Judge says security-related work on White House ballroom can go on
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a rendering of the proposed East Wing of the White House while speaking to members of the media onboard Air Force One on March 29, 2026, while en route to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, from West Palm Beach Florida. President Trump returned to Washington D.C. on Sunday following a weekend trip to Florida. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The federal judge presiding over the White House ballroom case on Thursday clarified his ruling to say that security-related work can go on, particularly below ground, but that work on the ballroom itself still cannot proceed without authorization from lawmakers.
Judge Richard Leon ruled on March 31 that President Donald Trump can’t build the planned ballroom without authorization from Congress.
In addition to issuing Thursday’s clarification, Judge Leon stayed his ruling by another seven days to allow the White House to pursue further appeals.
The revised decision came at the direction of a D.C. Circuit appeals court panel, which ruled 2 to 1 last Saturday that Leon’s initial ruling needed to be clarified.
But in elaborating on the exceptions in his order, Leon also warned the Trump administration that security concerns are not a “blank check to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity,” saying that it is “neither a reasonable nor a correct reading” of his order for the White House to claim that the ballroom is itself part of a security upgrade, as it did in a recent court filing.
“It is, to say the least, incredible, if not disingenuous, that Defendants now argue that my Order does not stop ballroom construction because of the safety-and-security exception!” Leon wrote.
Leon said his revised order would allow for “below-ground construction of national security facilities, work necessary to provide for presidential security, and construction necessary to protect and secure the White House and the construction site itself.”
Trump officials argued that items such as bulletproof windows, missile-resistant columns and drone-proof roofs — features of the planned ballroom — were necessary to enhance security of the executive mansion.
“While these features may well be beneficial, Defendants have not provided any national security justification for why these features must be installed immediately such that they should be excluded from the scope of the injunction,” Leon said, noting the appeals court panel’s own presumption that it would likely take months, if not years, for those upgrades to be completed.
Leon concluded his opinion by saying he has “no desire or intention to be dragooned into the role of construction manager,” and trusts that Trump and his aides will implement his ruling “in good faith and with the benefit of this clarification.”
Pointing to his latest stay, which is now set to expire next Thursday, Leon warned in a footnote that “any above-ground construction over the next seven days that is not in compliance with my Amended Order is at risk of being taken down pending the resolution of this case.”
The Trump administration filed a notice of appeal to the D.C. Circuit court following the judge’s revised order Thursday.
Trump also blasted Leon’s clarification in a social media post Thursday afternoon.
“This highly political Judge, and his illegal overreach, is out of control, and costing our Nation greatly,” Trump wrote.
Saying that the ballroom project will include “Bomb Shelters, a State of the Art Hospital and Medical Facilities, Protective Partitioning, Top Secret Military Installations, Structures, and Equipment, Protective Missile Resistant Steel, Columns, Roofs, and Beams, Drone Proof Ceilings and Roofs, Military Grade Venting, and Bullet, Ballistic, and Blast Proof Glass,” Trump claimed that Judge Leon’s ruling means that “no future President, living in the White House without this Ballroom, can ever be Safe and Secure at Events, Future Inaugurations, or Global Summits.”
The White House announced the construction of a 90,000-square foot ballroom in late July, and demolition began suddenly on the East Wing in late October when workers were spotted tearing down the wing of the White House.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit in December seeking to stop the ballroom construction until the project completes the standard federal review process and the administration seeks public comment on the proposed changes to the White House.
Les Wexner speaks onstage at the 2016 Fragrance Foundation Awards presented by Hearst Magazines – Show on June 7, 2016 in New York City. (Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images for Fragrance Foundation)
(WASHINGTON) — Members of the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday are set to depose retail billionaire Leslie Wexner, whose wealth fueled Jeffrey Epstein’s fortune before an alleged multimillion dollar theft ended their relationship, newly revealed documents suggest.
After learning that Epstein stole hundreds of millions from him in 2007, Wexner opted to quietly resolve the issue with Epstein, who at the time was being investigated by federal prosecutors for both sex crimes and money laundering, according to emails and a memo later drafted by prosecutors.
A vitally important person in the transformation of Epstein from college dropout to multimillionaire adviser to the ultra-wealthy, Wexner — a businessman behind brands like Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works — has received substantial scrutiny over his association with Epstein since Epstein’s arrest and death by suicide in 2019.
Years after the two severed ties, prosecutors in New York initially included Wexner in a group of potential co-conspirators to be investigated after Epstein was arrested in July 2019, though they later determined there was “limited evidence regarding his involvement,” according to a recently-released 2019 email from an FBI agent who was part of the sex crimes investigation.
“The Assistant U.S. Attorney told Mr. Wexner’s legal counsel in 2019 that Mr. Wexner was neither a co-conspirator nor target in any respect,” a spokesperson for Wexner told ABC News in a statement following the release of Epstein files by the Department of Justice last month. “Mr. Wexner cooperated fully by providing background information on Epstein and was never contacted again.”
Lawyers for Wexner, in a meeting with federal prosecutors about two weeks after Epstein’s arrest, claimed that Wexner “had no knowledge of any inappropriate or unlawful activity with young women by Epstein” and that Wexner’s dealings with Epstein were “more professional than social,” according to a December 2019 prosecution memo summarizing the investigation into Epstein’s potential collaborators.
Wexner’s attorneys said the two ended their relationship after Wexner learned that “Epstein had stolen or otherwise misappropriated several hundred million dollars” from him, according to the memo. The memo stated that Epstein personally profited by repeatedly purchasing properties for the Wexners before buying them for himself at a fraction of the cost.
“The Wexners then decided to cut off Epstein,” prosecutors wrote in the memo summarizing their discussion with Wexner’s counsel.
‘All I can say is I feel sorry’ Epstein was — throughout 2007 — the subject of an ongoing investigation in Florida into sex crimes involving minors that had expanded to probe potential financial crimes and money laundering. The Wexners did not report the alleged theft of their funds to law enforcement and instead resolved the matter privately, according to prosecutors.
Wexner was contacted by federal prosecutors in Florida as early as August 2007 regarding the Epstein investigation, according to handwritten notes released last month by the Department of Justice. Notes from an August 2007 call between an attorney for Wexner and a DOJ representative suggest that prosecutors inquired about Wexner’s interactions with his “money manager,” documentation of their meetings, and whether Wexner ever visited Epstein’s home.
At the time, prosecutors had begun to broaden their investigation to not only cover sex crimes but also potential money laundering and wire fraud, documents suggest.
“She just wanted to know if Les has been to my house,” Epstein emailed his associate Ghislaine Maxwell in August 2007, in an apparent reference to the prosecutor’s contact with Wexner’s lawyer, according to emails obtained by DDOSecrets, a transparency website that received a cache of Epstein emails that were not included in the DOJ’s disclosures.
“That’s odd?? Why” Maxwell responded.
“It’s bulls—, she just wanted to let him know about an investigation is my guess,” Epstein wrote back.
It is unclear if Wexner was aware of the investigation into financial crimes when his attorney was contacted, but in the following months, Wexner began the process of ending Epstein’s role as his money manager, according to emails in the DDOSecrets collection between lawyers for Epstein and Wexner.
“All I can say is I feel sorry. You violated your own number 1 rule … Always be careful,” Wexler emailed Epstein in 2008 days before Epstein reported to prison for soliciting underage sex, according to documents included in DDOSecrets collection.
“No excuse,” Epstein replied.
‘She pretty much wants everything’ According to a 2019 prosecution memo, Wexner’s wife began to look into Epstein’s management of their money after Epstein claimed he was “having legal problems involving an overly aggressive police chief and some sort of massage.”
According to the memo, Abigail Wexner discovered Epstein “misappropriated a significant amount of the family’s funds,” including by purchasing property on the Wexners’ behalf before selling it to himself at a fraction of the cost.
“When confronted, Epstein tried to convince Wexner’s wife that she did not understand the financials and insisted that he had the Wexners’ best interests at heart,” the memo said. “The Wexners did not want to bring unnecessary public attention to the issue, so they withdrew the power of attorney, and hired counsel to negotiate a private settlement with Epstein.”
Epstein resigned from the foundation and all of his roles with Wexner in September 2007, according to an independent review conducted in 2020 of Epstein’s involvement with the Wexner Foundation.
“Mr. Wexner terminated Epstein as his financial advisor, revoked his power of attorney, and directed that he be removed from all bank accounts,” a spokesperson for Wexner said in a statement to ABC News.
As early as October 2007, emails indicate that Epstein began transferring assets back to Wexner.
“When speaking with [Abigail Wexner], she pretty much wants everything,” Wexner’s financial controller told an attorney for Epstein.
Later that year, an attorney for Wexner pushed the process along, telling an attorney for Epstein that his client “is eager to execute documents,” according to the DDOSecrets cache.
Prosecutors wrote in a 2019 memo that Epstein returned $100 million to Wexner by January 2008.
Though the dispute with Wexner was privately resolved by January 2008, Epstein’s attorneys appeared to have mounted a pressure campaign to discredit the prosecutor pursuing a money laundering investigation into Epstein, according to emails in the DDOSECRETS collection. Epstein had signed a non-prosecution agreement in September 2007, but his lawyers continued to negotiate with the government over its terms for several more months.
“In what can only be seen as an attempt to intimidate Mr. Epstein, Ms. Villafana [an assistant U.S. Attorney] then added money-laundering and unlicensed wire-transmittal to the list of violations under investigation even though there was no evidence against Mr. Epstein concerning these charges,” attorneys for Epstein wrote in a letter to the Office of Professional Responsibility dated Feb. 11, 2008.
By June 2008, Epstein began his jail sentence in Palm Beach after reaching the controversial plea deal that allowed him to avoid federal charges.
‘You and I had gang stuff for over 15 years’ Although Epstein and Wexner appear to have severed ties following Epstein’s plea deal, documents released by the DOJ suggest that Epstein may have attempted to rekindle their relationship in subsequent years by drafting a letter reminding Wexner of shared experiences and alleged secrets. In the letter, Epstein wrote that he protected him when he was questioned by Wexner’s wife about his management of their money.
“You and I had ‘gang stuff’ for over 15 years. A great deal of it, that she was unaware of. I had no intention of divulging any confidence of ours, no matter what accusations she made. And she made quite a few,” Epstein wrote in the draft note. Based on publicly available documents, it is unclear whether Epstein ever sent the note to Wexner.
Wexner publicly addressed his relationship with Epstein in August 2019 amid mounting public pressure, saying in a letter to his charitable foundation that he was “deceived” by Epstein.
“As the allegations against Mr. Epstein in Florida were emerging, he vehemently denied them. But by early fall 2007, it was agreed that he should step back from the management of our personal finances. In that process, we discovered that he had misappropriated vast sums of money from me and my family. This was, frankly, a tremendous shock, even though it clearly pales in comparison to the unthinkable allegations against him now,” Wexner wrote.
People wait in long TSA lines as the partial government shutdown continues for several weeks at airports like Chicago OâHare in Chicago, IL, United States on March 09, 2026 (Photo by Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The Transportation Security Administration rolled out a new video at airports across the country Friday warning travelers of longer-than-usual wait times and staffing shortages, blaming Democrats for the partial government shutdown.
“You may be experiencing longer-than-average wait times due to the ongoing Democrat shutdown of TSA and the Department of Homeland Security,” the agency’s video message says.
At several airports nationwide, passengers have seen security wait times ranging from 20-30 minutes to as long as two hours at certain points, with travelers being advised to arrive at the airport early to allow adequate time for screening.
The roughly 30-second video message was released as TSA officers begin receiving their first $0 paycheck Friday, with the length of the shutdown nearing a month. The message also encourages travelers to show gratitude toward the TSA officers.
“The TSA Officers you are interacting with have shown up to work despite having missed paychecks. Please take the opportunity to thank the dedicated men and women of the TSA when you fly today,” the video message says.
Assaults on TSA officers have increased during the shutdown, Acting Deputy Administrator Adam Stahl told ABC.
“We’ve seen increases in assaults on our TSA officers which is always completely unacceptable, particularly unacceptable right now,” he said in an interview. “And so we just ask our passengers to please be respectful, thank them because they’re doing an incredibly difficult job under incredibly difficult circumstances.”
Stahl said the agency has “zero tolerance” for such behavior and works with the law enforcement authorities, including the Department of Justice, so those responsible face ramifications for their actions.
Though the rate of unscheduled absences by TSA officers has more than doubled since the shutdown began, Stahl said there are no safety concerns about TSA’s operations and that the agency’s focus remains on the impact to wait times.
“We don’t have any significant concerns about the integrity of the screening process right now as it stands, but again this is going to continue to worsen as the days continue and we’re really focused and really urge Senate Democrats to get back to the drawing table, get back to negotiating table, so we can get back to normal operations,” Stahl said.
A similar video featuring outgoing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was rolled out by the agency during last year’s government shutdown. It received pushback from several major airports that refused to play it, citing the Hatch Act — a law that restricts the political activities of federal employees, as well as some state and local employees who are involved in or work in federally funded programs.
On Thursday, Senate Democrats blocked a fourth vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security, refusing to fund the agency without any reforms to ICE and CBP.
The package would have provided funding for the Department of Homeland Security through September. The agency has been shut down since Feb. 14.
Ahead of the vote, Democrats once again attempted to get support to fund other agencies, besides ICE and CBP, that are a part of DHS and that have been shut down. After their effort to fund all other agencies besides CBP and ICE was blocked Wednesday by Republicans, Democrats took a piecemeal approach Thursday, making individual requests to pass funding for TSA, CISA, Coast Guard and FEMA.
“What Republicans are saying is that we want to hold TSA, our airports, the protection of our coastline, the defense of this nation from cyberattacks and our response to emergencies hostage to their determination to continue to fund a law enforcement operation at ICE that is out of control,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said during a speech on the floor as part of the Democratic effort to pass the bills to fund the individual agencies.
Republicans blocked each of those efforts, arguing that the whole of DHS should be funded.
“To my Democrat colleagues, if you have a bill that you want to defund ICE with, put it on the floor. I guarantee you it will get voted down because it is an extremely unpopular position. We are not going to let you get to that result by way of holding everyone else hostage. If you want to support all the agencies in this negotiated bill you have a way to do it,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mont., said.
ABC News’ Allison Pecorin contributed to this story.
Kevin Faux, 24, is charged with murder for the death of the mother of his unborn baby, police said. (Houston Police)
(HOUSTON) — A man is at large after allegedly killing a woman who was 8 months pregnant with his baby, according to authorities.
Ashanti Allen, a 23-year-old Houston woman, was reported missing on April 10, Houston police said. Allen’s pregnancy was considered high-risk, according to the search and recovery organization Texas EquuSearch, whose members helped in the search.
On Thursday, police said a 23-year-old woman was found dead near a Houston community center. Police did not confirm the identity, but the family confirmed the victim was Allen, and Texas EquuSearch said the victim is believed to be Allen and her unborn child, Jackson.
The father of her baby, 24-year-old Kevin Faux, is charged with murder, police said, noting that Faux is not in custody.
Faux has a history of assault charges, according to court records obtained by Houston ABC station KTRK, including a September 2025 case when he allegedly assaulted Allen.
Allen’s cause of death is pending an autopsy, police said.
“My body’s been numb ever since I received the phone call,” Allen’s father, Edward Allen, told reporters. “We was hoping for the best. But now we’ve heard the worst.”
“Being pregnant, eight months, with my first grandson… I can’t even tell you how I feel,” Edward Allen said. “… I love my baby girl. She’s my only girl.”
He said the 23-year-old was excited to be a mother.
“Her life was going somewhere,” he said.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends as they navigate through this very difficult time,” Texas EquuSearch said in a statement. “Thank you for all who were involved and members who showed up each day, giving it their all.”
Houston police ask anyone with information about the case or information on Faux’s whereabouts to call the department at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.
