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CNN
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A 41-year-old California man was placed under arrest Tuesday on multiple charges after he allegedly intended to drive off a cliff on the Pacific Coast Highway with three passengers in the car, authorities said.

All four occupants of the Tesla survived the crash on Monday after the car plunged between 250 and 300 feet below the road it was on and into a rocky beach area known as Devil’s Slide, about 20 miles south from San Francisco, according to the California Highway Patrol.

In addition to the driver, an adult woman, a 9-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl were in the car when the crash happened Monday morning, according to Brian Pottenger, a battalion chief with Cal Fire’s Coastside Fire Protection District.

They were all taken to a local hospital with serious injuries, the highway patrol said Tuesday. The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office previously said in a social media post that the children were “unharmed.”

“Based on the evidence collected, investigators developed probable cause to believe this incident was an intentional act,” the state’s highway patrol said in a news release Tuesday announcing the driver’s arrest.

The driver, from Pasadena, California, was arrested for attempted murder and child endangerment, according to the arrest report. He will be formally booked into San Mateo County Jail after his hospital treatment is completed, the highway patrol added.

The relationship between the driver and passengers remained unclear Tuesday.

The four-door, white Tesla was traveling southbound on Highway 1 just south of the Tom Lantos Tunnel between Pacifica and Montara on Monday morning when it veered off the roadway. It plunged at least 250 feet below that road, and a dramatic rescue mission ensued to ensure the occupants were taken out of the car safely.

“The damage to the vehicle would indicate that it hit, and then flipped several times,” Pottenger explained. The car came to rest on its wheels, he added.

On Tuesday, the highway patrol pointed out that Tesla’s tech savvy driving features were not involved in what caused the crash.

“There has been no determination as to what driving mode the Tesla was in; however, that does not appear to be a contributing factor in this incident,” the highway patrol said.

The California Highway Patrol is investigating the crash.

The California Highway Patrol was alerted about the crash around 10:50 a.m. local time on Monday.

Upon first-responders arrival, all four occupants were conscious, and the two children were secured into their car seats that remained intact, according to Pottenger. All were trapped inside the smashed car, officials said.

The California Highway Patrol posted dramatic video of the helicopter lowering a rescuer on a cable to the crash site while surf crashed against the rocks below.

As firefighters rappelled down the cliff to the car, other first-responders watched through binoculars.

“As we were doing that, we were able to notice movement in the front seat through the windshield,” Pottenger said. “So we knew that we had at least one person that was alive.”

Crews freed the two children and used a rope to lift them up the cliff in baskets. Later, a California Highway Patrol helicopter hoisted the two adults to safety.

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Republicans are dropping out of a nonprofit organization of state attorneys general that bills itself as nonpartisan over allegations of growing liberal bias and questions over its financial management.

Documents from a National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) executive committee meeting in early December obtained by Fox News Digital show the organization went from $24 million of total revenue to $4.5 million over the past year, which includes a drop in dues of around $600,000.

NAAG faced significant criticism from Republican attorneys general for netting tens of millions of public money off the top of consumer protection settlements that Republicans alleged were often bigger cuts than states themselves received.

These include a controversial $15 million cut from a $573 million nationwide settlement with McKinsey & Co. that resolved allegations that it improperly advised pharmaceutical companies on how to boost opioid sales.

Additionally, documents show that the group lost roughly $37 million of public money in investments over the past year.

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One former senior staffer to a Republican attorney general told Fox News Digital that NAAG, a group historically propped up by taxpayer-funded dues from states, exhibits financial habits akin to the “Wild West.” Failed investments, lost dues, declining revenue from settlement cases, and other spending over the past year contributed to NAAG being $53 million lighter in its bank account, the staffer said.

NAAG was at one point bringing in $3 million a year in dues from states in a “house always wins” situation in which they would “demand the money” every year in a billing statement, according to the ex-staffer.

“They were taking big cuts off of consumer cases and these were all normally take-it-or-leave-it offers where the people who really liked NAAG would come to everybody else and be like, ‘This settlement has already been negotiated and NAAG is going to get $15 million, and it’s time for you to sign the deal,'” the former staffer said.

“That just rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.”

The former Republican staffer told Fox News Digital that as many as 21 states were not paying their dues at one point amid growing discontent about the large cuts NAAG was taking from consumer protection settlements.

The document obtained by Fox News Digital contained minutes from a previous meeting where concerns about dues were addressed, including by Republican Florida AG Ashley Moody who suggested the group suspend all dues temporarily as a show of good faith to the disgruntled members and in order to ensure NAAG continued to be a “sustaining organization.”

NAAG ultimately decided to temporarily suspend dues into next year despite some objections but is still mulling how to handle dues from members going forward.

The former Republican staffer said that the “downward spiral” of NAAG started to become evident in April 2021 when Republican Alabama AG Steve Marshall announced he was leaving the organization.

“I can’t justify spending taxpayer dollars to fund an organization that seems to be going further and further left,” Marshall said in a statement at the time. “With the money we will save, I can add a young lawyer to my consumer protection division and yield a far better return on the taxpayer’s investment.”

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Several other Republican AGs have left the organization since Marshall’s departure, including Texas AG Ken Paxton, Missouri AG Eric Schmitt and Montana AG Austin Knudsen.

“We bear a solemn oath to our taxpayers and as trustees of major settlement funds,” the AGs wrote to the organization in a May 2022 letter. “The responses to our stated concerns about NAAG’s financial management and practices have fallen short of the assurances we need to continue being faithful stewards of those funds.”

In May, then-Republican Arizona AG Mark Brnovich also pulled out of the group.

That same month, eight Republican AGs sent a letter to NAAG calling out the group’s alleged partisanship and handling of public funds and income from consumer protection cases like the McKinsey opioid settlement.

“This group has been taken over by Left wing staffers—no taxpayer dollars should flow to a political group that once was non-partisan and serious,” Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, tweeted in May.

O.H. Skinner, executive director of Alliance for Consumers, a group that has funded ads criticizing former NAAG President Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller over the past year, told Fox News Digital that it is “not surprising” that NAAG is in “financial distress.”

“NAAG has operated with a steady stream of public money for years, requiring millions in annual dues paid by taxpayers and profiting from public consumer protection cases,” Skinner said.

“As scrutiny has rightly increased on NAAG’s financial practices and attorneys general have demanded accountability for all of this public money, those income streams have dried up. The spotlight on NAAG is a direct consequence of their own questionable behavior. It remains to be seen if the organization will right itself and find a way forward that doesn’t involve gorging on public money.”

Fox News Digital spoke with two attorneys general who left NAAG due to the organization’s politics and financial practices, including Brnovich, who said NAAG’s operating procedures are “untenable.”

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“At one point NAAG was a place where Republicans and Democrats could work together but became a piggy bank for the group to finance plaintiff lawsuits that states were disagreeing with,” Brnovich said.

Brnovich said that NAAG is the “equivalent of a buggy maker while Henry Ford is perfecting the assembly line” and said the group has become “more and more partisan” and did not allow for “enough voice or input” from conservatives and Republicans in the organization.

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Montana AG Knudsen told Fox News Digital that he sent staff to NAAG conferences when he first took office, but the reports back to him were of a group that was “extremely, extremely left-leaning” and “progressive.”

“A lot of climate change stuff, a lot of social justice stuff,” Knudsen said. “You know, it’s obviously not really in line with what I’m doing in this office and in my administration.”

Knudsen said the group offered “no counterpoint” for conservative opinions and there was “not even an inkling of any conservative content or alternative viewpoint.”

The Montana AG explained that Republican leaders were sometimes put in charge as “tokens” but had little sway in the inner workings of group leadership.

Knudsen’s decision to leave the group was not solely based on the partisanship of the group, claiming that the “straw that broke the camel’s back” was the group’s failure to provide him with access to its books following allegations of “possible mismanagement and co-mingling the moving of funds from the settlement accounts.”

MONTANA ATTORNEY GENERAL LEADS OTHER STATES IN LETTER AGAINST BIDEN’S TITLE IX RULE CHANGE

“You tell us everything is fine, great,” Knudsen said. “Show us the books. Prove to me that the state of Montana funds are secure with NAAG, and they’ve just flatly refused to do that. So, that’s when I just decided, ‘You know what? That’s enough of this.'”

“Those are state funds I mean, those are monies that belong to the state,” Knudsen continued. “They don’t belong to NAAG. NAAG was able to negotiate itself into the settlement, in some of these things as the trustee, but it doesn’t change the fact that those are still state funds and NAAG owes a fiduciary duty legally.”

There have been allegations that NAAG was using some settlement funds to run day-to-day operations, he said.

“That obviously would be a breach of their fiduciary obligation under the law, certainly under the laws in Montana. But I think probably 49 other states as well,” Knudsen said.

“And again, prove me wrong, please. I hope I’m wrong. But the fact is that they will not provide the accounting to us. We get the same canned one-page letter back from them every time we ask about this. ‘Nothing to see here. Everything’s fine. Trust us.’ I’m big on trust but verify. Should show me the books. Then I’ll trust you. They won’t show them to us.”

Fox News Digital asked Knudsen if there was anything NAAG could do to encourage him to bring Montana back into NAAG and resume paying dues.

“Full disclosure of the finances and a payout of our state’s funds,” Knudsen said. “Short of that, not interested.”

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The former senior Republican staffer told Fox Digital that multiple state attorney generals have turned down offers to lead NAAG in the future due to the uncertainty over the group’s financial situation.

NAAG’s president, Ohio Republican Attorney General Dave Yost, told Fox News Digital that the group he was elected president of earlier this month has “work to do” to “restore trust” and said he was “sympathetic” to “some of the criticisms” from Republicans about NAAG over the years.

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Yost explained that several of the declining revenue streams, such as investments, are connected to the economy more so than any perceived liberal bias, but he said he plans on examining the group’s financial records in the coming months.

“I’m used to dealing with numbers, and we’re going to look behind the summary of the financial statements that you have and drill down,” Yost said. “And I wouldn’t be surprised to see the way the finances are presented looking a little bit different and having more detail in the future.”

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Yost suggested that Republicans who have concerns with NAAG should stick with the group in order to ensure future bipartisanship.

“NAAG has about $200 million with the current valuation of the stock market,” Yost said. “If you’re really worried about that being used for left-wing projects, the worst thing you could do as a Republican is to walk away from the table [and] leave that loaded money gun in reach of the progressives. You got to stay involved and make sure that the organization actually is bipartisan.”

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ESPN football analyst and former football player Dan Orlovsky surprised and delighted sports viewers by leading a brief prayer session live on-air Tuesday on behalf of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin.

Orlovsky initiated the moment on “NFL Live” after coverage of Hamlin’s cardiac arrest during the Monday Night Football game. Because Hamlin still remains in critical condition, Orlovsky called for additional prayers for the football player.

“I heard the Buffalo Bills organization say that we believe in prayer, and maybe this is not the right thing to do, but it’s just on my heart and I want to pray for Damar Hamlin right now. I’m going to do it out loud, I’m going to close my eyes and bow my head, and I’m just going to pray for him,” Orlovsky said.

He continued, “God, we come to you in these moments that we don’t understand, that are hard because we believe that you’re God and coming to you and praying to you has impact. We’re sad. We’re angry. We want answers, but some things are unanswerable. We just want to pray, truly come to you and pray for strength for Damar, for healing for Damar, for comfort for Damar. Be with his family to give him the peace.”

DAMAR HAMLIN CARDIAC ARREST SHOCKS MEDIA, TRANSCENDS SPORTS TO BECOME NATIONAL NEWS 

“If we didn’t believe that prayer didn’t work, we wouldn’t ask this of you, God. I believe in prayer. We believe in prayer. We lift up Damar Hamlin’s name in Your name. Amen,” he concluded.

Several sports fans and commentators commended Orlovsky’s live prayer for Hamlin on Twitter as “powerful.” 

“Dan Orlovsky didn’t just send off a ‘praying for Damar Hamlin’ tweet. He paused during NFL Live, bowed his head, and prayed. Powerful, brave, and genuine,” Outkick sportswriter Mark Harris wrote.

“This is as powerful as it gets. Praying on national TV probably wasn’t an easy thing to do… but @danorlovsky7 did exactly that. Let’s all follow his example and keep praying for Hamlin,” ClutchPoints writer Joey Mistretta agreed.

“Faith on the Field” host Rob Maaddi wrote, “Proud of you, bro. ‘For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.’”

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Entrepreneur Joe Pompliano tweeted, “Shoutout to Dan Orlovsky for not just saying thoughts & prayers but actually stopping NFL Live to bow his head, close his eyes, and pray for Damar Hamlin. Kudos to you, @danorlovsky7.”

“power of prayer,” “The Rally” host Brooke Fletcher commented.

“I have never seen anything like this before. Dan Orlovsky just prayed for Damar Hamlin live on @espn moments ago. See below. ‘So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.’ -Psalm 90:12 @danorlovsky7,” professor Denny Burk remarked.

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Football players across the league have echoed calls for prayers after Hamlin’s collapse during the Buffalo Bills game. Hamlin’s teammates gathered on the field shortly after he collapsed for a group prayer.

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CNN
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The suspect in the November slaying of four University of Idaho students waived extradition from his home state of Pennsylvania to face murder charges in the state of Idaho.

Bryan Kohberger arrived at Pennsylvania’s Monroe County Courthouse Tuesday by prison transport van, cuffed and in a prison jumpsuit, and was escorted to the back of the courthouse by armed law enforcement.

Kohberger answered “no” when the judge asked if he had any mental health issues that would impede his ability to waive his extradition, and Kohberger’s father, also in the courtroom, shook his head “no.” The defendant signed the waiver at the defense table with shackles still around his wrist.

Judge Worthington ordered Kohberger must be handed over to the custody of Latah County District Attorney’s Office within 10 days.

Kohberger has invoked his right to be silent going forward, his state-appointed extradition attorney, Jason LaBar, said.

Tuesday’s move was expected after the attorney earlier indicated his client planned to waive extradition from his home state and called the hearing a “formality proceeding.”

All the commonwealth needed to prove is that his client resembles or is the person on the arrest warrant and that he was in the area at the time of the crimes, Monroe County Chief Public Defender LaBar told CNN’s Jean Casarez.

Kohberger did not answer reporters’ questions as he was escorted in. He made eye contact with and nodded to his family seated in the first row of the courtroom behind the defense table as officers brought him in.

Kohberger’s mother and father sat on either side of his sisters, accompanied by a representative from the public defender’s office, and when the judge told Kohberger he faces charges of murder when he returns to Idaho, his mother collapsed into his sister’s arms, both sobbing openly.

Arrangements are currently being made to transfer Kohberger to Idaho, according to state police, but no timeline has been announced.

“My heart goes out to the families of the victims, their friends, the community of Moscow and the University of Idaho,” Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Robert Evanchick said at a news conference. “No words can heal the pain associated with the loss of a child. Their young lives were ended far too soon.”

The Monroe County Correctional Facility warden informed officials that Kohberger has been a “model prisoner” who has not caused any problems during his time in detention, according to a source familiar with Kohberger’s status at the facility.

Kohberger, considered a maximum status prisoner, is being held in a cell monitored by an officer at all times. 

He has been “quiet” and “followed directions,” according to the source. 

Kohberger was arrested Friday in Pennsylvania, almost seven weeks after Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, were found dead November 13 in an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho.

Kohberger was “shocked a little bit,” LaBar told CNN a day after his client was arrested. Kohberger is presumed innocent until proven guilty, LaBar added in a statement. He “believes he’s going to be exonerated.” LaBar said in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show Tuesday.

Kohberger has been “very easy to talk to,” is “in a calm demeanor” and understands the proceedings, including what to expect concerning his transport to Idaho and what to expect when he gets there, LaBar said.

The 28-year-old suspect last month finished his first semester as a PhD student in the criminal justice program at Washington State University’s campus in Pullman, about a 15-minute drive west of Moscow.

He drove home to Pennsylvania for the holidays, accompanied by his father, LaBar told CNN on Saturday. The two arrived in the commonwealth around December 17.

A white Hyundai Elantra authorities had been looking for in connection with the killings was found at Kohberger’s parents’ house, LaBar confirmed.

Driving through Indiana, Kohberger was stopped twice by law enforcement on December 15 for following another vehicle too closely in the Elantra, authorities said Tuesday. The second stop was by a state trooper, who let Kohberger go with a warning.

“At the time of this stop, there was no information available on a suspect for the crime in Idaho, to include identifying information or any specific information related to the license plate state or number of the white Hyundai Elantra which was being reported in the media to have been seen in or around where the crime occurred,” Indiana State Police said. The Hancock County Sheriff’s Office, which had stopped him the first time, also said this in their release.

Investigators focused on Kohberger as a suspect after tracing ownership of the Elantra, which had been seen in the area of the killings, to him, according to two law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation. Also, his DNA was matched to genetic material recovered at the home where the students were slain, the two sources said.

An FBI surveillance team tracked Kohberger for four days before his arrest while law enforcement worked with prosecutors to develop enough probable cause to get a warrant, the two law enforcement sources said.

Other than the DNA and the car, details such as whether Kohberger knew the victims – or a possible motive in the slayings – are not publicly known. The probable-cause affidavit, which would contain information to justify the suspect’s arrest, remains sealed until he appears in an Idaho court.

Michael Mancuso, Monroe County’s first assistant district attorney, on Tuesday posited that Kohberger waived extradition because he wants to see what is in the affidavit.

“I definitely believe that one of the main reasons the defendant chose to waive extradition and hurry his return back to Idaho was the need to know what was in those documents,” Mancuso said at a news conference.

With those details still unknown, much public interest has focused on Kohberger’s criminal justice studies.

He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 2020 and this year completed his Master of Arts in criminal justice at DeSales University in Pennsylvania, according to a spokesperson for the university.

In a post removed from Reddit after his arrest was announced, a student investigator associated with a DeSales University study named Bryan Kohberger sought participants for a research project “to understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime.”

“In particular, this study seeks to understand the story behind your most recent criminal offense, with an emphasis on your thoughts and feelings throughout your experience,” the post read.

Moscow Police Department Chief James Fry said after the arrest that the investigation of the complex, extensive case was not over.

Investigators are still searching for pieces of evidence, Fry said, including the weapon used, believed to be a fixed-blade knife.

“We developed a clear picture over time,” he said, “(but) be assured that the work is not done. This is just started.”

Mancuso said his office stands ready to assist Idaho investigators.

“I would hold our office at the disposal of the Idaho authorities to help facilitate a complete background investigation into the defendant, both the activities prior to the murders occurring within the commonwealth of Pennsylvania and his activities after the murders in Pennsylvania,” Mancuso said Tuesday.

When pressed as to what Pennsylvania authorities will look at specifically, Mancuso added, “In any case of this nature … you want to look at any evidence of a possible motive, you want to look at any evidence of a pattern, of modus operandi or method, you want to get into the subject’s character and mental state to the best you can.”

Kohberger is being held without bail in Pennsylvania, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said Friday. Once Kohberger is in Idaho, he is expected to make an initial appearance before a magistrate, and further hearings will be scheduled.

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