Judge to decide fate of Trump’s federal buyout offer
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(BOSTON) — A federal judge in Boston Monday will consider whether to block President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk from carrying out their unprecedented plan to buy out tens of thousands of federal employees.
Three federal employee unions — with the support of 20 Democratic attorneys general — have argued that the Office of Personnel Management’s deferred resignation offer is an “unlawful ultimatum” to force the resignation of government workers under the “threat of mass termination.”
“OPM’s Fork Directive is a sweeping and stunningly arbitrary action to solicit blanket resignations of federal workers,” wrote lawyers for the American Federation of Government Employees, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the National Association of Government Employees. “Defendants have not even argued — nor could they — that the Fork Directive was the product of rational or considered decision-making.”
The buyout offer, part of Trump’s effort to trim the size of government through Musk’s newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, was sent out under the subject line “Fork in the Road” — the same language Musk used when he slashed jobs at Twitter after taking over that company in 2022.
In court, the Trump administration has described the buyout as one of the first steps in the president’s plan to “transform the federal workforce,” arguing that any further delay of the buyout would cause “remarkably disruptive and inequitable repercussions.”
Monday’s hearing comes less than two weeks after more than two million government employees received the “Fork in the Road” email from the Office of Personnel Management, offering full pay and benefits until September for any federal employee who accepted a deferred resignation by Feb. 6.
Just hours ahead of Thursday’s deadline for employees to accept the offer, U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr. — who was nominated to the bench by President Bill Clinton — temporarily blocked the offer until Monday so he could consider issuing a temporary restraining offer pausing the order.
“I enjoined the defendants from taking any action to implement the so-called ‘Fork Directive’ pending the completion of briefing and oral argument on the issues,” Judge O’Toole said in his ruling. “I believe that’s as far as I want to go today.”
The Trump administration, in response, “extended” the deadline for the offer, which more than 65,000 federal employees have already taken.
“We are grateful to the judge for extending the deadline so more federal workers who refuse to show up to the office can take the Administration up on this very generous, once-in-a-lifetime offer,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week.
The unions who brought the lawsuit argued that Trump exceeded his authority as president with the offer, which they described as a “slapdash resignation program.”
According to the plaintiffs, Trump’s offer violates federal law, lacks congressionally appropriated funding, and does not offer employees reassurance that the president would follow through with the offer. Their claim in part relies on a federal law from the 1940s called the Administrative Procedure Act that governs how federal agencies create and enforce rules.
“In the tech universe, ‘move fast and break things’ is a fine motto in part because they’re not playing with the public’s money, and it’s expected that most initiatives are going to fail,” Loyola Marymount law professor Justin Leavitt told ABC News. “Congress knows that, so in 1946 they basically said, ‘When agencies do stuff … they have to be careful about it. They’ve got to consider all aspects of the problem.”
The plaintiffs also argued that the buyout is unlawful because it relies on funding that Congress has yet to appropriate, violating the Antideficiency Act.
“Defendants’ ultimatum divides federal workers into two groups: (1) those who submit their resignations to OPM for a promised period of pay without the requirement to work, and (2) those who have not and are therefore subject to threat of mass termination,” the lawsuit said.
Lawyers for the federal government have pushed back on those claims, arguing that Trump has the legal authority to provide the buyout for employees within the federal branch, and that any further delay would do more harm than good.
“Extending the deadline for the acceptance of deferred resignation on its very last day will markedly disrupt the expectations of the federal workforce, inject tremendous uncertainty into a program that scores of federal employees have already availed themselves of, and hinder the Administration’s efforts to reform the federal workforce,” DOJ attorney Joshua E. Gardner wrote in a filing last week.
Judge O’Toole will consider issuing a temporary restraining order that would block enforcement of the offer for as long as two weeks.
(ATLANTA) — President-elect Donald Trump, in a court filing Friday, urged the Georgia Supreme Court to keep Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis disqualified from the criminal election interference case against him.
The filing from Trump’s attorneys, just days before Trump’s inauguration, asked the court to uphold the appeals court ruling last month that disqualified Willis over her relationship with a prosecutor on the case.
Trump’s lawyers argued in Friday’s filing that the trial court fashioned an “inadequate legal remedy” by allowing Willis to remain on the case if the prosecutor Nathan Wade resigned, which he did following the ruling.
Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty in 2023 to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia, and four defendants subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.
Willis was disqualified from the case last month — although the indictment was allowed to stand — when the Georgia Court of Appeals upheld Trump’s appeal of the trial judge’s ruling that allowed Willis to stay on the case.
Friday’s filing also pushed back on Willis’ claim that the appeals court created a new standard when it disqualified her, claiming: “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
“Mandatory disqualification of an elected District Attorney for a significant appearance of impropriety, for specific conduct, is unlikely to recur because no Georgia District Attorney has engaged in such egregious disqualifying conduct before and it is highly unlikely that any DA will ever do so in the future,” the filing stated. “No Georgia court has ever considered impropriety of this extraordinary magnitude.”
(NEW YORK) — Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is waiving extradition and will be transported to New York in short order.
Mangione was remanded to the custody of the NYPD, said his Pennsylvania defense attorney, Thomas Dickey.
“This is in his best interest, and we’re moving forward,” Dickey said.
A special edition of “20/20” airing Dec. 19 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC looks at the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the manhunt that led to the arrest of Luigi Mangione, who went from the Ivy League to alleged killer.
The news comes after Mangione appeared in court in Blair County, Pennsylvania, on Thursday morning.
Spectators gathered outside the Blair County courthouse on Thursday ahead of Mangione’s appearance.
One held a sign reading “Deny, Defend, Depose,” echoing the words written on shell casings and a bullet at the murder scene.
Adam Giesseman, who had a sign that said “Free Luigi” and “Murder for Profit is Terrorism,” told ABC News, “Our country is broken.”
Another waiting spectator, who only gave her first name, Natalie, voiced frustration that the insurance system is “set up for profit over people’s health.”
“It’s unfortunate that this happened, and I’m not glorifying it in any way — but it’s brought attention to the issue that affects all Americans,” she said.
Mangione faces an 11-count indictment by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and is also expected to face federal charges out of the Southern District of New York, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
SDNY and the FBI’s New York field office both declined to comment.
Federal charges could make Mangione eligible for the death penalty. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted of the state charges.
Mangione’s New York lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said in a statement, “The federal government’s reported decision to pile on top of an already overcharged first-degree murder and state terror case is highly unusual and raises serious constitutional and statutory double jeopardy concerns.”
“We are ready to fight these charges in whatever court they are brought,” Agnifilo added.
Danielle Filson, a spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, said, “The state case will proceed in parallel with any federal case.”
Mangione, 26, is accused of gunning down Thompson outside a Hilton hotel on Dec. 4 as the UnitedHealthcare CEO headed to an investors conference. Prosecutors alleged Mangione waited nearly an hour for Thompson to arrive.
A Manhattan grand jury upgraded charges against Mangione to include first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
The killing in the heart of Midtown Manhattan was “intended to evoke terror,” Bragg said.
In New York, Mangione is also charged with two counts of second-degree murder, one of which is charged as killing as an act of terrorism; two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree; four counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree; one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree; and one count of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree.
In Pennsylvania, where Mangione was arrested on Dec. 9 after nearly a week on the run, he faces charges including allegedly possessing an untraceable ghost gun. Mangione had a 9 mm handgun with a 3D-printed receiver, a homemade silencer, two ammunition magazines and live cartridges when apprehended, prosecutors said.
ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
In this screen grab from a video, a drone is shown near Bedminster, New Jersey, on Dec. 3, 2024. Obtained by ABC News
(NEW YORK) — The Pentagon shot down a congressman’s claim that an Iranian “mothership” is behind large drones spotted over New Jersey in recent weeks, while officials in the state are demanding a stronger federal response and transparency in connection with the mysterious, unexplained sightings.
Since mid-November, large drones of uncertain origin have been repeatedly spotted in the sky at night over central and northern New Jersey, including near a military installation.
State and local officials convened at a closed-door meeting Wednesday morning at the New Jersey State Police headquarters with representatives from the Department of Homeland Security to address the matter, according to several officials in attendance.
It remains unclear who is operating the drones, according to a DHS handout released by Montvale Mayor Mike Ghassali, who attended the meeting.
“At this time, according to the FBI, there are no known specific or credible threats related to these sightings,” the handout stated.
There have been reports ranging from four to 180 sightings per night, according to New Jersey Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia, who attended the meeting. The drones “operate in a coordinated manner” and have not been identified as hobbyist drones or ones related to DHS, she said.
Several officials said following the meeting that they were not assuaged by the DHS response.
Ghassali said it has only “heightened my apprehensions regarding the federal government’s approach to this critical issue.”
“The message conveyed was that there is no credible threat, yet they are flying over critical infrastructure, and their point of origin and destination remain unidentified,” he said in a statement. “They will eventually find out but for now, we don’t know anything else.”
New Jersey state Sen. Holly Schepisi called the DHS response “abysmal.”
“[It] actually made me feel less confident in our federal government’s reaction to this issue rather than more,” she said in a statement. “For the federal government to not dedicate every defense resource needed to identify the origin and purpose of these drones in the most densely populated state in the nation is inexplicable and completely unacceptable.”
Fantasia said “we know nothing” and to “state that there is no known or credible threat is incredibly misleading, and I informed all officials of that sentiment.”
Following the meeting, New Jersey state Sen. Jon Bramnick urged the Department of Defense to investigate and reiterated his call for a limited state of emergency in the state.
“The Department of Defense must investigate and until that occurs we must shut down the airspace to drones. That would require a limited state of emergency and FAA cooperation,” he said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the FBI, which is the leading agency investigating the sightings, said it is “doing all we can [to] figure out what’s going on.”
“The public can continue to call our 800 line, or submit a tip online, we are acting on every substantive lead that we get,” the FBI spokesperson said.
The Federal Aviation Administration has imposed flight restrictions over Picatinny Arsenal in Morris County and Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in Somerset County in response to the drone activity.
“Safely integrating drones into the National Airspace System is a key priority for the FAA,” the agency said in a statement earlier this month. “We look into all reports of unauthorized drone operations and investigate when appropriate.”
New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew criticized the FAA for its inability to locate the drones during a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s hearing earlier Wednesday.
“We have a serious problem with our aerospace. The recent sightings of unidentified drones in the state of New Jersey, my home state, is justifiably causing tremendous public concern,” he said.
Van Drew said the drones are “large” and “sophisticated” and alleged the presence of an “Iranian mothership” responsible for them, though he did not provide evidence to support his claims.
“I’ve learned, for real, that there is circumstantial evidence that there’s an Iranian mothership off the East Coast of the United States, and that’s launching these drone incursions,” he said.
He said he is concerned at this time with identifying his sources but said they are “individuals who are reputable, individuals who speak with authority.”
The Pentagon shot down Van Drew’s claim.
“There is not any truth to that — there is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States, and there’s no so-called mothership launching drones towards the United States,” deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters Wednesday.
Singh said there is no evidence the drone activity is coming from any foreign entity or is the work of an adversary.
“We’re going to continue to monitor what is happening,” she said, adding, “At no point were our installations threatened when this activity was occurring.”
Van Drew doubled down in an interview with ABC News following the Pentagon’s briefing, saying there is a “real possibility that it is a foreign entity.” He said his “well-placed” sources believe there is a possibility the drones are Iranian, and that there could be a mothership hundreds of miles off the U.S. coast.
“They say to us there’s nothing to fear, but we have no idea who it is, where it comes from, what it’s about and what it can do,” he said.
Van Drew proposed that flight restrictions be placed over the New Jersey airspace “and an order be given to neutralize any drone aircraft in violation of those restrictions” in a letter addressed to President Joe Biden on Wednesday.
“In neutralizing these drones we must ensure the safety of people on ground and should also attempt to keep the drones intact so that we may study their capabilities,” he wrote.
New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith has called on Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to help identify and address the widespread drone activity over the state.
“As you no doubt are also aware, there have been numerous instances of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) flying over New Jersey, including in close proximity to sensitive sites and critical infrastructure, to include military installations located in my district,” he stated in a letter to Lloyd on Tuesday.
He noted that Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JBMDL) possesses the capability to identify and take down unauthorized unmanned aerial systems.
“I urgently request all capabilities possessed by the Department of Defense, especially those in use by JBMDL to be immediately deployed to identify and address the potential threats posed by UAS over the state of New Jersey,” he said.
During a congressional hearing on Tuesday, Smith said an officer saw “50 drones” coming in off the ocean earlier this week in Ocean County. He has also said that a U.S. Coast Guard commanding officer stationed in Barnegat Light reported that “between 12 and 30” drones were following a USCG motor lifeboat over the weekend.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker has called for greater transparency from federal authorities on the unexplained drone activity in a letter on Tuesday to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
“I recognize the need to maintain operational security of ongoing investigations and that this situation requires complex interagency coordination. However, there is a growing sense of uncertainty and urgency across the state — from constituents and local officials alike — despite assurances that the drones pose no known threats to public safety,” he stated in the letter. “As such, I urge you to share any relevant information about these drone sightings with the public. Without transparency, I believe that rumors, fear, and misinformation will continue to spread.”
The public should be “immediately briefed” by federal agencies, including the FBI, FAA and DHS, on what they know, New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer said.
“I think people have a right to know what’s going on,” he told ABC News Live anchor Kayna Whitworth on Wednesday.
Gottheimer, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, noted he is “not concerned there’s any imminent threats to security” in New Jersey or D.C. based on the briefings he’s had.
“That said, you can’t just fly drones anywhere,” he said. “This can’t just be game on. We need to know who these drones belong to, where they’re coming from. And if they’re not welcome, we’ve got to take them out.”
Police in Warren County, New Jersey, have also expressed frustration at the “lack of transparency” over the drone activity.
“We are shocked by the lack of response or update from Federal and State officials,” Chief Scott D. Robb, president of the Warren County Police Chief’s Association, said in a statement Wednesday. “We do not agree with their response that there is no known threat to the public at this time. It is our stance that just the unidentified drone flying over us is a threat in itself.”
DHS said in its handout on the New Jersey drones that there have been other drone sightings “of this type” both nationally and internationally.
Biden has been briefed on the drones and is “closely tracking the activity” and “coordinating closely” with DHS and the FBI to continue investigating these incidents, the White House said Tuesday.
“This is something that DHS and FBI are tracking very, very closely,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday.
The U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) is also monitoring reports of “unauthorized drone flights in the vicinity of military installations in New Jersey,” a spokesperson said.
“Local law enforcement and the FBI are currently investigating,” the spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that at this time NORTHCOM has not been requested to assist with the events but is prepared to respond “when asked or should the situation escalate to threaten any DoD installations.”
ABC News’ Jay O’Brien, Alexandra Faul, Ayesha Ali and Matthew Seyler contributed to this report.
