Judge says he will move forward with contempt inquiry into AEA deportations
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(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge Wednesday said he is moving forward with his contempt inquiry into whether Trump administration officials violated a court order by deporting hundreds of men to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act in March.
In a hearing on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said he would like to move forward with the inquiry quickly, and ordered the parties to submit a proposal by Monday on how the case should proceed.
The Trump administration invoked the AEA — an 18th-century wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with little-to-no due process — to deport two planeloads of alleged migrant gang members to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States.
Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order and ordered that the planes be turned around, but Justice Department attorneys said his oral instructions directing the flight to be returned were defective, and the deportations proceeded as planned.
The federal judge said Wednesday that the next steps would likely be to hear from witnesses including Erez Reuveni, a DOJ attorney who was fired from the department in April after he appeared in federal court in Maryland and told a judge that the government had mistakenly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador.
“I certainly intend to find out what happened that day,” Judge Boasberg said
Boasberg’s earlier finding that the Trump administration likely acted in contempt was halted for months after an appeals court issued an emergency stay. While a federal appeals court on Friday declined to reinstate Boasberg’s original order, the ruling allowed him to move forward with his fact-finding inquiry.
“Class members are still recovering from the serious harm, including trauma, they experienced at CECOT,” the ACLU said in a recent court filing.
In response to the motion for a preliminary injunction, attorneys for the Department of Justice argue in court filings that the Venezuelans’ release from El Salvador “has further undermined their claims.”
“Petitioners have not shown that they suffer any ongoing injury traceable to Respondents, for they are apparently at liberty in their home country, and any ongoing threats to their health and safety come from third parties not before this Court,” DOJ attorneys said.
Flowers and candles are seen at a makeshift memorial for murdered American conservative activist Charlie Kirk outside the U.S. embassy as its flag hangs at half-staff on September 14, 2025 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Adam Berry/Getty Images)
(UTAH) — The man accused of murdering conservative activist Charlie Kirk will be allowed to wear civilian clothing during pretrial hearings, a Utah judge ruled on Monday.
At the same time, the judge denied a request from the suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, to appear during the proceedings without any restraints.
Robinson’s attorneys sought to extend the right for him to appear in civilian clothing that is afforded during trial to all of his pretrial proceedings, arguing that, given the extensive media coverage of the case, there is a risk of prejudice if potential jurors see him in jail attire. Prosecutors had opposed the request, arguing jail clothing aids with identification and safety.
In granting the request during a virtual hearing on Monday, Judge Tony Graf said, “Robinson’s right to the presumption of innocence outweighs the minimal inconvenience of permitting civilian attire, and Mr. Robinson shall be dressed as one who is presumed innocent.”
Robinson similarly sought to appear without restraints due to concerns they could prejudice potential jurors.
In denying the request, the judge said that while Robinson previously had no criminal history or any issues while in custody, the charges he faces are “extraordinarily serious, carrying potential penalties of life imprisonment or death.”
“The safety of Mr. Robinson, the attorneys, court staff and the public must remain the court’s highest priority,” Graf said. “The emotional nature of these proceedings also raise the risk of disruption.”
Graf directed the sheriff’s department to “use the least restrictive restraints necessary to maintain safety.”
“If those restraint strains impede the defendant’s ability to communicate with counsel or take notes, counsel may renew the motion,” Graf said.
The judge further said the media will be prohibited from recording or photographing Robinson’s restraints as well as while he enters, exits or stands in court.
Graf issued his rulings after hearing arguments from prosecutors and the defense during a closed-door hearing last week.
Robinson appeared remotely from jail, with his camera turned off, during Monday’s hearing. He is next scheduled to appear in court in person on Jan. 16, 2026.
The shooting suspect turned himself in to authorities a day after Kirk was gunned down while holding an outdoor event at Utah Valley University in Orem on Sept. 10.
Robinson has been charged with aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, obstruction of justice, two counts of witness tampering and commission of a violent offense in the presence of a child. He has not yet entered a plea.
Prosecutors said they intend to seek the death penalty.
(NEW YORK) — A storm system closing in from the Atlantic Ocean is expected to become Tropical Storm Imelda by the end of this weekend, and could bring storm surges and high winds to the Southeast U.S. coastline early next week.
The National Hurricane Center said Saturday that the storm — currently officially known as Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine, or PTC Nine — was northwest of the eastern tip of Cuba as of 5 a.m. ET, moving northwest at around 7 mph and forecast to cross the central and northwestern Bahamas this weekend.
The storm is expected to approach the southeastern U.S. coast early next week. A tropical storm warning is in effect for the central and northwestern Bahamas.
PTC Nine is expected to develop into a tropical depression on Saturday and a tropical storm around Saturday night or early Sunday. When it becomes a tropical storm, it will take the name Imelda.
Rain associated with the storm is expected to impact eastern Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica and the Bahamas, with flash and urban flooding forecast through the weekend, the NHC said. Mudslides are possible in higher terrain, it added.
Expected rainfall is around 4 to 8 inches for the Bahamas, 8 to 12 inches and localized totals up to 16 inches for eastern Cuba, and 2 to 4 inches of additional rain for other parts of Cuba, as well as Jamaica and Hispaniola.
Up to 3 feet of storm surge is also expected for the coastlines in the northwestern Bahamas.
As the system approaches the U.S., coastal Georgia, the Carolinas and mid-Atlantic states may all see flash, urban and river flooding, the NHC said.
The storm is expected to be at or near Category 1 hurricane intensity when it approaches the U.S. coast early next week, the NHC said, bringing storm surge and wind.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Humberto has rapidly intensified to become the third major hurricane of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season. The NHC said Saturday that Humberto is expected to “remain a powerful major hurricane through early next week.”
Humberto is still expected to track west of Bermuda on Tuesday through Wednesday and stay hundreds of miles west of the U.S., eventually turning northeast and back out to sea without a landfall.
Swells generated by the hurricane will begin affecting portions of the northern Leeward Islands, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Bermuda this weekend, the NHC said in its latest update.
The U.S. Department of Justice is seen on September 26, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Samuel Corum/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department has indicted a former Navy petty officer and four others for allegedly leading an online extortion group that authorities say later helped spawn the global extremist network known as “764,” which the FBI now describes as “modern day terrorism” for its sadistic and violent tormenting of teens online.
An indictment unsealed Tuesday alleges that the earlier group, calling themselves “Greggy’s Cult,” engaged in a criminal enterprise that pushed young victims they found online to create child pornography, and then blackmailed them into engaging in self-harm, “masochistic abuse,” and other extreme “acts of degradation” — live on camera — simply for “the enjoyment of members of the Enterprise.”
Between January 2020 and January 2021, members of the group allegedly worked together “to find and recruit minor victims on Discord or online gaming platforms,” and even urged victims as young as 11 to abuse their siblings and to kill themselves, telling one minor victim to overdose on medication or hang themself from a ceiling fan, the indictment alleges.
Members of “Greggy’s Cult” would host sexually explicit “live events” with victims on Discord and record the sessions, using those recordings to then blackmail victims into engaging in even more extreme acts, according to the indictment.
The indictment charges 22-year-old Camden Rodriguez of Longmont, Colorado; 22-year-old Rumaldo Valdez of Honolulu, Hawaii; 26-year-old Zachary Dosch of Albuquerque, New Mexico; 28-year-old David Brilhante of San Diego, California; and 29-year-old Hector Bermudez of New York with a total of 10 counts related to engaging in a child exploitation enterprise, producing child pornography, and making threats across state lines. Not all five men face all 10 counts.
They were arrested on Tuesday throughout the United States, according to the Justice Department.
The top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, New York, where the indictment was filed, called their alleged conduct “depraved” and “monstrous.”
“I strongly urge parents and caregivers to have conversations with their children about the dangers of communicating online with strangers and individuals who seek to cruelly exploit them,” the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Joseph Nocella Jr., said in a statement.
For much of the past year, federal authorities have been issuing similar warnings about online predators operating much like “Greggy’s Cult,” especially members of the online extremist network 764, who often extort young victims into self-harm but also desensitize them with neo-Nazi or other extremist propaganda and push victims to commit extreme acts of violence against others, including mass shootings.
Members of “Greggy’s Cult” became “prominent members of 764,” the Justice Department said on Tuesday.
The 764 network was started in late 2020 or early 2021 by Bradley Cadenhead, a 15-year-old in Stephenville, Texas, who named it after the first three digits of his local ZIP code. He later pleaded guilty to child pornography-related charges and is serving an 80-year prison sentence in a Texas state prison.
In the midst of his case, Cadenhead told a clinical psychologist that after starting 764 he emulated “Greggy’s Cult” because it received so much media attention for blackmailing people into self-harm, but that 764 was meant to “take it to a whole different level … a lot worse,” according to court documents filed in the case.
Since then, according to authorities, 764 has grown into more of an ideology than a singular group, inspiring offshoots and subgroups around the world that mirror 764 but use different names to help keep social media companies and law enforcement from tracking them.
Testifying to a Senate panel in September, FBI Director Kash Patel described 764 as “modern day terrorism in America.”
As ABC News has previously reported, the FBI is conducting more than 350 investigations across the United States tied to 764 and similar networks. Even before the latest indictment, the Justice Department had publicly charged at least 30 people in recent years with suspected ties to 764 or affiliated networks.
Two of those previously charged were Valdez and Dosch, who were both named in the indictment unsealed in New York on Tuesday.
Valdez was first arrested by the FBI in May on separate charges filed in Hawaii, where he had been serving as a petty officer at a Naval station in Wahiawa. He recently pleaded guilty to one child pornography-related charge in that case, but he is now facing new charges.
Dosch was first arrested by federal authorities in June 2021 on separate charges filed in New Mexico. A year later, he pleaded guilty to cyberstalking and child pornography-related charges, admitting in court that he coerced minors online into self-harm and sexual activity, and he was released pending sentencing.
However, as of Tuesday — three years later — Dosch had yet to be sentenced in that case. It’s unclear why his sentencing never happened.
But charging documents filed against Valdez in May said that an unnamed member of an online group — identified to ABC News as “Greggy’s Cult” — had provided the FBI with information about the conduct of Valdez and others on Discord.
An attorney representing Dosch declined to comment when contacted by ABC News.
In a recent statement to ABC News, a Discord representative said the service is “committed to user safety” and that the “horrific actions of groups like this have no place on Discord or anywhere in society.”
According to a Discord spokesperson, the platform invests “heavily” in specialized teams and newly-developed artificial intelligence tools that can “disrupt these networks, remove violative content, and take action against bad actors on our platform.” Discord also said it shares intelligence with other platforms, which can help identify bad actors even before Discord has spotted them.
Discord also said it cooperates with law enforcement, proactively providing tips and other information to them, and quickly responds to subpoenas.
According to court documents, Discord’s tips have led to many arrests, including the arrest of Cadenhead, the Texas teen who started 764, and Dosch’s initial arrest in 2021.
Dosch and the other four men charged in the latest indictment will appear in federal court in New York at a later date, according to the Justice Department.
Attorneys for Valdez, Bermudez and Rodriguez did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News. As of Wednesday morning, it was unclear if Brilhante had been assigned an attorney.
