Trump asks judges to pause E. Jean Carroll ruling so he can appeal case to Supreme Court

(WASHINGTON) —  Transportation Security Administration officers received their first paychecks in more than a month on Monday, TSA workers told ABC News.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees TSA, told ABC News in a statement on Monday that most employees will receive at least two full paychecks for the past two pay periods.

DHS also said there might be slight delays in some receiving their paychecks due to “financial institution processing times or issues with their direct deposit.”

It remains unclear if TSA employees will receive any pay going forward and there have been reports of some not getting paid if they called out.

Payments came after President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on Friday asking for DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to work with the Office of Management and Budget to use funds “that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations” to pay the agency’s workforce. The TSA employees will be paid through funds allocated by Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill signed last summer, according to a senior administration official.

TSA employees have been required to work the entire 45 days of the partial shutdown, which began Feb. 14. TSA officers told ABC News that they missed bill payments and got second jobs to pay ends meet. Union representatives described to ABC News stories of officers having to pull their children out of day care and, in some cases, getting eviction notices because they can’t pay their rent.

“It was a partial pay with ample deductions taken out along with taxes,” Yolanda Keaton, a TSA officer at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, told ABC News on Monday. “We did not receive all of our backpay … A lot of officers paychecks are very very short and not everyone received their pay today.”

Addressing reports from some TSA officers about missing portions of their paychecks, Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement to ABC, “We are working aggressively with USDA’s [United States Department of Agriculture] National Finance Center to complete processing for the half paycheck they are owed from pay period 3 as soon as possible.” 

According to a government website, the USDA helps to manage payroll for more than 590,000 federal employees.

It is unclear what legal authority Trump issued Friday’s order under, and the White House hasn’t responded to ABC News’ request for comment.

Speaking prior to Trump’s move, Paul Uecker, a TSA officer at Duluth International Airport and Vice President of Greater Minnesota American Federation of Government Employees Local 899, told ABC News about the hardship people at the agency have endured.

“I know of at least one officer at MSP (Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport) who quit because they were having eviction processes started against them,” Uecker said on Friday. “They needed to find a way to get some money so that they could hopefully avoid that.”

Federal employees experienced the longest full shutdown in the nation’s history — 43 days — last fall. TSA officers told ABC News that they had depleted their savings after the last shutdown and were not fully recovered when the partial shutdown began in February.

Senate Democrats vowed to block funding for DHS until reforms are made to Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by federal law enforcement.

The Senate came to a deal on Friday morning to fund DHS, excluding appropriations for immigration enforcement, but the House Republicans rejected it. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, said his party will instead push for a short-term bill to fund the entire department for 60 days.

The House passed the 60-day short-term bill, but the Senate didn’t. Congress is now on a two-week spring recess and will not return for a vote until April 13.

“I feel like they’re playing with our lives,” Oksana Kelly, a TSA officer at Orlando International Airport and mother of two, told ABC News on Thursday. “We all have children. We all have parents that, you know, people [to] take care of. It’s not just some random officers. It’s real people.”

Also speaking before Trump’s memo, Kelly and her husband Deron are both TSA officers who have been working without pay during the shutdown and said they have depleted their savings because of both shutdowns. Deron had to take a second job as a DoorDash driver, according to Kelly.

She was tearful when she described her inability to give their 7-year-old son the birthday party that he wanted at a trampoline park.

“This is probably the hardest thing I have to do,” Oksana Kelly told ABC News as she wiped away tears. “He’s like, ‘Is this something we’re doing?’ And we’re like, ‘Sorry buddy, you know this birthday is going to be at the community park because Mommy and Daddy can’t afford the trampoline park.'”

Trump deployed ICE agents to airports around the country last Monday to assist TSA officers with long lines at security checkpoints. Some officers told ABC News that the ICE personnel were not doing anything to address those lines because they aren’t trained in screening passengers and baggage. TSA officers get about six months of training to do their jobs, according to employees who spoke to ABC News.

“They’re outside the security area, watching as people are coming in, watching as people are coming out. We were told that they were supposed to be there to offer us assistance, and there’s been no assistance,” Maggie Sabatino, a TSA employee at Philadelphia International Airport, told ABC News on Wednesday. “Standing around and just watching, it’s not helping us. It’s putting us on edge, like we’re waiting for something to happen. We’re afraid of something happening.”

TSA saw the highest call-out rates of the shutdown on Thursday with more than 3,450 officers out, according to newly released numbers from TSA. George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston was the worst, with a callout rate of 44.4%. The second worst was Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where Keaton works.

Keaton, who is also a steward for AFGE Local 554, told ABC News last Monday about a colleague of hers who is a single mother.

“She has a child that she has to face every day. It’s hard for her to smile with her child when she doesn’t know where their next meal is going to come from,” Keaton told ABC News. “She doesn’t know if she’s going to keep her apartment because she’s had eviction notices.”

ABC News’ Sam Sweeney, Luke Barr, Emily Chang, Nicholas Kerr, John Parkinson, Isabella Murray and Jeana Fermi contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Travel upheaval continued at some of the nation’s airports on Tuesday as people were forced to navigate long security lines despite President Donald Trump deploying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to help cut down on wait times.

One of the longest security waits on Tuesday was at Bush International Airport in Houston, where travelers stood in a line stretching from the airport subway to the security check-in gates, according to ABC Houston station KTRK.

As of 11 a.m. local time in Houston, the wait time to get through security was estimated to exceed four hours, according to an advisory posted on the Houston Airport System’s website.

The airport disruption in Houston even delayed a member of the National Transportation Safety Board team who was flying to New York’s LaGuardia Airport to investigate Sunday night’s deadly crash between an Air Canada jet and a Port Authority fire truck, NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said at a news conference on Tuesday.

“Our air traffic control specialist, who was in line with TSA for three hours until we called in Houston to beg to see if we can get her through so we can get here,” she said. “So, it’s been a really big challenge to get the entire team here, and they’re still arriving as I speak.”

Airport security lines are growing nationwide as Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers, who haven’t received a paycheck for over three weeks, continue to call in sick or quit amid a partial government shutdown over funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The TSA reported that about 40% of its workers at Bush airport, whose duties include staffing security lines and running X-ray machines and magnetometers, called out sick on Monday. Houston’s other airport, William P. Hobby Airport, reported that about 40% of TSA personnel called out sick on Monday, according to the TSA.

Across the nation, more than 3,200 TSA officers called out sick on Monday, according to data released by the agency on Tuesday. The numbers weren’t as high as Sunday, when 11.76% of the TSA officers scheduled to work called out sick.

Other major airports were also seeing a high level of absent TSA workers on Monday. John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall Airport both reported that over 30% of TSA workers called out sick on Monday.

In a statement on Tuesday, Lauren Bis, the DHS acting assistant secretary for public affairs, said the partial government shutdown over DHS funding has caused “more than 450 TSA officers to quit and thousands have called out from work because they are not able to afford gas, childcare, food, or rent.”

Over the weekend, Trump announced he would deploy ICE agents to at least 14 of the nation’s busiest airports to assist TSA workers coping with long security lines.

Those agents began showing up at airports on Monday. The White House’s border czar, Tom Homan, told ABC News on Monday that the agents will be directed by the TSA administrator on how they will best be used to “plug holes in security.”

Both Homan and Trump said the agents will still be responsible for enforcing immigration laws if they come across violations or spot people in the country illegally while at the airports.

Trump said on Monday that if the help from ICE isn’t enough, he’ll deploy the National Guard to airports.

At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, one of the world’s busiest travel hubs, security lines seemed to be thinning out on Tuesday morning compared to Monday, when lines stretched out terminal doors.

During the peak travel period at 5:30 a.m., ABC News observed a few long lines at Hartsfield-Jackson, but by 7:30 a.m., wait times fell to below normal. But on the airport’s website on Tuesday, travelers were being advised to allow at least four hours or more for domestic and international screening.

Hartsfield-Jackson Manager Ricky Smith told ABC Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV that, with about 40% of the TSA workers calling out sick on Monday, travelers need to allow plenty of time to get through the airport.

“As we progress through this shutdown and call-outs increase, that means TSA can’t process as many passengers as quickly as they can,” Smith said on Monday. “Some passengers are missing flights and so they’re coming in the next day. So, all of that is adding to more congestion, adding to longer lines.”

One traveler, Jason, told WSB-TV that he got to the Hartsfield-Jackson airport seven hours early on Monday for a flight home to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after waiting at the airport to until 1 a.m. Sunday without ever making it past the TSA security checkpoint.

“I’m already missing a day of work right now, and my bosses are not pleased,” he said.

Democrats have blocked funding for DHS, which oversees the TSA and ICE, in an effort to push for policy reforms at ICE, whose aggressive tactics in enforcing immigration laws have prompted protests and lawsuits across the country.

DHS reforms that Democratic lawmakers have proposed include requiring ICE agents not to wear face masks, be equipped with body cameras and have warrants signed by a judge before entering homes and businesses.

Republicans have, so far, rejected those proposals.

Senators on both sides of the aisle have told ABC News that they are feeling increasingly optimistic that a deal to fully fund DHS is on the horizon.

“We do,” Sen. Katie Britt, R-Alabama, a key negotiator for the Republicans in the DHS funding battle, told reporters on Monday when asked if there was a solution in the works.

Britt’s comments came after she and a group of Republicans met with Trump to discuss a possible solution.

“Democrats and Republicans have been trying to come to some negotiation, and I’m hearing that there is a potential solution,” said Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia.

The lawmakers are scrambling to find a solution before the end of this week, when they are scheduled to go on recess.

In an interview on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy noted that if a deal is not struck this week, conditions at airports will get worse.

“If this Homeland Security funding isn’t resolved, I think you’re going to see more TSA agents as we come to Thursday, Friday and Saturday of next week, they’re going to quit, or they’re not going to show up,” he said.

On Tuesday, Delta Air Lines announced it is temporarily suspending “specialty services” for members of Congress — including airport escorts — due to resource constraints from the ongoing partial government shutdown.

“Next to safety, Delta’s no. 1 priority is taking care of our people and customers, which has become increasingly difficult in the current environment,” the company said in a statement.

In an interview with ABC News at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby had more bad news for the flying public.

He said consumers should be aware that ticket prices are rising and will need to increase about 20% to cover the surging fuel prices.

As United braces for oil prices potentially reaching $175 a barrel due to the conflict in Iran — it stood at $104 on the global market on Tuesday — Kirby urged travelers to lock in planned trips now to take advantage of current fares. United expects fuel to cost the airline an additional $11 billion year over year.

Kirby said the airline is cutting flights with lower demand to offset the increased costs brought on by the war.

Asked about long airport security lines and the deployment of ICE agents to airports, Kirby said he is heading to Washington on Wednesday to push for TSA funding. He believes a deal is very close and that the issue should be resolved soon.

He noted that, despite calls for airlines to fund the TSA themselves, federal law prevents them from doing so. Still, Kirby said he is confident Congress will approve funding imminently.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

ABC News’ Alex Stone, Ayesha Ali and Steve Osunsami contributed to this report. 

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(LOS ANGELES) — A social media influencer is accused of plotting to kill a pop singer in an alleged murder-for-hire conspiracy that prosecutors say stemmed from a “bitter custody dispute” over their daughter.

The influencer, 24-year-old Gabriela Gonzalez, allegedly conspired with her father and then-boyfriend to hire a hitman to kill Jack Avery, the father of her 7-year-old daughter, several years ago, prosecutors in Los Angeles County said in a press release this week.

Avery, 26, is a former member of the boy band Why Don’t We, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office confirmed in a press release.

Sometime between 2020 and 2021, Gabriela Gonzalez allegedly sought the help of her boyfriend at the time, 26-year-old Kai Cordrey, to hire someone on the dark web to kill Avery, prosecutors said.

She allegedly repeatedly told one witness that she wanted Avery dead and discussed hiring a hitman and that the “intended killing was discussed as occurring in Los Angeles and being made to look like a car accident,” the warrant for her father’s arrest stated.

Her father, 59-year-old Francisco Gonzalez, was “deeply involved in the custody conflict” and was the alleged source of the funds for the murder-for-hire plot, according to his arrest warrant.

Francisco Gonzalez allegedly sent Cordrey $10,000 back in April 2021 “as front money to use in locating, hiring and paying someone to kill Avery,” the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a press release on Tuesday.

Two months later, Francisco Gonzalez allegedly sent Cordrey another $4,000 “after the alleged hit man asked for the additional funds,” the office said.

“Several days later, Cordrey allegedly requested that Avery be killed within a couple of days,” prosecutors said.

Cordrey spoke to an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a hitman about the alleged murder-for-hire plot in September 2021, during which he allegedly said Avery was the target and “discussed payment and proof of death,” prosecutors said.

“In a subsequent conversation, Cordrey allegedly told the purported hitman that Gabriela Gonzalez wanted the murder to happen and Francisco Gonzalez could pay for the expense,” prosecutors said.

Gabriela Gonzalez, her father and Cordrey have been charged with one count each of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation of murder.

Gabriela Gonzalez was arrested on Monday and is being held on no bail, online jail records show. She was set to be arraigned on Thursday. Attorney information was not immediately available.

Her father was arrested in Florida and is awaiting extradition to Los Angeles County. Court records show he is being represented by a public defender. ABC News has reached out to the public defender’s office for comment.

It is unclear if Cordrey is in custody at this time.

If convicted as charged, all three face 25 years to life in state prison.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said the FBI began the “lengthy investigation” before the case was turned over to his office.

“This is a case where the defendants are accused of going to great lengths to find someone to commit murder,” Hochman said in a statement. “Most fathers raise their children to respect the law, but here we have a dad who allegedly helped his daughter and her boyfriend break the law in the most sinister way imaginable.”

Gabrielle Gonzalez has nearly 1 million followers between her Instagram and TikTok accounts.

Her father has a law practice in Seminole County. His firm had no comment on his charges.

Avery spoke out about the case on Thursday, saying in a post on Instagram that his “focus is on being the best father I can be.”

“I’m thankful to have sole custody of my daughter, Lavender, who is safe, healthy, and deeply loved,” he said. “I look forward to continuing to build a peaceful and stable life for her.”

Avery expressed his “sincere gratitude” to his family, friends, law enforcement, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office “for their support throughout this process.”

In an interview on “The Zach Sang Show” last year, Avery said two FBI agents showed up at his residence and that “someone hired someone to kill me.” He did not publicly identify any suspects.

He said he was “traumatized.”

“I stayed in my house for like a month straight. I didn’t leave,” Avery said during the interview. “I was so scared. I was looking out my window every night.”

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