Nvidia, a top chipmaker, is denying a report that its CEO, Jensen Huang, was allegedly targeted in a Chinese spy plot.

According to a New York Times report published Thursday, U.S. intelligence officials allegedly determined that a top executive at a Singapore-based data center company who developed a "close relationship" with Huang was funneling information to Chinese officials in Beijing.

The executive was identified by the Times as Alice Huang, who was pictured together with the Nvidia CEO in 2024.

Nvidia denied the report in a statement to ABC News, saying Jensen Huang "talks with thousands of customer executives every year."

"Jensen's interactions with Ms. Huang are not unusual or unexpected," the statement read. "Meetings with customers are part of a CEO's job."

A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry also denied the report.

“The reports are baseless and purely slanderous smears against China,” spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Friday at his daily press briefing.

Neither Alice Huang nor her employer, Megaspeed International, responded to ABC News' request for comment.

According to the Times, President Donald Trump was briefed on U.S. intelligence officials' findings but did not take any action.

The White House has not yet responded to ABC News' request for comment.

Trump is a close ally of Jensen Huang, who has advised the president amid an artificial intelligence race with China. Jensen Huang was a guest at a White House state dinner in September, where Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping.

That same month, the CEO attended a luncheon for AI and tech industry leaders hosted by Trump at the White House.

Earlier this year, in January, Huang convinced the president to clear the way for advance chip sales to China, in a deal that gave the U.S. government 25% of the profits.

Trump also personally owns shares in Nvidia, the world's most publicly traded company.

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Christa Pike said in a statement released by her attorneys on Friday that she is "recovering" but had been "deeply hurt by the incompetence" after her botched execution in Tennessee last month.

"My body hurts. My arms hurt. My hands hurt. My throat hurts. I still struggle to speak. And the pain isn't just physical. There is pain in my mind and in my soul," she said.

Pike dictated her message to her legal team, the statement said.

The statement, her first public comments since the failed execution, comes one month after her execution date.

Pike touched on the day she was scheduled to be executed, the moments after she awoke and the toll the failed execution took on her in the statement.

Pike is currently in the infirmary at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville, Tennessee, the statement said.

"I walked into the execution chamber at Riverbend men's prison prepared to die. I had made my peace," she said. "I had told the people who loved me, supported me and stood by me through the years I was grateful for them. I had also told the people in the room and who were there to witness my execution that I was leaving them in loving kindness."

Pike said days after her survival, she awoke "confused and in pain."

She said she had "not contemplated life beyond that night" and was "deeply hurt by the incompetence that has put so many people in this terrible position."

According to Pike, she has been "largely isolated in the prison's medical ward," which has brought about "its own kind of pain."

She compared her current isolation to the 28 years she spent in solitary confinement, saying this is "a repeat of that condition."

Pike also acknowledged the "love and support" she has received, saying, "To know that so many people care about me, that they see me as a human being whose life matters, is something I cannot fully put into words."

"I don't know why I survived that night. I don't know what comes next. Some days, finding hope is harder than others," Pike said. "I am trying to heal, one day at a time. And I am holding on to the love and kindness of so many people who have reminded me that I am not alone."

Pike, 50, was sentenced to death after being convicted of the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.

"I continue to think about my victim's family and the terrible pain and loss they have endured," Pike said.

Slemmer's mother, May Martinez -- who had traveled from her home in Orange Park, Florida, to Nashville with her husband for the execution -- told ABC Jacksonville affiliate WJXX that she believes that the state failed her family.

"All I wanted was justice," Martinez told WJXX.

Witnesses to the Sept. 30 execution said that authorities appeared to administer two rounds of lethal pentobarbital but that Pike appeared to still be breathing an hour later when witnesses were escorted out of the chamber.

Pike reportedly asked, "Where am I?" after regaining consciousness in a hospital nearly a week after the botched execution left her critically injured and temporarily on a ventilator, according to one of her attorneys.

Pike is the first person reported to have survived lethal injection after being given medications, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

In the wake of the botched execution, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee ordered a temporary halt to scheduled executions in the state, and Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada resigned.

Speaking to reporters this week, Lee said he expected her sentence would remain unchanged, despite the circumstances.

"As it relates to a particular individual like Christa Pike and her crime, she is still incarcerated under the laws of the state of Tennessee. And I suspect her sentence will be the same as it was before, unless determined otherwise by the courts," Lee said.

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It was a dire warning, delivered on the biggest stage: Some 278,000 noncitizens were improperly registered to vote in federal elections and were poised to tilt the scales of the election in November, President Donald Trump warned in a primetime address to the nation in July.

"The real number is actually much higher," he added.

The president's bold claim set off a series of events that culminated in recent weeks with an unprecedented bid by the federal government to impose itself on state-run elections.

The Trump administration has sued the state of California and threatened other states over the issue of noncitizen voting, a longtime concern of the president and his administration despite experts saying it is already illegal and "vanishingly rare." Federal officials have demanded action after presenting to states what they say are lists of noncitizens who are registered to vote, gathered using a combination of federal immigration data and commercially available state voter registration rolls.

But in the final weeks of the campaign, as the administration implores state and local officials, both in and out of court, to investigate those individuals, the lists -- and the grandiose numbers Trump and his allies publicly trumpeted -- appear to be buckling under the scrutiny of state and local election officials.

In California, Washington and Nevada -- and beyond -- state and local officials say the lists provided by the Justice Department appear grossly inaccurate and justify the states' reluctance to purge individuals from registration lists so close to the election.

'Lack of credibility'

The Trump administration initially accused California of harboring over 190,000 noncitizen voters on its rolls over the summer. That sum was whittled down to 20,000 by the time the Justice Department filed its lawsuit against the state last week.

It's not clear why the administration reduced the figure so dramatically. But even the smaller figure seems inflated, according to state and local officials.

In court filings, officials in Los Angeles County said a preliminary review of 200 individuals on the list showed that nearly 40% "indicate that they were born in the United States, which is strong evidence of citizenship; and 71.2% of the records have no voting history."

Judge David Carter, the federal judge assigned to the case, rejected the Justice Department's push for an emergency intervention based in part on what he called the administration's "unreliability" and "lack of credibility."

Late last week, separate from its litigation against the state, the DOJ sent letters to every California county asking local elections officials to help identify potential voters who may be in the U.S. illegally, according to a letter described to ABC News.

"Within 48 hours, we ask that you commit to working with DOJ and DHS to identify who on the accompanying list is a citizen and who is not," according to the letter sent by Justice Department officials.

Since then, county election officials have been sifting through the lists. According to some county officials, the results so far seem to confirm their skepticism of the Trump administration's claims.

In Butte County, situated just north of the Sacramento Valley, officials received a list of 47 names from federal prosecutors late Friday. The county's top election official, Keaton Denlay, told ABC News that he personally reviewed what he called the Justice Department's "poorly formatted excel spreadsheet with missing and jumbled information."

Denlay found that 32 of the 47 individuals "are not on Butte county's active voter rolls," and another seven "did not have sufficient information for me to match to our voter list with confidence."

Officials in Nevada County received a list of just 10 names. Their review "found no evidence of non-citizen voting in the November 3, 2026 Election," an official said.

Of the 33 names sent to officials in San Benito County, officials there said, "a preliminary review ... indicated that not all listed individuals were currently registered to vote in San Benito County," without specifying how many.

Other county officials contacted by ABC News said they were either still reviewing the list or analyzing their legal obligation to cooperate with the Justice Department.

A Justice Department official told ABC News that, as of Thursday, the DOJ under Trump had charged roughly 200 individuals across the country with either illegal voting or unlawful voter registration-related offenses. 

'Tip of the iceberg'?

Federal prosecutors in Washington state convened the media on Monday for a press conference where they accused state leaders of knowingly allowing some 400 noncitizens to vote this fall, calling that figure just "the tip of the iceberg."

The top election official in Washington state issued a blistering response on Wednesday, claiming that a preliminary review of the Justice Department's list found a number of U.S. citizens, as well as "several" other individuals who are not registered to vote.

"The information you provided contains several glaring deficiencies," wrote Steve Hobbs, the Washington secretary of state in response the DOJ. "You provide no information about how the information was collected or what sources were used. Nor do you provide any backup documentation supporting your assertions."

Hobbs said this close to an election, the risk of removing individuals from registration lists or sequestering their ballots would risk disenfranchising eligible voters, a sentiment shared by election officials around the country and the judge overseeing the Justice Department's case in California. 

"It is almost certain more people named on this list are also United States citizens; those already identified may just be the 'tip of the iceberg' of individuals that would be wrongfully disenfranchised by the actions you request," Hobbs told the DOJ.

'There is no trust'

In August, federal officials alerted Nevada state leaders, including Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar, that there could be as many as 15,903 noncitizens registered to vote in the state. The two parties met on a video conference to discuss the figure.

According to a recording of the video conference obtained by ABC News, the meeting was not overtly hostile -- but there appeared to be palpable tension and some awkward exchanges, as Nevada officials seemed deeply skeptical of the claims made by Department of Homeland Security officials.

"So what you're saying is the 15,000 number has not been vetted?" a Nevada official asked, according to the recording.

"I probably wouldn't use the sentence, 'It hasn't been vetted,'" a DHS representative responded, adding that each individual has not "had a full manual review."

"So it went from 16,000, and then to the 185, and then down to zero from our perspective," Aguilar said.

"There's no trust in that relationship," Aguilar later told ABC News. "In order to have a working relationship, there has to be trust, and the fact that they continue to tear that trust apart and spread the misinformation and the lies that they are about our elections is wrong."

In response to a request by ABC News for comment earlier this month, DHS stood by its work, which it called "a service to Nevada's citizens," and accused Nevada officials of knowingly harboring illegal voters on its lists.

"Nevada knows the 185 names they keep waving around were never the full list of illegal voters," a Homeland Security spokesperson said in an email. "They were only the files [that immigration officials] had finished reviewing at the moment of the call. Since then, [immigration officials] have manually confirmed about 2,000 more aliens from the same list."

They concluded: "The review is just beginning."

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DoorDash is acquiring grocery delivery company Instacart in a deal valued at around $17 billion, the company announced on Thursday.

A release shared by both parties noted that DoorDash is purchasing the company at $65.00 per Instacart share, "a 26% premium to Instacart's closing price on October 22, 2026, the last trading day before media reports about a possible transaction. "

The company said the acquisition would give consumers a wider variety of store choices and "faster delivery options."

The release listed potential benefits for consumers, including 50,000 more stores for Instacart customers, one membership fee for DashPass and Instacart+ and more orders for local businesses.

"The combined company will offer grocers and retailers of every size DoorDash's delivery network and Instacart's grocery and fulfillment technology, in both apps and on stores' own websites, along with the advertising and AI tools each company has built," according to the release.

The companies said DoorDash is expected to keep Instacart mainstays, including the brand and app.

"Together, we could give stores of every size more of those tools and unlock the potential of grocery delivery," DoorDash CEO Tony Xu said in a statement.

Instacart CEO Chris Rogers said the deal would "offer an even better experience for customers and shoppers."

The release added the deal "is expected to close in the end of 2027 or the first half of 2028."

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A 10-year-old girl who was reported kidnapped from her apartment overnight was found safe, police in Oregon said.

Violet Hay was located at a residence in Oregon City at 2:45 p.m. Wednesday local time, over 12 hours after she was reported abducted from her home in Canby, officials said.

"I have great news. We found her safe and alive," Canby Police Chief Jose Gonzalez said during a news conference on Wednesday, getting emotional.

A SWAT team surrounded the residence and took a suspect into custody, he said.

Officers had responded earlier Wednesday, at approximately 1:47 a.m., to an apartment complex in Canby for the reported kidnapping, the Canby Police Department said.

"Investigators learned that at approximately 1:39 a.m., an unknown male reportedly entered an apartment, assaulted a 12-year-old child, and abducted 10-year-old Violet Hay," the police department said in a press release Wednesday.

Violet was "taken by force," and her 12-year-old sister was "viciously assaulted," Chris Owen, Clackamas County chief deputy district attorney, said during the briefing.

The 12-year-old girl was transported to a local hospital and is still receiving treatment, Canby Police Capt. James Murphy said during Wednesday's press briefing.

Murphy described the day's developments as "very dynamic" and said police are still investigating.

"We would like to learn more obviously about these circumstances involved in the case," he said.

Owen said the results of the investigation will be submitted to the district attorney's office Thursday morning and "we will make a charging decision concerning any suspect or suspects."

Police did not take any questions, citing the ongoing investigation.

Amid the search, police said investigators were interviewing family members and were working to collect any surveillance footage and develop a suspect and/or vehicle description.

The girl's mother and father are continuing to cooperate in the investigation, police said.

The search involves local and state authorities, as well as the FBI, according to Canby police. The police chief thanked all those involved in the search for Violet, saying, "Without their help, it would have been impossible for us to find her well and alive today."

"As a parent, I was anxious and I wanted to get it resolved, and I'm so glad that we found her alive and well," he said.

The Canby School District said there would be an increased police presence at Carus Elementary School, where Violet is a student, at dismissal on Wednesday "out of an abundance of caution."

"We recognize that news like this is deeply concerning and may cause fear and uncertainty for our families," the Canby School District said in a message to the school community. "During this difficult time, the most important things we can do are remain calm, stay close and connected with our children, and immediately report any information that could help investigators."

Anyone with tips is urged to contact Oregon State Police at 1-800-442-0776 and reference the Canby Police Department case No. 26-021300.

Canby is located about 25 miles south of downtown Portland.

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Two Colorado hikers remain missing after a search team found a tent, collapsed by snow, with items inside, the Chaffee County Sheriff's Office announced in a social media post on Tuesday.

Kaden Matsuda, 19, and Jackson Donlon, 20, left Colorado Mountain College Leadville's campus for a hike on Friday and did not return, according to the sheriff's office.

Authorities said they received a call about the missing hikers from staff at the college on Monday.

"Family and friends were interviewed, and it was learned that Kaden and Jackson planned on hiking Ice Mountain on the far north end of Chaffee County," authorities said.

Ice Mountain is located southeast of Aspen, in Colorado's Rocky Mountains.

"According to friends, Kaden and Jackson planned on returning from the hike on Saturday if they didn't feel safe. If they continued to Ice Mountain, they would return on Sunday," the sheriff's office noted.

Those close to the hikers also described them as "experienced hikers" and added they "should have had appropriate clothing," the sheriff's office said.

Matsuda's car was found at the trailhead with "about eight inches of snow on the ground but none under the vehicle," the sheriff's office said.

Authorities said it was raining in the area on Friday, and began snowing on Saturday afternoon.

The sheriff's office said search and rescue teams began a search mission for Matsuda and Donlon.

Forensic examinations on the hikers' phones indicated that they had not been used in 48 hours, authorities said.

"The service in the area would be almost nonexistent, and they certainly could have turned the phones off to preserve the batteries, which makes the 48 hours less concerning," the sheriff's office said.

On Tuesday, authorities said a helicopter spotted an object near Lake Ann.

"A search team was sent in on foot to this area and discovered that the object was the hiker's tent that had collapsed under the weight of the snow," the sheriff's office said.

The post continued, "There was no snow under the tent and there were no visible footprints in the snow, which suggested, again, this was all in place before the snow came in. Their sleeping bags, a stove and some clothing were inside the tent, but Kaden and Jackson were not located."

The sheriff's office said Ice Mountain "is a very technical climb, and it is recommended that hikers be very experienced when trying to tackle it. That is when it is dry."

Authorities said the mountain received one to two feet of snow, with three to four feet in some areas due to "sluffing and drifting."

Chaffee County Sheriff Andy Rohrich said authorities are "still optimistic" that the missing hikers "are hunkered down somewhere waiting to be rescued."

"Our window of opportunity is closing as poor weather is expected again later this week, so we are putting all our available resources in the field. We are also considering other potential destinations they may have been headed to other than Ice Mountain," Rohrich said in a statement.

Rohrich said both hikers are "strong" and added, "hope is not lost."

ABC News has reached out to Colorado Mountain College for more information.

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Labor icon Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers, has died at 96, her family said.

"We are deeply saddened to announce that our beloved mother, Dolores Huerta, has passed away today at the age of 96," her family said in a statement on her official Instagram account. "As you can imagine, this is an incredibly difficult time for us, and we ask for privacy as we grieve this incredible loss to our family. We know that many of you around the world share in our mourning, and we will be following up on plans to recognize and celebrate her incredible life and legacy."

A spokesperson for Huerta's family confirmed her cause of death was cancer.

Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) with fellow activists Cesar Chavez and Gilbert Padilla, which would eventually become the United Farm Workers of America. The union's work led to the first farmworker union contracts in U.S. history.

The union highlighted Huerta's coining of the popular labor motto "Si, Se Puede" ("Yes, we can") and her advocacy for farmworkers, women, immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community and "all marginalized people."

"Her life's work was to empower her community to face and overcome injustices, and she has left farm workers and the entire Latino community stronger and more organized than she found it," said UFW President Teresa Romero. 

Huerta was born on April 10, 1930, in Dawson, a small mining town in northern New Mexico to Mexican parents involved in union activism. She grew up in Stockton, California, and became active in community and labor organizations as an adult.

Huerta became a teacher in rural California in the 1950s and said life wasn’t always easy for Mexican-Americans, witnessing mistreatment, extreme poverty and starving children.

"We still have that racism that exists that I had to confront when I was a teenager growing up," Huerta told "Good Morning America" in 2020.

She began seeing how horrendous life was for farm workers in California.

"They were only earning like 50 cents an hour," Huerta said. "They had no unemployment insurance, farmworkers, because they migrated from, you know, from county to county. They weren't even able to have any kind of access to the food banks ... no bathrooms in the field, especially for the women. That was really horrible."

She said she knew it was her calling to fight discrimination and help improve the lives of farmworkers. First, she joined a grassroots group called the Community Service Organization. That’s when she met Chavez and her mentor, Fred Ross Sr., who she calls the godfather of the farmworkers' movement.

She founded the Agricultural Workers Association in 1960 before joining Chavez and Padilla to form the NFWA two years later.

Huerta played a pivotal role in the Delano grape strike of 1965 and led the subsequent national boycott of table grapes, which successfully pressured growers to improve wages and working conditions.

Huerta founded the Dolores Huerta Foundation in 2002, a civic advocacy organization supporting marginalized, low-income and immigrant communities

She was also a strong advocate for women, campaigning for reproductive rights and serving as an honorary co-chair of the 2017 Women's March in Washington, D.C.

In 2012, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her decades of advocacy in civil rights and women's equality.

Allegations against Chavez and continuing work

In 2026, Huerta spoke exclusively to ABC's John Quiñones in response to a New York Times article detailing allegations that Chavez abused women and minors. Chavez died in 1993.

Huerta said that she was "manipulated and pressured into having sex" with Chavez She detailed two separate sexual encounters with him in the 1960s -- one in which she said she was pressured to have sex with him, and another in which she said she was forced against her will.

"And to think that somebody that we looked at as our hero and our leader -- you know, it's pretty horrible," Huerta said.

Huerta said both encounters she had with Chavez led to pregnancies that she kept secret, later arranging for the children to be raised by other families.

"I thought that abortion was a sin," Huerta told Quiñones. "I have since changed my mind on those issues because I now realize that women have to have a right to abortion. And by the way, abortion was also illegal at that time."

She said that one of the children was raised by her brother and the other was raised by a family friend.

Huerta said at the time that she remained committed to her work, focusing on current threats to labor rights and the treatment of immigrants in detention centers.

"My intention is just to do the work, make lives better for women, make lives better for working people," Huerta said. "We know that the job isn't finished yet."

"At my age, 96, as long as God gives me strength and the little energy that I have left, I want to just continue doing the work to make life better for women, for children, and of course, for farmworkers and workers in general," she said. 

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Two right-wing provocateurs, James O'Keefe and Cam Higby, are facing election-related charges in Minnesota after posting videos of an undercover stunt intended to expose alleged deficiencies in election security. 

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said each man faces a count of unlawful voting and identity theft. 

"Elections are the bedrock of democracy and their protection is one of our highest priorities," Moriarty said in a statement. "Individuals engaging in unlawful conduct related to our elections will be held accountable." 

O'Keefe, a self-proclaimed "guerilla journalist" infamous for his undercover videos, and Higby, a social media influencer, posted the video at the heart of the charges in August. It shows the two men approaching election judges at multiple voting precincts in Minneapolis wearing burqas, speaking in fake accents, and allegedly misrepresenting their identities, in an effort to expose what O'Keefe and Higby say are gaps in the rules that allow residents to vouch for the identity of other voters. 

The video, which remains pinned on Higby's X account, is called "I Wore Burqa To EXPOSE Election FRAUD In Minneapolis." 

No ballots were cast in the course of their efforts.

Prosecutors said Wednesday that O'Keefe and Higby deceived the election judges by using the identities of real Minnesota voters "without those voters' knowledge or permission" in violation of state law. Each count carries up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Neither man is in custody, according to charging documents. 

In a statement shared on X, Higby said, "No laws were broken. They want me in PRISON for exposing election vulnerabilities in their state." O'Keefe did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Steve Simon, the state's top election official, said in a statement that "any attempt to disrupt or deceive our election workers will not be tolerated." 

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Attorneys for two former FBI agents charged with lying to Congress about past probes of Hunter Biden are back in court Wednesday seeking to convince a magistrate judge to immediately dismiss their case, citing a lack of evidence and alleged prosecutorial misconduct.

In a marathon hearing Tuesday, magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui lambasted the conduct of federal prosecutors, striking from the record a superseding complaint they attempted to file in the case because it lacked proper signoff from a judge.

Faruqui said the growing record of "inappropriate" actions by the government was "throwing enormous amounts of gasoline onto this fire," which supported arguments from lawyers for former agents Nikki Floris and Brian Benavides that the charges against them were politically motivated.

"And so everything you're doing just is making me more and more concerned that there's something to that," Faruqui told DOJ prosecutors.

The Justice Department on Friday charged Floris and Bradley with allegedly making false statements to Congress stemming from a probe into whether investigators in the lead-up to the 2020 election sought to suppress or discredit the veracity of material on the laptop of former President Joe Biden's son that included embarrassing photos and videos.

Under cross-examination by attorneys for Floris and Benavides, FBI agent Bryan Witt, who was tasked with investigating their clients, disclosed that the genesis for the entire case was President Donald Trump's July speech that centered around unverified claims of fraud in past U.S. elections.

Witt said that following the speech, FBI Director Kash Patel personally assigned the investigation of a list of former agents, including Floris and Benavides, to the FBI's Kansas City field office.

Witt, who conceded that the sequence of events was unusual, further testified that the office received regular check-ins from FBI leadership on the status of their probe.

At the start of Wednesday's hearing, a DOJ attorney sought to object to a line of questioning related to Trump and Patel's personal involvement in initiating the investigation.

Faruqui seemed skeptical of the objection, saying that the testimony appeared to be directly relevant to his eventual determination of whether there is sufficient probable cause for the charges.

"It's not typical that the president of the United States says go investigate people," Faruqui said. "So that seems to squarely fit within an investigation to the reasonableness of the basis for the charge."

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Lawyers representing Meta and Snap will be back in court this week in the latest trial over claims their apps were designed to get teens and children hooked.

Jury selection begins Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court in the next potential bellwether case involving two teenage girls who say addictive features like "Snapstreaks," push notifications and view counts worsened their mental health.

In the complaint, an18-year-old from Mississippi who goes by "K.D.B." claims her compulsive use of Snapchat and Instagram, which is owned by Meta, contributed to depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicidal thoughts.

"To this day, the addictive qualities of Defendants’ products and their harmful algorithms are not fully known or understood by minor users or their parents," the plantiffs' lawyers wrote in the complaint.

In a statement to ABC News, a Snap spokesperson said the allegations "misrepresent" the plantiffs' experiences on the app.

"From the beginning, Snapchat was built differently from traditional social media: it opens to a camera, not a feed, not a ranking of what other people post or other social comparison metrics. We have built safeguards into the platform, introduced safety tools and educational resources, and we believe the evidence will support that we have put our community first, and that these allegations fundamentally misrepresent the plaintiffs' experiences on Snapchat and how our platform was designed,” the Snap spokesperson said.

Meta has previously pushed back on allegations it does not protect young users on its platforms, pointing to features like Teen Accounts.

A Meta spokesperson responded to the latest lawsuit, telling ABC News: "We disagree with these allegations and will defend ourselves in court. A young person's mental health is shaped by many factors, as the evidence in this trial will show. The plaintiff used TikTok far more than Instagram or Facebook, and her personal circumstances were a substantial factor in her struggles," adding, "We've spent more than a decade building protections for teens, and our agreement with 52 bipartisan attorneys general goes even further with strict time limits, no access at night, and no notifications during school hours. We hope the rest of our industry joins us in setting this new standard."

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and Instagram's top executive Adam Mosseri are expected to testify in November.

A similar landmark trial in the same courtroom against Meta and YouTube in March saw a jury side with the plaintiff "K.G.M." and award her $6 million in damages. The companies are appealing. Snap and TikTok settled before the trial.

Meta has faced a slew of high-stakes legal battles this year as states, school districts and individuals try to use the courts to force tech companies to pay penalties and make changes to their products.

In a historic settlement with 48 states in August, Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion and make significant changes to its apps for young users including setting time limits, disabling some filters and hiding like counts. Meta did not admit wrongdoing.

The tech giant is calling for other companies including TikTok, YouTube and Snap to make similar changes to their apps in order to implement a "new industry standard" toward safety.

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Loved ones of Cody Birchfield, the murder victim of escaped Tennessee inmate Jacob Morley, are speaking out amid the manhunt for the 28-year-old fugitive as authorities upped the reward for information leading to his arrest.

Birchfield's sister and friends discussed the pain imposed by Morley's escape in separate statements to ABC News.

Carrie Norman, Birchfield's sister, said she was "reliving this horrible tragedy all over again."

Authorities announced on Wednesday the reward for information leading to Morley's arrest has reached a combined $15,000.

According to ABC News Tennessee affiliate WJHL, Morley was found guilty of murder in 2022. He was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Birchfield, a previously missing man whose body was discovered buried underneath Morley's home, according to the outlet.

Norman added, "I find myself asking the public for help to find my brother's murderer when he should be in prison locked away."

"He was a kind man that would help anyone by basically giving them the shirt of his back if they needed it," Norman said in a statement on Tuesday.

Diana Reid, a friend of Birchfield, said she was "horrified" that the convicted murderer could escape.

"Just knowing his killer is now on the run is terrifying. This news has made it difficult to even sleep or think clearly. How can you when you're being forced to relive the emotions of losing someone to murder, all while knowing the person responsible is out there somewhere?" she said.

Reid remembered her friend as a "good man with a heart for helping others."

She shared her concern for "public safety," adding, "We don't know what he may be willing to do to avoid being captured, and that's what scares me most."

Morley, who is serving a life sentence, escaped from the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) announced Monday.

"At approximately 11:30 p.m. on October 25, 2026, staff at NWCX confirmed Morley was unaccounted for and immediately conducted an emergency count and search of the facility," the agency said.

Security cameras "confirmed Morley breached the perimeter fence and exited the facility in his TDOC uniform," officials said.

On Monday, authorities released a photo of a stolen truck sought in connection with the inmate. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) said newly obtained footage "shows Morley stealing a white 2008 Ford F-350, Tennessee tag 138BBQV" at approximately 1 a.m. Monday from the 400 block of Keystone Drive.

On Tuesday, the TBI announced that authorities located the truck in Marion, Illinois, but Morley's location remained unknown.

ABC News' Madeline Wheeler contributed to this report.

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When the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015, then-President Barack Obama said, "This agreement represents the best chance we've had to save the one planet that we've got.”

But a decade later, a new report, led by University College London in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), finds that while progress has been made, many detrimental health indicators linked to climate change are moving in the wrong direction. The report's authors are also warning that problems aren't just increasing -- they're accelerating.

"A decade after the Paris Agreement, our findings are unambiguous: the health harms of climate change are growing faster than the world's response to them, and in many cases even accelerating," said Marina Romanello, a professor at University College London and the executive director of the Lancet Countdown in a statement.

The 2026 report of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change includes findings from 146 researchers at more than 100 institutions in more than 30 countries. Researchers found evidence that heat was linked, on average, to more than 540,000 estimated deaths per year from 2016, when the Paris Agreement went into effect, through 2023, the latest year with available data. The researchers attribute 68% of those fatalities to climate change.

"These numbers point to a clear emergency," Romanello said in a statement. "The rate of increase in many climate-related health threats is accelerating, while heat deaths linked to climate change have reached a record-high, and the economic toll is battering vulnerable sectors and communities the hardest."

The past 11 years have been the 11 hottest on record. In 2023, heat could be linked to 710,000 estimated deaths, with more than 71% attributable to climate change, the report said. That number exceeded the loss of life from malaria or HIV, according to the researchers. For the entire period of 2016 to 2023, the report found that nearly 3 million deaths could be connected to climate change.

According to the report, heat is also taking a toll on the global economy. Because of reduced productivity, the researchers estimated that the world lost more than a trillion dollars in potential income in 2025. They say it's the third consecutive year that losses topped the trillion-dollar mark.

"The threats to people's health and people's survival have reached unprecedented levels, with many of these threats and impacts even accelerating in the last decade with respect to the previous one," Romanello said.

The researchers also found the pace at which land is being hit by extreme drought accelerated by about 700% between 2016 and 2025 compared with the decade before the Paris Agreement. In 2025, more than half of the world's land experienced extreme drought for at least a month. In other cases, climate change brought too much precipitation, which can result in flash flooding. The report found that the share of land hit by very extreme rainfall rose from 14.8% between 2006 to 2015 to 17.2% from 2016 to 2025.

"The risks become even more profound when you consider how different hazards interact and compound. At the same time, drought is spreading, and the world is swinging to water extremes, some drying out, while others are flooding. This isn't a gradual worsening; it's a step change that must be recognized as the global health emergency it is," Romanello said.

But it's not all bad news. The report noted that global investment in clean energy grew by more than 7% in 2025, reaching a record $2.1 trillion. That's 82% more than was invested in fossil fuel energy sources, according to the researchers. The report said new investment helped renewables grow from 5.5% of global electricity generation in 2016 to 13.5% in 2023. As a result, the report found that cleaner air prevented an estimated 323,000 deaths a year in dozens of countries, though increases elsewhere offset those gains globally.

Still, despite the growth of renewable energy, fossil fuels accounted for over 80% of global energy supply, the report found, and the authors say the resulting air pollution is responsible for about 2.7 million deaths worldwide each year.

Based on their findings, the report's authors say climate change should now be treated as a "global health emergency" and they laid out six priorities for a "health-centered response" to the warming planet.

For one, they say the WHO and United Nations should use their existing resources to respond to the challenges, and they recommend that the WHO create a new way to formally recognize climate change as a health emergency and coordinate a global response. They also suggest making health and well-being core objectives and measures of success in all climate action.

The authors say countries and global institutions need to make climate and health a top priority and they call for cutting greenhouse gas emissions quickly and fairly to protect people's health. In addition, the researchers recommend creating a shared pool of climate and health data that everyone can use and having wealthier countries provide more grants and low-interest loans.

"We have not really managed to tackle climate change 10 years after the Paris Agreement, and we're seeing these escalating health harms that have made climate change now a very severe, very grave global health emergency that requires an urgent emergency response to be adequately addressed," Romanello said.

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A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., has refused to indict former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson on charges of lying to Congress over her testimony before the House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News. 

The failed indictment is the latest setback for the Justice Department in its support of what critics call a campaign of retribution by President Donald Trump, who has long accused Hutchinson of lying to the committee regarding his actions surrounding the Capitol assault. 

Republicans have long sought to undercut Hutchinson's testimony regarding a story she said had been relayed to her secondhand about President Trump lunging for the steering wheel of his presidential limo following his speech on the Ellipse on Jan. 6. 

Trump has vehemently denied the account and other White House employees did not corroborate the specific detail about Trump lunging.

The Washington Post first reported that a grand jury refused to indict Hutchinson. 

Former special counsel Jack Smith, who indicted President Trump for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, has said he opted not to treat Hutchinson as a material witness after determining much of her testimony was based on hearsay.  Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges related to Jan. 6 and Smith's case against him was ultimately dismissed.

Hutchinson has maintained that she stands by her testimony. She could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday. 

A Justice Department spokesperson also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

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Police in Winter Park, Florida, released body camera footage of officers responding to an i9 youth soccer game on Saturday amid a dispute over 3-year-old soccer player Nevada Pierre, who dominated the field, prompting concerns over other children getting to play.

Body camera video released on Monday shows the league's athletic director telling police, who responded to the incident, that he decided to call 911 after a female parent began livestreaming their interaction on social media.

He explained that the dispute with the parent, who identified herself to ABC News as Nevada's mother Martasia Griffin, began after the 3-year-old's parents disagreed with his decision to "swap out" Nevada to give other children a chance to play.

"What happened is he's very advanced compared to the other ones. So he scored a lot of goals, but he pushes the kids to do all that stuff. So I try to tell him, 'Hey, stop! Don't [push]. You want to play with that person, right?'"[The parents] don't like that. They tell me I'm ignorant. I'm this. I'm that," he said.

In the 911 audio of the call, which was released by police, the athletic director tells the dispatcher that he is calling to report an alleged "unruly parent" who is live-streaming their interaction on social media.

"There's a parent here that's really really disruptive ... following me around and calling me names and in front of this whole bunch of people that's here," he said in the call. "I want [her] to be gone ... Can you have someone quickly get here?"

Griffin told ABC News that she was standing up for her son after she learned that he was going to be benched, after being sidelined multiple times in previous games, to give other children the chance to play amid complaints from other parents.

"I was only walking behind him because he said that he's the director. So I'm trying to figure out what are you gonna do? Like my son should play," she said of her interaction with the athletic director.

Griffin acknowledged that when her son plays, he dominates the field.

"It's just his movement. How he's moving around with the ball. Nobody can't touch the ball," she said.

Griffin said that people were "yelling" at her son to "pass the ball," and when he saw the police, he "was scared as if he did something wrong." She said the experience damaged "his spirit."

"At some point, Nevada's feelings has to ... matter too," Griffin said. "Everybody's worrying about their kids' feelings. Their kid want playing time. Their kid want to kick the ball. My kid do too. He don't know why he's sitting down. Why everybody else is playing?"

Griffin also claimed that she heard other parents tell their children to push her 3-year-old son on the field. Nevada plays in a league with 5-year-olds, according to his mother.

In a statement, the i9 sports program said that they are "aware of concerns" regarding this incident and "take them very seriously."

"The respectful treatment and well-being of every child and family matter deeply to us. We have reached out to the family and have begun a review that includes speaking with those involved," the statement said. "While we work to understand the circumstances, we will not speculate or share unverified information. We appreciate everyone who has brought their concerns to our attention."

The Winter Park league's athletic director didn't respond to ABC News' request for comment.

Griffin said that her son trains for three hours a day with his father and is advanced for his age, so he excels on the field, regardless of playing with children older than him.

According to the league's ethos, as outlined in the i9 Sports Experience, there is a "focus on fun" and they are committed to giving the children the opportunity at "equal playing time regardless of talent level."

The league's "sportsmanship values" include "being a team player" and "inclusion" -- "to ensure everyone is treated equally and fairly," and "giving everyone a chance to play regardless of differences," the i9 website says.

Police said during their interaction with the director in the body camera video that this is a "civil" matter and "not criminal" and while they couldn't force Nevada's family out of the park because it's a public space, they could tell them that they couldn't participate in the program anymore.

Griffin is seen in the video asking for a "refund," and the director said he would fully refund what they paid.

The officers are seen having a conversation with Nevada's parents and told them that the youth sports league would get in contact with them about refunding their money in a week or two. The family then left the field on their own accord, the video shows.

She noted that the i9 league offered Nevada a chance to join another league for free, but it was three hours away, so the family declined.

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The Alexander brothers were each sentenced to 30 years in prison on Tuesday, after being found guilty on all counts in their federal sex trafficking trial in New York City.

The former real estate titans, Oren and Alon Alexander, 39-year-old twins, along with their brother, Tal Alexander, 40, were accused by prosecutors of a "decade-long sex trafficking and sexual abuse scheme."

The three brothers will have to participate in sex offender treatment programs in prison, the judge said. In addition to their prison terms, the brothers were each sentenced to 10 years of supervised release.

Oren and Alon Alexander were also ordered to pay $300,000 each in fines, and Tal Alexander was ordered to pay $350,000 in fines, as well as restitution, which will be determined by attorneys from both sides. Oren Alexander, who was also convicted of sexually exploiting a minor by distributing homemade child sex abuse material of a 17-year-old girl in 2009, was ordered to pay an additional $50,000 immediately.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Espinosa asked the judge for the maximum sentence -- life in prison -- for all three brothers, arguing that the government does not believe one is more culpable than the others in what prosecutors called an "immense" sex trafficking scheme.

"They spent years designing, executing, and perfecting their playbook of luring victims with promises of luxury, drugging victims so they could not resist, and then forcibly raping them," prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed ahead of Tuesday's hearing. "The defendants carried out their playbook time and time again, drugging, raping, and assaulting dozens of victims. Over 70 women came forward with harrowing accounts of assault that stripped them of their dignity and autonomy."

Defense attorneys argued that the brothers should serve lighter sentences -- 15 years, the minimum for sex trafficking -- while maintaining their innocence.

"At no time did Alon, Oren or Tal rape or sexually assault another person. At no time did Alon, Oren or Tal entice, harbor, or maintain a woman to have commercial sex. At no time did Alon, Oren or Tal administer a drug or other substance to a woman against her will or without her knowledge. At no time did Oren intentionally make or distribute child pornography," defense attorneys wrote in their sentencing memorandum on behalf of the three brothers. "They are innocent of these charges, and they show honor and respect to our system of justice by vowing to fight for their innocence with all of their power for as long as is required, confident in the notion that one day they will be free to live out their lives with their children and families."

The brothers' friends and family members also submitted letters to Judge Valerie Caproni asking for leniency, describing their character and dedication to family.

The brothers addressed the court prior to learning their sentences during Tuesday's hearing in Manhattan, continuing to claim that they never sexually assaulted or drugged anybody.

Judge Caproni admonished the brothers for continuing to maintain their innocence.

"You did not have to stand up and say you’ve never raped anyone," Caproni said while handing down their sentences. "That's a lie and you know it."

A dozen women delivered victim impact statements during Tuesday's hearing, including six who testified during the federal trial.

Prosecutors thanked those who came forward in the case "to ensure that the defendants can no longer harm others."

"The defendants preyed on women and young girls, using drugs and violence to incapacitate them so they could rape them. The defendants did this for years --inflicting unspeakable harm on so many young women.  And, for years, the defendants used their careers and social status to conceal the danger they posed," U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said in a statement. "Today's sentence makes clear that this craven, sinister conduct is extraordinarily serious and will be met with serious punishment."

Throughout the five-week trial, 11 women testified that they were sexually assaulted by one or more of the brothers. At least eight of the women claimed they were drugged by one of the Alexanders. 

The brothers denied sexually assaulting anyone or running a sex trafficking conspiracy, as prosecutors have charged. They pleaded not guilty. A spokesperson for the Alexander family called the verdict "deeply disappointing."

"We believe there are substantial problems with the evidence and the way this case was presented," the spokesperson, Juda S. Engelmayer, said in a statement following the jury's verdict in March. "The legal process does not end here. We will continue fighting every day until justice is done and the three brothers regain their freedom."

Oren and Tal Alexander gained notoriety in New York's luxury real estate market through their company, Alexander Group, and have been under federal investigation alongside Alon since late 2024.

They have been accused of luring women to nightclubs and parties, then drugging and sexually assaulting them.

In his closing statement during the spring trial, federal prosecutor Andrew Jones said there is "crushing evidence" that the brothers "masqueraded as party boys when really they were predators" who committed an "array of federal sex offenses."

Jones recounted the graphic accounts of the alleged victims and said the wealthy brothers had a "playbook" of luring women with exclusive parties, yachts and luxury travel so they could assault them.

During closing arguments, defense attorney Howard Srebnick conceded the brothers could be "obnoxious" and their conduct "inappropriate," but he told the jury, "Nobody was being assaulted, nobody had been trafficked."

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to unfreeze a Biden-era policy that allowed immigration judges to use their discretion to temporarily close deportation cases for immigrants.

In an unsigned order, the court rejected a request from three cities with large migrant populations -- Baltimore as well as Columbus, Ohio, and New Haven, Connecticut -- to pause an agreement between Texas and the Trump administration that threw out the policy.

There were no noted dissents. 

The regulation, known as "administrative closure," gives immigration judges discretion to temporarily pause deportation proceedings for migrants while the migrants seek humanitarian protections or other forms of legal status in the country.

The Trump administration has pushed to curtail judicial processes for unlawful migrants, and the high court's conservative majority has been largely deferential to executive authority in the area of immigration policy.

Deportation hearings in immigration court are legal proceedings initiated by the Department of Homeland Security in which an immigration judge determines whether a migrant should be removed from the United States. Often, an immigration judge will pause or dismiss a case to allow the individual to pursue legal relief. 

While dismissals were viewed as a positive outcome for migrants, immigration attorneys have said the Trump administration, as part of its immigration crackdown, began to use dismissals to detain people at immigration courts and place them into expedited removal without allowing them to fight their case.

Last year, federal agents arrested hundreds of migrants at immigration courts -- in some cases after their deportation cases were dismissed. 

In court filings, the cities argued that administrative closure promoted "efficiency" and protected "due process rights." They also argued that the practice has existed in various forms for decades.

In June, the state of Texas sued the federal government, arguing that the policy granted "indefinite amnesty to aliens illegally present in this country."

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A thief who stole earrings valued at over $760,000 and later swallowed them while being arrested is set to be sentenced in December after he was found guilty of grand theft and robbery, the state attorney's office for Florida's ninth judicial circuit announced.

Jaythan Gilder received the guilty verdict last week after a trial surrounding the theft of jewelry at a Tiffany & Co. store in Orlando, Florida, the state attorney's office said.

According to the prosecutor's office, "In February 2025, Gilder posed as a representative negotiating a jewelry purchase on behalf of a professional basketball player."

Prosecutors say Gilder then grabbed and attempted to leave with $760,000 worth of merchandise and used "force" against an employee while trying to escape.

According to an affidavit for an arrest warrant, Gilder also attempted to leave with a ring, which was slapped out of his possession and recovered at the scene of the robbery.

Gilder was later arrested, after which prosecutors say he "swallowed the stolen earrings in an attempt to conceal the evidence."

A video posted by the Orlando Police Department describing the crime said that while Florida Highway Patrol stopped Gilder, "they noticed items in his mouth he was attempting to swallow, which a body scan at the Washington County Jail later found to be foreign objects suspected to be the Tiffany's earrings."

Authorities "monitored" Gilder over a nearly two-week time period "before recovering the jewelry," prosecutors say.

"After the diamonds were expelled from his system, we were able to bring the diamonds to Tiffany's where they were cleaned and where their master jeweler looked at the inscription or serial numbers on the diamonds and confirmed they were the very diamonds that were stolen on the 26th [of February]," the police video added.

"This case involved not only a significant financial loss, but also the safety of employees who were confronted with violence while simply doing their jobs," state attorney Monique Worrell said in a statement. "This verdict sends a clear message that violence and theft will not be tolerated in our community."

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A federal judge has ordered a top Department of Justice official back into court after President Donald Trump posted on his social media account affirming that East Potomac Golf Course will close Nov. 15 for renovations — directly contradicting repeated assertions from administration officials in a hearing last week. 

District Judge Ana Reyes has ordered Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward to clarify whether his prior statements to her that there were no plans to close the course remain accurate.

She further ordered Woodward's attendance at a hearing either Friday or Monday where she is expected to press the government for more updates on its compliance with her injunction barring further construction at East Potomac. 

In a sharply worded 70-page ruling, Reyes criticized the Trump administration over its plans for the historic golf course in Washington, D.C., and concluded the administration likely violated environmental laws in the process.

"Rarely, if ever, has the United States Department of Justice urged a federal court not to believe the sitting President," Reyes wrote. "Not to believe him that a cabinet secretary has 'developed' a federal land project. Not to believe him that the secretary's agency will destroy a historic golf course already on the land. Not to believe him that 'Restoration work' will begin 'IMMEDIATELY!' Not to believe him that the course 'will be closed' for over a year. Not to believe what the President has repeatedly told the American public. And yet, here we are."

The case began over golf and long walks, Reyes said, but has now morphed into an effort to reconcile sworn statements made by members of the administration with statements made by Trump.

The administration must give "ten business days' written advance notice before making any irreparable modification to any forms or features of East Potomac Park, pending the outcome of this litigation," Reyes said.

Hours before the hearing was set to start, the president had posted on social media that construction on East Potomac Golf Course would begin immediately, despite the administration suggesting to the court that it would not.

"If, as DOJ insists, President Trump is wrong, Secretary Burgum can just say so," Reyes wrote. "He has not. That said, at this juncture Plaintiffs carry the burden of showing a final plan likely exists. They have done so. This is confirmed not just by the President's and Secretary's many posts, but also by the Government's actions, not the least of which is the removal of hundreds of healthy, non-invasive trees on no real notice."

The tree removal had been scheduled a week earlier, but Reyes concluded that those involved in the lawsuit had little notice to stop the cutting.

The administration also likely violated environmental laws — specifically the National Environmental Policy Act -- by "segmenting" the environmental impacts of the construction, she said.

Trump said his administration will appeal the ruling, insisting he will move forward with his plans to shut down the course on Nov. 15 to start the project. 

"We are closing the East Potomac Golf Course Site as scheduled on November 15th in order to renovate and rebuild for Competitive (with other such projects!), Safety, Modernization, and Aesthetic reasons," Trump wrote on his social media platform overnight. 

He said the judge's request for updates is "unconstitutional." 

"We believe this Project is totally 'as of right,' and that the judge does not have the Constitutional Right to 'ask for or receive notices,' which are time-consuming, unnecessary, expensive, and unconstitutional. We will immediately appeal this decision," Trump wrote. 

During a gaggle with reporters on Monday night after his Mississippi rally, Trump also said he has a "go-ahead" to work on the renovations and blasted the judge for being an "architectural critic of golf courses."

"It's not my golf course, it's a public course being built in Washington D.C. and it has a go-ahead," Trump said.

He added that the current public course is "extremely dangerous to play" because it is too close together and that he was asking the D.C. Circuit Court for "immediate remedy."

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A Florida mother has been arrested after she allegedly left her four children, who are under 14 years old, home alone while she was working in Las Vegas, according to officials.

Irene Miller, 50, was arrested on four counts of child neglect, the Osceola County Sheriff's Office announced Monday.

Miller told investigators she was working in Las Vegas and a babysitter was checking on the children, according to the sheriff's office. When she returned to Florida, investigators took her into custody, according to the sheriff's office.

On Oct. 21, just after 8:30 p.m., one of the children called 911 and reported that a dumbbell had fallen on her 9-year-old brother's head, according to the sheriff's office.

Deputies responded and found four children, ages 14, 12, 11 and 9, without an adult, according to the sheriff's office.

The injured 9-year-old child was taken to the hospital, treated and released, according to the sheriff's office.

Deputies then contacted the children's mother, who told them she was working in Las Vegas, the sheriff's office said.

An attorney for Miller did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.

Miller told deputies a babysitter was checking on the children before and after school but was not required to stay overnight, according to the sheriff's office.

The children's father was contacted and agreed to take them to his residence on Friday, the sheriff's office said.

She left Kissimmee, Florida, on Oct.18 and planned to return on Oct. 23, investigators said.

Detectives met her when she returned, and she was booked into the Orange County jail, the sheriff's office said.

According to jail records, she has since been released.

"The Osceola County Sheriff's Office will not tolerate child neglect. These cases will be investigated, and charges will be brought against the parents who are not properly supervising or caring for their children," Osceola County Sheriff Chris Blackmon said in a statement Monday.

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Attorneys for a former FBI agent charged with lying to Congress about the probe into Hunter Biden's laptop computer called the charges "a serious abuse of the criminal charging process" Tuesday.

The Justice Department on Friday charged two former senior FBI officials for allegedly making false statements to Congress, stemming from a probe into whether investigators in the lead-up to the 2020 election sought to suppress or discredit the veracity of material on the laptop of former President Joe Biden's son that included embarrassing photos and videos.

Nikki Floris, the former deputy assistant director for FBI's Counterintelligence Division, and Bradley Benavides, another former senior counterintelligence official, both appeared Friday in a federal district court in D.C., where they were charged through a criminal complaint with making false statements to Congress. 

The DOJ then added an obstruction of a congressional proceeding charge against two former FBI officials prior to a hearing on the matter on Tuesday. Both former agents deny all charges.

"The government's last-ditch filing before the pre-scheduled preliminary hearing in this case is not merely procedurally improper and substantively deficient," Floris' attorneys said. "It represents a serious abuse of the criminal charging process, a troubling disregard for the judicial safeguards governing the initiation of criminal proceedings, and a calculated effort to evade judicial scrutiny and shield the government's allegations from adversarial testing at the scheduled preliminary hearing." 

Court records filed on Tuesday added the obstruction charge and described how the charges are based on witness accounts and other documents of the alleged conduct dating as far back as 2020.

The Justice Department alleges that the pair knowingly lied to Congress on two separate occasions -- on July 19, 2023, for Floris, and on Sept. 28, 2023, for Benavides.

"The evidence further establishes that probable cause exists to believe that Floris and Benavides made these statements for the purpose of minimizing or concealing [the FBI Foreign Influence Task Force's] engagement with, and communications about, the Hunter Biden investigations and to impede the Congressional investigation," according to the documents filed overnight.

The affidavit alleges that both congressional and FBI witnesses, along with FBI documents, prove that the pair were aware of the Hunter Biden investigation.

"What is going on at the D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office?" attorneys for Floris said in a statement responding to the filing. "In the middle of the night, the government filed an unsigned and unsworn complaint attempting to fix the issues with their original charge against Ms. Floris and adding a new charge just as meritless as the first one."

"In our combined decades of DOJ service, we have never seen or even heard of something like this being filed. That's because the public lodging of criminal charges must be authorized by the grand jury, a judge, or the defendant herself," the statement said. "We have asked to address this outrageous government conduct against a decorated public servant at today's court hearing."

U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui appeared on Friday to be skeptical of the charges -- and said the "facts appear to be old" and there are "questions that need to be answered." The judge set a hearing for Tuesday to consider whether the government established probable cause in its complaint.

Faruqui said the judge who signed off on the complaint needed extra time to determine if there was probable cause or not. "Rare charges" that are "this old" are never charged by complaint, according to the judge. 

It was not immediately clear why prosecutors chose to charge the pair through a criminal complaint and not an indictment, which would have required approval by a grand jury instead of a magistrate judge.

Ron Safer, a lawyer for Benavides said the government should be able to offer evidence "today" against two "dedicated public servants."

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