents service in a separate campaign in Afghanistan.
Livelsberger had been receiving mental health assistance over the last year, a U.S. official confirmed Friday.
Another U.S. official confirmed that officials thought Livelsberger was stable enough to go home for Christmas and his leave was approved.
The Department of Defense has turned over Livelsberger’s medical records to local law enforcement, Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters during a briefing on Friday.
“I just don’t have more details to share,” she added, when asked about reporting from CNN that the suspect had been diagnosed with depression last year.
Singh noted that service members are encouraged to seek help with any mental health issues.
The Las Vegas incident is not believed to have any direct connection to the New Year’s Day truck attack in New Orleans that killed 14 people — as well as the suspect — and injured 35 others, according to the FBI. The truck used in the New Orleans attack was also rented using the Turo app, officials said.
Evans reiterated Friday that there is no evidence that the two events are connected, saying there are “coincidental similarities” between them — including that both drivers were in the military, rented vehicles through the same service and stayed in an Airbnb.
There is no evidence at this time that the two drivers had any overlap even though both served in Afghanistan, Singh also said Friday.
Livelsberger was a supporter of President-elect Donald Trump, an official briefed on the probe told ABC News. His wife, who investigators spoke to in Colorado Springs, said he had been out of the house since around Christmas after a dispute over allegations of infidelity, the official said.
His wife told officials she did not believe Livelsberger would want to hurt anyone, the official told ABC News.
Livelsberger is believed to have told the person he rented the truck from that he was going camping at the Grand Canyon, the official told ABC News.
Investigators are still looking to determine how the items in the truck were detonated, but with the contents of the vehicle so badly burned, it may be a slow process, according to the official.
The sheriff said Tesla CEO Elon Musk helped the investigation by having the truck unlocked after it auto-locked in the blast and by giving investigators video of the suspect at charging stations along its route from Colorado to Las Vegas.
McMahill said police believe the explosion was an “isolated incident” and that “there is no further threat to the community.”
Video played at Thursday’s Las Vegas news conference showed a load of fireworks-style mortars, gasoline cans and camping fuel canisters in the back of the truck.
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
(NEW ORLEANS) — The suspect in the truck attack that killed 14 and injured dozens in New Orleans on New Year’s had traveled to Egypt in 2023 for about a month, his half-brother told ABC News.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Army veteran and U.S.-born citizen from Texas, went to Egypt alone and told his family he was going “because it was cheap and beautiful,” his half-brother, 24-year-old Abdur Jabbar, said.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s foreign travel is a part of the ongoing investigation, law enforcement officials told ABC News.
Investigators are working to determine what he did during his travel in Egypt, why he went and who he interacted with while there, multiple sources said. Critical to the probe is whether he had been radicalized prior to the travel or if the travel marked the start of his radicalization.
“This next most important phase of the investigation is to find out how that radicalization happened and if it happened on that trip,” Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams told ABC News.
Early on New Year’s Day, Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a pickup truck onto a sidewalk and around a parked police car serving as a barricade to plow into pedestrians over a three-block stretch on Bourbon Street, police said. He then exited the damaged vehicle armed with an assault rifle and opened fire on police officers, law enforcement said. Officers returned fire, killing him.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar posted several videos online hours before the attack “proclaiming his support for ISIS” and mentioning he joined ISIS before this summer, according to the FBI.
Officials said the first 24 hours after the ramming attack were occupied by a feverish effort to determine whether there were additional suspects on the loose or if Shamsud-Din Jabbar worked with accomplices. Since Thursday, investigators have been focused on piecing together his path to radicalization and the events that led up to his decision to attack Bourbon Street.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security has issued a joint intelligence bulletin warning the nation’s 18,000 law-enforcement agencies about potential copycats, ABC News learned. The bulletin was sent out of an abundance of caution to sensitize law enforcement around the country to be on the lookout for any activity pointing to the use of vehicles as a method to inflict mass casualties, sources told ABC News.
“We advise federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government and law enforcement officials and private sector security partners to remain vigilant of potential copycat or retaliatory attacks inspired by this attack and other recent, lethal vehicle-ramming incidents across the globe,” the bulletin said.
The bulletin notes that ISIS has been promoting the use of vehicles as a terrorism weapon since around 2014.
ISIS has ramped up calls for its supporters to launch low-tech, mass casualty ramming attacks in recent months, sources told ABC News, especially since the most recent Israel-Hamas conflict began in October 2023.
The bulletin stated that Shamsud-Din Jabbar was inspired by ISIS but that there remains no evidence of any co-conspirators. A senior law-enforcement official told ABC News that there is so far no sign of ISIS claiming responsibility for the New Orleans attack.
“Law enforcement should be aware that in many cases attackers have conducted vehicle-ramming attacks with secondary weapons and may continue the attack with edged weapons, firearms, or IEDs after the vehicle has stopped,” the bulletin said. The tactic could be “attractive” for foreign terrorist organizations and other actors due to its low complexity threshold, the warning said.
An intelligence bulletin from the New York Police Department obtained by ABC News indicated that ISIS supporters did celebrate the attack online. Violent extremists, the bulletin said, “continue to view densely populated walkways, parades, mass gatherings and other outdoor events along streets, especially during holidays, as vulnerable targets of opportunity.”
“This enduring threat underscores the criticality of pre-staged blocker cars and the deployment of other effectively configured countermeasures including heavy block, barriers and bollards,” it added.
Surveillance footage showed Shamsud-Din Jabbar placing two improvised explosive devices in coolers in the Bourbon Street area, Raia said. He had a remote detonator in the truck to set off the two devices, President Joe Biden said. Both devices were rendered safe, officials said.
Bomb-making materials have been recovered at Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s Houston home, sources confirmed to ABC News. The items found were also referred to as “precursor chemicals” by agents in the field, sources said.
Law enforcement cleared and reopened Bourbon Street on Thursday as the investigation continued. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said authorities had the “confidence” to reopen the area to the public ahead of the Sugar Bowl on Thursday afternoon, which was initially scheduled for Wednesday but postponed in the wake of the attack.
“I want to reassure the public that the city of New Orleans is not only ready for game day today, but we’re ready to continue to host large-scale events in our city,” she said. “Our hearts and prayers continue to go out to the victims’ families,” Cantrell added.
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden will head to New Orleans on Monday to meet with the families and community members, the White House said. Biden said Friday that he’s spoken with victims’ families.
There is no apparent direct connection between the New Orleans attack and Wednesday’s Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, which is also being investigated as a possible act of terror, the FBI said Thursday.
(NEW YORK) — The judge in Donald Trump’s New York criminal hush money case indicated Friday that he intends to sentence the president-elect to an “unconditional discharge” out of respect for the presidential immunity doctrine.
Judge Juan Merchan ordered Trump to appear, either in person or virtually, for sentencing on Jan. 10, which is 10 days before Trump’s presidential inauguration.
Merchan, in his ruling Friday, called an unconditional discharge the “most viable solution to ensure finality and allow Defendant to pursue his appellate options.”
Trump faces the possibility of up to four years in prison for his conviction, though most legal experts believe he is more likely to receive a lighter sentence.
Trump’s legal team is expected to try to stop the Jan. 10 sentencing, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News. His lawyers intend to ask an intermediate New York appellate court to intervene and stop the sentencing hearing from going forward, the sources said.
Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung, in a statement, called Merchan’s ruling “a direct violation of the Supreme Court’s Immunity decision and other longstanding jurisprudence.”
“President Trump must be allowed to continue the Presidential Transition process and to execute the vital duties of the presidency, unobstructed by the remains of this or any remnants of the Witch Hunts. There should be no sentencing,” the statement said.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which secured the conviction against Trump, did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
Trump was found guilty this past May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
Merchan, in his ruling, described Trump’s conduct as a “premediated and continuous deception by the leader of the free world.”
“To vacate this verdict on the grounds that the charges are insufficiently serious given the position Defendant once held, and is about to assume again, would constitute a disproportionate result and cause immeasurable damage to the citizenry’s confidence in the Rule of Law,” the ruling said.
While Merchan said that he cannot determine Trump’s sentence without hearing from Trump himself and others in the case, he signaled his plan to sentence him to an unconditional discharge, under which Trump would avoid serious punishment but the record of his conviction would remain on his record.
Trump’s lawyers had long fought to push back the sentencing, successfully delaying it three times following the Supreme Court’s sweeping ruling on presidential immunity and a heated presidential campaign.
Merchan initially scheduled the sentencing for July 11 before pushing it to Sept. 18 in order to weigh if Trump’s conviction was impacted by the Supreme Court’s July ruling prohibiting the prosecution of a president for official acts undertaken while in office. Merchan subsequently ruled that Trump’s conviction related “entirely to unofficial conduct” and “poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the Executive Branch.”
Merchan wrote that a unconditional discharge would respect the sanctity of the jury’s verdict — which he called “a bedrock principle in our nation’s jurisprudence” — and the principle of presidential immunity.
“While this Court as a matter of law must not make any determination on sentencing prior to giving the parties and Defendant an opportunity to be heard, it seems proper at this juncture to make known the Court’s inclination to not impose any sentence of incarceration, a sentence authorized by the conviction but one the People concede they no longer view as a practicable recommendation,” the ruling said.
“As such; in balancing the aforementioned considerations in conjunction with the underlying concerns of the Presidential immunity doctrine, a sentence of an unconditional discharge appears to be the most viable solution to ensure finality and allow Defendant to pursue his appellate options,” Merchan wrote.
Merchan’s ruling criticized Trump and his lawyers — several of whom are set to take top positions at the Department of Justice — for using rhetoric that “has no place in legal pleadings.”
“Dangerous rhetoric is not a welcome form of argument and will have no impact on how the Court renders this or any other Decision,” Merchan wrote.
The judge also criticized Trump for his “disdain” for the judiciary.
“Defendant’s disdain for the Third Branch of government, whether state or federal, in New York or elsewhere, is a matter of public record. Indeed, Defendant has gone to great lengths to broadcast on social media and other forums his lack of respect for judges, juries, grand juries and the justice system as a whole,” the ruling said.
The jury’s verdict, handed down last summer, made Trump the first U.S. president, current or former, to be criminally convicted.
(NEW ORLEANS, La) — New Orleans city leaders were warned in a 2019 confidential physical security assessment that tourist-packed Bourbon Street was vulnerable to a vehicle-ramming attack because some of the existing blockade mechanisms were inoperable.
New Orleans first installed metal security barriers on Bourbon Street in 2017 following the 2016 truck terror attack on Bastille Day in Nice, France. That same year, a report prepared by the infrastructure consulting firm AECOM noted that Bourbon Street “is often densely packed with pedestrians,” presenting “a risk and target for terrorism.”
Two years later, a security assessment prepared for the French Quarter Management District by the security firm Interfor International faulted the bollards that had been installed.
“Some of the bollards were inoperable for a number of reasons,” Don Aviv, president of Interfor International, said. “Some were broken and some were kept down for ease of use.”
The existence of the 2019 assessment was first reported by The New York Times.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said the city had been in the process of renovating the malfunctioning bollards before hosting the Super Bowl in February.
“Bollards were not up because they are near completion, with the expectation of being completed by Super Bowl,” Cantrell said. “Because the City of New Orleans is hosting Super Bowl this year, it gave the City of New Orleans an opportunity to go further and deeper with infrastructure improvements.”
New Orleans police parked a cruiser to block Bourbon Street on New Year’s Eve.
“We did indeed have a plan, but the terrorist defeated it,” New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said.
Video of the attack shows the suspect’s truck moving along Canal Street and making a right turn, moving around the police cruiser by driving onto the sidewalk. Aviv suggested it should not be so simple.
“For the type of environment the French Quarter is, there should be a systemic process to control traffic and to protect pedestrians,” Aviv said.
The French Quarter Management District told ABC News in a statement that it’s always focused on public safety.
“In 2019, the Board commissioned a study on Safety and Security in the French Quarter. This study was shared with our partners in the City of New Orleans, and its recommendations were made public,” the statement said. “The strength of our ongoing partnership with the City and NOPD allows open communications of resident and business concerns and the results of any studies or reports completed.”
ABC News’ Jared Kofsky contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — An on-duty United States Postal Service (USPS) worker was stabbed and killed inside of a deli in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City on Thursday afternoon after a “verbal dispute,” according to the New York Police Department (NYPD).
Officers responded to the deli at 168 Lenox Avenue and found the victim, whom they identified as 36-year-old Ray Hodges, with multiple stab wounds to his stomach, torso, arms, back and neck.
Hodges was taken to a local hospital and later pronounced dead, according to the NYPD.
The NYPD did not specify the nature of the verbal dispute in response to an ABC News request for comment.
Jaia Cruz, 24, was later taken into custody and charged with second-degree murder, according to police.
“The Postal Inspection Service can confirm that on January 2, 2025, a United States Postal Service letter carrier, assigned to Manhattan, was the victim of a homicide. The suspect was apprehended and is currently in custody,” the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) said in a statement. The USPIS statement did not confirm the identity of the victim.
“USPIS takes matters involving the safety and wellbeing of postal service employees as a top priority. We are working diligently with the New York City Police Department on this investigation,” the USPIS statement continued.
The USPIS statement also urged anyone with additional information about the attack to contact them at 1-877-876-2455.
Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter is an attractive target “for violent extremists to attack,” especially after the vehicle ramming in New Orleans that killed 14 people, though there are no known threats to the funeral, according to a new security assessment obtained by ABC News.
“State funerals are considered no-notice events that significantly reduce planning timelines for potential hostile actors,” the document said. “However, state funerals still present attractive targets due to the large gathering of senior US government officials, foreign dignitaries, and heads of state, as well as the symbolic nature of the venues and media attention expected.”
Carter, who died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100, will be honored with a state funeral at Washington National Cathedral on Thursday. President Joe Biden will deliver a eulogy and President-elect Donald Trump is expected to attend.
The memorials for Carter begin on Saturday when he’s transferred from his hometown of Plains, Georgia, to Atlanta. A ceremony will be held at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta on Saturday afternoon.
Carter’s remains will be transferred to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday and he will lie in state at the Capitol from Tuesday to Thursday. After the service at Washington National Cathedral, Carter’s remains will return to Plains.
The assessment also noted other specially designated security events this month, including the certification of the Electoral College on Jan. 6 and Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. The simultaneous events “may increase the perception of a target-rich environment for a variety of threat actors,” the document said.
“Targets could include the planned special events and ceremonies related to the State Funeral and associated First Amendment-protected activities around these ceremonies,” the assessment said. “While there is no indication that the intersection of these two events will lead to an increased threat picture, the potentially large crowds for both may provide an attractive target to threat actors.”
The document also specifically mentioned the New Year’s attack in New Orleans, noting “the use of vehicle-ramming alone or in conjunction with other tactics has become a recurring tactic employed by violent threat actors in the West.”
The document added that “large crowds gathering in publicly accessible locations to observe or participate in State Funeral events could become targets of opportunity for a vehicle attack.”
Fourteen people were killed and dozens were hurt when a man drove a truck through crowds on Bourbon Street early on New Year’s Day. The suspect, who also died in the attack, posted several videos online “proclaiming his support for ISIS,” and mentioning he joined ISIS before this summer, according to the FBI.
(NEW YORK) — As a deep winter chill begins to take over the northern half of the country, a new major winter storm will move across the U.S. this weekend into early next week.
The storm kicks off on Saturday as a mix of rain, snow and ice develops over the central Plains. The Kansas City, Missouri, area will likely see dangerously slick travel on Saturday evening as a wintry mix moves in.
The storm then follows Interstate 70 to St. Louis, where heavy snow and ice may strike from Saturday night through Sunday.
By Sunday, a number of cities from the Ohio Valley to the mid-Atlantic could be facing hazardous travel as the ice and snow moves east.
Meanwhile, in the South, thunderstorms with damaging winds and scattered tornadoes are possible from Houston to Memphis, Tennessee, on Sunday afternoon.
By Sunday night, snow could move into Washington, D.C., causing a dangerous Monday morning commute across much of the mid-Atlantic.
Baltimore and Philadelphia have the potential to see 6 inches or more of snow.
After the storm moves offshore, bitter cold air will move in behind it.
A portion of the polar vortex will likely trigger temperatures 10 to 25 degrees below normal for the eastern half of the U.S. by the middle of next week.
The wind chill — what temperature it feels like — could plunge below zero from the Midwest to the Northeast, and sub-freezing temperatures are forecast as far south as Florida.
(NEW ORLEANS) — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will head to New Orleans on Monday to meet with the families and community members impacted by the devastating truck attack that killed 14 and injured dozens, the White House said.
The suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, drove a pickup truck onto a sidewalk and around a parked police car serving as a barricade to plow into pedestrians over a three-block stretch on Bourbon Street early on New Year’s Day, police said.
Jabbar then exited the damaged vehicle armed with an assault rifle and opened fire on police officers, law enforcement said. Officers returned fire, killing Jabbar. At least two officers were injured, authorities said.
FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia called the attack a premeditated “act of terrorism” but said there was no additional threat to the public.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security has issued a joint intelligence bulletin warning the nation’s 18,000 law-enforcement agencies about potential copycats, ABC News learned. The bulletin was sent out of an abundance of caution to sensitize law enforcement around the country to be on the lookout for any activity pointing to the use of vehicles as a method to inflict mass casualties, sources told ABC News.
“We advise federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government and law enforcement officials and private sector security partners to remain vigilant of potential copycat or retaliatory attacks inspired by this attack and other recent, lethal vehicle-ramming incidents across the globe,” the bulletin said.
The bulletin notes that ISIS has been promoting the use of vehicles as a terrorism weapon since around 2014.
Sources told ABC News that ISIS has ramped up calls for its supporters to launch low-tech, mass casualty ramming attacks in recent months, especially since the most recent Israel-Hamas conflict began in October 2023.
Jabbar, a 42-year-old Army veteran and U.S.-born citizen from Texas, drove from Houston to New Orleans on Tuesday evening and posted several videos online “proclaiming his support for ISIS,” and mentioning he joined ISIS before this summer, Raia said.
The bulletin stated that Jabbar was inspired by ISIS but that there remains no evidence of any co-conspirators. A senior law-enforcement official told ABC News that there is so far no sign of ISIS claiming responsibility for the New Orleans attack.
“Law enforcement should be aware that in many cases attackers have conducted vehicle-ramming attacks with secondary weapons and may continue the attack with edged weapons, firearms, or IEDs after the vehicle has stopped,” the bulletin said. The tactic could be “attractive” for foreign terrorist organizations and other actors due to its low complexity threshold, the warning said.
An intelligence bulletin from the New York Police Department obtained by ABC News indicated that ISIS supporters did celebrate the attack online. Violent extremists, the bulletin said, “continue to view densely populated walkways, parades, mass gatherings and other outdoor events along streets, especially during holidays, as vulnerable targets of opportunity.”
“This enduring threat underscores the criticality of pre-staged blocker cars and the deployment of other effectively configured countermeasures including heavy block, barriers and bollards,” it added.
Surveillance footage showed Jabbar placing two improvised explosive devices in coolers in the Bourbon Street area, Raia said. He had a remote detonator in the truck to set off the two devices, Biden said. Both devices were rendered safe, officials said.
Bomb-making materials have been recovered at Jabbar’s Houston home, sources confirmed to ABC News. The items found were also referred to as “precursor chemicals” by agents in the field, sources said.
Law enforcement cleared and reopened Bourbon Street on Thursday as the investigation continued. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said authorities had the “confidence” to reopen the area to the public ahead of the Sugar Bowl Thursday afternoon, which was initially scheduled for Wednesday but postponed in the wake of the attack.
“I want to reassure the public that the city of New Orleans is not only ready for game day today, but we’re ready to continue to host large-scale events in our city,” she said. “Our hearts and prayers continue to go out to the victims’ families,” Cantrell added.
There is no apparent direct connection between the New Orleans attack and Wednesday’s Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, which is also being investigated as a possible act of terror, Raia from the FBI said Thursday.
