Todd Blanche, in 1st appearance as acting AG, shrugs off suggestion Trump will ‘pressure’ him to target opponents
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks during a news conference at the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice building, April 7, 2026, in Washington. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche used his first news conference Tuesday to shrug off any suggestion that he would use the Justice Department to more aggressively target perceived enemies of President Donald Trump, as he heaped praise on his ousted predecessor Pam Bondi.
“First of all, we have thousands of ongoing investigations and prosecutions going on in this country right now, and it is true that some of them involve men women and entities that the president in the past has had issues with and that believe should be investigated,” Blanche said. “That is his right, and indeed it is his duty to do that, meaning, to lead this country.”
Blanche denied he views President Trump’s public statements urging the prosecutions of his enemies as “pressure” on him in serving as the head of the DOJ. Trump, naming several of his perceived political foes in a September social media post, said, “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!“
“I do not view this as pressure,” Blanche said. “I do not view this as something that is going to keep me up at night, except to make sure that we are investigating every case that we that we have to the fullest extent of the law and using all the resources we can.”
Trump announced Thursday that Bondi was being ousted as his attorney general in a post on his social media platform, saying she’ll move to a role working in the private sector. Blanche said it remains a mystery why Bondi was ousted, despite widespread reporting that it was due to Trump’s frustration with her lack of successful prosecutions against his political opponents and her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
“Nobody has any idea why the attorney general is no longer the attorney general and I’m the acting attorney general, except for President Trump,” Blanche said.
Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s defense attorney in the cases brought against him by former special counsel Jack Smith and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, repeatedly sparred with reporters at Tuesday’s press event, accusing the media of ignoring years of so-called “weaponization” under the Biden administration.
“When I’m asked questions, or when I see reporting about shock and awe at this supposed weaponization of this Department of Justice, it means nothing to me, because it’s completely false,” Blanche said. “People say the president wants to go after his political enemies. No, the president has said time and time again that he wants justice.”
With the news conference happening amid uncertainty over President Trump’s Tuesday morning threat to destroy the “civilization” of Iran, ABC News pressed Blanche on whether the DOJ is providing advice to the White House about what kind of military strikes could constitute potential war crimes.
“The Department of Justice, as it always does, supports the Department of War, the White House, Department of State to the extent that’s involved, and our intelligence communities, to the extent that that’s something that’s appropriate, and we provide counsel to them, and we have been doing that, as you would expect,” said Blanche, who declined to engage on the topic of potential war crimes.
Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrives at the Wall Street heliport ahead of his appearance in federal court in New York, US, on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(RALEIGH, N.C.) — The special operations soldier who was indicted this week for allegedly using classified information to make more than $400,000 betting on the capture of Nicolas Maduro appeared in a federal courtroom in Raleigh, North Carolina, Friday.
Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, who made the wager on the prediction market Polymarket, will be released on a $250,000 appearance bond.
He agreed to surrender his passport, limit travel to parts of New York and North Carolina, limit drinking “in excess,” and no longer possess a firearm unless it’s part of his active military service.
Van Dyke entered the courtroom shackled at his hands and feet and only spoke briefly to acknowledge he understood the charges and penalties. He is currently being represented by a public defender.
He is set to appear in federal court in New York City on April 28.
Federal investigators said Van Dyke bet more than $33,000 on Polymarket just days before President Donald Trump announced Maduro’s capture.
The series of bets — which netted more than $409,000 — immediately prompted scrutiny within the world of prediction markets and resulted in a monthslong investigation about whether inside information was used to place the bets.
Van Dyke was indicted on charges that included unlawful use of confidential information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, and wire fraud.
When, after placing the bets, he saw reports about unusual trading associated with the mission, Van Dyke allegedly tried to hide the evidence of the trades by attempting to delete his Polymarket account and change the email address registered to his cryptocurrency exchange account, according to the indictment.
“Rather than safeguard that information as he was obligated to do, VAN DYKE decided to use that classified information to place trades on a prediction market platform for his personal profit,” the indictment said. “VAN DYKE subsequently tried to conceal his unlawful use of classified U.S. Government information by attempting to obscure the source of his unlawful proceeds and to disguise his connection to the accounts linked to the illicit trades.”
While prediction markets are primarily regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, suspiciously-timed trades on platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket have sparked concerns about insider trading. In addition to the $400,000 Maduro bet, another Polymarket user made roughly $550,000 through a series of bets related to the U.S. striking Iran and the removal of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Asked on Thursday what he thought about about Van Dyke’s wagers, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, “That’s like Pete Rose betting on his own team.”
“Pete Rose, they kept him out of the Hall of Fame because he bet on his own team. Now, if he bet against his team, that would be no good, but he bet on his own team,” Trump said. “I’ll look into it.”
Regarding concerns about federal employees making insider trading bets on the Iran conflict and other developments, Trump said “the whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino.”
“You look at what’s going on all over the world, in Europe and every place, they’re doing these betting things. I was never much in favor of it. I don’t like it conceptually, but it is what it is. No, I think that I’m not happy with any of that stuff. But they have all these different sites. They have predictive markets. It’s a crazy world. It’s a much different world than it was.”
An undated photograph of Emmanuel Damas. (Courtesy of the Nelson family)
(NEW YORK) — Last week, Presner Nelson went to a shopping mall with one goal in mind: to find a suit his brother, who died in immigration federal custody in March, would wear in his casket.
Nelson’s brother, Emmanuel Damas, died after allegedly complaining for roughly two weeks of a toothache that Nelson believes could have been treated.
“This was the first time I had to do this in my life — it was not easy,” Nelson told ABC News.
The death of Damas, a Haitian immigrant who Nelson says arrived in the U.S. legally and had a pending Temporary Protected Status application, comes amid growing concerns from lawmakers and immigrant advocates about the conditions in migrant detention facilities, and a sharp increase in immigrant deaths in detention under the second Trump administration as it pursues its immigration crackdown.
Most deadly period According to an ABC News analysis of Immigration and Customs Enforcement data and the number of detainee deaths provided to Congress from ICE, the first 14 months of the second Trump administration represent the most deadly period for the federal detention system in recent years — with the exception of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic contributed to detention deaths.
As of March 25, 44 people have died in government custody during the current Trump administration, according to figures shared by lawmakers, with two of those fatalities being victims of a shooting last September at a Dallas detention facility. The rise in fatalities comes as the detention population reaches record highs, with over 70,000 people currently detained in federal immigration custody.
The data analysis reveals a stark and rapid acceleration in the mortality rate within federal facilities. While the figure was as low as one death per 100,000 admissions in 2022, that number surged to about seven deaths per 100,000 admissions in 2025, even when excluding the two people shot while in custody. And in just the first ten weeks of 2026, the rate is currently at 12 deaths per 100,000 admissions.
Using a methodology established by researchers and detention statistics provided by ICE, ABC News calculated estimated mortality rates per 100,000 detention admissions for the calendar years 2019-2025, plus Jan. 1 through March 16, 2026. Using a rate shows whether mortality is increasing beyond what would be expected from higher detention admissions alone.
“There is really no contest — fiscal year 2026 is on track to be the deadliest year ever in the history of ICE,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, an immigration policy expert with the American Immigration Council who did his own data analysis of ICE deaths.
“Things are dramatically worse this year. We are seeing more deaths than ever,” Reichlin-Melnick said.
Scrutiny over the deaths of detainees has grown as the Trump administration has pressured ICE to increase arrests and has dramatically expanded detention space by converting warehouses and other spaces into detention facilities. A document shared by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency with New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte shows the government expects to spend $38 billion converting these spaces and increasing detention capacity by 92,600 beds.
Under previous administrations, the government has found ways to mitigate the number of people in detention by enrolling detainees in “Alternatives for Detention” efforts, which can involve scheduling regular check-ins with ICE, and mandating the use of ankle monitors.
The Trump administration has doubled down on invoking mandatory detention for undocumented immigrants, and in some cases even for those who are in the process of obtaining legal status. The government has also restarted detaining families with children at facilities like the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas.
“They’re making a decision to take a U.S. citizen child and detain them with their parents. They’re making a decision to detain someone who’s lived here peacefully for 20 years. That is their choice, and they need to be pushed further on that,” said Andrea Flores, an attorney and immigration policy expert who is a former DHS and White House official. “Nobody should lose their life because they went through our immigration system — but that, in and of itself, has been a problem across administrations. And so there’s been work that’s needed to be done on this.”
The case of Emmanuel Damas In a statement, ICE described Damas as a “criminal illegal alien” arrested in Boston for assault and battery. His brother Nelson disputes this, saying Damas was in the country legally under a humanitarian parole program and had a pending petition for Temporary Protected Status.
Nelson also said Damas was never convicted following his arrest and that the arrest stemmed from a misunderstanding when someone called police to report that Damas’ 12-year-old son appeared to be walking by himself on a sidewalk. Damas mistakenly believed his son had called the police on him, became angry, and gestured as if to hit him but never made physical contact, Nelson said.
Damas was taken to jail where he was transferred into ICE custody before Nelson could bail him out, Nelson said.
Nelson said when he last spoke on the phone with his brother on Feb. 16, Damas complained about a toothache he’d had for the last two weeks. According to Nelson, his brother had claimed he was denied multiple requests to see a dentist.
Two days later Damas called their mother but he had difficulty speaking, Nelson said. Nelson believes his brother could not speak clearly because the toothache had developed into an abscess and his jaw had swollen. He did not complain of shortness of breath, Nelson said.
The next day, according to ICE, Damas was “immediately” taken to a hospital on Feb. 19 after allegedly reporting shortness of breath and was subsequently transferred to an Intensive Care Unit at a hospital in Phoenix for a “higher level of care.”
It’s unclear when he was placed on a ventilator, but ICE said that by Feb. 20, Damas “remained intubated” and underwent a series of tests.
On Feb. 22, the hospital in Phoenix “reported the likely diagnosis to be septic shock due to pneumonia,” ICE said.
Before he was transferred to Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center on Feb. 25, Damas “had two chest tubes placed on his right side and a thoracentesis was completed to help remove excess fluid from the pleural spaces around the lungs,” ICE said.
On Feb. 28, Nelson said his family was told they’d be allowed to visit him in the hospital and four of his relatives, including his mother, were able to see him the next day.
“But at that point on, it was too late, there was not much I could be done to save his life,” Nelson said. “So when my mom got there, he was in a coma.”
At 1:12 p.m. on March 2, Damas was pronounced deceased.
In a statement provided to ABC News about Damas and the number of recent detainee deaths, a DHS spokesperson said Damas “refused” dental extraction and had claimed in January that his toothache had gone away. The spokesperson said that in February, Damas was again seen “for bleeding gums and loose front teeth” and again refused to have two teeth extracted.
“It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an individual enters ICE custody. This includes medical, dental, and mental health services, access to medical appointments, and 24-hour emergency care,” the spokesperson said. “Many individuals receive healthcare in ICE custody that exceeds what they have previously experienced.”
Damas believes his brother would be alive if he had received adequate medical care for his toothache.
“They waited for too long to take him to the hospital to be seen by a dentist. So on the nineteenth, when they finally realized, it was too late because he had that infection going on for two weeks,” Nelson said. “He asked for help for two weeks — they said that he was faking it.”
‘Presumed suicides’ The recent surge in detainee deaths includes a number of “presumed suicides,” including 19-year-old Royer Perez-Jimenez, who died on March 16 in Florida, and Victor Manuel Diaz, who died in a Texas facility in January.
In a press release, DHS said that Diaz died in ICE custody on Jan. 14 at Camp East Montana in El Paso, after staff found him “unconscious and unresponsive in his room.” A DHS spokesperson confirmed this month that Perez-Jimenez was found “unconscious and unresponsive” by a Glades County detention officer.
While the department noted that “the official cause of death remains under investigation,” they labeled the incident a “presumed suicide.” However, Diaz’s family told ABC News they do not believe he took his own life and are calling for a full investigation.
“Suicide is a preventable cause of death for people in custody,” Reichlin-Melnick told ABC News. “It’s something that jails should be working to prevent, and yet we’ve now had three or four suicides just in 2026 alone, including the 19‑year‑old who died recently.”
Questions regarding the Department of Homeland Security’s statements about ICE deaths have been further fueled by the case of Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban immigrant who died at the Camp East Montana facility in January.
While DHS initially stated Campos died after “experiencing medical distress,” an autopsy report from the El Paso County Medical Examiner later ruled the death a homicide, citing “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression.”
Attorneys for the Campos family filed an emergency petition in January to stop the deportation of witnesses who alleged guards choked and asphyxiated him.
For families like these, answers about their relatives’ death can be hard to come by.
“We don’t know what happened to him in that place,” a sibling of Diaz recently told ABC News in Spanish.
Nelson says he already knows why his brother is gone.
(NEW YORK) — Nearly 70 million Americans are under a severe weather threat heading into the weekend, including the possibility of tornadoes in the central United States, after deadly storms swept through Oklahoma.
A storm system is bringing rain, snow, ice and severe weather from the Rockies to the Upper Midwest and across much of the Plains on Friday.
The severe storm threat stretches from Dallas to Milwaukee, including Des Moines, Iowa, St. Louis and Oklahoma City. Strong winds, hail, and brief tornadoes are all possible.
A large area stretching from far northeast Texas to southwest Iowa is under an enhanced threat, with tornadoes and very large hail as the main concerns.
The greatest tornado threat on Friday is from far northeastern Texas to just south of Springfield, Missouri. Tornado watches are in effect across six states into Friday night — Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri and Iowa.
A large and “extremely dangerous” tornado was also detected in southern Michigan, south of Kalamazoo, on Friday afternoon. There were multiple reports of “significant damage” in Three Rivers, according to the National Weather Service.
Heavy downpours, especially in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri, could also result in localized flash flooding.
The governor of Missouri declared a state of emergency on Friday “in preparation for potentially dangerous severe weather forecasted across the state,” including the threat of damaging winds, large hail and tornadoes, his office said.
The threat comes after seven reported tornadoes and golf ball-sized hail impacted parts of west Texas and Oklahoma. A mother and daughter were killed in Major County, Oklahoma, on Thursday night after severe weather swept through the area, according to Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt. They were found dead in a vehicle that appeared to have tornado damage, authorities told ABC Oklahoma City affiliate KOCO.
Elsewhere, winter weather advisories are also in effect Friday from Colorado to Minnesota for the cold side of the storm with snow and ice. Denver could see 2 to 4 inches of snow.
Icy conditions are expected across parts of the Dakotas, Nebraska and Minnesota, with heavy rain forecast to move through the upper Midwest through Friday night.
To the South, widespread severe weather is possible through late Friday from Texas to Wisconsin.
