Trump eying Fox News host Jeanine Pirro for top prosecutor in DC
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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is strongly considering installing Fox News host and former prosecutor Jeanine Pirro as interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The potential selection comes as Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Thursday that Ed Martin, who is currently serving as D.C.’s interim top prosecutor, would not be taking the position permanently after losing support among top Republicans in the Senate.
An announcement about a new interim U.S. attorney could come as soon as Thursday, sources said. Sources caution that plans could always change and a decision is never final until publicly announced by the president.
The White House did not immediately respond to request for comment from ABC News. A representative for Fox News press relations did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment, nor did Pirro.
Pirro has been a longtime ally of Trump, dating back to her time as a prominent prosecutor in New York. She was an early supporter of his 2016 campaign and publicly defended him during the “Access Hollywood” tape scandal.
Following Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, Pirro pushed false allegations of election fraud involving voting machines and was later among the Fox News employees named in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit for broadcasting false claims about the company. Fox News eventually settled for $787.5 million and admitted the statements were false.
In 2019, Pirro was reportedly suspended by Fox News after she questioned the loyalty of Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to the U.S. Constitution, citing Omar’s Muslim faith.
Martin, who had been vying to become the top prosecutor in one of the nation’s most important U.S. attorney’s offices, has served as the interim U.S. attorney since the start of the administration, but his interim term expires on May 20.
Martin promoted Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” campaign in 2021 and was himself seen on Capitol grounds during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump said Thursday that Martin could serve in another capacity at the Department of Justice.
One of Trump’s final acts before leaving office in 2021 was issuing a last-minute pardon to Pirro’s ex-husband, a longtime GOP donor.
With less than an hour before his term ended, Trump granted one final pardon to Albert Pirro, who was convicted more than two decades ago on 34 counts of conspiracy and tax evasion after he was found to have improperly deducted over $1 million in lavish personal expenses as a tax write-off for his businesses.
(TEXAS) — A large part of South Texas is reeling from life-threatening flooding that began overnight and continued into Friday morning.
Thunderstorms began Wednesday, with another round of heavy rainfall on Thursday afternoon and evening. The rain is expected to continue through Friday afternoon, forecasts show.
The National Weather Service issued flash flooding emergency warnings multiple times on Thursday and overnight for South McAllen and Harlingen — both located in the Rio Grande Valley in the southernmost parts of Texas.
“This is a particularly dangerous situation,” the NWS said in a statement issued Thursday night, urging people to avoid travel unless fleeing a region subject to flooding or are under an evacuation order.
The region received between 6 inches and a foot of rain or more in some areas, according to the NWS. McAllen got more than 6 inches of rain, while more than 14 inches was recorded at the Valley International Airport in Harlingen.
The NWS received reports for several vehicles stranded on Interstate 2 in waist-deep water, according to the agency. Dozens of water rescues took place as a result of the flash flooding.
Video shows first responders in inflatable boats rescuing people stranded on roadways. The South Texas Health System hospital in McAllen experienced minor flooding on its first floor.
Flooding continued into Friday morning, with rivers nearly overflowing. A flood watch is in effect for parts of South Texas and southern Louisiana.
Water levels at the Arroyo Colorado River at Harlingen are nearing a record-breaking 30 feet. There is no precedent for the kind of damage a 30-foot water level in the Arroyo Colorado River could do, according to the NWS. The previous record water levels measured at the Arroyo Colorado River was 24 feet.
The flooding stemmed from a stationary boundary — a front between warm and cold air masses that moves very slowly or not at all. A band of significantly heavy storms was forming over the same hard-hit areas on Friday morning. A storm with 3-inch rain rates was forming over Harlingen on Friday morning.
The system also conjured up a tornado, with a twister reported near Edcouch, Texas, about 25 miles northeast of McAllen, that damaged several structures.
The potential for showers and thunderstorms in this region is expected to continue through the afternoon, with the threat ending Friday evening, forecasts show.
Facing the potential of life in prison on sex trafficking and racketeering charges, Sean Combs hired a high-profile team of defense lawyers for his criminal trial in New York.
With a combined 150 years of legal experience, Combs’ team of lawyers have defended everyone from alleged United Healthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione to disgraced financier Martin Shrkeli and rapper Young Thug.
“In looking at the team, especially on the first day of jury selection, it seems like they’ve got people who are experts in their own kind of general areas,” said ABC News Legal Contributor Brian Buckmire. “I think the team that Diddy has put together are some heavy hitters in their own rights, and they’re working together as such.”
Combs, a self-proclaimed “Bad Boy for Life”, was charged last year with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and prostitution after prosecutors accused the rap mogul of using violence to coerce women into sex, protect his business empire, and preserve his reputation as one of hip-hop’s most important figures. If convicted, he faces the possibility of life in prison.
Combs has pleaded not guilty and denied the allegations against him, and his lawyers are expected to argue that any of the alleged sexual activity was done by consenting adults. He rejected a plea deal last week.
With an estimated billion-dollar fortune helping support his legal defense, Combs is relying on his high-powered army of attorneys to defend him in court and convince a jury to spare him a lengthy prison sentence.
Marc Agnifilo
Experienced defense attorney Marc Agnifilo is leading Combs’ defense team, bringing with him experience defending NXIVM leader Keith Raniere, “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli and Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng.
Raniere was convicted for creating what prosecutors described as a sex cult in which female members were branded with his initials and kept in line through blackmail and sentenced to 120 years in prison. Shkreli was sentenced to seven years in person for securities fraud and conspiracy, while Ng was sentenced to 10 years in person for his alleged role in a money laundering and bribery scheme including paying more than $1.6 billion in bridges to dozens of government officials.
Agnifilo also has experience working as a federal and state prosecutor and boasts having tried more than 200 cases over his three-decade legal career.
Agnifilo is also one half of a legal power couple with his wife Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a former prosecutor who investigated the Trump Organization while with the Manhattan district attorney’s office. Since leaving government service, her most high-profile client has been Luigi Mangione, the 27-year-old accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last year.
Teny Geragos
Teny Geragos is a founding partner at New York-based law firm Agnifilo Intrater, and also defended Raniere and Shkreli. She graduated from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles in 2016.
Geragos is also the daughter of famed defense attorney Mark Geragos, whose clients include Hunter Biden, Chris Brown and Michael Jackson. While Mark Geragos is not representing Combs, his appearance in court during jury selection sparked criticism from prosecutors due to his past public statements about the case on his podcast. Federal prosecutors asked the judge to remind Mark Geragos about court policies that forbid statements outside court that could interfere with a fair trial.
Mark Geragos is also involved in a simultaneous high-profile case — arguing for the release of Erik and Lyle Menendez 35 years after the pair was convicted of killing their parents.
Alexandra Shapiro
Alexandra Shapiro brings over 30 years of appellate experience to Combs’ legal team, having served as the deputy chief of appeals for the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan and an attorney-adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice.
She represented Sam Bankman-Fried in the failed appeal of his criminal conviction and scored a series of legal victories at the United States Supreme Court. She also clerked for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — a job she shares with the judge overseeing Combs’ case, though the two did not overlap.
Brian Steel
Atlanta-based attorney Brian Steel joined Combs’ legal team last month after gaining national attention defending rapper Young Thug.
After the longest criminal trial in Georgia history, Young Thug pleaded guilty to gun, drug and gang charges but was spared a lengthy prison sentence. Steel was briefly sent to jail during the trial after the judge overseeing the case held him in contempt for refusing to provide the judge information about what he learned of a meeting between prosecutors, a witness and the judge himself. The contempt ruling was later overturned.
Xavier Donaldson
Xavier Donaldson, a New York-based criminal defense attorney, joined Combs’ legal team on the eve of trial. He has nearly three decades of criminal defense experience and worked as a former prosecutor in the Bronx.
Anna Estevao
Anna Estevao is a partner at New York law firm Sher Tremonte LLP. She graduated from New York University School of Law and briefly worked as a federal defender in California, according to her Linkedin profile.
Jason Driscoll
Jason Driscoll is an associate at Shapiro’s law firm and one of the most junior members of Combs’ defense team. He graduated from New York University School of Law and completed two deferral clerkships.
Linda Moreno
Linda Moreno is a high-profile legal consultant who joined Combs’ legal team to help with jury selection. Her law firm’s website describes her an expert on anti-Muslim bias, including representing Sami Amin Al-Arian after he was indicted under the Patriot Act for allegedly playing a leadership role in the terrorist group Palestinian Jihad. He was acquitted on most charges and pleaded guilty to lesser charges.
She also was on the legal team that secured an acquittal for Noor Salman, the wife of the Pulse nightclub shooter who was accused of lying to the FBI and helping her husband.
Moreno is no stranger to celebrity trials having worked on the legal team defending American actor Wesley Snipes in his criminal trial for failing to file tax returns. Snipes was convicted on three misdemeanor charges but acquitted on the more serious felony charges.
(Photo by Francesco Sforza Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Robert Francis Prevost, the Chicago-born man who became Pope Leo XIV on Thursday, has Black family roots in New Orleans, Louisiana, records show.
ABC News has obtained several records, including U.S. Census records from the early 1900s, demonstrating that the first American pope’s family tree reflects the complex racial history of this country.
Both of Leo XIV’s maternal grandparents, Joseph Martinez and Louise Baquié, are described as Black or mulatto in several census documents.
On their 1887 marriage license, Martinez listed his birthplace as Haiti, and birth records show that he was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Chris Smothers, professional genealogist for 15 years and historian studying at Simmons University, told ABC News that these were the same territories at the time. Baquié’s birth records show she was born in New Orleans.
Despite Martinez being born abroad, his father — the pope’s great-grandfather — was found to be from Louisiana, Smothers said, emphasizing the pope’s ancestry in the American South.
“It’s clear that the Pope has centuries-long ties to free people of color in Louisiana,” Smothers told ABC News.
On the 1900 census, while his family lived in New Orleans, both Leo XIV’s maternal grandparents and his aunts — Irma and Margaret — were identified as Black. However, in 1920, after the family migrated to Chicago and had the pope’s mother Mildred, that decade’s census reflected their race as white.
Like so many families fleeing the South at that time, they could have shifted their racial identity. Smothers called this a common “survival strategy” at the time.
“In that intervening period, they not only migrated from New Orleans to Chicago in the period between 1910 and 1912 but they also changed their racial identifiers, which is very common,” Jari Honora, a genealogist and family historian at the Historic New Orleans Collection, told ABC News. “Many families did this as a question of their livelihoods as an economic decision, they passed for white.”
ABC News also obtained photos of those grandparents from the local genealogists working on uncovering this lineage. The pope’s brother, John Prevost, recognized the photos and confirmed to ABC News that they depict their grandparents.
While John Prevost knew about his grandparents’ connection to Haiti and the family’s time in New Orleans, he told ABC News that their family never discussed racial matters.
Creoles in New Orleans have been a part of Louisiana history for almost as long as it has been a state and have contributed enormously to the culture of Louisiana. The word Creole commonly describes mixed-race people of color.
“To be, you know, Creole in Louisiana, to be a free person of color in New Orleans in that time really indicates that there was at some point an enslaved person that had to fight for their freedom,” Smothers said, though genealogists have yet to find direct evidence linking the pope’s ancestry to any enslaved individual.
In a statement released Thursday night, New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell said “the City of New Orleans is a melting pot of different religions and beliefs. We are thrilled to welcome Pope Leo XIV, who embodies morality, unity, and inclusivity.”
Genealogists continue to dig into the pope’s records to find out more information about his ancestry. For now, it seems that Pope Leo is not only the first American pope, but he also represents the melting pot of backgrounds in the U.S.
“They were a Creole of color family — Creole indicating their cultural background that they are rooted in this place in Louisiana, which, of course, has its origins of the French and Spanish colony with a significant West African population. And of color indicating that they were a racial mix. They were a combination of all of those ethnic backgrounds,” Honora said.
Honora also pointed to the symbolic nature of the pope’s ancestry.
“The story, the trajectory does not surprise me. But the fact that a descendant of that family … is the pope, you know, really adds the element of surprise,” he said.
