AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT

Trump is indicted in Georgia over 2020 election meddling, the 4th criminal case against him

ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump and several allies were indicted in Georgia on Monday, accused of scheming to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. It’s the fourth criminal case to be brought against the former president and the second to allege that he tried to subvert the results of the vote.

The Fulton County grand jury indictment of Trump follows a two-year investigation ignited by a January 2021 phone call in which the then-president suggested that Georgia’s Republican secretary of state could help him “find 11,780 votes” needed to reverse his narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

ATLANTA (AP) — A grand jury in Georgia heard from witnesses into the evening Monday in the election subversion investigation into Donald Trump, a long day of testimony punctuated by the mysterious and brief appearance on a county website of a list of criminal charges against the former president that prosecutors later disavowed.

Prosecutors in Fulton County were presenting evidence to the grand jury as they pushed toward a likely indictment, summoning multiple former state officials including the ex-lieutenant governor as witnesses.

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Hawaii’s governor warns that scores more people could be found dead following wildfires on Maui

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Hawaii’s governor warned that scores more people could be found dead following the Maui wildfires as search crews go through neighborhoods where the flames galloped as fast as a mile a minute and firefighters struggled to contain the inferno with what some officials complained was a limited water supply.

The blazes that consumed most of the historic town of Lahaina are already the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century, with a death toll of at least 96. The cause was under investigation.

“We are prepared for many tragic stories,” Gov. Josh Green told “CBS Mornings” in a recorded interview that aired Monday. “They will find 10 to 20 people per day, probably, until they finish. And it’s probably going to take 10 days. It’s impossible to guess, really.”

As cellphone service has slowly been restored, the number of people missing dropped to about 1,300 from over 2,000, Green said.

Twenty cadaver dogs and dozens of searchers are making their way through blocks reduced to ash.

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They were alone in a fight to survive. Maui residents had moments to make life-or-death choices

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — The smoke was starting to blot out the sun. Winds were howling, and heat bore down as flames licked the trees on the horizon. The power had been out all day, so Mike Cicchino thought he’d drive to the hardware store for a generator. He turned off his street, and in an instant, his Lahaina neighborhood seemed to spiral into a war zone.

“When I turned that corner, I see pandemonium,” he said. “I see people running and grabbing their babies and screaming and jumping in their cars.”

It was around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday when Cicchino and his neighbors began a desperate fight for their lives. They had just moments to make decisions that would determine whether they lived or died in a race against the flames — a harrowing, narrow window of time in one of the most horrifying and lethal natural disasters the country has seen in years.

There were no sirens, no one with bullhorns, no one to tell anyone what to do: They were on their own, with their families and neighbors, to choose whether to stay or to run, and where to run to — through smoke so thick it blinded them, flames closing in from every direction, cars exploding, toppled power lines and uprooted trees, fire whipping through the wind and raining down.

Authorities confirmed that at least 96 people died — already the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than 100 years — and they expect that number to rise.

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Young environmental activists prevail in first-of-its-kind climate change trial in Montana

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Young environmental activists scored what experts described as a ground-breaking legal victory Monday when a Montana judge said state agencies were violating their constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment by allowing fossil fuel development.

The ruling in this first-of-its- kind trial in the U.S. adds to a small number of legal decisions around the world that have established a government duty to protect citizens from climate change.

If it stands, the ruling could set an important legal precedent, though experts said the immediate impacts are limited and state officials pledged to seek to overturn the decision on appeal.

District Court Judge Kathy Seeley found the policy the state uses in evaluating requests for fossil fuel permits — which does not allow agencies to look at greenhouse gas emissions — is unconstitutional.

It marks the first time a U.S. court has ruled against a government for violating a constitutional right based on climate change, said Harvard Law School Professor Richard Lazarus.

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Six former Mississippi officers plead guilty to state charges for torturing two Black men

BRANDON, Miss. (AP) — Six white former Mississippi law officers pleaded guilty on Monday to state charges for torturing two Black men in a racist assault. All six had recently admitted their guilt in a connected federal civil rights case.

In the gruesome crimes committed by men tasked with enforcing the law, federal prosecutors saw echoes of Mississippi’s dark history, including the 1964 killing of three civil rights workers after a deputy handed them off to the Ku Klux Klan. Locally, the sheriff whose deputies committed the crimes this year called it the worst case of police brutality he had ever seen.

Prosecutors say some of the officers nicknamed themselves the “Goon Squad” because of their willingness to use excessive force and cover up attacks including the assault that ended with a deputy shooting one victim in the mouth.

In January, the officers entered a house without a warrant and handcuffed and assaulted the two men with stun guns, a sex toy and other objects. The officers mocked them with racial slurs throughout a 90-minute torture session, then devised a cover-up that included planting drugs and a gun, leading to false charges that stood against the victims for months.

Their conspiracy unraveled after one officer told the sheriff he had lied, leading to confessions from the others. The charges against the victims weren’t dropped until June after federal and state investigators got involved, according to their attorney.

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Utah man accused of threatening president pointed gun at agents, FBI says

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Utah man accused of making violent threats against President Joe Biden before a trip to Salt Lake City last week pointed a handgun at FBI agents attempting to arrest him, the agency said on Monday.

Craig Robertson, a 75-year-old Air Force veteran, was killed during a raid on his home in Provo last Wednesday, hours before Biden arrived. FBI agents went to his home early in the morning to arrest him for three felonies, including making threats against the president and agents who had been investigating him for months, according to court records unsealed after the raid.

“Robertson resisted arrest and as agents attempted to take him into custody, he pointed a .357 revolver at them,” FBI spokesperson Sandra Barker said in a statement Monday.

Two law enforcement sources — who spoke to The Associated Press last week on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of an ongoing investigation — said Robertson was armed at the time of the shooting. Monday’s statement provides additional details about Robertson’s weapon and that he pointed it at officers. The FBI did not respond to questions about whether Robertson shot at agents or if agents were wearing body cameras while attempting to arrest Robertson.

Robertson’s daughter, Shanda Robertson, said she had no comment at this time. In a statement last week, his family rebuffed the idea that he could have hurt anyone.

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Texas woman who helped hide US soldier Vanessa Guillén’s body sentenced to 30 years in prison

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas woman was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison for helping dispose of the body of a U.S. soldier, whose 2020 killing sparked a movement of women speaking out about sexual abuse in the military and led to changes in how they can report it.

Cecily Aguilar is the only suspect arrested in the death of Vanessa Guillén, who was killed at Fort Cavazos, formerly known as Fort Hood, near Killeen, Texas. Aguilar was 24 years old when she pleaded guilty in November at a federal court in Waco, Texas, to one count of accessory to murder after the fact and three counts of making a false statement.

The sentence came after hours of testimony from attorneys, experts and Guillén’s family. It was the maximum punishment Aguilar could receive, said Jaime Esparza, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas.

“Our hope is that today’s sentence brings a sense of relief and justice to the Guillén family, who have endured such pain throughout these past few years,” Esparza said.

Aguilar aided boyfriend Army Spc. Aaron Robinson, 20, of Calumet City, Illinois, in dismembering and disposing of Guillén’s body in a rural, wooded area near the base, according to federal and state authorities. Robinson died by suicide on July 1, 2020, the day Guillén’s remains were found.

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Argentine peso plunges after rightist who admires Trump comes first in primary vote

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The Argentine peso plunged Monday after an anti-establishment candidate who admires former President Donald Trump came first in primary elections that will help determine the country’s next president.

Javier Milei rocked Argentina’s political establishment by receiving the biggest share of primary votes for presidential candidates in the October general election to decide who leads a nation battered by economic woes.

Milei, 52, wants to replace the peso with the dollar, and says that Argentina’s Central Bank should be abolished. He has said that climate change is a lie and has characterized sex education as a ploy to destroy the family. He has also said that the sale of human organs should be legal.

Gun ownership is severely restricted in Argentina. Milei proposes the “deregulation of the legal market” for weapons and “the protection of its legitimate and responsible use by the citizens,” according to his party’s electoral platform.

Argentina’s government decided to devalue the local currency by 20% early Monday morning after the surprising Sunday showing. Two mainstream political coalitions have traded power for a decade in Argentina. The country is now the latest where voters have picked an outsider candidate to express anger against the status quo.

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EXPLAINER: Why is a police raid on a newspaper in Kansas so unusual?

NEW YORK (AP) — Tensions between public officials and the press are hardly unusual. To a large extent, it’s baked into their respective roles.

What’s rare in a democratic society is a police raid on a news organization’s office or the home of its owner. So when that happened late last week, it attracted the sort of national attention that the town of Marion, Kansas, is hardly used to.

The Marion Police Department took computers and cellphones from the office of the Marion County Record newspaper on Friday, and also entered the home of Eric Meyer, publisher and editor. The weekly newspaper serves a town of 1,900 people that is about 150 miles (241 kilometers) southwest of Kansas City, Missouri.

Within two days, the raid drew the attention of some of the nation’s largest media organizations, including The Associated Press, The New York Times, CNN, CBS News, the New Yorker and the Gannett newspaper chain.

WHAT PROMPTED THIS ACTION?

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Video shows Texas US Rep. Ronny Jackson berating officers after being wrestled to ground at rodeo

DALLAS (AP) — Police video released Monday shows U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas being taken to the ground by officers, profanely berating them and threatening to report them to the governor during an altercation at a rodeo last month.

In body camera video, the former White House physician can be seen approaching a group of people surrounding a 15-year-old girl who authorities have said was having seizures. The two-term Republican congressman later has what looks like an argument with one of the people attending to the teenager before she is put on a stretcher.

Shortly afterward, Jackson is wrestled to the ground by at least two officers. The 31-minute video, which has sound in only some portions, shows officers turning Jackson facedown and putting him in handcuffs before helping him to his feet.

“I’m going to call the governor tomorrow and I’m going to talk to him about this (expletive), because this is (expletive) ridiculous,” Jackson can later be heard telling a state trooper, his voice raised.

State police released the video footage days after Jackson defended his actions in a post on social media. Kate Lair, a spokesperson for Jackson, reiterated the congressman’s comments in a statement Monday in which she said he was prevented from providing medical care to the teenager due to “overly aggressive and incompetent actions” by officers.

The Associated Press