House Oversight Committee to interview prison guard on duty when Epstein died
This photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein, March 28, 2017. (New York State Sex Offender Registry)
(NEW YORK) — Members of the House Oversight Committee on Monday are set to interview a former prison guard who was on duty at the Metropolitan Corrections Center in New York when convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein died in 2019.
The interview of Tova Noel — believed to be the last person to have seen Epstein before his death — comes amid renewed scrutiny of Epstein’s death.
Epstein died by suicide according to an autopsy conducted by the New York medical examiner, though a series of missteps by prison officials have long fueled conspiracy theories about his death.
Noel is alleged to have spent the hours ahead of Epstein’s death scrolling the internet, rather than performing the required headcounts of the prisoners in the unit where the disgraced sex offender was housed. Prosecutors in 2019 charged Noel and another prison guard with falsifying records to make it seem as if they did the required checks, and both ended up reaching a deal with prosecutors to have the charges dropped.
The recent release of the Epstein files by the Department of Justice has brought renewed attention to Noel’s actions, and Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said she was called to testify because some lawmakers “aren’t confident 100% that Epstein’s death was by suicide.”
“No one’s accusing her of any wrongdoing, but we have a lot of questions about Epstein,” Comer told Fox News in March.
Lawmakers have highlighted that Noel received a series of cash deposits between April 2018 and July 2019 totaling $12,000 — with most taking place before Epstein was arrested — and that the last deposit was made prior to Epstein’s death. Documents released by the DOJ also show that Noel made a series of internet searches about Epstein the night he died, including “latest on Epstein in jail.”
While those documents have attracted public attention, investigators appear to have already probed those matters. Grand jury transcripts released from the case against Noel released by the DOJ earlier this year showed that the FBI examined her bank records and found no evidence of a bribe.
She also told the DOJ inspector general that she did not remember searching the internet for Epstein, but may have read an article about Epstein.
Surveillance video from the jail also showed a flash of orange appearing near Epstein’s cell the night he died, and a report by the Justice Department’s inspector general concluded the video showed a corrections officer “believed to be Noel” carrying linen to the area near Epstein’s cell.
In a sworn interview in 2021, Noel claimed she “never gave out linen,” and denied providing Epstein with excess linen that may have been used to form a noose.
Police at the scene of a stabbing in New York City’s Times Square, Aug. 31, 2026. (WABC)
(NEW YORK) — New York City police fatally shot an apparently emotionally disturbed woman after she allegedly stabbed two people in Times Square in a “random and unprovoked” attack on Monday afternoon, authorities said.
One of the victims, 32-year-old Erin Piacenti of Chester, New Jersey, died at the hospital from her injuries, according to the New York Police Department.
The other victim, a 68-year-old manfrom Rhode Island, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries and is in stable condition, officials said.
The victims were stabbed within 20 seconds of each near 41st Street and Seventh Avenue, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
The 68-year-old had just exited the subway and was waiting to cross the street with his wife when the suspect pulled two knives from a bag, waved them and then allegedly stabbed him in the abdomen “in what appears to be a random and unprovoked attack,” Tisch said at a press briefing.
The suspect then went up Seventh Avenue toward 42nd Street, where she approached the second victim, who was similarly stabbed in the abdomen in an apparently random, unprovoked attack, Tisch said.
The suspect allegedly then fled north toward the NYPD substation, authorities said. Witnesses flagged down officers who confronted her for four minutes and “gave her numerous commands to drop the knife,” which she refused, Tisch said.
“During the encounter, she told the officers, ‘I’m not dropping anything. I would rather kill both of you.’ She repeated, ‘I will kill you,'” Tisch said.
Officers deployed Tasers before two officers discharged their service weapons, Tisch said.
The suspect, identified by police as 49-year-old Pamela Cisneros of Queens, was pronounced dead at a hospital. She had a “documented mental health history,” Tisch said.
Police officials stressed the woman appeared emotionally disturbed and the incident is not terror-related.
Two knives were recovered from the scene, Tisch. The NYPD also released a photo of the recovered weapons.
“I want to thank the NYPD officers who stepped in and prevented a horrific attack from becoming even worse,” NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani said during the press briefing. “This is what the men and women of this department do every single day to keep our city safe.”
The NYPD will conduct an internal investigation and body-worn camera footage will be released to the public, the mayor said.
FBI photograph of redacted documents and classified cover sheets recovered from a container stored in former U.S. president Donald Trump’s Florida estate that was included in a U.S. Department of Justice filing, Aug. 30, 2022. (U.S. Department Of Justice)
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice on Wednesday charged a longtime federal prosecutor with attempting to steal a sealed report prepared by then-special counsel Jack Smith on President Donald Trump’s alleged retention of classified documents.
A grand jury indicted Carmen Mercedes Lineberger — a managing assistant U.S. attorney in Fort Pierce, Florida — with four felony counts for allegedly attempting to steal the report, which has been sealed from public view for more than a year.
Prosecutors allege that Lineberger downloaded a copy of the sealed report onto her work computer and sent it to her personal email account in January of 2025.
According to the indictment, Lineberger renamed the report “Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf” before attaching it to an email from her DOJ account to her personal Gmail account.
The report has remained secret since January 2025, when it was prepared by Smith in the final days before Trump’s inauguration to summarize Trump’s alleged crimes. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon ordered the report be kept secret after a push from Trump’s lawyers to seal the records, and the Department of Justice under the Trump administration has since fought to ensure the report is never released.
Trump pleaded not guilty to 40 counts of retaining classified information, obstruction of justice, and false statements after Smith alleged he not only kept a trove of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving office in 2021, but also actively impeded law enforcement from retrieving them. After months of litigation, Judge Cannon dismissed the case on the grounds that Smith was not properly appointed special counsel.
Earlier this year, Cannon issued an additional order permanently restricting the department from releasing the report. Two legal groups are in the midst of appealing her orders arguing disclosure of the report remains in the public’s interest.
It’s not immediately clear based on court papers unsealed Wednesday if prosecutors will argue that Lineberger intended to leak the contents of the report.
She made her initial appearance in federal court in West Palm Beach Wednesday and entered a not guilty plea to the indictment. An attorney listed as representing Lineberger declined to comment when reached by ABC News.
Army Sgt. Hedar Leonel Turcios Juarez’s wife was detained by masked ICE officers outside a Walmart as their 6-year-old daughter watched. (Army Sgt. Hedar Leonel Turcios Juarez)
(WASHINGTON) — Army Sgt. Hedar Leonel Turcios Juarez woke up to a gut-wrenching call at 3:40 a.m. Tuesday: Cristy Maryori Villafranca Trejo, his wife and the mother to their 6-year-old daughter, was aboard a plane about to be deported to Honduras.
Turcios told ABC News that he scrambled to stop it. He stayed on the phone with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, sending documentation showing that his wife’s immigration case was still pending. After the officer confirmed the paperwork, Villafranca was pulled from the flight and returned to Camp East Montana, the detention center at Fort Bliss, Texas, where she remains.
It was the latest turn in an ordeal that began July 11, when masked ICE officers detained Villafranca outside a Walmart as the couple’s young daughter watched. Villafranca left Honduras in 2016 due to violent crime in the country, her husband said.
“My wife is everything to me, to my family, for my daughter, and it’s just sad that we are still being treated like criminals, just because we weren’t born in this country,” said Turcios, who became a U.S. citizen in 2024 after joining the military.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not reply to an ABC News request for comment about Villafranca’s case.
Turcios’ family is hardly alone. President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign has swept up more than 50 parents and spouses of service members during his second term, with at least six deported, according to an investigation by the Associated Press.
Danitza James, CEO of Repatriate Our Patriots, which works with Families United to help active-duty service members and veterans reunite their families, said that, beyond providing legal representation, the organization’s only other strategy has been to call Congress to request help.
She said she is currently working with eight active-duty service members and one veteran whose family members have been detained as of Aug. 20. ABC News spoke with two of the families that she is working to unite.
The cases complicate one of the administration’s central arguments for its aggressive expansion of immigration enforcement. Trump has repeatedly said ICE is targeting the “worst of the worst,” and has described immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally as “animals” and “dangerous criminals” that should not be in the country.
An ABC News review of state and federal records did not find criminal records for any of the military spouses named in this story in the states where they live.
“She’s been a very supportive wife since the first day that I decided to join the military. I was deployed for nine months. She took care of my family,” Turcios said of his spouse. “She’s not a threat to anybody. We’re just trying to keep our family together.”
The Trump administration’s detention of undocumented spouses and parents of active-duty service members comes as the U.S. is at war with Iran, leaving troops without the support of their families and shifting their focus away from their military careers, advocacy groups say. Some have been forced to take leave from duty to care for their children in their spouses’ absence, according to advocacy groups and families ABC News interviewed.
“There are so many military families of active-duty service members that are living in the shadows of this immigration machine, that is putting them in fear of seeking resources and asking for help, while their service member is actively serving our country, and sacrificing for our nation,” said James of Repatriate Our Patriots.
Military service has long been a pathway to citizenship
For decades, military families have occupied a protected corner of the immigration system, according to the National Military Family Association. Under policies embraced by Republican and Democratic administrations, the undocumented parents and spouses of service members have generally been shielded from deportation.
Military recruiters have also long promoted military service as a pathway to citizenship, including through programs which can allow undocumented relatives of troops to remain in the country while applying for a green card and work authorization.
The bargain extends to troops themselves. Green card holders can join the U.S. military and troops can apply for naturalization after a year of honorable service, an incentive that stretches back to the Civil War. During World War I, Congress went further, streamlining the citizenship process for troops whose enlistment could effectively mean automatic citizenship.
“Having a family member in the military is not a free pass to violate our nation’s laws,” a DHS spokesperson said in response to the recent arrest by ICE of the father of an active-duty sailor for alleged immigration violations. “Military service by an immediate relative does not automatically grant parole, lawful status, or immunity from immigration enforcement.”
Racial and ethnic minorities are making up a growing share of the military. In the Army, the Pentagon’s largest service by far, Hispanic recruits grew from about 19% of new enlistees in 2020 to nearly 27% last year, according to internal service data reviewed by ABC News.
Naturalizations through military service have also more than tripled over roughly the same period, rising from about 4,500 in 2020 to 16,000 in 2024, according to Department of Homeland Security data. The Philippines, Mexico, Jamaica and Nigeria were among the leading countries of origin for troops who became U.S. citizens through their service.
Turcios left Honduras in 2014, also to escape violence in the country, he said.After attending high school in the U.S. he joined the military and became a U.S. citizen in 2024 after a nine-month deployment to the Middle East. Then he began pursuing citizenship for his wife, hoping his service would help expedite her naturalization process, he said.
Instead, Villafranca, undocumented spouses and parents of many other active-duty military personnel have been forced into detention, according to lawyers, advocacy groups and military families.
Villafranca relayed allegedly inhumane conditions in Camp East Montana, according to her husband. The facility is the country’s largest detention center, which sits on land formerly used for Japanese-American internment camps during World War II.
Turcios said his wife had to wear the same clothes for about four days. Access to clean clothing remained an issue until he reached out to Rep. Veronica Escobar, D- Texas, who sent an inquiry to ICE regarding Villafranca’s lack of clean clothing. Turcios said that after a few weeks, they finally fixed the issue.
Detained at green card interview
Army Staff Sgt. Alexis Jaramillo has served in the military for 11 years and is currently stationed at Fort Polk, Louisiana. His wife, Maisa Lopes Eliaser, came to the U.S. from São Paulo, Brazil, in 2019 on a tourist visa, which she had overstayed while Jaramillo was helping her pursue citizenship.
She was taken into custody in front of Jaramillo, who was dressed in uniform, and their five-year-old son during an appointment to be interviewed to get her green card.
Lopes Eliaser spent two days in Pickens County Jail in Georgia before being transferred to the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center, where she slept in a large room with approximately 80 people for about six weeks, her husband said.
On July 13, Lopes Eliaser said ICE officers put her on a bus to the Alexandria International Airport in Louisiana. She was then flown to Bogotá, Colombia, where the plane stopped before its final destination, Brazil. During the layover, Lopes Eliaser called her husband using someone else’s phone, he said.
Jaramillo said he had been communicating with Sen. Mark Kelly, a Navy veteran, about his wife’s case before she was taken to the airport. When Lopes Eliaser disappeared from the detainee-tracking app that Jaramillo was checking, he contacted Kelly again to ask for help bringing her home.
“Maisa’s case is an example of this administration’s focus on targeting the loved ones of those who’ve stepped up to serve our country. It’s wrong and makes no sense at all,” Kelly wrote in a statement to ABC News.
Kelly’s office told ABC News that his casework team established communications with the ICE field office and kept Jaramillo updated.
DHS did not respond to a request for comment on Eliaser’s case at the time.
What members of Congress are doing
Jaramillo credits Kelly for contacting ICE and getting Lopes Eliaser eventually returned to the U.S. When she landed in Brazil, she was flown back to the Alexandria International Airport without ever stepping off the airplane. Jaramillo and Lopes Eliaser were reunited and are currently together at their home in Louisiana.
“That was a nightmare. That was a really, really nightmare,” Jaramillo said. “I’m never going to explain best how difficult it was and still is.”
While Jaramillo and Lopes Eliaser are now united, they are still dealing with the aftermath of her detention and deportation. Jaramillo had to take leave to care for his son and fight to get his wife back. Now that his wife is back home, he said he will return to service on Monday.
Since Lopes Eliaser was first detained, Jaramillo said he has incurred more than $7,000 in legal fees and costs associated with submitting paperwork, approximately equal to over a month’s pay.
Jaramillo said his wife is still experiencing health issues from the conditions of detention, which he said were crowded and where she also lacked access to clean clothing.Jarmillo said he took her to see a doctor Thursday.
James said that many of the other cases of active-duty military service members’ families being detained have involved members of Congress making calls to reunite families.
Kelly has publicly been involved with two other cases of military families targeted by the Trump administration for deportation.
In a letter sent Aug. 9 to DHS, the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs, congressional Democrats wrote that they will investigate whether the Pentagon and DHS are coordinating to deport military service members and their families.
“The best way to bring change to this is to the legislative or policy, because this should not be a phone call. This should not be a one-case change,” James said. “This is clearly impacting more than 50 military spouses and cases across the board, and there needs to be a change that is codified.”
