GLYNN COUNTY, Ga. — The three men who killed Ahmaud Arbery have now been sentenced on federal hate crime charges.
Both Greg and Travis McMichael received another life sentence. Their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan was sentenced to 35 years.
Channel 2’s Audrey Washington was inside the courtroom Monday where two of the three men apologized to the family.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
In a stunning moment Greg McMichael and Bryan turned to Arbery’s family and apologized. When asked if he wanted to say anything, Travis McMichael simply said no.
It has taken years, but Wanda Cooper Jones, Arbery’s mother, and the rest of Arbery’s family said they feel a sense of peace.
“I’m thankful because It’s been a long fight but I’m thankful that God gave us the strength to continue to fight,” Cooper Jones said. “It was 74 days before we actually got an arrest, so think about today. We got convictions on a federal level.”
A US district judge sentenced all three men convicted of murdering Arbery on federal hate crime charges Monday.
RELATED STORIES:
In February, a jury ruled that Greg McMichael, his son Travis and Bryan targeted Arbery because he was Black.
First to go before the judge Monday morning was Travis McMichael. The judge sentenced him to life plus 10 years on the hate crime charges.
Greg McMichael was sentenced next. I have received life plus seven years.
And finally, Bryan was sentenced Monday afternoon, with the judge giving him 420 months in prison.
Bryan never fired a shot, but the judge said he chased Arbery and then recorded the deadly shooting.
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
In a surprising moment, inside court, Greg McMichael turned to the Arbery family and apologized. Bryan also told the family that he was sorry.
“Unfortunately, his apology doesn’t bring back my son. I do accept the apology,” Cooper Jones told Washington.
“When you caught up and it’s looking bad for you and you try to apologize, that’s the wrong time to make an apology. He should have done that, day one,” said Marcus Arbery, Ahmaud Arbery’s father.
As for the Arbery family, they said their focus now turns the former Glynn County district attorney who was indicted for misconduct in the Arbery case.
RELATED NEWS:
Lawyer: Arbery shooter fears he’ll be killed in state prison Travis McMichael, 36, faces sentencing Monday in US District Court after his conviction on federal hate crime charges in February
The landmark climate legislation passed by the Senate after months of wrangling and weakening by fossil-fuel friendly Democrats will lead to more harm than good, according to frontline community groups who are calling on Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency.
If signed into law, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) would allocate $369bn to reduce America’s greenhouse gas emissions and invest in renewable energy sources – a historic amount that scientists estimate will lead to net reductions of 40% by 2030, compared with 2005 levels.
It would be the first significant climate legislation to be passed in the US, which is historically responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than any other country.
But the bill makes a slew of concessions to the fossil fuel industry, including mandatory drilling and pipeline deals that will harm communities from Alaska to Appalachia and the Gulf coast and tie the US to planet-heating energy projects for decades to come.
“Once again, the only climate proposal on the table requires that the communities of the Gulf south bear the disproportionate cost of national interests bending a knee to dirty energy – furthering the debt this country owes to the South,” said Colette Pichon Battle from Taproot Earth Vision (formerly Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy).
“Solving the climate crisis requires eliminating fossil fuels, and the Inflation Reduction Act simply does not do this,” said Steven Feit, senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law (Ciel).
Overall, many environmental and community groups agree that while the deal will bring some long-term global benefits by cutting greenhouse gas emissions, it’s not enough and consigns communities already threatened by sea level rise, floods and extreme heat to further misery.
The bill is a watered-down version of Biden’s ambitious Build Back Better bill which was blocked by every single Republican and also conservative Democratic senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who have both received significant campaign support from fossil fuel industries. West Virginia’s Manchin, in particular, is known for his close personal ties to the coal sector.
“This was a backdoor take-it-or-leave-it deal between a coal baron and Democratic leaders in which any opposition from lawmakers or frontline communities was quashed. It was an inherently unjust process, a deal which sacrifices so many communities and doesn’t get us anywhere near where we need to go, yet is being presented as a savior legislation,” said Jean Su, energy justice program director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
The IRA, which includes new tax provisions to pay for the historic $739bn climate and healthcare spending package, has been touted as a huge victory for the Biden administration as the Democrats gear up for a tough ride in the midterm elections, when they face losing control of both houses of Congress.
The spending package will expedite expansion of the clean energy industry, and while it includes historic funds to tackle air pollution and help consumers go green through electric vehicle and household appliance subsidies, the vast majority of the funds will benefit corporations.
A cost-benefit analysis by the Climate Justice Alliance (CJA), which represents a wide range of urban and rural groups nationwide, concludes that the strengths of the IRA are outweighed by the bill’s weaknesses and threats posed by the expansion of fossil fuels and unproven technologies such as carbon capture and hydrogen generation – which the bill will incentivize with billions of dollars of tax credits that will mostly benefit oil and gas.
“Climate investments should not be handcuffed to corporate subsidies for fossil fuel development and unproven technologies that will poison our communities for decades,” said Juan Jhong-Chung from the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, a member of the CJA.
The IRA is a huge step towards creating a green capitalist industry that wrongly assumes the economic benefits will trickle down to low-income communities and households, added Su.
Many advocacy groups agree that the IRA should be the first step – not the final climate policy – for Biden, who promised to be the country’s first climate president.
People vs Fossil Fuels, a national coalition of more than 1,200 organizations from all 50 states, recently delivered a petition with more than 500,000 signatures to the White House calling on Biden to declare a climate emergency, which would unlock new funds for urgently needed climate adaptation in hard-hit communities, and use executive actions to stop the expansion of fossil fuels.
Siqiniq Maupin, executive director of Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, said: “This new bill is genocide, there is no other way to put it. This is a life or death situation and the longer we act as though the world isn’t on fire around us, the worse our burns will be. Biden has the power to prevent this, to mitigate the damage.”
The landmark climate legislation passed by the Senate after months of wrangling and weakening by fossil-fuel friendly Democrats will lead to more harm than good, according to frontline community groups who are calling on Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency.
If signed into law, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) would allocate $369bn to reduce America’s greenhouse gas emissions and invest in renewable energy sources – a historic amount that scientists estimate will lead to net reductions of 40% by 2030, compared with 2005 levels.
It would be the first significant climate legislation to be passed in the US, which is historically responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than any other country.
But the bill makes a slew of concessions to the fossil fuel industry, including mandatory drilling and pipeline deals that will harm communities from Alaska to Appalachia and the Gulf coast and tie the US to planet-heating energy projects for decades to come.
“Once again, the only climate proposal on the table requires that the communities of the Gulf south bear the disproportionate cost of national interests bending a knee to dirty energy – furthering the debt this country owes to the South,” said Colette Pichon Battle from Taproot Earth Vision (formerly Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy).
“Solving the climate crisis requires eliminating fossil fuels, and the Inflation Reduction Act simply does not do this,” said Steven Feit, senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law (Ciel).
Overall, many environmental and community groups agree that while the deal will bring some long-term global benefits by cutting greenhouse gas emissions, it’s not enough and consigns communities already threatened by sea level rise, floods and extreme heat to further misery.
The bill is a watered-down version of Biden’s ambitious Build Back Better bill which was blocked by every single Republican and also conservative Democratic senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who have both received significant campaign support from fossil fuel industries. West Virginia’s Manchin, in particular, is known for his close personal ties to the coal sector.
“This was a backdoor take-it-or-leave-it deal between a coal baron and Democratic leaders in which any opposition from lawmakers or frontline communities was quashed. It was an inherently unjust process, a deal which sacrifices so many communities and doesn’t get us anywhere near where we need to go, yet is being presented as a savior legislation,” said Jean Su, energy justice program director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
The IRA, which includes new tax provisions to pay for the historic $739bn climate and healthcare spending package, has been touted as a huge victory for the Biden administration as the Democrats gear up for a tough ride in the midterm elections, when they face losing control of both houses of Congress.
The spending package will expedite expansion of the clean energy industry, and while it includes historic funds to tackle air pollution and help consumers go green through electric vehicle and household appliance subsidies, the vast majority of the funds will benefit corporations.
A cost-benefit analysis by the Climate Justice Alliance (CJA), which represents a wide range of urban and rural groups nationwide, concludes that the strengths of the IRA are outweighed by the bill’s weaknesses and threats posed by the expansion of fossil fuels and unproven technologies such as carbon capture and hydrogen generation – which the bill will incentivize with billions of dollars of tax credits that will mostly benefit oil and gas.
“Climate investments should not be handcuffed to corporate subsidies for fossil fuel development and unproven technologies that will poison our communities for decades,” said Juan Jhong-Chung from the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, a member of the CJA.
The IRA is a huge step towards creating a green capitalist industry that wrongly assumes the economic benefits will trickle down to low-income communities and households, added Su.
Many advocacy groups agree that the IRA should be the first step – not the final climate policy – for Biden, who promised to be the country’s first climate president.
People vs Fossil Fuels, a national coalition of more than 1,200 organizations from all 50 states, recently delivered a petition with more than 500,000 signatures to the White House calling on Biden to declare a climate emergency, which would unlock new funds for urgently needed climate adaptation in hard-hit communities, and use executive actions to stop the expansion of fossil fuels.
Siqiniq Maupin, executive director of Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, said: “This new bill is genocide, there is no other way to put it. This is a life or death situation and the longer we act as though the world isn’t on fire around us, the worse our burns will be. Biden has the power to prevent this, to mitigate the damage.”
Miami residents are up in arms over a pilot program to build an encampment for homeless people on a secluded beach that’s just a stone’s throw away from an exclusive island that was once home to Oprah Winfrey, Derek Jeter, and Mel Brooks.
Miami-Dade County’s seventh district sparked anger after it quietly approved a plan to build between 50 and 100 miniature houses in the North Point Park section of Virginia Key Beach.
Residents are upset over the plan for a variety of reasons, according to reports.
Environmentalists believe the encampment will destroy the island’s fragile ecosystem, while recreational enthusiasts think it will hamper their ability to spend time outdoors unhindered, according to The Daily Beast.
Advocates for the homeless are also opposed to the plan because they say there aren’t enough resources or infrastructure on the island in order to facilitate access to transportation, sewage and food.
“You’re taking the chronically homeless, shelter resistant population, bringing them to an isolated area, removing them from everything they know, providing only mobile services and pretty much isolating them on an island two miles from the nearest roadway,” Esther Alonso, the owner of Virginia Key Outdoor Center, told WSVN-TV.
Virginia Key, a largely isolated island, currently houses a magnet public high school as well as a wastewater treatment plant. The nearest grocery store is some six miles away.
Miami-Dade officials have tentatively approved plans to build up to 100 miniature homes on Virginia Key.Getty Images/iStockphoto
It is also right next door to Key Biscayne and Fisher Island — home to some of the priciest real estate in the country.
Celebrities who have bought real estate in these areas include Argentinian soccer icon Lionel Messi, actor Andy Garcia, pop star Cher, tennis legends Boris Becker and Andre Agassi, “Pretty Woman” star Julia Roberts, and hockey star Pavel “Russian Rocket” Bure.
On Thursday, hundreds of residents expressed their displeasure during a District 7 town hall meeting that was broadcast via Zoom.
In the comments section, county commissioners were inundated with messages denouncing their plan.
“Are the homeless that are going to be housed illegal immigrants or are we first going to house homeless US Citizens?” one resident wrote.
Miami residents are outraged over a plan to build an encampment for homeless people on an isolated beach island.WSVN 7 Miami
The commenter added: “if we’re putting tax dollars to not even take care of US citizens then we need to refocus altogether.”
Another commenter said: “Bad, Bad idea. Bunch of dummies.”
“These ‘Tiny homes’ would be for rent on Airbnb in no time,” another town hall attendee fumed.
Virginia Key is just a stone’s throw away from Fisher Island, one of the most exclusive residential areas in the country.Getty Images/Eye Em
County officials voted 3-2 to advance the plan, but Ken Russell, a commissioner who is opposed to the so-called “transition zone” in Virginia Key, said that Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has the “ability to veto any actions by the city commission.”
“It’s embarrassing for the city,” Russell told The Daily Beast.
“It perpetuates this reaction from residents like ‘not here, do it over there.’ It’s not only that this is the wrong location for this idea, but it’s the wrong solution.”
With Rudy Giuliani just days away from his scheduled Tuesday appearance before an Atlanta grand jury, his lawyer asked for a last-minute delay — providing a doctor’s note saying the 78-year-old was not cleared to fly because of a recent “invasive procedure” .”
The email response from the office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was unyielding.
“We do not consent to change the date,” wrote a deputy to Willis, adding: “We will provide alternate transportation including bus or train if your client maintains he is unable to fly.”
The dispute, which burst into view Monday amid contentious legal filings and exchanges over Giuliani’s travel schedule and airline ticket purchases, prompted a judge to delay Giuliani’s Tuesday testimony and schedule a hearing with lawyers for each side.
It marked the latest sign of tension between prosecutors and potential witnesses in Willis’s burgeoning criminal probe of alleged election interference by former president Donald Trump and his allies. Giuliani, Trump’s former lawyer, had already signaled through his legal team that he would cite “attorney-client privilege” and probably refuse to talk about his interactions with Trump.
On Wednesday, a federal judge in Atlanta is slated to consider the claim of Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (RS.C.) that he should not be compelled to testify to the same grand jury about his calls from him to Georgia’s secretary of state after the 2020 election.
Graham, a close Trump ally, has argued that he made the calls in the ordinary course of his work as a senator, and that such duties are protected by the Constitution. Prosecutors have argued in court filings that Graham’s “unusual activity mirrored the Trump campaign’s own efforts to potentially disrupt the Georgia election certification process.”
The legal maneuvering this week comes as Willis’s inquiry has expanded and emerged as a legal threat to the former president and some of his most important allies.
“What seems clear is the Fulton County district attorney’s office is getting closer and closer to the former president’s innermost circle,” said Anthony Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University. “That alone suggests to me that the investigation is making an important headway.”
Willis launched the probe in the weeks after the Trump campaign and its allies placed calls to Georgia officials seeking to overturn the election results. The case covers some of the matters reviewed by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and by the Justice Department inquiry examining efforts to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. But Willis, 50, has been at the forefront in publiclypursuing a criminal case, in part because she is able to take advantage of state statutes that legal experts say could make a criminal prosecution faster and less cumbersome than a federal case.
She has subpoenaed more than three dozen individuals — including a group of Georgia Republicans she has identified as targets of the criminal probe for their role as purported Trump electors.
Willis has not ruled out calling Trump as a witness, telling anAtlanta television station last week that “we are at least 60 days away before I even have to make that kind of decision.”
Willis declined through her office to respond to requests from The Washington Post for an interview.
Willis’s critics, including Trump, his allies and some involved in the case, have accused her of conducting a politicized inquiry designed to attract national attention while ignoring local problems, such as Atlanta’s soaring crime rates. The former president derided her on his Truth Social platform as a “young, ambitious, Radical Left Democrat ‘Prosecutor’ from Georgia.”
The judge presiding over the inquiry disqualified Willis last month from investigating one of the would-be Trump electors — Republican state Sen. Burt Jones — after Willis hosted a fundraiser for Jones’s opponent in an upcoming lieutenant governor’s race. The judge, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, called it a “’What are you thinking?’ moment” and said the “optics are horrific.”
By all indications, the inquiry has been sprawling butintensely focused on whether Trump and his allies violated Georgia laws.
One Georgia Republican who appeared before the grand jury told The Post that prosecutors were seeking to learn about interactions between lawyers for Trump and state-level Republicans on the ground. The witness spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.
Unlike a typical grand jury, the special panel is authorized for one year and will not be asked to vote on an indictment at the conclusion of its work. Instead, the special grand jury of 23 members and three alternates will issue a report to Willis with recommendations on whether to bring charges in the case. The report is not required to be made public, nor is Willis obliged to act on it in any specific time frame.
But prosecutors are attempting to fend off requests to toss their subpoenas or delay testimony.
The postponement request last week by Giuliani’s attorney, Robert Costello, referenced a July procedure in which Giuliani had two stents placed in his coronary arteries.
Prosecutors on Monday indicated they would insist that Giuliani appear in person — filing a legal brief claiming that Giuliani had traveled outside New York since his surgery and saying they had obtained records showing him paying cash for airline tickets for late July to Rome and Zurich.
Costello called the prosecutors’ claims “ludicrous,” adding: “First of all, Giuliani has not flown anywhere since his operation. He has not purchased these tickets and never purchased airline tickets for cash for any reason.”
Costello said he offered prosecutors the opportunity to discuss the situation directly with Giuliani’s physician, but he said they did not do so.
Separately, a Wednesday hearing before US District Judge Leigh Martin May will focus on Graham’s contention that he should not be required to testify about his outreach to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in the days after the 2020 election. Raffensperger told The Post that Graham had asked whether the secretary of state had the power to toss out all mail ballots in certain counties. He said Graham appeared to be asking him to improperly find a way to set aside legally cast ballots — an allegation that Graham denied.
Graham’s legal team, led by former Trump White House counsel Donald McGahn, says the senator is shielded by constitutional protections that prohibit interference with the work of members of Congress.
“There would be nothing to stop any state or local official from investigating — or ‘intimidating’ under the veneer of investigating — senators or representatives with which they disagree,” Graham’s lawyers said in their court filing.
The phone calls Graham made to Raffensperger’s office, his lawyers say, were part of his official legislative duties to help inform his vote to certify the election for President Biden and to draft election-related legislation.
Willis’s office says Graham questioned Raffensperger and his staff about reexamining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia “to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former president Donald Trump,” court records show.
It is not clear whether Graham will succeed.
May recentlyrejected similar arguments from Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.), a Trump ally who echoed false claims of widespread election fraud in his failed bid for secretary of state. Hice is scheduled to appear before the grand jury on Aug. 16.
It is also unclear whether Willis’s team will succeed in learning information from the state Republicans who presented themselves as Trump electors.
Willis is examining whether these local Trump supporters were part of a scheme designed by Trump’s team to create slates of fake voters in Georgia and other battleground states, perhaps to give Vice President Mike Pence a reason to declare that the outcome of the election was in doubt. when he was to preside over the congressional counting of the electoral college votes on Jan. 6, 2021.
Lawyers for 11ofthe 16 would-be Georgia Trump electors have argued that their clients abided by the law, claiming that they met as a contingency measure before a court had ruled on a challenge to the Georgia vote.
They also complained in court filings about Willis sending letters identifying the purported Trump electors as “targets” of her criminal inquiry. The attorneys described the target letters as a “publicity stunt” that “wrongfully converted [the Trump electors] from witnesses who were cooperating voluntarily and prepared to testify in the grand jury to persecuted targets of it.”
As a result, the lawyers said, they had advised their clients to assert their right not to answer questions.
In contrast, a lawyer representing two of the purported Trump electors in federal probes, Robert N. Driscoll, said his clients cooperated with the House Jan. 6 committee and are responding to Justice Department subpoenas.
Amy Gardner contributed to this report. Brown reported from Atlanta.
Senate passes sweeping bill lowering drug prices, promoting clean energy
Senate Democrats approved sweeping legislation on health care, climate and taxes along a party-line vote Sunday, delivering a major win for President Joe Biden and his agenda before the midterm elections. The Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes record spending on clean energy initiatives, measures to reduce prescription drug prices and a tax overhaul to ensure large corporations pay income taxes. Every Democrat voted in support and every Republican against the measure. It heads to a vote in the Democratic-controlled House, where it’s likely to pass as early as Friday.
Prefer to listen? Check out the 5 Things podcast:
Biden to visit flood-ravaged region in Kentucky
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are scheduled to travel to southeastern Kentucky on Monday to meet with families affected by flooding last month that ravaged the region. At least 37 people have died in what Gov. Andy Beshear called “one of the worst, most devastating flooding events in Kentucky’s history.” Houses were also swept away and school buildings ruined, with hundreds of residents losing their belongings and being displaced. The National Weather Service said Sunday that flooding remains a threat, warning of more thunderstorms through Thursday. Biden’s visit comes one day after he ended his isolation, following consecutive negative coronavirus tests Saturday and Sunday.
Gaza cease-fire continues after days of deadly violence
A cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militants continues Monday after nearly three days of violence that killed dozens of Palestinians and disrupted the lives of hundreds of thousands of Israelis. The cease-fire, which took effect Sunday, was brokered by Egypt. Israeli strikes and militant rockets continued in the minutes leading up to the beginning of the truth, and Israel said it would “respond strongly” if the cease-fire was violated. Prior to the cease-fire, the flare-up was the worst fighting between Israel and Gaza militant groups since Israel and Hamas fought an 11-day war last year.
Senators press Biden to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism
Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Lindsey Graham are urging the Biden administration to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism over its invasion of Ukraine. Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, told CNN on Sunday that if President Joe Biden doesn’t get behind the designation, they would work toward getting Congress to pass a bill issuing one. Typically such designations are made by the State Department. Inclusion on the list would trigger four categories of sanctions. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova threatened to break in diplomatic relations between the countries if the US made such a decision.
College football preseason coaches poll released
Dust off your favorite school’s jersey and fire up the fight song. College football is less than three weeks away, and the preseason USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll will be released at noon ET Monday. While the names at the top may hold few surprises — perennial powerhouses like Alabama, Ohio State and defending national champion Georgia all return serious star power and have topped other preseason lists — the rankings always give fans something to talk about.
US President Joe Biden talks to reporters while boarding Air Force One on travel to Eastern Kentucky to visit families affected by devastation from recent flooding, as he departs from Delaware Air National Guard Base in New Castle, Delaware, US, August 8, 2022.
Kevin Lamarques | Reuters
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said Monday he is “not worried” about China’s military exercises around Taiwan, adding that while he is “concerned that they’re moving as much as they are,” he does not think they’re going to continue to increase the pressure.
The remarks came one day after Beijing concluded 72 hours of intense maneuvers and missile tests over and around Taiwan. The exercises involved dozens of Chinese fighter jets and warships to mimic a military blockade of the self-governing island that Beijing considers a province.
Biden’s relative calm reflected the deliberate American strategy of not responding to Chinese bellicosity with equally hot saber-rattling.
It also reflects a broader opinion within the Biden administration that Beijing does not intend to make good on its implicit threat to invade Taiwan, at least not in the near term.
Given this assessment, the United States has adopted an approach, for now, of heightened vigilance, but steadfastly refused to be drawn into a military game of chicken in the Pacific.
Last Thursday, the White House announced that Biden would keep a US naval aircraft carrier strike group in the South China Sea longer than originally planned, in response to Beijing’s increased aggression toward Taiwan.
At the same time, a Biden spokesman said the United States would postpone a previously scheduled intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, test.
The decisions signaled Washington’s desire to maintain American military alertness in the region, while also denying Beijing the opportunity to point to the long-planned US missile test as evidence that America was responding to China’s own missile launches near Taiwan with military preparations of its own.
Beijing claimed its military exercises were conducted in retaliation for US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last week.
The visit by the California Democrat, which the Biden White House publicly defended but privately opposed, marked the first time in 25 years that an American House speaker, a position second in line to the presidency, had visited Taiwan.
Asked Monday whether it was wise for Pelosi to have traveled to Taiwan given the tense US-China relationship, Biden gave the standard response his administration has used for weeks.
“That was her decision,” he said, before boarding Air Force One en route to Kentucky, where Biden and first lady Jill Biden will visit communities impacted by catastrophic flooding last week.
A traveling Texas nurse is facing multiple murder charges after running a red light and crashing into traffic while allegedly driving 90 mph in Windsor Hills, California.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced on Monday that Nicole Linton has been charged with six counts of murder and five counts of gross vehicular manslaughter for the multi-car crash, which left six people dead and Linton facing a 90-year prison sentence if convicted of all the charges.
Police say Linton was driving at high speed in a Mercedes on Thursday when she sped through a red light at the intersection of La Brea and Slauson avenues. Multiple vehicles were hit and three of them were engulfed by flames in what authorities dubbed “a fiery wreck.”
Linton, from Houston, is a traveling nurse who was working in Los Angeles when the crash occurred. Authorities are investigating whether drugs or alcohol were a factor.
Killed in the crash were Asherey Ryan, 23, who was more than 8 months pregnant, her 11-month-old baby, Alonzo Quintero, and her boyfriend, Reynold Lester. The couple were en route to a doctor’s appointment when the crash happened.
Two other women, who have yet to be identified, were killed in another vehicle.
Six other vehicles were involved in the collision, including five people with minor injuries in an SUV and another driver in another vehicle.
Linton, 37, was seen in tears and in a wheelchair during her first court appearance at the Foltz Criminal Justice Center on Monday. Her brows were furrowed as tears streamed down her face, her left arm wrapped in a brace. She agreed as a judge denied her attorney’s request for a $300,000 bail.
“Today, we begin the process of holding accountable the person responsible for the deaths of six people, including a pregnant woman, and their families,” District Attorney Gascón said in a statement.
The case remains under investigation by the California Highway Patrol.
A senior government official told NBC News that the FBI was at Mar-a-Largo “for the majority of the day” and confirmed that the search warrant was connected to the National Archives.
Trump this year had to return 15 boxes of documents that were improperly taken from the White House, the National Archives and Records Administration, or NARA, said in February.
“In mid-January 2022, NARA arranged for the transport from the Trump Mar-a-Lago property in Florida to the National Archives of 15 boxes that contained Presidential records, following discussions with President Trump’s representatives in 2021,” the National Archives said in a statement Feb. 7.
The same month, the National Archives and Records Administration asked the Justice Department to examine whether Trump’s handling of White House records violated federal law, a story first reported by The Washington Post and subsequently confirmed by NBC News sources.
The New York Times on Monday first reported the FBI focus on the National Archives materials.
Just hours before agents searched Trump’s residence, the FBI notified the Secret Service about the bureau’s plans to execute the warrant, according to a Secret Service official. The Secret Service facilitated access to the property, the official said, but did not participate in any aspect of the search.
At Justice Department headquarters, a spokesperson declined to comment. An official at the FBI Washington field office also declined to comment, and an official at the FBI field office in Miami declined to comment as well.
A senior law enforcement official in Florida confirmed that there was “law enforcement activity” at Mar-a-Largo on Monday.
The White House said it was not given a heads up.
“We did not have notice of the reported action and would refer you to the Justice Department for any additional information,” a White House official said.
Trump is not at Mar-a-Lago, his winter residence. He often spends his summers at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey.
The FBI search came days after Attorney General Merrick Garland told NBC News that the “most wide-ranging investigation” in Justice Department history was examining not only the rioters who invaded the Capitol and physically attacked officers, but also whether anyone was “criminally responsible for interfering with the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to another.”
The search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate came just over six years after another FBI action surrounding classified material that set the stage for Trump’s 2016 Electoral College victory: former FBI Director James Comey’s July 5, 2016, news conference about Trump’s Democratic rival, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Comey, who broke with the Justice Department protocol, declared at the time that Clinton and her colleagues were “extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information,” even though he said the facts did not support bringing criminal charges.
Trump was a persistent critic of Clinton’s handling of classified material, claiming in 2016 that it was “the biggest political scandal since Watergate.” It was Comey’s handling of the Clinton matter that was used as justification for Trump’s decision to fire Comey. Trump eventually replaced Comey with Christopher Wray. He remains in the position.
Dozens of vehicles, many adorned with “Trump 2020” and US flags, were parked outside Mar-a-Lago on Monday night in an apparent show of support for the former president.
Meanwhile, Republicans rallied around their party’s de facto leader, who is weighing another run for president.
A senior government official told NBC News that the FBI was at Mar-a-Largo “for the majority of the day” and confirmed that the search warrant was connected to the National Archives.
Trump this year had to return 15 boxes of documents that were improperly taken from the White House, the National Archives and Records Administration, or NARA, said in February.
“In mid-January 2022, NARA arranged for the transport from the Trump Mar-a-Lago property in Florida to the National Archives of 15 boxes that contained Presidential records, following discussions with President Trump’s representatives in 2021,” the National Archives said in a statement Feb. 7.
The same month, the National Archives and Records Administration asked the Justice Department to examine whether Trump’s handling of White House records violated federal law, a story first reported by The Washington Post and subsequently confirmed by NBC News sources.
The New York Times on Monday first reported the FBI focus on the National Archives materials.
Just hours before agents searched Trump’s residence, the FBI notified the Secret Service about the bureau’s plans to execute the warrant, according to a Secret Service official. The Secret Service facilitated access to the property, the official said, but did not participate in any aspect of the search.
At Justice Department headquarters, a spokesperson declined to comment. An official at the FBI Washington field office also declined to comment, and an official at the FBI field office in Miami declined to comment as well.
A senior law enforcement official in Florida confirmed that there was “law enforcement activity” at Mar-a-Largo on Monday.
The White House said it was not given a heads up.
“We did not have notice of the reported action and would refer you to the Justice Department for any additional information,” a White House official said.
Trump is not at Mar-a-Lago, his winter residence. He often spends his summers at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey.
The FBI search came days after Attorney General Merrick Garland told NBC News that the “most wide-ranging investigation” in Justice Department history was examining not only the rioters who invaded the Capitol and physically attacked officers, but also whether anyone was “criminally responsible for interfering with the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to another.”
The search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate came just over six years after another FBI action surrounding classified material that set the stage for Trump’s 2016 Electoral College victory: former FBI Director James Comey’s July 5, 2016, news conference about Trump’s Democratic rival, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Comey, who broke with the Justice Department protocol, declared at the time that Clinton and her colleagues were “extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information,” even though he said the facts did not support bringing criminal charges.
Trump was a persistent critic of Clinton’s handling of classified material, claiming in 2016 that it was “the biggest political scandal since Watergate.” It was Comey’s handling of the Clinton matter that was used as justification for Trump’s decision to fire Comey. Trump eventually replaced Comey with Christopher Wray. He remains in the position.
Dozens of vehicles, many adorned with “Trump 2020” and US flags, were parked outside Mar-a-Lago on Monday night in an apparent show of support for the former president.
Meanwhile, Republicans rallied around their party’s de facto leader, who is weighing another run for president.
