Judge finds Mike Lindell in contempt for failing to turn over documents in Smartmatic defamation case
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(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge in Minnesota has found MyPillow CEO and Trump ally Mike Lindell in contempt of court for failing to provide discovery and financial documents in the defamation case brought by voting machine company Smartmatic.
Smartmatic sued Lindell for defamation in 2022, alleging that he lied about the company’s role in the 2020 presidential election for his own financial gain.
In a filing on Thursday, Judge Jeffrey M. Bryan said Lindell failed to produce analytics data for his company’s website and financial records to show Lindell’s financial condition for the years 2022 and 2023.
“If Defendants do not comply, Smartmatic is invited to bring another motion for an order to show cause or to seek further relief,” Judge Bryan wrote.
Lindell told ABC News he was not aware of the judge’s order.
“We will not stop until we have paper ballots counted and we’re going to melt down all the voting machines and turn them into prison bars,” Lindell said.
Lindell was one of the leading promoters of false 2020 election fraud claims. He continues to spread false election claims including calling for the ban of voting machines.
School districts prep students and families for possible mass deportations. ABC News
(SOUTH TEXAS, Texas) — President Donald Trump has threatened mass deportations of immigrants, potentially expanding the “expedited removal” program to conduct raids in neighborhoods and workplaces. This program would allow for the quick deportation of individuals who entered the U.S. without proper documentation and have been here for less than two years.
Trump has pledged to tighten immigration laws and roll back Biden-era policies that he believes have encouraged a rise in undocumented immigration.
On Monday, Trump signed executive orders enhancing operations of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, in sensitive areas, expanding expedited deportations for undocumented immigrants, and aiming to end birthright citizenship.
Educators and organizers are grappling with what this means for their communities, and schools are determining the best way to support students and families.
ABC News visited a school in South Texas to meet with students and faculty preparing for the potential impacts of President Trump’s immigration policies.
While in South Texas, a student named Maria, a high school junior, shared with ABC News that she came to America from Mexico on a special visa last fall. Born and raised in Mexico, the 15-year-old lives with her grandmother, who is her legal guardian, in South Texas.
“It’s an honor for me to study here,” Maria said. “And my parents, more than anything, they did it in search of something better for me and my future…to have more opportunities and be able to speak a second language.”
When Maria first arrived, she knew very little English and was placed in a special set of classes to help integrate her into the Texas public school system.
She expressed that she misses her family in Mexico but wants to become a Spanish teacher. She must stay in America to do that, but with Trump’s plan, her goals may be cut short.
“We found out through TikTok, later on Instagram or things like that,” Maria said. “And just like in anything else, there are people who find ways to make the news entertaining…even if it’s something bad. We try to focus on the positive to drown out the negative.”
In 1982, the Supreme Court ruled that all children, regardless of immigration status, can access public education.
While students like Maria are here legally on unique accommodation, there is growing concern about the potential impact an immigration crackdown could have on educational institutions.
The boundary lines for Maria’s school district run along the U.S.-Mexico border. The debate over immigration is finding its way into the classroom, as administrators in Southern Texas believe many of their students come from mixed-status families — some in the household have documentation allowing them to legally reside in the U.S., while others do not.
“When you come to our school district, you will be asked the name, of course, and some type of identification of your child and what can we do to service your child? Our business will never be to ask ‘what is your status in this nation?'” Norma Garcia, director of multi-language at Harlingen Consolidated Independent Schools, said.
District leaders are enhancing mental health support for students and organizing informative sessions for families. These sessions will connect families with experts, such as immigration attorneys and local border patrol agents, to help address their questions and concerns.
However, not all school districts share the same outrage. In Oklahoma, the Department of Education Superintendent Ryan Walters supports the incoming administration’s push for more decisive immigration action.
He claims that the influx of non-English-speaking students has strained the education system. As a solution, he proposes a rule requiring schools to collect information about a student’s or their parent’s immigration status and then share that information with federal authorities.
“Right now, our schools are being required by the federal government to educate all those children of illegal immigrants and never ask them if they’re here legally, never ask them where they’re from,” Walters told ABC. “Never collect any of this information. And so what happens is, is we have situations where one district, we had over 100 students a week that came in in the middle of the school year that we believe are illegal immigrants.”
Oklahoma is suing the former Biden administration and federal agencies for millions of dollars to recover those alleged costs. So far, no other states have joined this newly filed lawsuit.
“We’ve got to do what’s best for the American people, the American taxpayer, and shut down the border, send illegal immigrants back home,” Walters said. “And the best way for us to do that right now is to work with the Trump administration, get them the information they need.”
(NEW YORK) — Live bird markets in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County will be shut down for a week after seven cases of avian flu in poultry were found at live bird markets in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens, state officials said Friday.
The cases were discovered during routine inspections. All infected flocks will be depopulated, officials said.
The state stressed the shutdowns are prudent steps. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul noted that avian flu does not pose a public health threat.
The order requires those markets to sell down all inventory, complete cleaning and disinfection procedures and remain closed for a period of five days after cleaning and disinfection.
There are no human cases of avian influenza, and the threat to the public is low.
Cases of bird flu have increased among animals — including dairy cows, wild birds, poultry and even pet cats.
On Wednesday, a second type of bird flu was found in dairy cows for the first time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced.
The number of birds affected by the virus has been rising in recent months, with roughly 7 million affected in November, 18 million in December, and 23 million in January, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
ABC News’ Mary Kekatos contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — At the U.S. Agency for International Development this week, as a team from the Department of Government Efficiency quietly worked to dismantle the aid agency, those who hadn’t already been locked out of its Washington headquarters busied themselves with work they never imagined doing — shutting it down.
“We feel like it’s closing time at the store and we’re the ones left to turn off the lights,” one career official told ABC News. “There’s lots of tears, lots of heartbreak.”
Normal day-to-day work ceased earlier in the week, when the Trump administration announced plans to place all direct-hire employees on leave starting Friday, leaving career officials to focus on the logistical hurdles of recalling thousands of overseas employees back to the U.S., including reserving flights for those officials and their families.
“We could be doing the lifesaving work we’ve been doing,” the official said, “but instead we’re stuck here like travel agents.”
As congressional Democrats scramble to rescue USAID, its thousands of employees in the U.S. and around the globe are grappling with how to “leave with dignity,” another career agency official said.
But doing so has proven to be a challenge. A message posted on USAID.gov signaled that some “designated personnel” would remain on the job, prompting a frantic race among staff to secure their livelihoods.
“It’s the Hunger Games,” another career USAID official based in Washington said. “They’re narrowing down lists to the smallest number of staff. People fighting to be on those lists.”
USAID staff on Thursday were digesting news that all but roughly 600 employees would be placed on leave by the end of the week. President Trump has accused the agency of perpetrating “tremendous fraud” and promoting left-wing ideologies.
Meanwhile, officials deployed overseas face hurdles of their own. The abrupt stop-work orders and funding freezes imposed by the Trump administration have placed frontline USAID employees in the uncomfortable position of explaining to regional partners what is happening.
“Many of [the foreign service nationals] have worked for USAID for 20-30 years,” said one USAID official stationed in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “It’s impossible to explain to them what is going on. It breaks their faith in America. We are going to lose thousands of our best friends and allies.”
In a different African country, staff met earlier in the week to begin choreographing their departure, a local USAID official recalled.
“The meeting today with local staff was rough,” the official said. “The ambassador was there, and folks were crying. It was extremely sad. Both the mission director and the deputy mission director were also in tears.”
One official with 20 years at USAID under their belt said the ambassador in their country encouraged staff to “start preparing your CVs and start looking for jobs, because inevitably, you’re all going to be terminated.”
“[The administration is] just terrorizing everyone in USAID who has served their country, making huge sacrifices, moving around the world every four years, pulling kids out of school and away from friends and like spouses giving up their own careers so that we can serve our country and do this important work around the world,” the official said. “And I feel like It’s being erased.”
At the agency’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, which has been the U.S. government’s lead response coordinator for international disasters, several employees said their email access was revoked, rendering them unable to communicate with senior officials.
One USAID contractor overseas said they were “stuck abroad on official travel with no guidance on how to proceed, where they are able to work, how to get home, or whether they are able to work.”
On Thursday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is overseeing USAID as its acting administrator, insisted during a press conference in the Dominican Republic that the administration would accommodate “exceptional circumstances regarding families or displacement.”
“We’re not trying to be disruptive to peoples’ personal lives,” Rubio insisted. “We’re not being punitive,” he said.
Back in Washington, Peter Marocco, a Trump loyalist and the architect of plans to drastically diminish the agency’s footprint, has been “in and out” of the building, but has not engaged with career officials or addressed any large numbers of staff. Marocco did not reply to ABC News’ request for comment.
Rubio has said rank-and-file USAID officials had demonstrated “rank insubordination” during attempts to overhaul the agency, claiming that the administration was left with “no choice but to take dramatic steps to bring this thing under control.”
Late Thursday, as working hours on the East Coast wound down, a senior career official at USAID shared this somber text message with ABC News: “I just lost my job.”
The official, who spent nearly a decade at the agency, was not told she was dismissed. Instead, she said agency leaders alerted those who will remain in their roles on Thursday afternoon, leaving the remaining employees to assume they would be placed on administrative leave.
