Former aide to Eric Adams arrested on federal bribery charges
Tony Herbert (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Eric Adams may no longer be mayor of New York City, but the alleged corruption in his administration is extending beyond his time in City Hall.
On Tuesday, federal prosecutors charged Tony Herbert, a former official in the Office of the Mayor, with bribery in connection with two separate pay-to-play schemes.
Herbert was arrested Tuesday morning and due in court later in the day for arraignment.
In the first alleged scheme, the indictment said Herbert solicited and received $11,000 in cash from a security company executive in exchange for pressuring other city officials to give the company security contracts at public housing projects.
In the second, the indictment said Herbert took $5,000 in kickbacks from the director of a funeral home in exchange for approving financial assistance for burial services for low-income families.
“To prevent these schemes from coming to light, Anthony Herbert, the defendant, filed false financial disclosure forms that omitted his receipt of thousands of dollars from both the Security Company Executive and the Funeral Home Director,” the indictment said.
Federal prosecutors said Herbert allegedly abused positions he held from 2022 to 2025 in both the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit and as citywide public housing liaison.
The indictment quoted Herbert allegedly telling the security executive, “This is what we do, bro. This is what we do. I mean it’s, ain’t nobody gonna do it for us.”
Herbert is charged with bribery, honest services wire fraud, extortion under color of official right, federal program fraud and wire fraud.
“New Yorkers deserve honest and competent public officials,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. “As alleged, at a time when Anthony Herbert was serving as City Hall’s liaison to the City’s public housing residents, he engaged in blatant pay-to-play schemes to enrich himself.”
In addition to the pay-to-play schemes, Herbert is charged with submitting a fraudulent loan application for a purported baked good business to obtain a $20,000 loan under the COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program.
Adams was indicted in October 2024 on federal corruption charges, to which he pleaded not guilty. His case was dismissed in April and he later dropped his reelection bid.
The US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — An 18-year-old man was apprehended after running toward the U.S. Capitol with a loaded shotgun, according to Capitol police.
Just after noon on Tuesday, the man parked a white Mercedes SUV, got out of the car and started running toward the Washington, D.C. building, Capitol Police Chief Michael Sullivan said at a news conference.
As he approached the building, officers with the Capitol police saw him and ordered him to drop the weapon, the chief said.
“He immediately complied,” Sullivan said, noting that the man put down the gun, got on the ground and was then taken into custody.
The man had additional rounds with him, as well as a tactical vest and tactical gloves, according to Sullivan. A Kevlar helmet and gas mask were found in his car, he added.
“Who knows what could’ve happened” if the officers were not standing guard, Sullivan said.
Officers cleared the area, which has since reopened, according to police.
“There does not appear to be any other suspects or ongoing threat,” authorities said.
Both chambers of Congress are out of session this week.
A motive is not clear, Sullivan noted.
The man, who does not live in the area, was not known to Capitol police, he said.
(NEW YORK) — Scientists have factored damage to the ocean into the social cost of carbon for the first time — finding it nearly doubles the economic impact from climate change.
Ocean damage from climate change — dubbed the “blue” social cost of carbon — causes the global cost of carbon dioxide emissions to society to nearly double, according to new findings by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego.
The researchers calculated an additional $46.2 per ton of carbon dioxide — amounting to a total of $97.2 per ton of carbon dioxide, a 91% increase, according to the study, published Thursday in Nature Climate Change. Global carbon dioxide emissions were estimated to be 41.6 billion tons in 2024, according to the Global Carbon Budget, implying nearly $2 trillion in ocean-related damages in one year that are currently missing from standard climate cost estimates.
The ocean has never been accounted into the economic harm caused by greenhouse gas emissions before, the researchers said. The ocean was largely overlooked in the standard accounting of the social cost of carbon, despite widespread degradation to coral reef ecosystems, losses from fisheries and damage to coastal infrastructure — all of which are “well documented” and have impacted millions of people globally.
In addition, the distribution of impacts is “highly unequal” across the globe, according to the paper. Islands and small economies will be disproportionately affected, given the regions’ dependence on seafood and nutrition, according to the study.
Scripps researchers felt the need to put a price tag on the harm that climate change causes to the ocean in order to properly inform key decision-makers with a cost-benefit analysis, said environmental economist and assistant professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico Bernardo Bastien-Olvera, who led the study during a postdoctoral fellowship at Scripps Oceanography.
“The ocean was the big missing piece in these models that calculate the climate impacts on humans,” Bastien-Olvera told ABC News.
Human-amplified climate change damages oceans by warming temperatures and altering its chemistry, according to the Scripps researchers. The changes then alter the distribution of species and damages ecosystems such as reefs, mangroves, seagrass beds and kelp forests.
Coastal infrastructure, such as shipping ports, can also be damaged by increased flooding and stronger storms.
The social cost of carbon is an economic metric used in climate policy to estimate the damages that a ton of carbon dioxide causes to humans today, Bastien-Olvera said.
The researchers estimated the social cost of carbon by using integrated assessment models to run different future scenarios of how people and the economy might behave during the next century, also incorporating the potential climate impacts on systems such as coral reefs, mangroves, fisheries and seaports, Bastien-Olvera said.
The accounting was further developed by looking at straightforward market-use values, such as decreased fisheries revenue or diminished trade, as well as non-market values such as health impacts of reduced nutrition availability from impacted fisheries and recreational opportunities at the ocean, according to Scripps.
The research accounted for reduced availability of key nutrients in seafood, including calcium, omega-3 fatty acids, protein and iron — the loss of which can be linked to increases in disease risk and additional deaths.
The economic cost is caused by losses in the fishing industry, damage to coastal communities and impacts to systems that help fortify those communities, like mangroves and reefs.
The social cost of carbon is considered a more accurate accounting of harm from climate change than other calculations used as the basis of carbon credits or carbon offsets to travelers, according to Scripps.
A woman looks on at a memorial for Renee Good who was shot and killed by an ICE agent last month, February 12, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement says that two of its officers appear to have made “untruthful statements” about shooting a migrant in Minnesota and may face federal charges for their actions.
“Today, a joint review by ICE and the Department of Justice (DOJ) of video evidence has revealed that sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements,” Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said in a statement.
“Both officers have been immediately placed on administrative leave pending the completion of a thorough internal investigation. Lying under oath is a serious federal offense. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is actively investigating these false statements,” the statement said.
“The men and women of ICE are entrusted with upholding the rule of law and are held to the highest standards of professionalism, integrity, and ethical conduct. Violations of this sacred sworn oath will not be tolerated. ICE remains fully committed to transparency, accountability, and the fair enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws,” Lyons added.
The statement from Lyons comes a day after the top federal prosecutor in Minnesota asked a judge to dismiss charges against two men, including one who was shot in the leg by an immigration agent, citing “newly discovered evidence” in what was initially framed as a “violent” attack on law enforcement during an enforcement operation.
“Newly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations in the complaint affidavit. … as well as the preliminary-hearing testimony,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Daniel Rosen wrote in the filing Wednesday evening. It remains unclear what specific new evidence Rosen was referencing.
Rosen has asked the court to dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning the charges cannot be refiled.
“Accordingly, dismissal with prejudice will serve the interests of justice,” Rosen wrote.
In the wake of the shooting on Jan. 14 — a week after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis — the Trump administration said the man who was shot, Julio Cesar Sosa-Selis, attacked a federal law enforcement officer with a “shovel or a broom stick” and that the incident was part of “an attempt to evade arrest and obstruct law enforcement.”
Lawyers for another man charged in the incident, Alfredo Aljorna, said surveillance videos did not corroborate the FBI’s claims that an agent was assaulted and said Sosa-Celis was shot while standing at his doorway some distance away from the officer.
Earlier this month attorneys for Aljorna also urged a judge to prohibit the government from deporting key witnesses who they said cast doubt that an agent was repeatedly struck with a broom or a snow shovel, Judge Paul Magnuson granted the request.
The reversal on the assault charges for Sosa-Celis and Aljorna comes after several discrepancies emerged between statements from Department of Homeland Security officials and details outlined in court records regarding their arrests.
DHS initially said in statements to media that officers were conducting a “targeted traffic stop” for Sosa-Celis when he fled in his vehicle, crashed into another car and attempted to evade arrest. The agency alleged that Sosa-Celis “violently” assaulted an officer and that two other individuals exited a nearby apartment and joined the attack “with a snow shovel and broom handle.”
According to DHS, Sosa-Celis struck the officer with “a shovel or broom stick,” prompting the officer to fire what the agency described as a defensive shot “to defend his life,” striking Sosa-Celis in the leg.
However, an affidavit from FBI Special Agent Timothy Schanz, who investigated the shooting, stated that ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations agents were attempting to stop a different man identified as Joffre Stalin Paucar Barrera — not Sosa-Celis — whom they believed was in the country illegally. According to Schanz, agents later identified the driver DHS agents stopped as a different man, Aljorna.
Schanz wrote that Aljorna struck a light pole and fled on foot toward his apartment building.
Sosa-Celis was allegedly standing on the porch and yelling at Aljorna to run faster, the affidavit says. Aljorna slipped and allegedly “began tussling” with the agent before Sosa-Celis grabbed a broom and began striking the agent, according to the affidavit.
The agent “then saw who he believed was a third Hispanic male approach with a snow shovel, and this male also began striking” him, Schanz said in the affidavit. The third man was identified as Gabriel Alejandro Hernandez-Ledezma by DHS, who accused him of also assaulting the officer.
Sosa-Celis was shot in the leg as he attempted to go inside the apartment, the affidavit says.
Video reviewed by ABC News’ Visual Verification team includes a 911 call from individuals identified as relatives of Sosa-Celis, who said agents fired as he was attempting to close the door.
