D.C. Plane Crash, Migrant Housing At Guantanamo, January 6th Criminal Records

0:01A passenger jet collided with a military helicopter in the skies over Washington, D.C. Rescuers are searching the icy Potomac River for survivors. The water is dark, it is murky, and that is a very tough condition for them to dive in. I'm Steve Inskeep with Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. The president says he plans to use the naval base at Guantanamo Bay to house people deported from the United States. This is not the camps. This is a temporary transit where we can plus up thousands and tens of thousands if necessary. Okay, are the facilities at Guantanamo equipped to hold tens of thousands of people?

0:40And an NPR investigation uncovers lengthy criminal records for dozens of January 6th defendants who received pardons from President Trump. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

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2:14Rinse. It's time to be great. First responders are searching for survivors in the frigid Potomac River this morning after a collision in the skies over Washington, D.C.'s closest airport. A jet was on its way into Reagan National Airport and 64 people were on board. The plane followed the path of the Potomac, an experience millions of travelers have had at some point. If you have a window seat, you can see the monuments of the Capitol below, and you know you're almost there. And that is when the plane collided with one of the many other aircraft in the skies over Washington, an Army helicopter carrying three people.

2:46And Paris, Joel Rose has been following developments through a long night, and he is with us now. Good morning, Joel. Good morning. What do we know about what happened? The collision happened as an American Airlines regional jet was attempting to land just before 9 p.m. local time. This was American flight number 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, on a narrow-body plane, a CRJ-700 built by a Bombardier, with 60 passengers on board and four crew members. It was lining up to land at the airport, as you say, when it collided at low altitude with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter. The Army says there were three soldiers on board.

3:22Footage from a webcam in the vicinity shows a small aircraft, presumably the helicopter, colliding with the passenger jet, followed by a bright explosion before both aircraft then crashed into the Potomac River. So we know that search and rescue efforts have been ongoing. What can you tell us about this? Yeah, first responders were on the scene within 10 minutes, according to D.C. Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly. He said about 300 first responders were involved in search and rescue operations in icy water that was about eight feet deep. So it's just dangerous and hard to work in. And because there's not a lot of lights, you're out there searching every square inch of space to see if you can find anybody.

4:01Divers are doing the same thing in the water. The water is dark. It is murky. And that is a very tough condition for them to dive in. Donnelly said search and rescue operations would continue this morning and the airport will remain closed until at least 11 a.m. Joel, is there any word about any survivors? Authorities would not say at the briefing early this morning, but at this point, there is not a lot of reason for optimism. Both of Kansas' U.S. senators were at Reagan Airport for a briefing this morning. Senator Roger Marshall called it an unbearable sorrow. Senator Jerry Moran said it was very likely that the senators would personally know some of the people on the plane.

4:39I know that flight. I've flown it many times myself. and it is certainly true that in Kansas and in Wichita in particular, we're going to know people who are on this flight, know their family members, know somebody. U.S. Figure Skating has confirmed that several members of the skating community were on board the flight, including athletes, coaches, family members who were returning home after the recent U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita. Now, of course, the focus here is on trying to find survivors and, you know, perhaps other remains. but is there any indication at this point about what could have caused this collision?

5:15No official word on that yet. You know, it's very early in the investigation. You know, I will say this is highly congested airspace with a lot of helicopters and air traffic at the airport. Investigators at the National Transportation Safety Board are leading this investigation, and they will likely be trying to understand the communications between air traffic controllers and the two aircraft, particularly the helicopter. There is some audio recordings of those communications. But what happened here is just not clear yet. Those recordings could be a focus for investigators as they try to understand what appears to be the worst aviation disaster in U.S.

5:52airspace in at least 15 years. That is NPR's Joel Rosen. Joel, thanks so much after such a long night. Thank you for your reporting. You're welcome.

6:08President Trump says he plans to use a migrant holding facility at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to house up to 30 ,000 migrants deported from the United States. The president brought this up at a bill-signing event. His notion was to detain what he called, quote, the worst criminal illegal aliens. Reusing a famous base is an idea that Trump brought up before his first presidential term, but he never did it. His Homeland Security Secretary acknowledges the administration would need an act of Congress to spend money on the idea now. NPR's Sasha Pfeiffer has been covering Guantanamo Bay for years, and she's here with us in our studios in Washington, D.C.

6:44to tell us more about this latest development. Good morning. Good morning, Michelle. So, Sasha, look, I think most people, when they hear Guantanamo, they think of a prison for suspected foreign terrorists. Like, this is where the alleged 9-11 mastermind, Khaled Shriq Mohammed, is held. So are we talking about the same place? We are not. The Trump administration is saying that migrants would not be in that U.S. military prison detention facility where College Sheikh Mohammed is held. They would instead be on the naval base portion of Guantanamo, which is a separate area. And for decades, the naval base has had a detention facility that houses migrants intercepted at sea.

7:16They're usually Haitian or Cuban or Dominican. It's been mostly empty for years. So Trump is saying he wants to expand that migrant detention facility to make room for deported migrants. So once there, how long would migrants be held there? This came up on Fox News, where the Trump administration basically broke this news yesterday. Fox had on Pete Hegseth, the new defense secretary. And Hegseth said the plan is not to hold these migrants indefinitely. Indefinite detention is what is happening at the military prison. Some people there have been held for two decades, more than two decades, without being charged.

7:50But Hegseth says when it comes to deported migrants, Guantanamo would be a way station, as he called it, until the administration finds other countries to take them. Here he is on Fox. This is not the camps. You're not putting criminals in camps where ISIS and other criminals. This is a temporary transit where we can plus up thousands and tens of thousands, if necessary, to humanely move illegals out of our country, where they do not belong, back to the countries where they came from in proper process. But Michelle, details are very thin so far, and the Trump administration has not said how it would define what Hegseth called temporary transit.

8:25Does the existing migrant holding facility at Guantanamo actually have 30 ,000 beds? Unclear. When Trump first announced this, he said it did, but he later said he plans to expand the facility to full capacity. I spoke about this with the executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Vince Warren, and he said this about the current status of Guantanamo's migrant detention operation. There haven't been 30 ,000 beds in decades. The facility is decrepit. It's been falling apart. It's in disrepair. He told me he knows that through reports from migrants who've been there. Defense Secretary Hegseth also said a golf course on the naval base would have room for 6 ,000 deported migrants.

9:03So the administration seems to be trying to identify different spaces at Guantanamo that could have room for tens of thousands of people. And before we let you go, holding prisoners at Guantanamo has been very expensive over the years. Do we know how much this would cost and where this money would come from? The administration did not give a dollar figure, but you're right. The plan would require construction, food, lodging for people held there, guards or staff to oversee it, money to transport migrants there. Because Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, said the migrants would be flown there directly.

9:32So on cost, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said only that money would be appropriated by Congress for that. She also said ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement would run the facility. As for when migrants might start being flown there, they didn't say. There'll certainly be a lot of litigation about this. That is NPR's Sasha Pfeiffer. Sasha, thank you. You're welcome.

9:59We are learning new information this morning about the lengthy criminal records of dozens of January 6th defendants who received pardons from President Trump. Yeah, the president gave blanket clemency to all January 6th defendants, regardless of whether they violently assaulted police on that day. People got clemency for January 6th, even when they had criminal records for other offenses on other dates, such as rape, sexual abuse, and domestic violence. NPR investigative correspondent Tom Dreisbach has been digging into the court records. He's here to tell us more about this. Good morning, Tom.

10:30Good morning. So what kinds of cases did you identify? Well, many January 6th defendants had no criminal records at all, but we found dozens of cases where people had a significant criminal history. One example that really sticks out is the case of Matthew Huddle. He pleaded guilty to entering and remaining in the Capitol. And he also had a lengthy criminal record, including for drunk driving. And there's one incident that I should say people listening might find disturbing. Prosecutors said, quote,

11:09Then even after Huddle took part in the Capitol riot, he continued to rack up charges for driving offenses in Indiana. And just a few days after Trump pardoned him for his January 6th case, he actually just got pulled over again by police in Indiana. We don't have a lot of details. It is under investigation. but we know a sheriff's deputy shot and killed him during an altercation. So how did these criminal records or did these criminal records affect the January 6th cases? Well, federal judges always factor in defendants' criminal history when they decide on a sentence. One example, defendant was Peter Schwartz.

11:43Court records indicate he had 38 criminal convictions before he assaulted police with pepper spray on January 6th. And that's one reason he got a really lengthy sentence, 14 years in prison for his January 6th charges. And then Trump pardoned him, so he obviously did not finish that prison sentence. Trump has said, in general, these defendants got sentences that were too long, but the White House did not make any distinction between people who had a criminal record and those who did not. And I know that Trump has been asked about this, so what has he said about the decision to give clemency to all of the January 6th defendants?

12:16Well, I reached out to the White House. They did not respond. But Trump has made some comments recently on Fox News where he seemed to say that it would have just been too difficult to evaluate all of the January 6th charges individually. Most of the people were absolutely innocent. OK, but forgetting all about that, these people have served horribly a long time. It would be very, very cumbersome to go and look. You know how many people are talking about? 1 ,500 people. Almost all of them are, should not have been, this should not have happened. Now, Trump's pardons only apply to the January 6th charges.

12:51So are some people still facing some legal consequences for other cases? Yes. There's an example of a January 6th defendant named Theodore Middendorf. He separately pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of a seven-year-old child. He is still facing a lengthy prison sentence in Illinois on that case. Another defendant, David Daniel, is facing allegations that he sexually abused two young girls in his family and possessed child sexual abuse images. He has pleaded not guilty. That case is ongoing. That is NPR's Tom Dreisbach. Tom, thank you. Thank you.

13:30Here's an update on a story we told you yesterday. The White House has apparently backed off a plan to pause trillions of dollars in federal spending. The Trump administration rescinded a memo that ordered the money to stop flowing while officials determined if it met the president's partisan priorities. Now, after that memo was taken back, White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt posted some more on social media. She said, quote, the president's executive orders on federal funding remain in full force and effect and will be rigorously implemented. The president had previously said he wants government agencies to eliminate diversity, equity, inclusion, and other efforts he opposes.

14:07So apparently that part goes ahead. We will bring you more as we learn it.

14:15And that's up first for Thursday, January 30th. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Steve Inskeep. There's an easy way to stay connected to news and podcasts from the NPR network. It is the NPR app, which I use myself. You hear community coverage from your local station, as well as stories from around the world, and podcast suggestions based on what you like. Download the NPR app in your app store. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Russell Lewis, Monica Evstatyeva, Barry Hardiman, Jenea Williams, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Zia Butch, Nia Dumas, Claire Murashima, and Chris Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hines, and our technical director is Carly Strange.

14:52We hope you'll join us again tomorrow.

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