Criminal charges coming in alleged Iranian hack of Trump campaign emails: Sources
(WASHINGTON) — Federal law enforcement officials plan to announce criminal charges Friday in connection with the alleged Iranian hack of emails from members of former President Donald Trump’s campaign, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The Iranians allegedly gained access to data and files taken from the email accounts of Trump advisers, which included internal documents used to vet Trump’s perspective running mate, the sources said.
The Trump campaign, as victims, would be notified of any criminal charges that happen, as is standard Department of Justice practice.
Sources tell ABC News the Trump campaign has been informed.
A Justice Department official declined to comment when reached by ABC News.
A Trump campaign spokesperson also declined to comment.
(HILLSBOROUGH, N.C.) — A convicted murderer escaped from custody Tuesday morning while being transported to a medical appointment at a North Carolina hospital, the sheriff’s office said.
Ramone Alston, 30, broke away from a corrections officer while being escorted to UNC Hospital in Hillsborough, according to the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction.
“He had freed himself from leg restraints and, still in handcuffs, jumped out and ran into adjacent woods,” the department said in a statement.
He was last seen wearing a gray T-shirt, brown pants and white New Balance sneakers, as well as handcuffs connected to a waist chain, officials said.
Officials are asking the public to immediately call 911 if they see him and warning them not to approach him.
“He’s unpredictable — we don’t know what he’s going to do, so he should certainly probably be considered dangerous,” Keith Acree, a spokesperson for the Department of Adult Correction, said in a press briefing. “People make rash decisions at a time like this; he’s already made one very large rash decision this morning.”
As of Wednesday morning, Alston’s whereabouts were still unknown, though he is believed to have headed north of the hospital.
Director of Orange County Emergency Services Kirby Saunders said state, local and federal law enforcement teams have searched hundreds of acres for Alston, using aerial assets, helicopters, canine resources and ground searchers.
The North Carolina Department of Adult Correction said Tuesday they would offer a $25,000 reward for information leading to the capture of Alston. On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the department said the U.S. Marshals Service had contributed $10,000, increasing the reward amount to $35,000.
Alston was convicted of shooting and killing a 1-year-old girl on Christmas Day in 2015. He is serving a life sentence.
The infant victim, Maleah Williams, had been playing outside with her Christmas toys when she was struck by gunfire, her mother previously told Raleigh ABC station WTVD.
Alston’s family has been cooperating with authorities, Sheriff Charles Blackwood told reporters, though he said “cooperation has been varied.”
Blackwood said he went to school with Alston’s father and has known the suspect since he was born. He called Alston a “troubled child” and said he’d been involved in criminal activity since his youth.
“He’s extremely cagey, he’s extremely dangerous and he has nothing to lose,” Blackwood said.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Trump is seeking to push back sentencing in his criminal hush money case until after the 2024 presidential election, arguing that the current sentencing date of Sept. 18 advances what his attorneys call prosecutors’ “naked election-interference objectives.”
Judge Juan Merchan has already delayed sentencing once, at Trump’s request, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision on presidential immunity.
Trump was originally scheduled to be sentenced on July 11. Judge Merchan ruled last month that he would rule on Trump’s immunity claim on Sept. 16 and impose sentencing two days later.
“That timing illustrates just how unreasonable it is to have the potential for only a single day between a decision on first-impression Presidential immunity issues and an unprecedented and unwarranted sentencing,” defense lawyers wrote in a letter to judge on Thursday.
Trump’s lawyers questioned whether sentencing should take place after the start of early voting, arguing that the timing harms the integrity of the proceedings.
“Finally, setting aside naked election-interference objectives, there is no valid countervailing reason for the Court to keep the current sentencing date on the calendar. There is no basis for continuing to rush,” defense lawyers wrote.
Trump’s request for a delay comes one day after Merchan sharply criticized defense lawyers for raising “inaccurate and unsubstantiated claims” in their motion to have Merchan recused from the case based on an alleged conflict of interest involving his daughter and Vice President Kamala Harris. Merchan denied the motion.
Despite Merchan denying their recusal motion, Trump’s lawyers again raised their arguments about “conflicts and appearances of impropriety” in their letter urging a delayed sentencing.
Trump was convicted in May on all 34 counts of falsifying business records connected to a hush payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
(NEW YORK) — The suspected shooter in the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump visited a gun club dozens of times in the year leading up to the attack, including on holidays, according to records newly obtained by Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, as dramatic body camera footage of the incident also emerges.
Records obtained by Grassley’s office and released Thursday show Thomas Matthew Crooks’ “intense preparation in the months prior to his attempted assassination of the former president,” Grassley’s office said in a statement.
The records were provided by the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club Jefferson Hills, Pennsylvania, pursuant to a congressional request, Grassley’s office said.
The records released by Grassley’s office show that since establishing a membership at the gun club on Aug. 10, 2023 — less than a year before the July 13 assassination attempt — Crooks visited the range a total of 43 times, including 20 times in his first four months of membership.
Crooks spent several holidays at the range, including Christmas Day, Valentine’s Day and Halloween, the records released by Grassley’s office show.
Most of his visits — 80% — were spent on rifle practice, according to Grassley’s office.
“He focused almost exclusively on the rifle range throughout 2024,” Grassley’s office said.
The Clairton Sportsmen’s Club previously confirmed to ABC News that Crooks visited the gun club for the last time on July 12 — the day before the rally. He visited the range at 2:45 p.m. local time that day, according to the records released by Grassley’s office.
Crooks, 20, is suspected of firing as many as eight rounds from the roof of a building outside the security perimeter of the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, before being killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper.
Body camera footage released Thursday shows the moment when police first confronted the gunman. An officer is seen being hoisted onto the roof, encountering the shooter and then falling back.
“This close, bro!” the officer yells. “Dude, he turned around on me. He’s straight up!”
The video shows officers taking up heavy arms and race toward the building.
“This building. He’s on top of this building,” an officer calls out. “He’s got a bookbag. He’s got mad s—, AR, laying down.”
As officers stream toward the building, other officers are seen offering a boost to the rooftop.
“Next, next, next,” an officer says in an apparent attempt to quickly get more officers into position.
By then, though, Crooks is dead.
“One in custody. AGR building south. Rooftop,” an officer is overheard saying.
Later, in the calmer aftermath, the officers questioned how a gunman was able to access a rooftop firing position fewer than 400 feet from the podium where Trump had been speaking.
“I told them, post f—— guys over here,” one officer is heard saying. “Why were we not on the roof?”
Butler County released the footage Thursday in response to public records requests from news agencies including ABC News.
One rally spectator was killed and two injured in the assassination attempt. Trump also suffered a graze wound to his ear. A motive in the assassination attempt remains under investigation.
Ronald Rowe, the acting director of the Secret Service, said last week that video from that day affirmed there should’ve been better coverage.
“We should have had better protection for the protectee. We should have had better coverage on that roofline,” Rowe told reporters.
FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate told a Senate panel last month that the investigation remains focused on motive, identifying any potential co-conspirators and building out the timeline of the shooter’s actions.