Special counsel urges judge to reject Trump’s effort to dismiss Jan. 6 obstruction charges
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(WASHINGTON, D.C.) Special counsel Jack Smith is urging the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s federal election interference case to reject an effort by Trump’s attorneys to throw out obstruction-related charges brought against him following a Supreme Court ruling this summer that narrowed the statute’s use against Jan. 6 rioters.
Trump’s attorneys have argued that the obstruction of an official proceeding statute should no longer apply to Trump’s alleged conduct in the indictment against him, arguing that Trump was never directly involved in obstructing the Jan. 6 vote-certification proceedings.
But Smith, in his new filing, said his recent superseding indictment clearly alleges Trump and his co-conspirators’ involvement in attempting to send fraudulent certificates to Congress that day, for then-Vice President Mike Pence to use as he presided over the certification.
“As set forth in the superseding indictment, the defendant and others began in early December 2020 to cause individuals to serve as the defendant’s purported electors in several targeted states with the intent that those individuals ‘make and send to the Vice President and Congress false certifications that they were legitimate electors,'” Smith wrote.
“Ultimately, the defendant sought” to “certify illegal votes” through “fraudulent elector certificates” that were “mailed to the President of the Senate, the Archivist of the United States, and others in connection with the January 6 proceeding to certify the 2020 presidential election results,” wrote Smith.
Trump last year pleaded not guilty to federal charges of undertaking a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election in order to remain in power. In July, the Supreme Court ruled in a blockbuster decision that Trump is entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts undertaken while in office.
Smith subsequently charged Trump in a superseding indictment that was adjusted to respect the Supreme Court’s ruling.
In his new filing, Smith also disputed arguments put forward by Trump’s attorneys that the former president “bears no factual or legal responsibility” for the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
The superseding indictment “plainly alleges that the defendant willfully caused his supporters to obstruct and attempt to obstruct the proceeding by summoning them to Washington, D.C., and then directing them to march to the Capitol to pressure the Vice President and legislators to reject the legitimate certificates and instead rely on the fraudulent electoral certificates,” Smith wrote.
(REDINGTON BEACH, Fla.) — As Hurricane Milton churns closer, Floridians are still picking up the pieces from Hurricane Helene’s devastation late last month.
Debris left from Helene, still in the process of being removed, is likely to pose significant dangers as the next one prepares to make landfall, officials say.
On Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said 1,200 truckloads of debris had already been removed, but flood-ruined furniture and downed trees remain littered throughout Florida’s west coast.
In addition, officials with the Florida Department of Transportation said Wednesday morning that over 55,000 cubic yards of debris were cleared from barrier islands.
“Debris + high winds = dangerous combination,” the state’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles said Monday in a post on X.
One man who evacuated his home Tuesday in Redington Beach — a barrier island west of Tampa — told ABC News the idyllic coastal neighborhood is nearly unrecognizable amid the detritus leftover from Helene.
“I’m looking out my window right now — I see five mattresses, bed frames, cabinets, refrigerators, anything you think of,” Brian Nguyen said as he and his family packed up their home of 30 years.
Nguyen said he was “very concerned” about the damage the strewn-about objects, including his now-totaled car, might cause to his and his neighbors’ homes.
“Our car has actually been totaled and it’s currently in our driveway. We weren’t able to get that towed out before we evacuate, so we’re concerned if it gets carried by the floodwater, it could run into our garage and damage the house — just additional damage,” he said.
Despite the threat, Nguyen said he’s grateful for the removal efforts so far.
“The county has honestly been doing as much as they can to expedite the debris removal, and they’re going to be working around the clock,” he said. “But, you know, it’s not just my neighborhood, but literally the entire coastline.”
Stephen Sommer, who lives in St. Petersburg, told Tampa ABC affiliate WFTS his family had lost many of their possessions in Helene, and are now preparing for more damage from Milton.
“About $30,000 in appliances, we lost all of our beds, we had to rip about four feet of drywall off in our house. We lost all of our family pictures,” Sommer said.
With high winds and storm surge expected, the lost and destroyed belongings that litter the streets are likely to cause even more destruction.
“With all of this around, it’s going to become projectiles,” said Sommer.
(NEW YORK) — Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries, his partner Matt Smith and a third man, Jim Jacobson, were arrested Tuesday as part of a criminal sex trafficking investigation by the FBI and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News.
The investigation involved whether the men sexually exploited and abused young men at parties they hosted in the United States and around the world, the sources said.
Federal prosecutors acknowledged the investigation in January after alleged victims filed a civil lawsuit a year ago.
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York has launched a criminal investigation of the alleged events and occurrences discussed in Plaintiff’s Complaint,” prosecutors said in a court filing.
“We will respond in detail to the allegations after the Indictment is unsealed, and when appropriate, but plan to do so in the courthouse – not the media,” Brian Bieber, an attorney for Michael Jeffries, told ABC News Tuesday.The attorney for the plaintiff,
Brad Edwards of Edwards Henderson, told ABC News in a statement: “As we laid out in our lawsuit, this was an Abercrombie run, sex trafficking organization that permeated throughout the company and allowed the three individuals arrested today to victimize dozens and dozens of young, aspiring male models.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Last week, during a world-renowned law enforcement conference in Boston, two FBI agents briefed dozens of police chiefs and sheriffs on the wide array of threats to government officials, poll workers, candidates and voters that the FBI has been seeing in the days before next week’s presidential election.
The closed-door briefing, described to ABC News, lasted nearly an hour, highlighting not only physical threats tied to the election but also efforts by Russia and other foreign adversaries to convince Americans that the election results can’t be trusted.
When the FBI officials finished their briefing at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference, there was only one question from the audience: What do the agents have to say about “2,000 Mules,” a two-year-old documentary that claims to expose widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election?
The film has been widely debunked, and its distributor went so far as to remove it from its platforms earlier this year.
In response to the audience member’s question, the agents said they hadn’t seen the film and couldn’t comment on it if they had.
Still, the exchange reflects how conspiracy theories about elections — and the FBI’s alleged efforts to tip their outcomes — have become so embedded in parts of America that even some law enforcement officials wonder about them — even after they’ve been refuted.
Current and former FBI officials say that the penetration of false narratives has put the FBI in the tough position of trying to defend election officials and voters against myriad threats, while also having to defend the FBI itself in ways it’s never had to before.
“It speaks to just the volume of conspiracy theories … [and] the divisiveness that we’re seeing across the country that the FBI has to navigate,” said Eric Miller, who as a supervisory special agent in the FBI’s Washington, D.C., field office until 2021, oversaw a squad that investigated election crimes and public corruption.
The FBI told ABC News in a statement that its mission is “to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution,” and that its people work “every day to fulfill these promises without fear or favor.”
‘A different environment’
As with every election, the FBI is expected to investigate election-related threats, allegations of ballot fraud, suspected foreign interference, and other reported attempts to disrupt the election process.
“In keeping with our standard Election Day protocol, FBI headquarters will stand up a National Election Command Post to provide a centralized location for assessing election-related threats … [and to] track status reports and significant complaints from FBI field offices,” the FBI said in its statement to ABC News.
But while the bureau’s responsibilities will be the same as always, some feel this year’s election presents an unprecedented challenge.
“This is a different environment than we’ve ever had to deal with,” a former senior FBI official who was involved in the FBI’s election-related operations in 2016 and 2020 told ABC News.
As voters head to the polls, they’re casting their ballots nearly four years after a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol in an effort to stop Congress from certifying the last presidential election. Just four months ago, a Pennsylvania man nearly assassinated former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally, and three weeks ago the FBI arrested an Afghan immigrant in Oklahoma for plotting an Election Day terrorist attack on behalf of ISIS.
Federal authorities also continue to warn that other “threat actors” are “likely to leverage claims of election fraud” to foment election-related violence, as a Department of Homeland Security assessment put it earlier this week. According to officials, Iran is determined to assassinate Trump and some of his former top advisers, Russia won’t back down in its malicious campaign to sow chaos and influence the election, and China is trying to hack the phones of both political parties.
‘A challenging spot’
Meanwhile, the FBI has itself been accused by Trump and his allies of trying to influence the election, through its investigations of Trump, its search of his Mar-a-Lago estate, and the Justice Department’s handling of cases tied to President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
“It’s called election interference. It’s called the weaponization of the FBI,” Trump said at a campaign event in Georgia last week. The former president has reportedly vowed to fire FBI Director Chris Wray if he wins reelection — even though it was Trump himself who picked Wray to lead the bureau in 2017.
The FBI has strongly disputed that it’s influenced by politics in any way.
“[W]e remain firmly committed to carrying out our mission while protecting the civil liberties of the citizens we serve,” the FBI said in its statement to ABC News.
The politically-charged atmosphere has led the FBI to become a target of violence. In 2022, after the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago, an Ohio man reportedly issued an online “call to arms” and then opened fire at the FBI’s field office in Cincinnati.
Several months later, authorities arrested two Tennessee men for allegedly plotting attacks on FBI agents in Knoxville. And earlier this year, a South Carolina man who reportedly espoused right-wing conspiracy theories rammed his vehicle into a gate at the FBI’s office in Atlanta.
The FBI is in “an awkward, challenging spot,” the former senior FBI official said.
’24/7 command post’
According to FBI officials, the bureau has spent months “engaged in extensive preparations” for Election Day.
“As always, we are working closely with our federal, state, and local partners so everyone involved with safeguarding the election has the information and resources necessary to respond in a timely manner to any criminal violations that may arise,” the FBI said in its statement.
FBI headquarters is planning to keep its National Election Command Post operational until at least Nov. 10, reflecting how authorities are concerned about what might happen even after the polls close on Nov. 5. The command post will include senior officials from the FBI’s counterterrorism, criminal, counterintelligence and cyber divisions.
And FBI leadership has told each of the agency’s 55 field offices to set up their own form of a “24/7 command post” — though what that actually looks like in each case will vary depending on the office’s size and location, and any developments in the field, ABC News was told.
“Some of it is a ‘command post’ in the sense of making sure if something happens, we have the requisite people there,” including lawyers and leaders who can make quick decisions, the former FBI official explained. “It’s not [necessarily] like a command post you see on TV with 20 people in a room monitoring the TVs and the security cameras.”
As described to ABC News, the FBI field offices will be prepared to receive any reports of threats or criminal conduct from state or local officials, including election boards and law enforcement agencies. The field offices will then triage the reports and send them to the command post at FBI headquarters, where the information will be cross-referenced with classified intelligence and information coming in from other field offices.
“The Phoenix field division is not going to know what is going on in Chicago at the same time,” Miller said, so “that allows the FBI to see patterns of threat activity” and determine if something bigger might be unfolding across the country.
The command post would then “provide guidance to FBI field offices” and “coordinate any FBI response to any election-related incident,” the FBI said in its statement.
Based on the current environment, “we expect our federal law enforcement agencies to be on standby for an election that years ago would be no problem whatsoever,” the former FBI official said.
“You hope someday the bureau doesn’t need to do a command post,” he said. “Maybe that day will come — but that day is not now.”
