Federal prosecutors charge Ryan Routh with attempted assassination of Donald Trump
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(WASHINGTON) — Federal prosecutors have officially charged Ryan Routh with attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump, a source familiar with the matter confirms to ABC News.
The move was expected and previewed both by prosecutors in a court hearing yesterday and by Attorney General Merrick Garland in a news conference this afternoon.
The charging documents have not yet been officially updated on Routh’s court docket. He is expected to be arraigned on the charges in a court hearing Monday.
(NEW YORK) — A hurricane warning has been issued for Bermuda as Ernesto strengthened to a Category 2 storm overnight.
Ernesto had maximum sustained winds of 100 mph Friday morning.
The hurricane is forecast to strengthen on Friday, but will remain a Category 2 storm as it passes Bermuda. Flash flooding covers a roadway after Tropical Storm Ernesto moved through the area in Dorado, Puert…
The hurricane will approach Bermuda Friday night as the eye wall — with its strongest winds — passes over Bermuda early Saturday morning.
Damaging winds near 90 mph and rainfall of up to 15 inches are possible.
While it won’t threaten the U.S. with landfall, a high rip current risk and large waves are reaching Florida on Friday and the Northeast from Saturday through Monday.
In the Northeast, waves could be 6 to 9 feet close to the shore and over 10 feet away from the coast.
After Bermuda, Ernesto will move northeast and brush Newfoundland with winds up to 80 mph early next week.
(NEW YORK) — A New Mexico judge has declined to dismiss the case against “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, after previously dismissing the case against Alec Baldwin for evidence suppression.
Her attorneys argued in court filings that she was entitled to a new trial or dismissal of the case for “egregious prosecutorial misconduct” and “severe and ongoing discovery violations by the State.”
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer denied the motion Monday following arguments during a virtual hearing Thursday. She also denied a separate motion from the defense seeking immediate release from detention.
In her ruling, Marlowe Sommer stated the issues raised by the defense did not justify a new trial or dismissal, and that in Gutierrez’s case the state did not suppress the ammunition evidence that was at the heart of Baldwin’s dismissal.
Marlowe Sommer dismissed Baldwin’s case with prejudice on day three of the actor’s July trial after his attorneys claimed live ammunition that came into the hands of local law enforcement related to the investigation into the deadly on-set shooting was “concealed” from them.
The judge said in court on July 12 while issuing her ruling that the state’s discovery violation regarding the late disclosure of a supplemental report on the ammunition evidence “injected needless delay into the proceedings,” approached “bad faith” and was “highly prejudicial to the defendant.”
During Thursday’s hearing, defense attorney Jason Bowles said the “significance of the items that were suppressed were favorable and material” to Gutierrez.
Bowles told the judge that he became aware of the ammunition — which had been brought forward by his witness, Troy Teske, during Gutierrez’s trial — but directed Teske to bring it to the sheriff’s office because he “didn’t want to be in the chain of custody.”
“We weren’t told what happened” after that, Bowles said. “We weren’t able to utilize those rounds.”
He also argued the state suppressed additional evidence, including one of firearm expert Luke Haag’s reports on the revolver involved in the shooting, and an interview with Seth Kenney, the owner of the prop firearms supplier for “Rust.”
“This pattern of discovery abuse occurred in Miss [Gutierrez’s] case in the same manner that it occurred in Mr. Baldwin’s case,” Bowles said, saying they are “asking for dismissal on the same basis that this court dismissed Mr. Baldwin’s case.”
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey argued Gutierrez and Bowles can’t rely on the dismissal of Baldwin’s case over the rounds because they were in the possession of his witness, Teske.
“She and her lawyer had them during trial and chose not to use them,” she said. “That is exactly what happened,”
“They don’t get to now come and say we made a strategic error, so give us a new trial,” she continued.
Morrissey argued the other evidence raised by Bowles was not material and said the state did not intentionally withhold evidence.
“Nothing was intentionally buried,” she said, adding that the case had a “terabyte of discovery” with new discovery “coming in constantly.”
In her order, Marlowe Sommer found that the state did suppress the Kenney interview and the Haag report, but that the defense failed to establish that either piece of evidence is material.
Regarding the Teske-supplied ammunition, the judge found that the state did not suppress or fail to provide her with evidence that could be favorable to her case because the live rounds were available to her and her defense in advance of and during her trial.
Marlowe Sommer also found that the state could not have suppressed other evidence related to the ammunition, including the sheriff’s office’s supplemental report and lapel footage of Teske at the sheriff’s office, before or during the trial because those items were not created until on or after the final day of Gutierrez’s trial.
Teske, a retired officer who lives in Arizona and is a friend of Gutierrez’s father, famed Hollywood armorer Thell Reed, brought the live ammunition to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office at the end of Gutierrez’s trial. He said the ammunition, which was owned by Reed and from a different set, was suspected of being connected to the “Rust” set and that Gutierrez’s defense did not want the ammunition, according to lapel footage of his sheriff’s office interview played during Baldwin’s trial.
Morrissey said during Baldwin’s trial that the ammunition did not have any evidentiary value in either Gutierrez’s or Baldwin’s case. Baldwin defense attorney Luke Nikas charged that the ammunition evidence was ultimately “concealed” by being placed under a different case number and said it was “critical” evidence that was required to be disclosed.
A jury found Gutierrez guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Hutchins, who was fatally shot by Baldwin on the Santa Fe set of the Western in October 2021 when his revolver fired a live round.
Prosecutors argued during the March trial that the armorer was the source of the live bullet that killed Hutchins and had failed to follow safety protocols meant to protect the crew while handling the firearms.
Gutierrez was sentenced in April to 18 months in prison, the maximum for the offense.
The Crew of the next SpaceX private astronaut flight called Polaris Dawn, (Left to Right) Anna Menon, who works to develop astronaut operations for SpaceX, Scott Poteet, who served as the mission director of the Inspiration4 mission SpaceX, Jared Isaacman, who is financing the mission and Sarah Gillis, lead space operations engineer, SpaceX. Photo by Jonathan Newton/The Washington
(MERRITT ISLAND, Fla.) — Embarking on a new chapter of private space exploration, the Polaris Dawn mission is poised to make history this week by launching four private citizens into ultra-high orbit and attempting the first civilian spacewalk.
Led by billionaire Jared Isaacman and in collaboration with SpaceX, the crew aims to reach as far as 870 miles above Earth, the highest altitude of any human spaceflight mission in more than a half-century since the Apollo program.
SpaceX announced Sunday the Falcon 9 rocket that will carry the Polaris Dawn crew to orbit could launch as early as Tuesday at 3:38 a.m. ET from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Isaacman, the CEO of the payment-processing company Shift4, will be joined by former Air Force pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and two SpaceX engineers, Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis.
During the historic mission, which is set to span five days under normal conditions, two of the crew members will exit the spacecraft in the first commercial spacewalk at an altitude of 435 miles above Earth.
During a press briefing last week, Isaacman shared details on the ambitious mission, which will see all four crew members exposed to the vacuum of space due to the absence of an airlock on the SpaceX Dragon capsule.
The spacewalk will also serve as a critical test for SpaceX’s new Extravehicular Activity spacesuits, an evolution of the intravehicular activity suit.
This new design includes a heads-up display, helmet camera and enhanced joint mobility. It also features thermal insulation, solar protection and a suspension system that allows you to pressurize the suit, put on a harness and actually go through operations as if you are weightless.
The Dragon spacecraft has undergone significant modifications, including upgrades to the life support systems to supply more oxygen during spacewalks, according to the Polaris Program. Environmental sensing has been improved, and a new nitrogen repressurization system has been installed.
The Polaris Dawn mission will be Isaacman’s second journey to space.
In 2021, he funded his first mission to orbit Earth. The project was billed as a childhood cancer fundraiser, garnering $250 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and marked the first all-civilian mission to orbit.
Looking to the future, Isaacman believes the SpaceX vehicles could unlock a new frontier in commercial space travel.
“It could very well be the 737 for human space flight someday,” he said of the company’s Starship vehicle. “But it’ll certainly be the vehicle that will return humans to the moon and then on to Mars and beyond,” he added.
