Mayorkas says federal authorities are addressing New Jersey drone sightings
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(NEW YORK) — Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the federal government is taking action to address the aerial drones that have prompted concern among New Jersey residents.
“There’s no question that people are seeing drones,” he told “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview on Sunday. “I want to assure the American public that we in the federal government have deployed additional resources, personnel, technology to assist the New Jersey State Police in addressing the drone sightings.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was released early from prison after President Trump commuted his 18-year sentence. (ABC News)
(WASHINGTON) — Protesters endured freezing temperatures to attend a vigil outside the Washington, D.C., jail this week as the moment they waited years for arrived: alleged Jan. 6 rioters walking free after President Donald Trump issued sweeping pardons on his first day back in office on Monday.
Those demonstrators gathered each night in support of the incarcerated Jan. 6 defendants, talking on speakerphone and joining in song with people jailed just steps away.
On Jan. 6, 2021, the U.S. Capitol was attacked by a mob of Trump supporters two months after his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. At the time, a joint session of Congress was counting the Electoral College votes to formalize Joe Biden’s victory. Trump pardoned around 1,500 people charged or convicted in crimes tied to the day’s events.
One of those pardoned was Pennsylvania resident Robert Morss, who was convicted of assaulting police officers on Jan. 6. Morss drove to the D.C. vigil after he was officially released early from his halfway house.
He was pressed by ABC News about whether there was any justification for hurting a police officer.
“I would say that the justification for defending yourself would have to be predicated on the threat level,” he said. “I would never say that there’s any justification for hurting a cop, I would never say there’s any justification for hurting anybody and we’re not the party that condones violence.”
Multiple accused rioters have put forward defenses that they were incited to violence by police, but none were successful in court. Approximately 140 police officers were injured that day, according to the Department of Justice.
The Washington, D.C., Police Union, which represents officers from the Metropolitan Police Department, expressed “dismay” over the pardons in a statement.
“As an organization that represents the interests of the 3,000 brave men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect our communities, our stance is clear — anyone who assaults a law enforcement officer should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, without exception,” it said.
In an internal memo obtained by ABC News, Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger praised officers in the wake of the pardons. Manger said that “when there is no price to pay for violence against law enforcement, it sends a message that politics matter more than our first responders.”
In addition to mentioning Trump’s pardons for Jan. 6 rioters, he also cited former President Joe Biden’s decision to commute the sentence of Leonard Peltier, who was convicted of killing two FBI agents in 1975.
“Police willingly put themselves in harm’s way to protect our communities. When people attack law enforcement officers, the criminals should be met with consequences, condemnation and accountability,” Manger said in the memo.
While most Jan. 6 rioters were charged with nonviolent offenses, more than 250 were convicted of violent crimes, including assaulting police officers, according to an ABC News review of court records.
In the aftermath of the attack, both Republicans and Democrats condemned people responsible.
“The thugs who stormed the Capitol today and incited violence should be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Every single one of them,” Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, wrote on X on Jan. 6, 2021.
However, after the pardons, Republican lawmakers largely defended Trump’s pardon powers and Scott sidestepped ABC News’ questions about whether the pardons should have applied to violent offenders.
“I haven’t gone into the detail,” he said.
Not every Jan. 6 defendant received a pardon — 14 had their sentences commuted instead.
All were members of militant groups the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers who were charged with sedition. Prosecutors said they tried to use the Capitol attack to stop the peaceful transfer of power.
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was released early from his 18-year prison sentence. He did not enter the Capitol on Jan. 6 and maintained that his group only intended to provide security and medical aid to those attending multiple pro-Trump demonstrations in the area, prosecutors said.
After his release, he came back to Washington, D.C., and told ABC News that people who committed acts of violence deserve a pardon and claimed that none of the Jan. 6 defendants received fair trials.
“They still have a right to a fair trial,” he said. “And if the jury pool is drawn up of the victims, the judges themselves said that all people who live in D.C. were victims of Jan. 6.”
Heather Shaner, a public defender who represented more than 40 nonviolent Jan. 6 defendants, had a different take.
“As an attorney, I think they have been handled with excruciating fairness. And my clients feel the same way, by the way,” she told ABC News. “They got a public defender. They were given all the evidence against them. And they got what they considered fair pleas and fair sentences.”
Jason Riddle, who was sentenced to 90 days in prison after pleading guilty to illegally protesting in the Capitol and raiding a liquor cabinet, echoed that sentiment. He wants nothing to do with a Trump pardon, even though he got one.
“Because I did it, I’m guilty of the crime,” he told ABC News.
The New Hampshire man called Jan. 6 “the biggest display of disrespect you ever saw in your life,” acknowledging that he raided a liquor cabinet and noting that people were defacing the walls of the Capitol.
“And like, Trump called that a ‘beautiful day.’ Trump said that was ‘a day of love,'” he told ABC News.
ABC News’ Alex Mallin and Diana Paulson contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the leaders of Trump’s new “Department of Government Efficiency,” have found themselves at odds with some of Trump’s far-right supporters over their support for H-1B visas, which allow foreign skilled professionals to work in America.
The debate was sparked over the Christmas holiday when Laura Loomer, a conservative social media figure who faced criticism when she traveled with President-Elect Donald Trump on some campaign stops, criticized Trump’s appointment of Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sriram Krishnan as his senior policy adviser for artificial intelligence.
Criticizing a post from Krishnan where he advocated the removal of country caps for green cards, Loomer called the appointment “deeply disturbing,” prompting an online battle between the business leaders who say the work visas are essential to employing high-qualified foreign workers and Trump supporters who argued it was a way for business leaders to have cheap labor rather than provide job opportunities for Americans.
Both Ramaswamy and Musk made numerous posts on X claiming H-1B visas are essential because American culture doesn’t prioritize success in science and engineering careers compared to other countries.
“Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG,” Ramaswamy posted on X.
“A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers,” he added.
Musk, who has said he once worked in the United States on an H-1B visa, said he has depended on these work visas for the operation of his tech companies and that they are essential due to the number of skilled workers needed to handle the rise of new technologies.
“OF COURSE my companies and I would prefer to hire Americans and we DO, as that is MUCH easier than going through the incredibly painful and slow work visa process,” he posted. “HOWEVER, there is a dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America.” Loomer and other far-right conservatives have also argued that the expansions of such programs would go against Trump’s immigration crackdown.
While she and others have accused Musk and Ramaswamy of hindering Trump’s aggressive immigration proposals, the business leaders have argued that any such reforms would not hinder the program’s extensive vetting process.
“Maybe this is a helpful clarification: I am referring to bringing in via legal immigration the top ~0.1% of engineering talent as being essential for America to keep winning,” Musk wrote on X.
“This is like bringing in the Jokic’s or Wemby’s of the world to help your whole team (which is mostly Americans!) win the NBA,” he said, referencing two foreign-born basketball stars.
Now, the business leaders are being accused of using Trump for their own personal gain.
“We are substituting a third world migrant invasion for a third world tech invasion. Same shit,” Loomer posted on X. “Except this invasion won’t be done by rapist foreigners who look and smell like garbage. It will be done by career leftist tech billionaires who hate Trump deep down inside.”
Further showing a divide among conservatives over the issue, former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley also weighed in, pushing back on a post from Ramaswamy and arguing American workers should be prioritized over foreigners.
“There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture,” she said. “All you have to do is look at the border and see how many want what we have. We should be investing and prioritizing in Americans, not foreign workers.”
In June, David Sacks, who will be the president-elect’s AI and crypto czar, interviewed Trump for his “All In” podcast and asked Trump if he would expand H-1B work visas for tech workers after fixing the border — to which Trump said “yes.”
In that same episode, Trump also promised to award all international graduates with green cards, saying, “I want to do, and what I will do, is you graduate from a college, I think you should get, automatically as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country. That includes junior colleges, too.”
His campaign later walked back that promise, saying there would be a vetting process.
“He believes, only after such vetting has taken place, we ought to keep the most skilled graduates who can make significant contributions to America,” Karoline Leavitt, incoming White House press secretary, said in a statement to ABC News at the time. “This would only apply to the most thoroughly vetted college graduates who would never undercut American wages or workers.”
ABC News’ Zohreen Shah contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The White House’s Office of Management and Budget has instructed all federal agencies to cease spending on any financial assistance programs if they suspect it might conflict with President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders.
Agencies must comply beginning at 5 p.m. EST on Tuesday, according to the OMB memo obtained by ABC News.
However, the order does not specify which financial aid programs would have to be suspended.
Given the spate of orders issued this month — some of which have prompted lawsuits — the memo could have sweeping implications.
The federal government funds thousands of programs, including research projects, housing subsidies and educational grants.
“The use of Federal resources to advanced Marxist equity, transgenderism and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day to day lives of those we serve,” wrote Matthew Vaeth, acting director of the OMB.
Vaeth told agency chiefs they must “identify and review all federal financial assistance programs and supporting activities consistent with the President’s policies and requirements.”
They are being told they must report back by Feb. 10 on all programs that apply.
“In the interim, to the extent permissible under applicable law, Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activity related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to financial assistance for foreign aid, non-governmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal,” Vaeth wrote.
In response to the OMB memo, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer issued a statement late Monday calling on the Trump administration to immediately “reverse course.”
“Congress approved these investments and they are not optional; they are the law,” Schumer said. “These grants help people in red states and blue states, support families, help parents raise kids, and lead to stronger communities.”
