Executives at private prison firm CoreCivic expect ‘significant growth’ due to Trump’s policies

(LAS VEGAS) — The man who rented the Cybertruck that exploded outside of the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas on New Year’s Day has been identified as U.S. Army Master Sgt. Matthew Livelsberger, 37, a Special Operations soldier who was on leave from his base in Germany, law enforcement sources told ABC News.

Although investigators are still examining DNA evidence of the person found in the truck, Las Vegas Metro Police Department Sherriff Kevin McMahill told reporters at a news conference that Livelsberger’s identification and credit cards were found at the scene. The coroner’s office said the person in the truck sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head and a handgun was found at his feet.

Seven people suffered minor injuries when the truck, which was filled with fireworks-style mortars and gas canisters, exploded around 8:40 a.m. PT. Investigators believe the explosion was intentional, but hadn’t determined a motive, authorities said in the news conference.

As they continue their investigation into the blast, a profile of Livelsberger is emerging from the Army and people who knew him.

Livelsberger’s wife told investigators her husband had been out of their Colorado Springs, Colorado, residence since around Christmas after a dispute over allegations of infidelity and said he would not hurt anyone, an official who had been briefed on the investigation told ABC News.

Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas Division, told reporters it was too early to speculate about any politicial connections behind the attack. Livelsberger allegedly supported President-elect Donald Trump, the official who had been briefed on the investigation said.

“It’s not lost on us that it’s in front of the Trump building, that it’s a Tesla vehicle, but we don’t have information at this point that definitively tells us or suggest it was because of this particular ideology or any of the reasoning behind it,” Evans said.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a major Trump donor who has been advising the president-elect, has been assisting in the investigation, authorities said, including providing police with video of Livelsberger at Tesla charging stations along his route from Colorado to Las Vegas.

Livelsberger enlisted in the Army as a Special Forces candidate and served on active duty from January 2006 to March 2011, then joined the National Guard that month and served until July 2012, followed by a stint in the Army Reserve from July to December 2012, according to the spokesperson. He went back on active duty in December 2012 as a Special Operations soldier, the spokesperson said.

He spent time at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, and was deployed to Afghanistan three times, according to the spokesperson.

Livelsberger was a Green Beret operations sergeant who was stationed mostly at Fort Carson, Colorado, near Colorado Springs, and in Germany, according to McMahill.

He was on approved leave from the Army at the time of his death, according to U.S. Army Special Operations Command.

Livelsberger received numerous accomodations throughout his military carer including a Bronze Star with a “V” device for valor, and four additional Bronze Stars, according to the Army spokesperson.

“USASOC is in full cooperation with federal and state law enforcement agencies, but as a matter of policy, will not comment on ongoing investigations,” the spokesperson said.

Livelsberger rented the Cybertruck in Denver on Dec. 28 using the car-sharing app Turo, the same app used to rent a truck by the suspect in the New Orleans attack on New Year’s Day, though investigators said they have not established any links between the two attacks.

Livelsberger told the truck’s owner that he was going camping at the Grand Canyon, the official said.

The subject purchased two semiautomatic firearms legally on Monday, Kenny Cooper, the assistant special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, San Francisco Field Division, told reporters.

ABC News’ Alex Stone contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — A former CIA analyst arrested in November and charged with leaking highly classified records showing Israeli plans to launch a retaliatory strike on Iran pleaded guilty Friday in a federal court in Virginia.

Asif Rahman, 34, pleaded guilty to two counts of transmission of national defense information, according to court records.

Rahman faces up to 10 years in prison for the first count and up to three years for the second count. His sentencing was set for May 15.

Rahman admitted to accessing and printing out two documents regarding Israel’s retaliatory strike plans on Oct. 17 and transporting them to his residence, where he later uploaded images of them and provided them to “multiple individuals he knew were not entitled to receive them,” according to the plea agreement.

He later took various steps to try and conceal his involvement in the leak, even as authorities were able to track him down remarkably quickly given he was the only individual found to have printed out the documents, according to logs reviewed by investigators.

Rahman was arrested in Cambodia and later brought to Guam, according to the charging documents.

Rahman, a U.S. citizen, worked as an employee for the CIA starting in 2016.

In the days after the disclosure, Rahman deleted “approximately 1.5 gigabytes” of data from his personal folder in the Top Secret system, including scores of highly classified materials he had downloaded over the years — largely relating to the Middle East, according to prosecutors.

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(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge in Washington, D.C., held Rudy Giuliani in contempt of court for violating a court order that barred him from making false and defamatory statements against two Georgia election workers after they secured a $148 million defamation judgement against the former New York City mayor in 2023.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell admonished the former New York City mayor for continuing to spread lies about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss in November on his web show, saying she hoped that sitting through trial and agreeing to a consent judgement would have made Giuliani “stop saying such fabricated lies.”

The judge asked Giuliani, “$148 million wasn’t a sufficient incentive to stop the defamation?”

Giuliani was ordered by Howell to file a declaration acknowledging that he reviewed testimony and evidence from the defamation trial and that no testimony or government report contradicted the two election workers. Howell issued a $200 fine for each day Giuliani does not comply with the deadline to submit the declaration.

If Giuliani engages in further violations, Howell said the court would have to consider imprisonment or confinement.

“It is outrageous and shameful,” Howell said while reading her verdict. “This takes real chutzpah, Mr. Giuliani.”

Last week, a federal judge in New York also held Giuliani in contempt of court for failing to turn over personal property and information to the two election workers.

During the hearing on Friday, Giuliani took the stand briefly to go over bank documents from Giuliani’s bankruptcy case that showed his assets and liabilities that Giuliani has claimed are exempt assets including his house in Palm Beach, Florida, valued at $3.5 million.

When asked to verify bank accounts, Giuliani said, “They’re not my accounts, I don’t have access to them.” The former mayor said that because his accounts were frozen and because he is not able to withdraw from them, the bank accounts are not his.

“Illegally, you have tied up everything I have,” Giuliani said.

Michael Gottlieb, an attorney for Freeman and Moss, pressed Giuliani over payments he made in November, the same month he made the alleged defamatory statements about the election workers. Payments include taxes and utility payments totaling tens of thousands of dollars.

Gottlieb added the money should come from the assets Giuliani has said are exempt from creditor claims.

“We haven’t been able to come up with any other way we believe compliance can be coerced,” Gottlieb said.

He added, “The main thing the plaintiffs want is for Giuliani to stop defaming them.”

“I am very concerned based on the statements made today that Mr. Giuliani may not be persuaded from making statements without more severe sanctions,” Judge Howell said.

Ted Goodman, the former mayor’s adviser, said in a statement, “The public should know that Mayor Rudy Giuliani never had the opportunity to defend himself on the facts in the defamation case. This is an important point that many Americans still don’t realize due to biased coverage and a campaign to silence Mayor Giuliani. This contempt ruling is designed to prevent Mayor Giuliani from exercising his constitutional rights.”

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