Dept. of Defense shoots down Customs and Border Protection drone near El Paso: Officials
The new MQ-9 Predator B, an unmanned surveillance aircraft system, unveiled by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), October 30, 2006 (Photo by Gary Williams/Getty Images)
(EL PASO, Texas) — The Department of Defense mistakenly shot down a Customs and Border Protection drone over El Paso, according to a statement from House representatives and a congressional aide.
Congress was briefed on the incident on Thursday, a source confirmed to ABC News.
The Federal Aviation Administration expanded its temporary flight restrictions over the Fort Hancock airspace in Texas, about 50 miles to the southeast of El Paso, which prohibits all flight operations there through June 24, due to “security” reasons.
The location of the airspace restriction does not impact commercial flights, according to the FAA.
The Pentagon, CBP and the FAA released a joint statement in response to the incident.
“This reported engagement occurred when the Department of War employed counter-unmanned aircraft system authorities to mitigate a seemingly threatening unmanned aerial system operating within military airspace,” the statement said.
“The engagement took place far away from populated areas and there were no commercial aircraft in the vicinity,” the statement went on to say. “These agencies will continue to work on increased cooperation and communication to prevent such incidents in the future.”
The statement didn’t include specifics about the nature of the drone that was shot down but said: “At President Trump’s direction, the Department of War, FAA, and Customs and Border Patrol are working together in an unprecedented fashion to mitigate drone threats by Mexican cartels and foreign terrorist organizations at the U.S.-Mexico Border.”
Congressional Democrats issued a statement criticizing the incident.
In the statement, ranking members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure said: “Our heads are exploding over the news that DoD reportedly shot down a Customs and Border Protection drone using a high risk counter-unmanned aircraft system.”
The statement, from Rick Larsen, D-Wash., André Carson, D-Ind. and Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., called out the White House directly.
“We said MONTHS ago that the White House’s decision to sidestep a bipartisan, tri-committee bill to appropriately train C-UAS operators and address the lack of coordination between the Pentagon, DHS and the FAA was a short-sighted idea. Now, we’re seeing the result of its incompetence,” the members said.
The incident comes after the FAA’s abrupt shutdown of airspace over El Paso earlier this month.
Sources with direct knowledge told ABC News at the time that it came days after a laser was used by the Department of Homeland Security to shoot down an object in the vicinity of Fort Bliss. One of the sources said the object was a balloon.
The FAA imposed a surprise 10-day shutdown of airspace within a 10-mile radius of El Paso, halting all arrivals and departures at its airport for what it initially described only as “special security reasons.”
Within hours, the FAA rescinded the order. The Trump administration said the closing of airspace was related to the military neutralizing cartel drones, not a balloon.
South Carolina pastor John Paul Miller (right) was indicted, December 18, 2025, on federal charges of cyberstalking his estranged wife, Mica Miller(left), who authorities said died from suicide in April 2024. (Robeson County Sheriff’s Office)
(NEW YORK) — A former South Carolina pastor has been indicted on federal charges of cyberstalking his wife, including allegedly posting a nude photo of her online, before she died by suicide in 2024, authorities said.
A federal grand jury in Columbia, S.C., returned a two-count indictment on Thursday, charging 46-year-old John-Paul Miller with cyberstalking and making false statements to federal investigators, stemming from the investigation into his wife’s death.
“This case underscores the seriousness of domestic violence abuse and related offenses and serves as a reminder that such behavior has no place in our society,” Robeson County, North Carolina, Sheriff Burnis Wilkins said in a statement posted on his office’s Facebook page, along with photos of both John-Paul and Mica Miller.
Miller is scheduled be arraigned on Jan. 12 in federal court in Florence, S.C., according to the sheriff’s office.
Miller and his 30-year-old wife were estranged and in the process of getting a divorce at the time of her death.
Mica Miller’s remains were discovered on April 27, 2024, at Lumber River State Park in Robeson County, N.C., about an hour north of Myrtle Beach, S.C., according to the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office.
Robeson County sheriff’s deputies went to the park to conduct a welfare check on Mica Miller after she contacted the Robeson County 911 Communications Center, expressing concern that she might harm herself, according to the sheriff’s office.
Deputies found Mica Miller at the park, “deceased in the water with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound,” according to the sheriff’s office, which also said a firearm was found near her body.
The North Carolina Medical Examiner’s Office ruled her death a suicide.
“During the course of the investigation, Detectives identified information that, while not directly related to the actual cause of death, warranted further review regarding Miller’s husband, John-Paul Miller. That information was believed to be relevant in understanding the broader circumstances surrounding Miller’s death,” according to the sheriff’s office statement.
On May 6, 2024, Wilkins formally requested that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Carolina “investigate allegations that were reported to have occurred outside the jurisdiction of the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office,” according to the statement. The FBI also joined the investigation, according to the sheriff’s office.
According to the indictment, federal prosecutors said the investigation found that beginning in November 2022 and up to his wife’s death, John-Paul Miller allegedly sent his wife “unwanted and harassing communications.”
“The harassing behavior included Miller posting a nude photo of the victim online without her consent, causing tracking devices to be placed on her vehicle, and in one instance, contacting her over 50 times in a single day,” the indictment alleges.
The indictment also alleges that John-Paul Miller “interfered with [his wife’s] finances and her daily activities and on one occasion damaged her vehicle tires.”
“Federal investigators interviewed Miller about these allegations and Miller lied in his responses,” the indictment alleges. “Miller said he did not damage the victim’s tires, when in fact he purchased a tire deflation device online and sent messages to others regarding the victim’s vehicle.”
The indictment further states that Miller’s alleged cyberstalking put his wife in “reasonable fear of death and serious bodily injury,” and that his conduct “would be reasonably expected to cause [Mica Miller] substantial emotional distress.”
ABC News attempts to reach John-Paul Miller for comment were unsuccessful. It is unclear if he has hired an attorney.
If convicted, Miller faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison on the cyberstalking charge and two years in prison for allegedly making false statements to investigators, according to the Department of Justice. He could also face a fine of up to $250,000.
(LOS ANGELES) — Los Angeles police are searching for two gunmen after a 22-year-old woman — reportedly a Latin singer — was killed in an ambush-style shooting.
Around 1:25 a.m. Saturday, two men approached a parked car in the Northridge neighborhood and fired multiple rounds at several people sitting inside, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Maria De La Rosa was taken to a hospital where she died from gunshot wounds, police said.
The 22-year-old was, according to multiple reports, a Latin singer growing in popularity with about 40,000 Instagram followers.
Two others in the car with her were injured, according to police.
A motive isn’t known and no arrests have been made, police said.
A sign marks the location of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) headquarters building on April 30, 2025, in Washington, DC. J. David Ake/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Three million pages from the Justice Department’s files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are being released to the public today, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a press briefing Friday.
Blanche said the release, which follows the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, will include 2,000 videos and 180,000 images related to the Epstein case.
Blanche said in total there were 6 million documents, but due to the presence of child sexual abuse material and victim rights obligations, not all documents are being made public in the current release.
Several categories of pages were withheld from the release due to their sensitive nature, Blanche said. These items include personally identifying information of the victims, victims’ medical files, images depicting child pornography, information related to ongoing cases, and any images depicting death or abuse.
Attorneys for hundreds of Epstein survivors tell ABC News that names and identifying information of numerous victims appear unredacted in this latest disclosure, including several women whose names have never before been publicly associated with the case.
“We are getting constant calls for victims because their names, despite them never coming forward, being completely unknown to the public, have all just been released for public consumption,” attorney Brad Edwards, who has represented Epstein victims for more than 20 years, said in a telephone interview with ABC News. “It’s literally thousands of mistakes.”
ABC News has independently confirmed numerous instances of victims’ names appearing in documents included in the latest release.
Shortly after the new material appeared on Friday morning, Edwards said he and his law partner, Brittany Henderson, began receiving calls from clients.
“We contacted DOJ immediately, who has asked us to flag each of the documents where victim names appear unredacted, and they will pull them down,” Edwards said. “It’s an impossible job. The easy job would be for the DOJ to type in all the victims’ names, hit redact like they promised to do, then release them. “
“They’re trying to fix it, but I said, ‘The solution is take the thing down for now,'” Edwards said. “There’s no other remedy to this. It just runs the risk of causing so much more harm unless they take it down first, then fix the problem and put it back up.
ABC News reached out to the Justice Department for comment.
Blanche also pushed back on the notion that the Justice Department might have protected President Donald Trump from his name appearing in the files.
“We comply with the act, and there is no ‘protect President Trump.’ We didn’t protect or not protect anybody,” Blanche told ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas. “I mean, I think that there’s a hunger or a thirst for information that I do not think will be satisfied by the review of these documents. And there’s nothing I can do about that.”
Blanche said there was “no oversight” by the White House about what the material showed.
He added that if there was evidence in the files that others had abused victims, the DOJ would pursue charges against them.
One document in Friday’s release is a chart showing connections between Epstein and various employees and associates. Many are redacted — but the faces of several remain visible, including Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s associate Jean Luc Brunel, and Epstein’s lawyer, accountant, and assistant. The chart is followed by a list of individuals broken into three categories: Day of Arrest, Week of Arrest, and Weeks following arrest.
This ties in with internal DOJ communications released earlier that showed a plan to contact potential witnesses following Epstein’s arrest. There are eight persons who are listed in the accompanying spreadsheet as “suspected co-conspirators,” including Maxwell, Brunel, and Epstein’s assistant Leslie Groff. Two of those designated as “suspected co-conspirators” are also identified also as victims.
Groff has never been charged with a crime and said in a statement to ABC News in 2020 that she “never knowingly booked travel for anyone under the age of 18, and had no knowledge of the alleged illegal activity whatsoever.”
An internal FBI document produced created in August 2019, five days after Epstein’s death, shows nine persons listed as family and associates of Epstein, including eight labeled as “co-conspirators,” most with their names and faces redacted with the exception of Maxwell and Brunel. This points to potential continued interest in pursuing further charges after the death of Epstein. In his statement announcing Epstein’s death, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said “our investigation of the conduct charged in the Indictment — which included a conspiracy count — remains ongoing” Maxwell is the only other person to be charged related to Epstein’s crimes.
Among the other new documents released is what appears to be part of the original indictment against Epstein in his 2005 criminal case in Florida. The 100-page charging document contains information on 58 out the 60 charges against Epstein for his behavior towards six alleged victims. This document had never been made public.
Epstein ending up being offered a plea to reduced charges and was offered a non-prosecution agreement, in a deal that was highly controversial.
As of Friday afternoon, the DOJ had uploaded three “data sets” to its public website. Just one of those sets includes, by ABC News’ count, over 300,000 items.
A team of 500 attorneys from the Justice Department worked around the clock to review and redact material, Blanche said at his press briefing.
Friday’s tranche is the latest in a series of Epstein file releases that began last month in response to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which passed Congress overwhelmingly and was signed into law by Trump on Nov. 19. The act gave the Justice Department 30 days to make publicly available all unclassified records pertaining to investigations and prosecutions of Epstein and his convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.
The bill contains several exceptions that allow for withholding or redacting records, notably to protect the privacy of Epstein’s victims.
Prior to Friday’s release, the DOJ had posted to its online Epstein library roughly 12,000 documents totaling about 125,000 pages — just a small fraction of the millions of records the department has been reviewing.
Those materials included a record of a complaint to the FBI filed in 1996, years before the disgraced financier was first investigated for child sex abuse. The documents also included new details about the government’s investigation into potential accomplices as well as thousands of photographs of Epstein’s New York and U.S. Virgin Islands properties that were searched by the FBI after Epstein’s arrest in 2019.
The initial release of the files also contained numerous old photos of Epstein traveling with former President Bill Clinton, including pictures of Clinton lounging in a jacuzzi and one of him swimming with Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence after her 2021 conviction for sex trafficking of minors and other offenses.
The images, which were released without any context or background information, contained little information related to Trump, leading a spokesperson for Clinton to accuse the DOJ of selectively disclosing the pictures to imply wrongdoing on the part of Clinton where he said there is none.
“The White House hasn’t been hiding these files for months only to dump them late on a Friday to protect Bill Clinton,” Angel Urena said. “This is about shielding themselves from what comes next, or from what they’ll try and hide forever. So they can release as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photos as they want, but this isn’t about Bill Clinton. Never has, never will be.”
In an interview with ABC News on the day of the initial release, Blanche said that every document that mentions Trump will eventually be released, “assuming it’s consistent with the law.”
“There’s no effort to hold anything back because there’s the name Donald J. Trump or anybody else’s name,” Blanche said.
Both Trump and Clinton have denied all wrongdoing and have denied having any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
Federal prosecutors have indicated in recent court filings that hundreds of government lawyers have spent weeks reviewing “several millions of pages” of materials — including documents, audio and video files — in preparation for disclosure to the public.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act came after the Trump administration faced months of blowback from its announcement last July that they would be releasing no additional Epstein files, after several top officials — including FBI Director Kash Patel and former Deputy Director Dan Bongino — had, prior to joining the administration, accused the government of shielding information regarding the Epstein case.
The files released thus far have yet to show evidence of wrongdoing on the part of famous, powerful men, against the expectations of many of those who pushed for the files’ release.
Epstein owned two private islands in the Virgin Islands and large properties in New York City, New Mexico and Palm Beach, Florida, where he came under investigation for allegedly luring minor girls to his seaside home for massages that turned sexual. He served 13 months of an 18-month sentence for sex crimes charges after reaching a controversial non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami.
In 2019, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York indicted Epstein on charges that he “sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida, among other locations,” using cash payments to recruit a “vast network of underage victims,” some of whom were as young as 14 years old.
Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial.
