Supreme Court allows Trump administration to use citizenship database ahead of midterms
President Donald Trump looks on as New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks to reporters following their meeting at Gracie Mansion on September 21, 2026, in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court has given the Trump administration a green light to use a federal citizenship database to verify voters ahead of the midterm elections.
In a 6-3 opinion, the Supreme Court, for now, lifted a lower court order that blocked the Department of Homeland Security from expanding a 40-year-old immigration database — known as the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system — to help states screen voter records for noncitizens.
The immediate impact of the ruling is unclear, since states are prohibited by law from purging their voter rolls within 90 days of Election Day.
“The District Court’s order thus inhibits the Federal Government’s efforts to assist state and local agencies in the proper administration of the midterm elections. Under these circumstances, the equities weigh in favor of a stay,” the majority wrote.
President Donald Trump has characterized noncitizen voting as a pressing threat to free and fair elections, but audits of voter rolls have suggested that voting by noncitizens is exceedingly rare.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
The fraternity house at the center of a rape allegation stands on the campus of Cornell University on Sept. 30, 2026, in Ithaca, New York. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) —A Cornell University student detailed the night that she was allegedly sexually assaulted in a statement to police two years ago — describing that she was felt incapacitated, saying she declined to participate in some of the sexual activity and that the incidents at Chi Phi fraternity house “felt like coercion,” according to a copy of the police report obtained by ABC News.
The developments in the case, which sparked a furor, come in the wake of the alleged victim in the case filing a lawsuit claiming she was gang raped and the local district attorney saying he would reopen the case.
In the Nov. 15, 2024, statement, she appeared to suggest some of the activity was consensual but detailed multiple instances where she declined to participate in certain sexual acts suggested by the men.
The woman’s statement was central to a decision by the Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten not to bring charges in 2024 and he said that the allegations in the civil suit are “dramatically different” than those in the statement.
In an interview with ABC News this week, Van Houten described the allegations as “morally disturbing” but argued Jane Doe’s 2024 account of the incident suggested that she consented to the sexual activity.
He said that she did not withdraw her consent, and that when she raised concerns, the fraternity members “stopped and did not pursue what they were doing.”
According to her 2024 statement, Jane Doe did say that shat one point she said “no to the foursome” one of the fraternity brothers proposed, she said in her statement. At another point she recalled “a group of multiple men” walking into a room and “I was instantly horrified, and I remember squealing out loud and running across the room and hiding under the covers on another bed,” the statement said. “I was horrified because I was really embarrassed that these individuals had seen me completely naked.”
Jane Doe used the word “rape” to explain why she took an additional hit of ketamine.
“I had become extremely uncomfortable with how this night was turning out so my thought was, if I do Ketamine again maybe I will pass out. My thought was that if I passed out and these men had sex with me, then they could be charged with Rape,” the statement said.
The men persisted, according to her statement.
During the final threesome, Jane Doe said, “I remember being totally disgusted at the situation, and I felt very tired and intoxicated. I would say that my level of overall intoxication was about a 8 out of 10 level of intoxicated. I would say that it was the most intoxicated I’ve ever been in my life. I felt like I was unable to make any decision because of how intoxicated I was,” the statement said.
“To me, that felt like coercion,” she wrote in the statement. “Also I felt like due to my intoxication, they should have known how intoxicated I was based on how I was slurring my words.”
She recalled being so “extremely tired” she simply uttered, “Sure” when a group of men asked to snort ketamine off of her body, according to her statement. “[The] group of men all started pouring various things all over my body. I couldn’t tell what they were pouring on me, as I had my face covered with my hands.”
Jane Doe said she slept until 10 a.m. and was driven home by the same Chi Phi member who had originally invited her to the house and who she said had participated in the sexual acts.
By the time she woke up that Sunday afternoon, “I was made aware that what had happened to me at Chi Phi was becoming public knowledge,” she wrote in the statement. “It was made clear to me by several friends that the members of Chi Phi were bragging about having an ‘eightsome’ with me. Some rumors said it was ten people, but nonetheless, it was now obvious that everyone knew it was me that this had happened to.”
In the civil lawsuit, filed earlier this month, the woman alleged that she was drugged, assaulted and gang raped by seven former and current members of the Chi Phi fraternity at Cornell. The lawsuit has drawn outrage and calls for an outside investigation into the matter.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday called for an outside investigation into Cornell University’s campus culture and its response to allegations by the student. Cornell’s Chi Phi chapter was barred from campus after the alleged Oct. 19, 2024, incident, though none of the individuals allegedly involved faced criminal charges, according to the DA.
Cornell University has said the former student’s allegations were investigated by the university’s Office of Civil Rights and the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards under the school’s Title IX policies.
On its website, the university said the investigation was conducted over several months and included hearings before a panel of trained faculty and staff.
“At its conclusion, the hearing panel issued a range of sanctions, which included expulsions and suspensions from Cornell,” the university said.
Cornell said it took the reports “very seriously” and conducted a thorough investigation but said: “At the same time, responding to an incident of this seriousness cannot end when an investigation is completed or sanctions are imposed. We have an obligation to ask what more we can learn, what we can do better, and how we can reduce the likelihood that anything like this happens again.”
Attorneys for multiple fraternity brothers named as defendants in the civil lawsuit have denied the allegations in the complaint.
Jeffrey Epstein is seen in a photo released by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice. (New York State Sex Offender Registry)
(NEW YORK) — Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime executive secretary Lesley Groff told the House Oversight Committee Tuesday that the convicted sex offender was a “master manipulator” and that she was unaware of his crimes, according to multiple sources familiar with her closed-door testimony.
Groff is appearing as part of the committee’s ongoing inquiry into the federal government’s handling of investigations into Epstein and his alleged co-conspirators, which to date has included interviews with former Attorney General Pam Bondi, Epstein’s longtime personal assistant Sarah Kellen, and a prison guard who was on duty the night Epstein died in his jail cell.
Groff, who worked for Epstein in New York for more than 18 years, was once described by her boss as an “extension of my brain.”
Among her job requirements were scheduling Epstein’s frequent meetings with celebrities, scientists and politicians, booking Epstein’s daily massage appointments when he was in New York, and arranging travel for women linked to Epstein. She was one of four women listed as potential co-conspirators in Epstein’s controversial non-prosecution agreement in 2007.
According to federal prosecutors, “numerous victims [of Epstein] had indicated that she was responsible for scheduling massages during which they were sexually abused.”
Groff told lawmakers Tuesday that she never had a romantic or sexual relationship with Epstein and said the message appointments she scheduled for Epstein with young women and girls were with massage therapists, source said. Groff could not recall scheduling massages for anyone other than Epstein and former Goldman Sachs chief counsel Kathy Ruemmler at a spa, and said the masseuses were both male and female, sources said. She testified that she would receive the names of the massage therapists from Epstein, and that he instructed her to schedule the massages.
Sources said Groff told lawmakers that she scheduled most of the massages for Epstein’s New York residence. Groff testified that she never witnessed or knew of any sexual abuse.
Groff testified that she never met a single massage therapist in person and believes that Epstein — or Bella Klein, a one-time Epstein associate — would pay them with “petty cash,” sources said. Groff told lawmakers that she would occasionally send cash via couriers, said sources.
Groff testified that when Epstein was arrested in 2006, he told Groff that he was blackmailed, sources said. She told lawmakers that she did not know she was tied to the 2008 non-prosecution agreement as a listed co-conspirator, which she described that as a “scarlet letter” she wears to this day, according to sources.
Groff said Epstein told her again after the 2008 plea deal that he was blackmailed. Groff said she resigned in 2019 when Epstein was arrested again, sources said.
She described to lawmakers that her relationship with Epstein was strictly business, sources said. Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell told Groff that she should not associate with their friends or colleagues, and insisted their business was none of her business, sources added.
She told lawmakers that Epstein had a lot of people in his circle, and she did not find it odd that he had a “large” massage list for individuals across the world, sources said.
House Oversight Chairman James Comer said on his way in Tuesday morning that he believed Groff has “information that is very valuable to our investigation.”
“Hopefully, we’ll learn more today,” Comer said.
The chairman reiterated that the committee is conducting “the most thorough investigation ever of Epstein.”
“We’re bringing in the most important people in the whole Epstein criminal enterprise that are still alive, and hopefully we’ll get the truth to the American people. If there’s an opportunity for accountability, we sure want to see that happen,” he said.
Groff did not speak to reporters upon her arrival.
Last September at a press conference in front of the U.S. Capitol, Epstein survivor Marina Lacerda specifically called out Groff, alleging that Groff had called her so many times to go to Epstein’s place for a massage that she dropped out of high school before the ninth grade.
Lacerda — who was one of the key witnesses that led to Epstein’s 2019 indictment for child sex trafficking — told ABC News in an interview this week that Groff was the conduit to Epstein.
“Anything that had to do with Jeffrey Epstein,” Lacerda told ABC News in an interview, “had to go through Lesley Groff.”
Michael Bachner, a lawyer for Groff, declined comment in advance of her appearance on Capitol Hill. He previously told ABC News that Groff “never knowingly booked travel for anyone under the age of 18, and had no knowledge of the alleged illegal activity whatsoever.”
“Ms. Groff, a parent herself, is incredibly shocked and deeply upset about the alleged wrongdoings of Mr. Epstein,” Bachner said.
After Epstein’s arrest in July 2019, federal prosecutors included Groff in a list of potential co-conspirators and sent her a subpoena. Bachner informed the government, just four days after Epstein’s arrest, that his client “would invoke her Fifth Amendment privilege against compelled self-incrimination” if called to appear before a grand jury.
Groff, now 59, eventually interviewed with the investigators two years later, telling prosecutors that “making massage appointments was just another appointment she had to make” for Epstein, and said that scheduling massages was “around 1%” of her job.
Groff, who was hired by Epstein in 2001, told the FBI she was immediately struck by Epstein’s lifestyle and the company he kept, describing it as “pretty incredible to see all the people Epstein dealt with in politics, television, et cetera.”
“Groff felt, ‘Wow,'” according to an FBI account of her interview.
Groff was initially paid a salary of $60,000 a year, but saw it doubled to $120,000 by Epstein four years later, DOJ records show.
The New York Times reported in 2005 that Epstein bought Groff a new Mercedes and paid for a nanny to ensure she would keep working for him.
“There is no way that I could lose Lesley to motherhood,” Epstein said of Groff, according to the newspaper’s account.
Banking records included in the DOJ’s Epstein files indicate that Groff also received three payments of $100,000 and one for $110,000 from Epstein companies between 2016 and 2018, though the records do not indicate the reasons for the payments.
Bachner told the government that Groff stayed with Epstein after his first arrest in Florida in 2006 because she believed him when he said that “someone was trying to blackmail him.”
When he was again arrested in 2019, she resigned, her lawyer told prosecutors.
“She felt betrayed and disgusted once the indictment came out,” Bachner wrote.
According to documents released by the Justice Department in response to the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, one victim — who was a minor at the time of her alleged abuse — told the FBI that she felt Groff “knew that the massage appointments were sexual” and “felt it was pretty obvious Lesley knew what was going on,” according to the DOJ records.
Banking records included in the DOJ’s Epstein files indicate that Groff also received three payments of $100,000 and one for $110,000 from Epstein companies between 2016 and 2018, though the records do not indicate the reasons for the payments.
Bachner told the government that Groff stayed with Epstein after his first arrest in Florida in 2006 because she believed him when he said that “someone was trying to blackmail him.”
When he was again arrested in 2019, she resigned, her lawyer told prosecutors.
“She felt betrayed and disgusted once the indictment came out,” Bachner wrote.
According to documents released by the Justice Department in response to the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, one victim — who was a minor at the time of her alleged abuse — told the FBI that she felt Groff “knew that the massage appointments were sexual” and “felt it was pretty obvious Lesley knew what was going on,” according to the DOJ records.
Federal prosecutors in 2021 informed Groff that she would not be charged, according to a statement from her attorneys.
“After a more than two-year investigation by the Department of Justice into Jeffrey Epstein’s conduct, which included lengthy interviews of witnesses and a thorough review of relevant communications, we have been informed that no criminal charges will be brought against Lesley Groff,” the statement said.
Lacerda said she hopes the congressional investigators press Groff for answers.
“I just think that she should be honest about it so that we can have some accountability here,” she said.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a press conference regarding legislation on artificial intelligence on September 21, 2026 in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Thursday said she issued an executive order to appoint Attorney General Letitia James as a special prosecutor for the alleged “gang rape” that took place at a Cornell fraternity in 2024.
“Newly released information continues to raise serious questions about the investigation conducted by the Cornell Police Department and the decision by the Tompkins County District Attorney not to prosecute an alleged sexual assault on Cornell University’s campus,” Hochul said in a statement.
“This has, in turn, undercut my faith, and the public’s faith, in the District Attorney’s ability to effectively investigate and prosecute the case at this time,” Hochul added.
In a statement, James said she is “ready to lead a process New Yorkers can trust, guided by the facts and the law.”
“Every New Yorker deserves to know that when they report a crime, it will be investigated fully and fairly. The Governor has entrusted my office with this investigation, and we do not take that responsibility lightly,” James said.
The appointment of James as special prosecutor comes five days after Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said he would reopen the investigation into the former student’s allegations.
Late last month, the former student, listed as Jane Doe, filed a civil lawsuit alleging that she was drugged, assaulted and “gang raped” by seven former and current members of the Chi Phi fraternity at Cornell.
Van Houten said in a statement on Sunday that his office was considering whether to bring criminal charges related to the incident, though he said the allegations in the civil complaint are “dramatically different” than the woman’s statement to police two years ago.
In an interview with ABC News, Van Houten acknowledged that he relied on the investigation conducted by Cornell Police and said his office didn’t “independently investigate” the allegations.
On Wednesday, Cornell University agreed to initiate an independent investigation into how the Ivy League school handled the allegations, Hochul told ABC News.
Hochul called for the outside review, saying the allegations raised “serious questions about Cornell campus culture” and whether the university is doing all it can to protect students.
“Cornell shares Governor Hochul’s commitment to addressing campus culture issues, which affect universities across the nation and New York. We are committed to continuing to work with state officials to advance student safety and wellbeing,” a Cornell spokesperson said in a statement provided to ABC News.
