Damon Jones pleads guilty in gambling cases: ‘I would like to sincerely apologize’
Former NBA player Damon Jones departs after his arraignment hearing at U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on November 24, 2025 in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Former NBA player and coach Damon Jones pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges he tipped off sports bettors about an injured LeBron James and used his own celebrity to lure high rollers to rigged poker games.
Jones, 49, is the first defendant in either case to plead guilty following the arrests of nearly three dozen people at the start of the pro basketball season.
Jones, who wore a black suit and black shirt, entered his guilty pleas during back-to-back hearings Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court.
“I would like to sincerely apologize to the court, my family, my peers and also the National Basketball Association,” Jones said during the hearing before Magistrate Judge Joseph Marutollo.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrives at the Wall Street heliport ahead of his appearance in federal court in New York, US, on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(RALEIGH, N.C.) — The special operations soldier who was indicted this week for allegedly using classified information to make more than $400,000 betting on the capture of Nicolas Maduro appeared in a federal courtroom in Raleigh, North Carolina, Friday.
Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, who made the wager on the prediction market Polymarket, will be released on a $250,000 appearance bond.
He agreed to surrender his passport, limit travel to parts of New York and North Carolina, limit drinking “in excess,” and no longer possess a firearm unless it’s part of his active military service.
Van Dyke entered the courtroom shackled at his hands and feet and only spoke briefly to acknowledge he understood the charges and penalties. He is currently being represented by a public defender.
He is set to appear in federal court in New York City on April 28.
Federal investigators said Van Dyke bet more than $33,000 on Polymarket just days before President Donald Trump announced Maduro’s capture.
The series of bets — which netted more than $409,000 — immediately prompted scrutiny within the world of prediction markets and resulted in a monthslong investigation about whether inside information was used to place the bets.
Van Dyke was indicted on charges that included unlawful use of confidential information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, and wire fraud.
When, after placing the bets, he saw reports about unusual trading associated with the mission, Van Dyke allegedly tried to hide the evidence of the trades by attempting to delete his Polymarket account and change the email address registered to his cryptocurrency exchange account, according to the indictment.
“Rather than safeguard that information as he was obligated to do, VAN DYKE decided to use that classified information to place trades on a prediction market platform for his personal profit,” the indictment said. “VAN DYKE subsequently tried to conceal his unlawful use of classified U.S. Government information by attempting to obscure the source of his unlawful proceeds and to disguise his connection to the accounts linked to the illicit trades.”
While prediction markets are primarily regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, suspiciously-timed trades on platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket have sparked concerns about insider trading. In addition to the $400,000 Maduro bet, another Polymarket user made roughly $550,000 through a series of bets related to the U.S. striking Iran and the removal of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Asked on Thursday what he thought about about Van Dyke’s wagers, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, “That’s like Pete Rose betting on his own team.”
“Pete Rose, they kept him out of the Hall of Fame because he bet on his own team. Now, if he bet against his team, that would be no good, but he bet on his own team,” Trump said. “I’ll look into it.”
Regarding concerns about federal employees making insider trading bets on the Iran conflict and other developments, Trump said “the whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino.”
“You look at what’s going on all over the world, in Europe and every place, they’re doing these betting things. I was never much in favor of it. I don’t like it conceptually, but it is what it is. No, I think that I’m not happy with any of that stuff. But they have all these different sites. They have predictive markets. It’s a crazy world. It’s a much different world than it was.”
(NEW YORK) — A cross-country storm continued on Monday to produce heavy snow and strong winds in the upper Midwest and Great Lakes region, including an ice storm in northern Michigan, prompting thousands of flight cancellations and delays.
More than 3,400 flights within or out of the United States have already been canceled on Monday and more than 14,000 flights have been delayed, according to FlightAware.com, which tracks flights throughout the nation.
Between Saturday and Monday morning, more than 5,000 flights were canceled nationwide due to weather, with 3,000 flights scrapped on Sunday alone.
A major winter storm sweeping across the country has produced blizzards, ice storms and widespread destruction across parts of the Midwest and Great Lakes states.
Overnight, parts of Wisconsin recorded more than 2 feet of snow, including the city of Wausau, which received 23.4 inches of snow on Sunday and was adding to its snow totals on Monday morning.
Blizzard conditions are still occurring in parts of Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota, where the city of Minneapolis recorded 8.8 inches of snow overnight and into Monday.
Meanwhile, more than 391 reports of damaging winds have been recorded from Texas to Ohio. At least eight states — including Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and New York — have reported destructive wind gusts of 70 mph.
More than 500,000 utility customers from Texas to New York were without power on Monday morning, according to the website PowerOutage.com.
Most of the power outages are in northern Michigan, where an ongoing ice storms have toppled power lines.
Fire and ice
The March storm is also forecast to continue whipping up dry and windy conditions in the South, fueling a critical fire threat in areas of the central U.S. already dealing with wildfires.
In Nebraska, three wildfires, the largest being the Morrill Fire, have burned more than 700,000 acres of land across multiple counties in western Nebraska and killed at least one person in Arthur County, Gov. Jim Pillen said at a news conference on Saturday.
On Monday, red flag warnings for fire weather danger are in place from southern Texas through southern Louisiana, including the cities of Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi.
Severe weather outlook for Monday
On Monday, a moderate risks of severe storms is forecast to spread into South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and up to Maryland, including the cities of Washington, D.C., Richmond and Raleigh.
Severe storms are also expected to develop from Georgia to Pennsylvania, including the cities of Savannah, Charleston, Charlotte, Baltimore and Philadelphia. Destructive winds gusts greater than 70 mph could develop in these areas, especially from South Carolina to Maryland.
There’s also a risk of tornadoes popping up about midday from South Carolina to Maryland.
A line of severe thunderstorm could also spawn tornadoes from the Florida Panhandle to the West Virginia. A tornado watch was in place earlier for Florida, Alabama and Georgia.
A tornado watch is also in place for Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, and much of New Jersey until 7 pm ET on Monday.
More snow in store for the East Coast
By 6 p.m. ET, snow is expected to be falling from western Virginia, West Virginia, eastern Pennsylvania and western New York. Showers and thunderstorms are also forecast to move along the East Coast from North Carolina to Maine.
The weather system is expected to move out late Monday afternoon. But lake-effect snow is expected to continue through Tuesday on the eastern side of the Great Lakes.
Snow could also make a brief appearance from the Dakotas to Ohio on Tuesday and into Tuesday night.
Record heat wave in the West
Record heat is expected to continue as a summer-like heat dome settles over the West.
Many cities throughout the West — Sacramento, San Jose, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Denver — could reach all-time high temperatures for March.
Extreme heat alerts have been issued from southern Arizona up to the Bay Area of Northern California, where temperatures could reach the mid-90s.
Part of Southern California could see temperatures climb to 109 degrees.
FBI personnel walk towards the house connected to Cole Tomas Allen, the shooting suspect at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, in Torrance, CA on Saturday night, April 25, 2026. (Robbin Goddard / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Cole Allen, the suspect in the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday night, made a brief first court appearance on Monday to face charges, including attempted assassination of the president.
Allen, 31, walked in wearing a blue jumpsuit and took his seat at the defense table. The Torrance, California, native faces three felony counts of attempted assassination of the President of the United States, transportation of a firearm and ammunition over state lines with the intent to commit a felony and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence. This is the third assassination attempt President Donald Trump has faced.
The first count of attempting to assassinate the president carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, if convicted.
Allen did not enter a plea.
As Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh asked Allen the routine series of questions for defendants charged in federal court, he nodded and readily answered with, “Yes, your honor.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jocelyn Ballantine said the government was seeking Allen’s continued detention pending trial.
Ballantine said Allen attempted to assassinate Trump using a 12-gauge pump action shotgun and said he was also carrying a .38 caliber semi-automatic pistol, three knives “and other dangerous paraphernalia.”
Public defender Tezira Abe indicated the defense may seek to contest detention, noting he has no prior arrest record and is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Sharbaugh scheduled a detention hearing for Thursday and ordered Allen to be temporarily detained until then. Allen’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 11.
Allen appears to have shared social media posts that were critical of Trump and his administration — including calling for Trump’s removal — on the social media platform Bluesky.
In addition to sharing posts denouncing Trump’s policies — including the war with Iran, increased ICE enforcement actions, and the U.S. diminished support for Ukraine — Allen also appeared to share posts criticizing a reporter in connection with the correspondents’ dinner. His account shared posts that described an effort to highlight press freedoms related to the event as “pathetic” and akin to a “white flag … [to] wave in defeat.”
A Bluesky spokesperson said, “Violence has no place in our public discourse, and we are committed to providing people with the platform and tools to engage in healthy conversation.”
“Our Trust & Safety team is actively reviewing and taking action against content that violates Bluesky’s Community Guidelines, including posts that amplify misinformation, or glorify violence or harm,” Bluesky said.
Allen — a trained mechanical engineer working as a tutor — traveled across the country to perpetrate “as much damage as he could,” sources and officials said.
Local authorities said the suspect was tackled by law enforcement after gunfire inside the Washington Hilton, where thousands of journalists as well as Trump and members of his Cabinet were gathered for the annual event.
Allen was detained near the main magnetometer area for the event, with surveillance video showing the suspect running past security officials. Interim D.C. Metropolitan Police Department Chief Jeffrey Carroll told reporters that the suspect was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives. Carroll said the preliminary information is that he was a “lone actor.”
Law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation said that Allen was declining to answer questions but allegedly made some non-specific reference to targeting administration officials.
A Secret Service member was shot during the incident but the bullet hit the agent’s protective vest, Trump said after the incident. The president said he spoke with the agent and he was in good spirits.
Shortly before the White House press briefing, Trump posted a video showing agents subduing the suspect, who he said “charged a security checkpoint armed with many weapons.”
Law enforcement officials said that Allen is believed to have booked a room in the Washington Hilton, where the dinner took place, in early April.
Investigators believe the suspect arrived in Washington by train, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Sunday during an interview on ABC News’ “This Week” with anchor George Stephanopoulos.
U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro told reporters Saturday night that Allen was being charged with using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon.
“It is clear, based upon what we know so far, that this individual was intent on doing as much harm and as much damage as he could,” Pirro said.
ABC News’ Lauren Minore, Luke Barr, Nicholas Kerr, Ivan Pereira, Aaron Katersky, Josh Margolin, John Santucci, Michelle Stoddart, Lucien Bruggeman, Oren Oppenheim, Katherine Faulders and Peter Charalambous contributed to this report.
