Trump border czar Tom Homan says he’s willing to jail Denver mayor over mass deportation protest
(DENVER) — Incoming border czar Tom Homan says he’s willing to throw Denver Mayor Mike Johnston in jail over his protests about mass deportation.
“But look, me and the Denver mayor, we agree on one thing — he’s willing to go to jail, I’m willing to put him in jail because there there’s a statute. It’s Title 8 United States Code 1324 (iii). And what it says is it’s a felony if you knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien from immigration authorities. It’s also a felony to impede a federal law enforcement officer,” Homan told Hannity during an interview on Fox News last night.
Homan’s comments come after Mayor Johnston said he was willing to go to jail to stop possible mass deportation efforts under the incoming Trump administration.
“I’m not afraid of that and I’m also not seeking that,” he said during an interview with a local NBC affiliate.
Johnston did walk back comments he made about stationing police officers at the county line to stop federal forces from coming in to deport undocumented immigrants. In an interview with local news outlet Denverite he likened those efforts to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in China.
Homan and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who were both interviewed by Hannity on Monday night, said they plan to make two stops along the border to feed National Guard troops and DPS troopers who have been vital to Texas’ mission to stop immigrants from coming to the border.
(WASHINGTON) — A Secret Service agent tasked with protecting former President Barack Obama knowingly and repeatedly breached his duties while trying to woo a love interest — and living a double life, according to a new memoir by the agent’s former girlfriend.
In “Undercover Heartbreak: a Memoir of Trust and Trauma,” Koryeah Dwanyen describes a series of potential security lapses, including a time when she said she was invited to join the senior agent at the Obamas’ beachfront property in Hawaii in 2022 while they were away.
He had already sent her “several photos” of the house a week earlier, and suggested a tour, according to the book.
“No one will know. If anything, I’m the one who could get in trouble,” says the agent in the memoir, where he is given the pseudonym “Dale.”
He then tried to get her to fool around in the first lady’s bathroom, according to Dwanyen.
“We should have sex in Michelle [Obama]’s bathroom, like a mile-high club,” Dwanyen claims he said.
The senior agent’s alleged violations of fundamental regulations prompted an internal investigation by the Secret Service.
The self-published memoir was released on Oct. 28, adding another reputational shiner to the agency after a major security lapse in the summer led to calls for operational reform.
The Secret Service had faced intense scrutiny since a gunman attempted to assassinate Donald Trump while the former president campaigned at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July. That incident, which prompted the ouster of the agency’s director, was called a “historic security failure by the Secret Service” in an independent review by the Department of Homeland Security.
“The U.S. Secret Service’s top priority is ensuring the safety and security of our protectees, and any actions that compromise this commitment are addressed with the utmost seriousness,” Anthony Guglielmi, the agency’s chief of communications, told ABC News.
Guglielmi confirmed that an incident matching the book’s Hawaii anecdote had occurred – and that upon finding out, a probe was launched and the agent involved was ultimately fired.
“On Nov. 6, 2022, a Secret Service agent involved in protective functions brought an individual who did not have authorized access into a protectee’s residence without permission,” Guglielmi said. “As soon as the Secret Service became aware of the incident, the agent involved was immediately suspended and after a full investigation, terminated.”
“Although the protectees were not present at the time of the incident, these actions were an unacceptable violation of our protocols, our protectees’ trust and everything we stand for,” he continued.
The former agent and prominent character in the book did not respond to requests for comment from ABC News.
According to her memoir, Dwanyen first met the Secret Service agent while he was assigned to the security detail of the Obama family and while she was vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard in 2022.
He said that he was divorced and had been for nearly a decade, Dwanyen said.
As their relationship developed, the author said, so did her concerns about the man that she had fallen for. She would later come to find out that the agent was still married, according to the book.
“There were major red flags — breaches of trust and of his job,” the author said in a phone interview with ABC News. “One of my friends has joked, ‘You were a walking national security risk.’”
Finally, Dwanyen said, she sent an email to his boss outlining her fears related to the agent’s safety — as well as his family’s and her own.
She wrote that, by then, she had met the agent’s boss “several times” in Hawaii, and she explained that she had his “direct contact information” from emails that the agent had shared with her.
The agent’s boss immediately set up an exhaustive interview with agents in the Inspection Division of the Secret Service’s Office of Professional Responsibility, Dwanyen told ABC. The meeting would last “nearly four hours,” she wrote in her book.
“They realized that not only had ‘Dale’ shared photos of the Obamas’ house, but he had also brought me there,” Dwanyen wrote. She “showed them photos on my phone to corroborate what I was saying,” scrolling through “pictures of Alicia Keys’ house, Steven Spielberg’s boats, Melinda Gates, Tyler Perry and Amal Clooney.”
“He was really oversharing,” Dwanyen recalled one of the agents saying.
The agent told her “personal tidbits he should not have,” Dwanyen said on the phone with ABC News. Those “tidbits” he shared spanned across protectees, she said: ranging from information about background on Mike Pence — whom the agent had been assigned to during his vice presidency under Trump — to details about the Obamas.
“I knew their code names. I knew what day Orange Theory was, what day [Michelle Obama] had private tennis lessons and when her personal trainer came,” Dwanyen said. “Things that I should not have been privy to as a civilian.”
(MOSCOW, Idaho) — Parents of the University of Idaho victims are speaking out on the two-year mark of the gruesome quadruple homicide as they await the trial for their children’s suspected killer.
For victim Kaylee Goncalves’ parents, one of the devastating milestones this year is Kaylee’s younger sister, Autumn, turning 21 — the age Kaylee was when she was killed.
“Early on, [Autumn] just said, ‘What am I going to do when I’m older than Kaylee?'” Kristi Goncalves recalled. “You should never be older than Kaylee, but yeah, you will be and, and that’s coming.”
“It should be an exciting, fun time for her to go out with all of her sisters and go do something fun. But somebody does this to your family, it robs you of all kinds of different things. And birthdays are a huge part of that,” Steve Goncalves told ABC News on Tuesday.
For the mom of 20-year-old victim Ethan Chapin, two years “seems like a long time ago,” but “also feels like yesterday.”
Ethan Chapin was a triplet and his sister, Mazie, and brother, Hunter, also attend the University of Idaho.
“The two will graduate college in May, and we could not be prouder of everything they’ve accomplished,” Stacy Chapin said in a statement.
“We continue to heal and miss Ethan as we work diligently to find the silver linings in the worst circumstances,” she said.
Bryan Kohberger is accused of fatally stabbing Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle at the girls’ off-campus house in the early hours of Nov. 13, 2022. Chapin, Kernodle’s boyfriend, was sleeping over at the time.
Kohberger, who was a criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University, was arrested in December 2022. His trial date has been pushed back to Aug. 7, 2025.
For the Goncalves, the last two years felt like a “standstill” in the courts.
Two months ago, Kohberger’s trial was moved from Latah County, where the crime took place and the defense argued jurors wouldn’t be as impartial, to Idaho’s capital city, Boise.
Kristi Goncalves said, “I feel like now that we’ve moved it down to Boise, as much as we didn’t want that, that was the right choice. And I’m glad that it, you know, in hindsight that it happened, and I feel like things are going to start moving, although it still seems very slow.”
Kohberger is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf.
If convicted, Kohberger could face the death penalty, though his defense is arguing for the death sentence to be taken off the table.
The Goncalves family said they support the death penalty in this case, highlighting the limitations that sentence would pose on Kohberger’s life in prison.
“It’s more about, honestly, the 23 hours of confinement, and not being able to be enrolled in college education and being able to further his career and his influence on society,” Steve Goncalves said.
On Wednesday night, the University of Idaho community will gather for a vigil to honor the four slain students.
“Together, we’ll honor their legacy by sharing memories, writing notes, and gathering in a place dedicated to all Vandals we’ve lost,” the student government said.
ABC News’ Kayna Whitworth contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Four Russian military aircraft passed through the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone on Monday, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said.
All four aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter either American or Canadian sovereign airspace, NORAD said in a press release. There was no intercept, it added.
“This Russian activity in the Alaska ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat,” NORAD said.
Monday’s detection is the fifth such incident in September so far, according to NORAD’s public statements noting detections. NORAD did not specify what type of Russian aircraft were involved. The command identified Russian IL-38 maritime patrol aircraft inside the Alaska ADIZ earlier this month.
The ADIZ begin at the limit of national airspace — in this case that of the U.S. and Canada. Such zones require “the ready identification of all aircraft in the interest of national security,” NORAD said.
The command “employs a layered defense network of satellites, ground-based and airborne radars and fighter aircraft to track aircraft and inform appropriate actions,” it said in its press release.
“NORAD remains ready to employ a number of response options in defense of North America,” it added.