California
Attorney general says Florida responsible for flying migrants to Sacramento
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s attorney general said the state of Florida appears to have arranged for a group of South American migrants to be dropped off outside a Sacramento church.
“While this is still under investigation, we can confirm these individuals were in possession of documentation purporting to be from the government of the State of Florida,” Bonta said in a statement late Saturday.
The documents said the migrants were transported through a program run by Florida’s Division of Emergency Management and carried out by contractor Vertol Systems Co., said Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for Bonta. Florida paid the same contractor $1.56 million last year to fly migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, and for a possible second flight to Delaware that never took place.
The 16 migrants who arrived in Sacramento on Friday are from Colombia and Venezuela. They entered the U.S. through Texas. They were transported to New Mexico then flown by a charter plane to California’s capital, where they were then dropped off in front of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, California officials said.
They were approached outside a migrant center in El Paso, Texas, by people who offered them jobs and travel assistance, said Eddie Carmona of PICO California, a faith-based group helping the migrants. They did not know they were being taken to Sacramento and arrived with few belongings, he said.
Vertol Systems Co. and the Florida Division of Emergency Management did not immediately respond Sunday to emails seeking comment.
Bonta said he is evaluating whether violations of civil or criminal law took place.
“While we continue to collect evidence, I want to say this very clearly: State-sanctioned kidnapping is not a public policy choice, it is immoral and disgusting,” Bonta said in a statement.
Washington
High court rejects case of woman on death row
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is leaving in place the sentence of a woman on death row in Alabama who helped her boyfriend kill his two young children.
The high court on Monday rejected an appeal from lawyers for Heather Leavell-Keaton. As is typical, the court rejected the case without comment.
Leavell-Keaton was convicted of murder in the death of 3-
year-old Chase DeBlase and manslaughter in the death of his sister, 4-year-old Natalie DeBlase. Prosecutors said she poisoned the children with antifreeze. There was also evidence the children’s father, John DeBlase, strangled them. The children’s remains were found in the woods in Alabama and Mississippi.
Leavell-Keaton was originally sentenced to death in 2015. A new sentencing hearing was ordered, however, after a court found that the judge who sentenced Leavell-Keaton to death erred by failing to give her a chance to speak on her own behalf before sentencing. She was sentenced to death again in 2021.
Leavell-Keaton ‘s lawyers argued in their petition to the Supreme Court that at the most recent sentencing hearing she should have been given the opportunity to present evidence of her good behavior in prison between 2015 and 2021.
Leavell-Keaton is one of five women on death row in Alabama.
John DeBlase was also convicted in the death of the children in a separate trial and sentenced to death. He remains on death row.
Washington
Trump lawyers meet with DOJ as charging decision nears in Mar-a-Lago case
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for Donald Trump met with Justice Department officials on Monday as a decision nears on whether to bring charges over the handling of classified documents at the former president’s Florida estate.
The Trump lawyers two weeks ago requested a meeting with Attorney General Merrick Garland to raise concerns about what they alleged was prosecutorial misconduct and overreach by the team led by special counsel Jack Smith. But a defense attorney meeting with Justice Department officials is also often used as an opportunity to try to persuade them against bringing criminal charges.
A trio of Trump attorneys — James Trusty, John Rowley and Lindsey Halligan — exited the Justice Department building in Washington on Monday morning after more than an hour inside. They got into a black sport utility vehicle and did not respond to reporters’ questions.
It was not immediately clear who from the Justice Department attended the meeting. Spokespeople for Smith and the Justice Department had no immediate comment on the meeting.
After it ended, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform in capital letters: “How can DOJ possibly charge me, who did nothing wrong” when no other presidents have been charged. He referenced the investigation into his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton, which ended without criminal charges, and a separate ongoing probe into the presence of classified documents at an office and home of President Joe Biden. And he characterized it as a “witch hunt.”
Unlike in the Trump investigation, though, Biden’s representatives initially alerted the Justice Department to the discovery of classified documents and consented to voluntary FBI searches. The FBI in the Trump investigation obtained a search warrant in August and recovered about 100 additional classified documents from Mar-a-Lago.
The investigation into the potential mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago is believed to be near its end, with a charging decision likely soon. Prosecutors have placed a broad cross-section of witnesses, including lawyers for Trump and close aides, before a grand jury.
Besides the Mar-a-Lago investigation, Smith is leading a separate probe into efforts by Trump and his allies to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election.
It’s not clear when or if charges might be brought.
