DOJ refuses to issue signed declaration verifying ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ is dead

(CALIFORNIA) — An “emergency hazmat incident” in California has prompted evacuations, with officials warning that a chemical tank at an aerospace facility is in “crisis” and will either fail or explode.

Firefighters initially responded to a leak at an aerospace manufacturing company in Garden Grove on Thursday, for vapor releasing from a 34,000-gallon tank containing methyl methacrylate, according to the Orange County Fire Authority. 

Officials updated Friday that there is no active gas leak or plume, but that the tank is “actively in crisis” and unable to be secured. Damage to a valve on the tank has “created additional operational challenges,” city officials said.

“There are literally two options left remaining: one, the tank fails and spills a total of about 6- to 7,000 gallons of very bad chemicals into the parking lot in that area. Or two, the tank goes into a thermal runaway and blows up, affecting the tanks that are around them that have fuel or the chemicals in them as well,” Orange County Fire Authority Division Chief Craig Covey said in a video update Friday.

“Most importantly, right now, there is no active gas leak, no plume in the area. We are setting up these evacuations in preparation for these two options — it fails or it blows up,” he said.

Authorities have issued evacuation orders for the surrounding area. Over a dozen schools have temporarily closed, and those adjacent to the evacuation area are canceling outdoor activities “out of an abundance of caution,” the Garden Grove Unified School District said.

Methyl methacrylate is an industrial chemical used in plastics and manufacturing.

ABC News has reached out to the aerospace manufacturing company, GKN Aerospace, for comment.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been briefed on the incident, his office said.

The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services said it is “closely monitoring the incident in Garden Grove and has deployed personnel to work alongside local partners.”

“Please heed all orders from local authorities — evacuation orders have expanded,” it said Friday.

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(WASHINGTON) — House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said he had issued two subpoenas to Leon Black after Comer said the private equity billionaire refused to answer some of the committee’s questions about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during Black’s closed-door appearance before the panel Friday.

Black, who was appearing before the panel as part of its ongoing probe into the government’s investigation of Epstein, walked out of his transcribed interview during questioning.

Comer told reporters that the two subpoenas compel Black to appear for a deposition on July 16 as well as produce purported nondisclosure agreements that he was questioned about.

“During today’s voluntary transcribed interview, Mr. Black stated he wouldn’t answer questions about NDAs. Answers about the terms and substance of these NDAs are critical to our investigation,” Comer said. “We owe it to the American people to provide transparency and ensure accountability for survivors.”

“NDAs are between him and other women. We want to know, was Jeffrey Epstein involved in the NDAs? Was he involved in writing? Was he involved in awarding funds to the women for the NDAs? What was the reason for the NDA? We don’t know everything about the NDAs, so that’s very important to our investigation, so the subpoenas were issued. We expect to see back here in a few weeks,” Comer said.

“This is very important for our investigation, Comer said. “We knew for a long time there were NDAs out there by various people. Obviously, they’re very hard to obtain, and with this subpoena, we expect to get those NDAs in hand.”

Asked about Black’s responses during the interview, Comer said, “his response was that he wasn’t allowed to discuss the terms of the NDAs.”

Ranking committee member Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., said he agreed with Comer’s decision to issue the subpoenas.

“The NDAs are central to us understanding what actually happened. There are real accusations, and there are survivors who have accused Mr. Black of horrific things,” Garcia told reporters.

Black’s attorney, Susan Estrich, claimed to reporters that the decision to serve Black with the subpoenas during the interview was “a premeditated political decision” and claimed that Epstein “had no involvement” with the purported nondisclosure agreements.

“They made a premeditated political decision to serve him with subpoenas after less than an hour of questioning, and before they even asked a single question about his legitimate payments to Epstein,” she said. “This was nothing more than a planned political stunt. Mr. Epstein had no involvement with any NDAs, whether they exist or not.”

The latest in a series of rich and powerful people questioned about their relationship with Epstein as part of the Oversight panel’s probe, Black maintained a social relationship with Epstein since the mid-1990s and eventually paid him more than $170 million for “tax and estate planning advice,” according to the Senate Finance Committee.

Black has denied wrongdoing or knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, though his financial payments to Epstein served as a lifeline to the convicted sex offender in the years after Epstein’s 2008 prison sentence for soliciting a minor for prostitution.

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., told reporters after Black’s appearance, “this is the first time” a witness during this probe has walked out in the middle of an interview.

“It’s because we had very important questions about Leon Black’s past with Jeffrey Epstein,” he said. “This is also the first time I heard someone gush poetically about how smart and how great Jeffrey Epstein was.”

“He was smug,” Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Az., said of Black’s appearance. “He refused to answer the questions but at the same time was emphasizing how he was being transparent because this was voluntary. But when pressed on critical questions about his own sexual abuse and the allegations against him and non-disclosure agreements, he absolutely refused to answer these questions,” she said.

Ansari said Black was “speaking fondly of Epstein while also claiming they were not close.”

‘Bona fide advice’

In his appearance before the committee Friday, Black said he was unaware of Epstein’s “demonic life” and that the money he paid Epstein was for legitimate services and “bona fide advice,” according to a copy of his opening remarks reviewed by ABC News.

Black’s prepared remarks during his closed-door interview cast him as the victim of “ugly and vicious” narratives around Epstein, saying he has been the subject of baseless allegations and conspiracy theories about Epstein and that “extraordinary damage has been done to me and my family.”

“I wish I had never met Epstein. I regret ever doing business with him. My association with him, the frivolous but destructive litigation, the endless rumor mill, have created a toxic environment for my wife and family, which I deeply regret,” the prepared remarks said.

Addressing the massive amount of money he paid Epstein, Black, in his remarks, said those were legitimate payments and that he was never blackmailed by Epstein.

“Let me state unequivocally that I have never abused a woman. I have never been with an underage woman. I have never engaged in sex trafficking. I have never paid Epstein for access to women. I was never blackmailed by Epstein. I was not involved with, and had no knowledge of, any of Epstein’s heinous conduct,” his prepared remarks said.

According to Black, Epstein lived a “Jekyll and Hyde” existence and that he, at first, only saw the positive side, including his “unrivaled network of relationships with individuals in finance, academia, science, politics.” Black, in his remarks, said his relationship with Epstein began as personal but grew overtime to helping manage his family investment office.

“With hindsight, I now see that Epstein exaggerated, embellished, manipulated, and outright lied — prolifically and without concern for me or my family. And I now see that his deceit was not limited to me but also extended to numerous highly sophisticated individuals,” Black’s prepared remarks said.

While Black said that Epstein “took credit for other people’s ideas” and made false claims about investments, Black also argued Epstein was able to resolve “a massive estate problem” for him that “would have destroyed enormous value.” According to Black’s remarks, he originally thought he was paying Epstein $95 million in net fees, though that was actually $158 million because Epstein lied about the tax deductibility of the payment.

Black also said in his prepared remarks that he was aware of Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution, but that Epstein lied about the nature of the crime.

“Epstein told me that it was an isolated incident resulting from a fake ID. Five years after his conviction, I gave Epstein a second chance, as did many others. I wish I had not,” he said, according to his prepared remarks.

According to Black, he cut ties with Epstein in 2018 after Epstein failed to repay most of a $30 million loan. Black said he grew “tired of his relentless pursuit of more and more money from me for professional services.”

While Black, according to his remarks, said that he was “glad” to answer the committee’s questions, he noted that he will “not speak about the personal lives of adult women” that he believes should not be connected to Epstein.

“I am here to voluntarily answer questions about the work that Epstein did for me and for the services for which I paid him. I am not here to answer questions about my personal life which would be hurtful to my wife, children and family. And I will not speak about the personal lives of adult women who have not chosen, and do not deserve, to be connected, by me or anyone else, to Epstein,” Black said, per his remarks.

‘The most groundbreaking deposition’

Comer told reporters before Friday’s proceedings that this “could be a pretty significant” interview.

“So, of all the witnesses that have come thus far, this one has the potential to be the most groundbreaking deposition, in my opinion,” Comer said.

“There’s a lot of concerning things in the documents. There are a lot of statements from the survivors that are very concerning as well, with respect to Mr. Black,” Comer said.

The chairman said the committee would ask Black “hundreds and hundreds of questions about financial transactions, about bank violations, about emails, documents, pictures, and communication with survivors.”

Comer said the committee’s investigation is “on a timeline.”

“This Congress will expire the end of this year, so we want to certainly get done as quickly as possible, said Comer, who added that “we hope” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche will sit for an interview.

“I’ll remind everyone the purpose of our investigation to get the truth to the American people and determine how the government failed the survivors by not prosecuting Epstein,” Comer said.

Garcia told reporters prior to Black’s appearance that Epstein “would not have been able to commit the horrific crimes without the support of Mr. Black.”

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., said, “We want him to answer the tough questions about what he knew about Jeffrey Epstein and whether he was involved with some of the crimes himself.”

“Leon Black was one of Jeffrey Epstein’s primary sources of income, flooding him with cash at a time when he was already a registered sex offender. Black has not yet offered a compelling explanation regarding the origination and execution of Epstein’s extraordinary compensation scheme for alleged tax advice,” Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, wrote in a letter to the House Oversight Committee earlier this month. The Senate Finance Committee is leading its own investigation of Epstein’s finances.

Black has long been scrutinized over his relationship with the disgraced financier — describing it as a “horrible mistake” — and was forced out of his firm Apollo Global Management following an external investigation that revealed payments to Epstein totaling at least $158 million.

“Knowing all that I have learned in the past two years about Epstein’s reprehensible and despicable conduct, I deeply regret having had any involvement with him,” Black said during a 2020 Apollo earnings call. “With the benefit of hindsight, working with him was a horrible mistake on my part. I am not seeking to excuse that decision, but I do believe it may be helpful to convey some relevant facts.”

While the investigation concluded that Black and others were aware of Epstein’s 2008 conviction, a report summarizing its findings said that Black was not “involved in any way with Epstein’s criminal activities at any time” or aware of the “scope and details” of Epstein’s sex trafficking. Black has never been charged with a crime.

“When Black first retained Epstein, he believed that Epstein had served his time for the originally charged offenses and believed that it was not inappropriate to give Epstein a second chance, as many other prominent figures in business, science, politics and academia had done,” the report said.

‘Saving you from yourself’

The release of the Department of Justice’s Epstein files earlier this year cast more scrutiny on Black, whose name appears in the files more than 8,000 times. Epstein at one point appeared to serve as a middleman to pay $100,000 to a woman with whom Black allegedly had an affair, according to emails included in the files, and routinely served as a fixer for issues involving his finances.

“Leon, as you are well aware, there is little I won’t do for you or at least try to do as a friend, and a great deal that I have already done (both known and some things that will need to remain unknown),” Epstein wrote to Black in a 2014 email. In another email in 2017, Epstein described his relationship with Black as “saving you from yourself.”

In a statement to ABC News, Black’s attorney Susan Estrich pointed to the external investigation conducted for Apollo that found Black “had no awareness of the criminal activities that led to Epstein’s arrest in 2019” and noted that Black has called for an independent investigation of his relationship with Epstein.

Wyden of the Senate Finance Committee has called on the House Oversight members to scrutinize the $170 million that Black paid Epstein between 2012 and 2017 for purported tax and estate planning. According to Wyden, those payments are sixty times more than what Epstein paid his other tax and estate professionals during the same timeframe.

“Black is a well-advised businessman with access to sophisticated attorneys, yet it appears Epstein was able to shake him down for money that he wasn’t legally owed. This suggests that Epstein may have extorted Black or performed other unseemly tasks on his behalf,” Wyden wrote earlier this month.

Attorneys for Black have pushed back against Wyden’s accusations, accusing him of harassment and saying that the billionaire has cooperated “voluntarily and without compulsion.”

“We are aware of no other private citizen subjected to more written requests from you over the same period,” Black’s attorneys wrote in an April 2026 letter to Wyden. “Your continued attempts to invade into matters pertaining to Mr. Black’s personal life — without the support of any legitimate legislative purpose — appear targeted to unfairly harass Mr. Black in a manner that completely disregards the proper scope of Congress’s investigative powers.”

According to the 2021 external report, Epstein was paid proportionally to the amount of money he saved Black and that Epstein “provided advice that conferred more than $1 billion and as much as $2 billion or more in value to Black”; however, the report also acknowledged that Epstein’s advice was often not useful and that he was “generally a disruptive and caustic force.”

The external report said investigators found “no evidence suggesting that Black ever compensated Epstein for any service other than Epstein’s legitimate advice on trust and estate planning” and other issues. 

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(SAN DIEGO) — Three men, one of whom was a security guard, were killed in a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday, authorities said, with investigators saying they are currently considering the incident as a hate crime.

Two suspects, aged 17 and 18, were reported dead from apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds, police said.

Authorities are investigating two teenagers, Cain Clark and Caleb Vazquez, as the suspected attackers in the shooting, a number of sources told ABC News.

The shooting was reported shortly before noon Monday, police said.

Police are investigating a potential motive but said the shooting is currently being considered as a hate crime.

“There was definitely hate rhetoric that was involved,” San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said during a Monday press briefing.

Anti-Islamic writings were found in the vehicle with the two teens, sources told ABC News.

About two hours before the shooting at the mosque, San Diego police received a call involving one of the suspects, about a runaway juvenile, according to Wahl. The teen’s mother reported that “several of her weapons” and her vehicle were missing, he said. The mother also found a note, Wahl said, the contents of which the police chief did not share.

The mother told police that her son was with another individual and that they were both “dressed in camo,” Wahl said.

Officers were attempting to track down the vehicle and dispatched police to a mall and to a school with which one of the teens was associated, when the shooting at the mosque was reported, he said.

The Islamic Center of San Diego says it is the largest mosque in San Diego County.

“We have never experienced a tragedy like this before,” Taha Hassan, Imam and Director of Islamic Center of San Diego, said of the center at a news conference.

Hassan said he’s sending “prayers and standing in solidarity with all the families in our community here, and also the other mosques, and all the places of worship in our beautiful city.”

“It is extremely outrageous to target a place of worship. Our Islamic center is a place of worship. People come to the Islamic center to pray, to celebrate, to learn, not only Muslims, but we have people from all walks of life,” Hassan added.

“The religious intolerance and the hate, unfortunately, that exists in our nation is unprecedented,” Hassan said.

“We strongly condemn this horrifying act of violence,” Tazheen Nizam, the executive director of the San Diego chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with everyone impacted by this attack. No one should ever fear for their safety while attending prayers or studying at an elementary school.”

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria told ABC News that “we immediately have increased patrols around religious sites, both our Muslim, Jewish and other faith communities across the city. And I imagine we’ll maintain that posture for some time.”

“[I] believe that once the investigation is complete that that security guard will be credited with a tremendous saving of many, many lives, including many children, an absolute hero who sadly lost his life, but for whom we’re all grateful,” Gloria said.

“Hate has no home in San Diego. Islamophobia has no home in San Diego,” the mayor said during a press conference.

ABC News’ Meg Christie, Luke Barr, Mike Levine and Alex Stone contributed to this report.

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