(WASHINGTON) — The House of Representatives unanimously adopted a resolution Wednesday to hold billionaire Leon Black in contempt of Congress for defying two subpoenas issued in the House Oversight Committee’s probe of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The resolution came a day after the Oversight Committee voted 41-0 to hold Black in contempt, teeing up the House vote.

Black bucked a committee subpoena calling on him to testify under oath at a closed-door deposition on Sept. 3, as well as turn over nondisclosure agreements that the committee is seeking under subpoena, as part of the panel’s ongoing probe into the government’s handling of the investigations into Epstein. 

Black, who maintained a social relationship with Epstein since the mid-1990s and eventually paid him more than $170 million for “tax and estate planning advice,” according to the Senate Finance Committee, appeared voluntarily before the Oversight panel in June — before prematurely leaving the closed-door interview.

Black has denied wrongdoing or knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, though his financial payments to the convicted sex offender served as a lifeline in the years following Epstein’s 2008 prison sentence for soliciting a minor for prostitution.

Moments before the House unanimously approved the measure, Rep. Robert Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the Oversight panel, told reporters that the move to hold Black in contempt is “a very important step” in the committee’s Epstein probe. 

“This is an important step towards justice, but there is just an enormous amount of work to be done,” Garcia said. “Our investigation is just getting started. There is a massive cover-up that’s happened at the White House from Day 1, and we need to have more actions like the one that’s going to happen today. So this is a really important day for us.”

Black’s attorneys called the move “outrageous” and said they will fight the resolution.

“The Committee has continued to insist on looking for information that does not exist,” said attorneys Susan Estrich and Aaron Cutler. “They are looking to ask questions about every NDA Mr. Black ever signed, including with business partners over his 50 year career and also with individuals who he never met. This is absurd.” 

“Mr. Black has repeatedly said that he feels terrible for Epstein’s victims and that he regrets ever doing business with Epstein,” Black’s lawyers said. “He never abused a woman. He never was with an underage woman. He never engaged in sex trafficking. He never paid Epstein for access to women. He was never blackmailed by Epstein. Mr. Black had no knowledge of any of Epstein’s heinous conduct.”

The contempt resolution must now be certified by House Speaker Mike Johnson before it is sent to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro.

Pirro could then bring the matter to a federal grand jury, which would have the power to hand up a criminal indictment that could ultimately culminate in fines and even imprisonment. 

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(NEW YORK) — As diesel and gas prices soar in the United States amid the war with Iran, Americans across the country are making tough decisions as they continue to cope with the heavy strain of inflation.

“You have to manage your bills. You have to manage the food you bring in. You have to manage how you pay your bills … everything has to be budgeted,” said Betsy Rosado, a 47-year-old mother who lives with her husband and five of their children in Spring Hill, Florida.

Rosado said her business degree has helped her manage household finances. But for others, the budgeting agony “could bring somebody to the point of depression, and it could bring somebody to a mental collapse, especially when they have kids.”

Rosado said her toddler, who has significant developmental and respiratory issues, requires treatments multiple times a week. She has had to cut back on therapy sessions because of rising gas prices.

“We had to switch to, unfortunately, virtual therapies. And with my daughter with disabilities, we are stopping occupational therapies,” she said.

As of Wednesday, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline was $4.36, according to GasBuddy, up $1.42 since the U.S. war with Iran began on Feb. 28.

“The first thing that crosses your mind is, what is it going to be tomorrow? How are we gonna get through this, and then it’s the point of, do I need to move out of this state?” Rosado said. “You feel stuck … the system is not – it’s not made for us to succeed.”

Meanwhile, the cost of diesel has hit a record high at $6.30 a gallon, according to GasBuddy.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, told ABC News on Wednesday that “a lot of states are seeing pretty monumental jumps” in both gas and diesel prices and “there’s really no signs of when this might start to slow down.”

“Until something happens to deescalate these geopolitical tensions, prices will keep going higher,” he added.

Truck drivers, who are feeling the financial strain at the pump, and farmers, who rely on diesel to power up agricultural machinery, told ABC News that the rise in diesel costs has put a strain on their businesses and their livelihoods.

Lewie Pugh, who has driven over 2 million miles for the past 25 years, is also the executive vice president of the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), which represents nearly 150,000 small business truckers.

Pugh told ABC News that every $1 increase in diesel prices costs truckers approximately $400 more per tank. Some weeks have cost an extra $800 to fill up, he added.

“Trucking has a very slim profit margin already. There’s just not a lot of profit in trucking. I’ve always said it was a penny saved business, not a penny made business,” Pugh said. “So when you’re already constrained and something like this happens to this magnitude, you just can’t absorb it as a motor carrier. They just can’t. There’s no way – they’ll be out of business tomorrow.”

Pugh said the higher prices truckers are paying are being passed down to the companies whose products are being shipped, causing the prices of everything from food to clothes to go up for Americans.

“This has huge rippling effects in the supply chain and in the economy because trucking and truckers haul so much stuff,” he said.

For John Bartman, a fifth-generation farmer on his family’s centuries-old farm in Marengo, Illinois, told ABC News that the rising costs of diesel has vastly impacted his agricultural production.

“People are just very frustrated right now,” Bartman said.

Bartman, who grows soybeans, said Illinois is the No. 1 soybean producer in the nation, but skyrocketing prices in diesel and fertilizer have hindered his ability to grow the major crop.

“The price of diesel today is over $6 a gallon, and we use 300 gallons of diesel a day. So now we’re talking $1,800 a day,” she said.

Additionally, he said that the cost of fertilizer was over $120 an acre this year.

“It just keeps on increasing all the time,” he said.

Bartman lamented the economic conditions and expressed concern about how this will impact the next generation of farmers.

“There’s some people that think things are going to get better, but I’ve seen too many good young farmers who had a full-time job besides farming, who’ve just decided I can’t do this anymore,” Bartman said. “We’re losing that next generation that’s coming into the business. So that is very destructive and very sad.”

ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The former acting Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrator said that Texas got the help it needed during the historic and deadly flooding over July Fourth weekend last year, despite criticism heaped on the agency’s response, according to a new book set for release on Tuesday.

In the book, titled “Texas Flood: Power, Money, Politics, History, Bureaucracy and Tragedy,” David Richardson also outlined what he believed to be the source of former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s downfall as well as discussing the Trump administration’s plans to restructure the agency.

“I prepared for the worst from the minute I got to FEMA, and a worst-case scenario did happen and we were able to effectively maneuver around obstacles to make sure that the people of Texas got what they needed in their time of need,” Richardson told ABC News in an interview. He said the agency prepared for worst-case scenarios “though a series of planning efforts and exercises.”

Democrats accused DHS of being slow on the response efforts in Texas. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Richardson resigned from FEMA abruptly in December 2025.

At the center of that decision was a memo put by Noem requiring that every contract above $100,000 must be personally signed off by her.

“I eventually had to make a decision where I overrode DHS headquarters and sent the support anyhow,” Richardson said, referring to Texas. “I knew the magnitude of the problem when I started looking at the low end of $500 million a day we’re going to have to write contracts for. If I’m going to have to have everyone over $100,000 approved by headquarters, that’s just another layer of bureaucracy.”

In the book, Richardson paints the picture of Department of Homeland Security putting put “spies” at FEMA headquarters, to see what he was doing, and a secretary concerned with her appearance more than actually getting work done. 

Richardson recounts in the book one of his employees saying the memo would “kill” them during a disaster. A former Marine, Richardson said he viewed getting lifesaving support to Texas as essential, regardless of the cost.

“When a Marine or an Army ranger calls for support, they get what they need, regardless of the cost,” he said.  “That’s how I viewed getting support during hurricanes or as it came to be during the flash flood in Texas.”

In practice, the cost saving measures were well intentioned, he said, but “he downstream effects of that memo…were never really considered.” 

“I firmly believe that the 100K memo and the ramifications that it had was the beginning of the end for Secretary Noem,” he said.

Typically, FEMA administrators are on the ground immediately after a natural disaster strikes, but Richardson didn’t go to Texas immediately because he believed the “greatest point of friction” was in DC. 

“I was going to go to Texas once the check was cashed,” he said. “I wasn’t going to Texas and tell them the check is in the mail. I made sure it was cashed before I went there to see the people of Texas.”

Richardson also detailed in the book how he spent one night in Gettysburg, Pa. when the floods hit over July Fourth weekend, and raced back to D.C. the morning after. He took criticism during his testimony by House Democrats, but outlined in his book that he worked throughout the trip. 

In the book, he detailed the exercises FEMA ran to prepare for a disaster, including modeling what would happening during a Category 3 hurricane – which would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to respond to. 

Richardson told ABC News it was “not true” that FEMA withheld essential support from Texas, and that there were already FEMA teams on the ground to respond to the floods, including a FEMA team in Denton and utilizing the Coast Guard for search and rescue.

“The tragedy was, so many people died and the search and rescue teams had to get to Texas so they could recover the bodies,” he told ABC News.

Richardson said he realized that once his plan to reshape the agency wasn’t going to be considered and instead had to be worked through the FEMA review council, set up to recommend the future of the agency, he decided to resign. 

The FEMA Review Council’s recommendations, the body which advised the DHS of reducing the size of the agency in DC don’t go far enough he says, and in the book he argues FEMA should not be under DHS, but report directly to the president. 

“I realized OK, I’m just here for hurricane season,” he said. “And once hurricane season is over, I’m done because I don’t want to be in charge of a bloated Inefficient agency like FEMA that I can’t put on a diet.”

He called the agency “bloated, overweight and unhealthy,” and wanted to put FEMA “on a diet,” by reducing the number of employees at FEMA headquarters. 

Michael Coen, the former FEMA chief of staff in the Biden and Obama administrations told ABC News that FEMA is a critical organization that supports people on their worst days.

“FEMA’s structure has been built to align the necessary resources and staff to address the risks the nation may face,” he said in response to Richardson’s critiques of FEMA being a bloated agency. “The Agency is continuously improving and learning to meet the mission.”

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(NEW YORK) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and a coalition of Democratic-led cities and states across the country have filed a lawsuit challenging a new rule issued by the Trump administration that’s set to go into effect on Friday. The rule would give immigration officers wider discretion to deny green cards to some applicants.

Immigration officers would be able to deny green cards to people who are “likely at any time to become a public charge,” according to a policy notice published on the US. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website.

The Trump administration announced the new rule in July.

Under current law, the government can deny a green card to those who become primarily dependent on government cash assistance or long-term medical care paid for by federal agencies. The Trump administration expanded the list to include non-cash, temporary programs like SNAP and WIC.

The government could now prevent someone from gaining permanent legal status if officials believe they’re likely at any point to require such programs.

Opponents say it could prevent U.S. citizens and their family members from obtaining certain benefits. For instance, federal officers could count a child’s participation in a school’s free lunch program against their parent’s application for citizenship.

“This is an undisguised effort to strip New Yorkers of the services they rely on,” Mamdani told reporters. “People could die.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James and 21 other states announced a separate lawsuit challenging the public charge rule.

In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the cities and states argued the new rule will lead to an increase of homelessness, untreated illnesses, lack of access to education and food insecurity.

USCIS said certain groups would not be affected, such as asylum seekers, refugees, human trafficking victims and others.

At the press conference, James said she and others were filing the lawsuit because “New Yorkers should not have to choose between putting food on the table, getting the health care they need, and pursuing a future in this country.”

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told ABC News, “Let’s get this straight, sanctuary states are terrified they will lose federal funds because hundreds of thousands of illegals and noncitizens might remove themselves from American welfare programs. We’re shaking in our boots over this supposedly terrible outcome.”

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(NEW YORK) — A coroner’s office in Pennsylvania reported a measles-related death of a 40-year-old unvaccinated woman on Sunday, which comes amid a growing outbreak in the state.

“A 40-year-old female resident of Jefferson County died on Saturday, September 12, 2026, from complications associated with measles. Out of respect for the privacy of the deceased and her family, no additional identifying information will be released,” the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office said in a post on Facebook.

“This is a heartbreaking loss for the family and an unfortunate reminder that measles can be a serious and potentially life-threatening disease,” Coroner Greg Furlong said.

The person was unvaccinated against measles, Furlong confirmed to ABC News. 

The Pennsylvania Department of Health said they are investigating this death reported by the Jefferson County coroner in a statement provided to ABC News. 

As of Friday, the Pennsylvania Department of Health has reported 676 measles cases in the state, with over 100 new cases reported over the last week. Of the cases, 124 have been hospitalized, and nearly all cases are among those unvaccinated against the virus, according to data from the health department. 

The number of measles-associated deaths reported by Pennsylvania officials has been disputed by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in recent weeks. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not reported any measles deaths in 2026 on its website, last updated on Friday, while the PA Department of Health has previously reported two measles-associated deaths linked to this outbreak.

CDC Director Dr. Erica Schwartz said in a statement that the agency has not yet been notified of this most recent death reported in Jefferson County. 

“CDC was not notified by Pennsylvania officials of this death,” Schwartz said. “Despite repeated offers of assistance, Pennsylvania has not requested a CDC Epi-Aid, which would deploy epidemiologists and provide on-the-ground measles outbreak support.”

In late August, Pennsylvania’s top health official, Dr Debra Bogen, had said her staff was having “regular meetings with professional staff at the CDC” in a post on X responding to health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. saying her department had “refused to share information” with the CDC after the first two measles-associated deaths in the state were announced.

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(WASHINGTON) — Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding could face a major shake-up at the end of September unless Congress passes a resolution to delay major changes included in H.R. 1, commonly known as the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill.

Starting Oct. 1, states will have to pick up 75% of the administrative costs of running the program, with the funding burden of providing benefits to participants set to shift from the federal to state level over the next few years.

State and national food assistance groups are calling on Congress to pass a resolution delaying the implementation of this cost shift, to give states more time to prepare for the bigger bill.

The federal food assistance program faced a funding lapse last fall, and experts are now warning of an uncertain future.

Nationwide, roughly 5 million Americans have lost access to SNAP since the Republican-backed budget bill became law, including more than 1.5 million children, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Much of the decline can be attributed to changes in work requirements and administrative hurdles in applying, coupled with a major cost shift that states will have to bear if they want SNAP to remain fully funded, Dottie Rosenbaum, director of federal SNAP policy at the CBPP, told ABC News.

Under the law, the upper age limit for able-bodied adults without dependents who must meet work requirements was raised from 54 to 64.

Additionally, exemptions were changed for parents and other family members responsible for a dependent, lowering the qualifying age from 18 to 14.

“The declines we’re seeing in SNAP participation so far are far deeper and far faster than the Congressional Budget Office predicted at the time the law was enacted, and it’s especially alarming that more than one and a half million children have been cut,” Rosenbaum said.

“We’re hearing increasing reports … of people struggling to put food on the table, of people facing untenable choices between, you know, paying their rent and buying groceries and other essentials, putting gas in their cars,” Rosenbaum added.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the impact of the new work requirements. The administration has publicly supported the idea in the past.

“The American dream is not being on [a] food stamp program. … The American dream is not being on all these programs. That should be a hand up, not a handout,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in an interview on Fox Business in January.

Alongside the new work requirements, the budget outlined a major shift in costs from the federal government to the states.

Beyond each state’s responsibility to pay 75% of SNAP’s administrative costs starting in October, states are set to pay a percentage of the benefit costs tied to its error rate in the coming years.

The error rate measures underpayments and overpayments, resulting in mandatory additional payments ranging from 5% to 15% for most states.

Impacts already seen

In Arizona, the state “took immediate action on error reduction efforts after H.R. 1 became law,” the Arizona Dept. of Economic Security said. This included expanding documentation requirements, establishing a preauthorization review process and continuous income monitoring. More than 400,000 SNAP recipients lost access to the program thereafter, according to the CBPP.

“Which meant that the number of people visiting food banks increased by about the same amount,” Terri Shoemaker, executive vice president of the Arizona Food Bank Network, said, crediting the state’s changes in SNAP for the substantial drop in participation.

“We know that [the Arizona Department of Economic Security] is trying to get its arms around accuracy and reporting, but at the same time, we also know that there are people who were impacted by those changes who shouldn’t have been,” Shoemaker said.

When the changes began in Arizona, Shoemaker said, communities rallied to donate food to people who had lost access to SNAP. Still, she added, the response is not sustainable.

“For every one meal that Arizona food banks provide for families, SNAP usually provides about five,” Shoemaker said. “Nationally, that statistic is more like one [meal from food banks] for every nine [meals from SNAP]. But if you think about that and food banks trying to fill that gap, it’s just a scale and scope that is so vast that food banks are going to have a hard time keeping up.”

In neighboring New Mexico, the impact can also be seen.

“Find out where your food bank distributes food and check out the length of a line,” said Jill Dixon, the executive director of the Food Depot — a collection of food banks covering northern New Mexico. “We have one in front of our building on the first and third Thursday of every month. That line usually extends over a mile and a half by the time it opens at 7 a.m.”

The Food Depot distributed more than 8 million meals across much of New Mexico in 2025.

“These are people. They’re not lines. It’s not boxes of food. It’s not anonymous. It’s deeply personal, and it’s right at the center of our community,” Dixon said.

“We’re going to see some hard times ahead,” she added. “Long term, we really have a reckoning of how we’re going to go about making sure that people are fed in a moment when it is incredibly hard to make ends meet.”

Predominantly Republican states hit

In predominantly Republican states, the impact is similar. Louisiana has seen the second largest per-capita decline, with 21% of the state’s SNAP recipients no longer having access to SNAP according to the CBPP.

Food Bank of North Central Arkansas CEO Jeff Quick said his state is facing a burden too large to bear without major changes. “We will never be able to food bank our way out of food insecurity,” Quick said.

“At best, I think we may be unprepared or unable to cover the cost to continue SNAP in Arkansas, and again, if that worst-case scenario were to happen, it could have an estimated $1.2 billion negative economic impact on our state,” he added.

Quick also said work requirements have hit harder in Arkansas, adding that a worker earning the state’s $11-an-hour minimum wage may still be ineligible for SNAP benefits.

“We don’t want to see anyone go hungry, and regardless of who you are or how you vote or how you legislate, we’re all on the same path,” Quick said. “We got to put great minds together around common causes to find solutions to hunger.”

The White House did not comment on whether the administration supports delaying the cost shift.

What’s next?

Food bank organizations at the state and national levels are asking Congress to pass a resolution delaying the cost shift and allowing states more time to lower their error rates before taking on the additional costs.

“States need more time,” Rosenbaum said. “They need more time to work to lower their error rate and improve their payment accuracy in a way that doesn’t limit access to benefits.”

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman released a version of the farm bill that would delay the cost shift of SNAP, though it has not advanced through the opposite chamber.

Lawmakers return to Washington from August recess on Sept. 14.

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(NEW YORK) — A 15-year-old boy survived atop a fishing vessel after it capsized in frigid waters off the coast of Alaska, while his two crew members died, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard pilot who spotted the lone survivor sitting atop the overturned boat in the Bering Sea called the rescue an “emotional roller coaster” in an interview with ABC News on Thursday.

“We are beyond excited and beyond grateful that we found him, and at the same time, we are overwhelmingly remorseful that we didn’t find the other two in time,” Lt. Cmdr. Jonathon Resch told ABC News correspondent Trevor Ault.

The 18-foot fishing vessel had departed Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island on Friday and was due back early Sunday, according to the Coast Guard. It was reported overdue Sunday night, prompting the search and rescue effort.

Due to weather conditions, the Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules aircrew wasn’t able to begin the search until Monday, according to the Coast Guard.

Resch spotted the teen sitting on top of the skiff Monday morning approximately 4 miles from St. Lawrence Island, calling it “nothing short of miraculous.”

“People don’t survive those scenarios,” he said. “People don’t flip boats and survive nights. They don’t do it in warm water, let alone in water that’s, you know, 40 degrees.”

The Coast Guard coordinated the rescue with a nearby good Samaritan vessel, Northwest Explorer.

The aircrew dropped flares and life rafts in the water to increase the visibility of the teen’s overturned boat while waiting for the Northwest Explorer to arrive, Resch said.

“That’s another miracle in itself,” Resch said of the boat rescue.

Video of the rescue showed the teen kneeling on the overturned skiff as he’s reeled in with a heaving line and then brought aboard the Northwest Explorer fishing vessel.

The 15-year-old survivor had symptoms of hypothermia, the Coast Guard said. The two deceased boaters were recovered from the water and transported along with the survivor to Nome.

The Coast Guard has not released the names of the deceased boaters or the survivor.

“Our hearts go out to the families, friends, and communities affected by the tragic loss of these two mariners,” Rear Adm. Bob Little, the commander of the Arctic District, said in a statement. “We are grateful for the incredible efforts of the motor vessel Northwest Explorer, Federal, State, Village first responders and mission partners who assisted in the effort that resulted in a life saved.”

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(NEW YORK) — A juror in the trial of Lindsay Clancy is sharing new details about what he said happened inside the jury room that led to a mistrial in the case of the Massachusetts woman facing first-degree murder charges for the 2023 deaths of her three young children.

Nick Dargie, one of the three men on the 12-person jury, told ABC News’ Aaron Katersky that the lone holdout juror who prevented a unanimous verdict did not show any evidence explaining his vote.

“There was several times I would ask him to show us evidence or, you know, describe a witness testimony that helped to prove what he was saying, and … he couldn’t,” Dargie, 25, said in an interview that aired Thursday on “Good Morning America.”

Jury deliberations eventually yielded an 11-1 split in favor of not guilty by reason of insanity, but the final juror would not change his position favoring conviction, despite expressing reasonable doubt, according to Dargie and three other jurors who also spoke out publicly.

“There wasn’t a single piece of evidence or witness testimony that he used to prove why he was thinking the way he was, which is why we ultimately sent in that note,” Dargie said, referring to a note the jury foreperson gave to Judge William Sullivan, leading him to declare a mistrial. “Otherwise, like there’s nothing wrong with somebody having a completely opposite opinion … that would be a hung jury. That is our justice system.”

Clancy pleaded not guilty to three murder charges for the deaths of her 5-year-old daughter Cora, 3-year-old son Dawson and infant son Callan at the family’s home in Duxbury, a Boston suburb, on Jan. 24, 2023.

The former nurse attempted suicide on the night of her children’s deaths, leaving her paralyzed and in a wheelchair, according to state prosecutors.

Her five-week trial ended in a mistrial on Sept. 4, after a week of deliberations.

Throughout Clancy’s trial, much of the testimony centered on whether or not she was suffering from postpartum psychosis — considered a psychiatric emergency, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists — when she strangled her children and attempted to take her own life, and whether she should be held criminally liable for the killings.

Jurors in Massachusetts are instructed that in order to prove a defendant is criminally responsible for their conduct, prosecutors must “prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did not suffer from a mental disease or defect at the time of the alleged offense,” according to the Massachusetts Court System.

Dargie said the holdout juror, who has not been publicly identified, often “wouldn’t engage” with fellow jurors, and would spend time “scrolling on his phone” during deliberations.

Dargie said at one point he confronted the juror during deliberations when he claims the man picked up the exercise band Clancy used to strangle her children. The band was presented as an exhibit during the trial.

“He took the exercise band out of the bag, grabbed an empty water bottle, and tied the band around the water bottle and pulled it,” Dargie said, adding that he asked the juror, “Why are you doing that?”

“I was shocked. It didn’t make any sense to me,” Dargie said. “We’re not in here to play detective or it’s not a game of ‘Clue.’ This is serious.”

Dargie — a military veteran who was deployed internationally at the time Clancy was charged with the deaths of her children — said he was dismayed to learn after the trial about online conspiracies falsely accusing Clancy’s ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, of murdering their children.

Patrick Clancy’s attorney issued a statement on Tuesday calling for an end to the conspiracy theories, saying, “Enough is enough.”

“This spread of blatant and baseless falsehoods must stop,” Howard Cooper, Patrick Clancy’s attorney, said in a statement. “Those responsible should understand that there will be consequences, and every appropriate measure will be pursued to hold them accountable, including legally. Law enforcement has been notified.”

Lindsay Clancy’s attorney Kevin Reddington has also defended Patrick Clancy, calling the false conspiracy theories about him “reprehensible.”

“He was by her side. He talked to these doctors. He told one of them that you’re turning her into a zombie, and he was with her literally days after and forgave her,” Reddington told Katersky in an interview earlier this week. “I think what’s happened to that man is reprehensible.”

Dargie said the trial haunts him still, particularly the 911 call that Patrick Clancy made after finding his children. The 911 call was played in the courtroom but was not broadcast publicly under order of the judge.

“I’ve never heard something like that, like a scream like that come out of someone’s mouth. It’s horrifying,” Dargie said of the 911 call, adding of the conspiracies surrounding Patrick Clancy, “I think if everyone heard that 911 call, they would change their mind.”

Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz has not yet announced a decision on whether to retry Lindsay Clancy.

“I appreciate the fact that there are strong feelings and opinions tied to this case,” Cruz said outside the courthouse on Sept. 4, when the mistrial was declared. “However, our job is to set aside our feelings and focus solely on the facts. The facts are Lindsay Clancy killed her three children and the evidence suggested to us that she was in control of her actions when she committed those homicides.”

The two sides are scheduled to be in court on Sept. 29 to determine next steps following the mistrial.

Dargie said he believes if Lindsay Clancy is tried again, she would not be found criminally responsible.

“I think if they tried the trial again the way they did, I think nine times out of 10, I think a jury would come back with not guilty by reason of insanity,” he said. “No doubt in my mind.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. Free, confidential help is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You are not on your own.

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(WASHINGTON) — U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff made nearly $107 million last year from a holding company affiliated with World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency firm he cofounded with President Donald Trump and members of their respective families, according to financial disclosures obtained by a government watchdog. 

Witkoff, one of President Trump’s top negotiators working to broker peace deals in the Middle East and Ukraine, was at one point listed as a “co-founder emeritus” on World Liberty’s website, a title he shared with President Trump.

The firm is operated by Witkoff’s son, Zach Witkoff, and Trump’s three sons. 

Trump and Witkoff have both attracted scrutiny for their involvement in World Liberty Financial, which recently secured preliminary approval from the Trump administration to operate as a bank. Critics say their private enterprise presents the appearance of a conflict of interest. 

World Liberty has repeatedly brushed aside conflict-of-interest concerns. In May 2025, World Liberty wrote on X that Witkoff was in the process of divesting himself from the firm and “has no operational role, no financial interest in WLFI deals, and no influence on day-to-day decisions.” 

Trump himself has reported earning $526 million from the sale of cryptocurrency tokens through World Liberty Financial, according to financial disclosures filed over the summer. He earned another $65 million from sales of equity in WLF’s holding company.

Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, told ABC News on Wednesday that Witkoff has now “fully divested from World Liberty Financial, and his prior commercial activities are completely unrelated to his efforts to end global conflicts on the President’s behalf.” 

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(NEW YORK) — At a time when Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts face local and federal backlash, some academics say that Black studies programs — several of which have been scaled back at colleges and universities across the nation — are more crucial than ever.

“The Trump administration has made clear to colleges and universities that they don’t want them doing anything that is race conscious. So, institutions are very cowardly defunding and eliminating these academic programs and departments that have enriched the campus for decades,” Dr. Shaun Harper, a professor at University of Southern California that specializes in racial equity, told ABC News.

According to Harper, President Donald Trump’s executive order in January 2025 targeting DEI initiatives in the private sector has fueled nationwide anti-DEI sentiment.

The executive order instructed the Departments of Justice and Education to investigate DEI programs at institutions of higher education.

Trump’s order doesn’t explicitly mention Black studies programs at colleges and universities, but it criticizes institutions of higher education that use “dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences.”

Following his order, the Department of Education sent a letter to colleges and universities, notifying them that they will investigate and sever federal funding if they maintain DEI programs that the administration considers illegal.

“Many institutions haphazardly scrubbed their websites of everything related to race,” Harper said.

The politicization of DEI at the federal level has created a “trickle-down effect” at institutions where Black history and experiences have been undervalued, according to Harper.

‘We’re not going anywhere. We won’t be erased’

The University of Texas at Austin is one of the institutions that has consolidated their department this year.

Dr. Danielle Clealand, an associate professor at UT Austin that researches Black politics, told ABC News that there was “shock” among faculty and students when they were notified about the consolidation.

“We were the largest Black Studies department in the nation, so it was devastating,” she said.

“It hurts really bad. I really don’t like that I don’t have a department anymore,” Aidan Keys, a fourth-year Ph.D. student in African and African Diaspora Studies at UT Austin, told ABC News.

In a letter to the campus community obtained by ABC News, UT Austin President Jim Davis announced that the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies would merge into the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis.

Other departments, such as Mexican American & Latina/o Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, were also brought under the single academic unit.

The university said it examined several factors to determine which programs should be merged like their size, student-to-faculty ratio and resource allocation.

“The University of Texas at Austin is committed to providing all of our students access to a world-class education,” Davis stated. “How we choose to organize ourselves and allocate the resources we steward impacts this important commitment.”

The announcement came after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s 2023 passage of SB 17, banning public colleges and universities from having DEI offices and offering training or hiring policies based on race, gender and sexual orientation.

A UT Austin spokesperson told ABC News that the bill didn’t apply to their curricula changes.

But Keys said that the university’s decision to merge Black Studies is still politically motivated.

“I think that the [Abbott] administration is trying their hardest to silence us and erase more leftist ideas from the campus,” she said.

According to Harper — the University of Southern California professor — recent cuts to Black studies programs appear to be more prevalent in institutions located in the U.S. Midwest and the South, based on his analysis.

“With the exception of historically Black colleges and universities, and perhaps a handful of other higher education institutions across the country, most predominantly white institutions have chronically failed to demonstrate their care for Black people,” he said.

While students at UT Austin can still major in Black studies, Indiana University Bloomington no longer offers a degree in African American and African Diaspora Studies (AAADS).

Instead, undergraduate and graduate students earn a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a subfield in AAADS.

“We are totally against it,” Professor Jakobi Williams, the chair of the AAADS department, told ABC News regarding the policy, adding that the department is advocating to reverse the degree title change.

“We’re not going anywhere. We won’t be erased,” he added.

The university’s decision to discontinue the AAADS major followed an Indiana state budget mandate — introduced by the Republican majority — requiring public institutions to graduate 15 students in a bachelor’s degree program, seven students in a master’s program and three students in a doctorate program over a three-year period to retain the degree.

Indiana University didn’t respond to ABC News’ request for comment on criticisms regarding the degree title change.

Williams explained that the AAADS department graduates about seven to 10 students annually across all degree programs.

‘What we do is so important’

Proponents of Black studies argue that the discipline is valuable because it encourages students to develop cultural knowledge.

“The nature of our discipline is to speak truth to power and train students and the public at large regarding issues like discrimination and socio-economic relations, especially in the larger African diaspora,” Williams said.

“Black Studies is experiencing a moment where we have to remind students why what we do is so important, not only to their academic experience but also to their training as citizens of this country,” Cleadland, the associate professor at UT Austin, explained.

Harper, the USC professor, said that reductions to these programs can produce significant consequences, especially for non-Black racial groups.

“If we have millions of college-educated white Americans who go into the world not knowing anything about any other population besides white people, they are going to make lots of costly, very embarrassing mistakes,” he said.

Harper also argued that Black studies and other disciplines have been challenged before, yet prevailed.

“Black Studies, Ethnic Studies, and Women’s Studies are incredibly resilient fields that have encountered politicized resistance,” he said. “We have seen and lived through this particular moment before, and those very important academic fields and disciplines survived.”

ABC News’ Deena Zaru contributed to this report.

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