Tesla CEO Elon Musk is facing a corporate reckoning on Tuesday with the electric car maker’s first-quarter results showing sales and profit fell short of analyst expectations while the billionaire was focused on running the Trump administration’s cost-cutting efforts. 

Ahead of the quarterly report, investors submitted questions to Tesla that they hope to get answered on the company’s earnings conference call. A top issue flagged by investors is Elon Musk himself, with dozens asking about Musk’s focus on the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and when he might return his energies to running Tesla. 

“Can Elon please provide some reassurance that at some point soon he will be done with DOGE and politics?” one investor asked. “Many Tesla shareholders wish he would reprioritize the majority of his time and effort to engineering.”

That’s a question that Wall Street also wants answered. Tesla’s stock price has plunged 53% from its most recent high in December, when the stock was pushed higher after President Trump’s electoral victory on optimism that Musk’s role advising Mr. Trump would help the EV maker’s bottom line. 

But Musk’s activities with DOGE — including cutting tens of thousands of federal workers and accessing taxpayers’ personal data — have alienated some consumers and sparked protests across the globe, causing the stock price to deflate.

Tesla’s earnings report didn’t disclose details about Musk’s DOGE work or his plans for Tesla, but the company cautioned that “trade policy” and “changing political sentiment” could impact demand for its products in the near term. Mr. Trump’s tariffs are expected to result in higher prices for many vehicles, including Teslas. 

“Well, we are now at a major crossroads for the Tesla story in our view,” said Wedbush tech analyst Dan Ives in a research note before the earnings were released. “Tesla has now unfortunately become a political symbol globally of the Trump Administration/DOGE.”

Musk’s activities with DOGE could dampen demand for Tesla vehicles by a permanent 15% to 20% due to consumers who don’t want to be associated with the billionaire, he added.

“Musk needs to leave the government, take a major step back on DOGE, and get back to being CEO of Tesla full-time,” Ives concluded. 

The Tesla earnings call will be webcast at 5:30 p.m. ET here.

Tesla’s earnings fell short of analyst expectations. The company reported a per-share profit of 27 cents, compared with an average forecast of 41 cents per share, according to analysts surveyed by FactSet.

Net income slid 71% to $409 million, versus $1.39 billion in the year-earlier quarter.

Sales tumbled 9% to $19.3 billion, far short of the $21.3 billion expected by analysts.

While Tesla’s earnings release didn’t disclose any details about Musk’s DOGE work or his plans for Tesla, the company cautioned that “trade policy” and “changing political sentiment” could impact demand 

Earlier this month, Tesla said its delivery of vehicles in the first three months of 2025 fell nearly 13% as demand for the automaker’s electric cars continued to weaken, with deliveries also falling well short of analysts’ expectations. 

In addition to insights into Musk’s role at Tesla, investors will also be listening for updates on several strategic initiatives. The company is expected to roll out a cheaper version of its best-selling vehicle, the Model Y SUV, later in the year. Tesla has also said it plans to start a paid driverless robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, in June. 

• Tesla
• DOGE
• Elon Musk

Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man mistakenly deported to a prison in El Salvador, say the government has failed to provide appropriate responses to a judge’s order for expedited discovery and to her questions about facilitating his return to the U.S. 

In a letter addressed to U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers requested a hearing to be scheduled Wednesday “to address the government’s failure to comply” with Xinis’ order for expedited discovery in the case.

Xinis ordered a speedy fact-finding process after the Trump administration refused to comply with three different court orders, including an order from the Supreme Court, to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. so he can receive due process regarding the Trump administration’s claim that he is an MS-13 gang member.

Last week in court, a Justice Department attorney said that the Trump administration would facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return only if he arrived at a port of entry and continued to dodge questions from Xinis about what, if anything, the Trump administration is doing to return the man.

Xinis said that “every day Mr. Abrego Garcia is detained in CECOT is another date of irreparable harm” and gave both sides two weeks to complete expedited discovery in the case, including sworn depositions from Trump administration officials with first-hand knowledge of the efforts to return him. Depositions are set to be completed on Wednesday.

But attorneys for Abrego Garcia say all of the discovery produced by the Justice Department has been “nothing of substance,” and “consists entirely of public filings from the dockets, copies of Plaintiffs’ own discovery requests and correspondence, and two nonsubstantive cover emails transmitting declarations filed in this case.” Other questions for which Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have sought answers have been “similarly non-responsive,” they wrote.

The plaintiff’s lawyers said that the government “artificially” narrowed Xinis’ order for discovery “to avoid complying with its obligations.” 

“The Government refuses to respond to interrogatories it claims are ‘based on the false premise that the United States can or has been ordered to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador,'” Abrego Garcia’s attorneys wrote, adding that the Justice Department has not provided any information about Abrego Garcia’s detention before April 2, although he has been detained in El Salvador since March 15.

They also argued that the government has asserted privilege “including deliberative process privilege, state secret privilege, and ‘governmental privilege’ without any foundation for doing so.”

Justice Department attorneys countered that they have “put forward a good-faith effort to provide appropriate responses” to Abrego Garcia’s attorneys and added that they plan to file specific privilege claims over information pertaining to Abrego Garcia soon. 

The government also said the administration is “in discussions” with the Salvadoran government to return Abrego Garcia, but “any requirement of a more detailed response by the Defendants would be wholly inappropriate and an invasion of diplomatic discussions.”

One detail of Abrego Garcia’s detention in El Salvador may prompt Xinis to seek more information about what the Trump administration knew — and when — about his transfer from CECOT, the country’s notorious supermax prison, to another detention center.

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who met with Abrego Garcia last week, said he was moved from CECOT on April 9 to another lower-security detention facility in El Salvador.

But in court-mandated, daily status updates ordered by Xinis about Abrego Garcia’s condition and what the administration is doing to return him, four different officials — from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the State Department, and Homeland Security — each stated that Abrego Garcia was being detained at CECOT after that date.

On Monday, the Trump administration confirmed that Abrego Garcia had been moved to a facility in Santa Ana, El Salvador, and reported based on conversations with the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador that he is “in good conditions and in an excellent state of health.”

• Immigration
• Maryland

President Trump said Tuesday he has “no intention of firing” Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, one day after the president called Powell a “major loser” and publicly lobbied the central bank chief to lower interest rates at a faster clip.

When asked by reporters in the Oval Office if he has any plans to fire Powell, Mr. Trump said he “never did” and claimed “the press runs away with things” — though he once again pressed Powell to cut interest rates, which remain elevated after the Fed hiked rates to quell inflation.

“This is a perfect time to lower interest rates,” Mr. Trump said. “If he doesn’t, is it the end? No, it’s not. But it would be good timing.”

Last week, Mr. Trump argued in a social media post that Powell is “always TOO LATE AND WRONG,” and said his “termination cannot come fast enough,” drawing speculation that the president could try to oust Powell before his term ends next year.

This is a breaking story. It will be updated. 

• Jerome Powell
• Donald Trump
• Federal Reserve

Elon Musk told Tesla investors he’s scaling back his work at the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, saying the amount of time he spends on the task force will “drop significantly” starting in May. 

As the Trump administration’s cost-cutting initiative, DOGE has slashed tens of thousands of federal jobs in the name of reducing fraud, waste and abuse. But DOGE has also sparked a backlash — and plenty of lawsuits — as critics accuse it of accessing voters’ private data and cutting programs that are vital to many Americans. 

At the same time, Tesla’s sales have taken a hit as the automaker’s vehicles have increasingly become a symbol of the Trump administration, repelling some consumers. The stock has also plunged more than 50% from its most recent high in December, when the shares surged after the presidential election on optimism that Musk’s role advising Mr. Trump would help the EV maker’s bottom line. 

“Starting probably in next month, in May, my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly,” Musk said on a conference call to discuss Tesla’s earnings. 

But Musk added he plans to continue his involvement with DOGE throughout Mr. Trump’s term, saying he will likely spend one to two days a week on government issues moving forward. “Starting next month, I’ll be allocating far more of my time to Tesla,” he said.

Tesla shares, which have fallen 41% this year, jumped 4% to $247.53 after Musk vowed to scale back his work at DOGE.

Tesla’s first-quarter earnings, announced Tuesday, fell far short of analyst expectations, with revenue tumbling 9% and profit slumping 71%. 

Musk’s leaving DOGE might not heal the wounds that Tesla has suffered due to Musk’s activities, some analysts say.

“Musk’s personal brand has been permanently tarnished by his political activities in the last several months, and exiting DOGE won’t change that,” noted Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge in a Tuesday research note. “On top of all this, the stock remains very expensive.”

Tesla’s issues go beyond politics. The company that once dominated the EV market is now facing fierce competition from U.S. automakers such as Ford to rivals in Europe that are offering new models with advanced technology that is making them real alternatives. 

Earlier this year, Chinese EV maker BYD announced it had developed an electric battery charging system that can fully power up a vehicle within minutes. 

Tariff retaliation from China is also likely to hurt Tesla. The company was forced earlier this month to stop taking orders from mainland customers for two models, its Model S and Model X. It makes the Model Y and Model 3 for the Chinese market at its factory in Shanghai, the Associated Press reported. 

The Associated Press
contributed to this report.

• Elon Musk
• Donald Trump

Data shows the IRS’ Direct File free tax-filing tool has helped save taxpayers money. Now lawmakers want to know why the Trump administration may soon pull the plug on the program.

The Trump administration is planning on ending Direct File, the Associated Press reported earlier this month, citing people familiar with the plan. The program, launched during Joe Biden’s presidency, has been credited by some users with making it easier and cheaper to file their taxes, saving the average user $160 in tax preparation fees and hours of their time, according to the Economic Security Project, an advocacy group focused on enhancing financial fairness and security for Americans. 

But the IRS has also faced blowback to Direct File from private tax prep companies that have made billions from charging people to use their software. 

“Direct File is and has been a solution in search of a problem, a drain on critical IRS resources and a waste of taxpayer dollars,” Derrick Plummer, a spokesman for the commercial tax preparation company Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, told the AP. 

DirectFile was used by about 141,000 taxpayers in 12 states when it debuted in 2024, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). Although it was expanded to 25 states in 2025, the IRS hasn’t yet released data on how many people used it during the tax season that ended on April 15. 

$100 billion on tax prep

Americans spend more than $100 billion each year to prepare and file their returns, according to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. Direct File was developed as a method to help taxpayers avoid paying tax-prep and filing fees. 

However, Republican lawmakers and commercial tax preparation companies — including Intuit, the owner of TurboTax, H&R Block — have complained the Direct File program is a waste of taxpayer money because free filing programs already exist. One such service is Free File, a partnership between the IRS and tax-prep companies.

On Monday, more than 170 Democratic and independent lawmakers sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and IRS acting commissioner Michael Faulkender asking them to commit to keeping Direct File open and operating. No Republican lawmakers signed the letter. 

“Ending this free, easy-to-use and popular program would be an insult to American taxpayers, eliminating an important alternative to commercial options provided by the tax prep industry,” the Democratic lawmakers, led by by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, wrote in the April 21 letter. 

Under the Trump administration, the IRS is undergoing a cost-cutting overhaul, with plans to eliminate up to 40% of its roughly 100,000-person workforce after the end of tax filing season, according to an internal memo obtained by CBS News. The agency is also expected to shed more than 20,000 IRS employees through its Deferred Resignation Program offer.

Those changes are part of the Trump administration’s efforts, overseen by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to cut federal spending. 

“No decisions on the future of Direct File have been made as of yet,” a Treasury spokesperson told CBS MoneyWatch. “It is a failed program at a cost of tens of millions of taxpayer dollars per year.”

Pushback against Direct File

Direct File has drawn pushback from some Republican lawmakers, with more than 20 GOP representatives asking President Trump to “immediately end the IRS’ unlawful Direct File pilot program upon taking office in January,” according to a Dec. 10 statement from Rep. Adrian Smith, a Republican from Nebraska.

“The program’s creation and ongoing expansion pose a threat to taxpayers’ freedom from government overreach, and its shaky rollout and structural flaws have already come at a steep price,” the Republican lawmakers said in their letter. 

The IRS spent about $13 million on the Direct File pilot in 2024, according a December report from the GAO. That funding came from money the tax agency received from the Inflation Reduction Act, which Mr. Biden signed into law in 2022.

While consumer advocacy groups and some tax experts have praised Direct File for creating a free pathway for some taxpayers to file their returns, the service hasn’t earned universal praise. 

Direct File was “problematic” from the start, David Williams, president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, which describes itself as a nonpartisan organization that disseminates research and analysis on the government’s effects on the economy, told the AP. 

Pointing to the program’s costs, Williams noted that many people who start the free-filing process never finish. According to the IRS, while 423,450 taxpayers logged into Direct File in 2024, only 140,803 of them submitted accepted returns.

Despite those criticisms, taxpayers who have used Direct File give the program high marks. About 96% of taxpayers who used the 2024 pilot program said they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the service, a Code for America survey found.

“Taxpayers have spoken loudly and clearly: Direct File works well for them, and more Americans want access to it,” the April 21 letter from Warren, Sanders and other lawmakers said. 

The Associated Press
contributed to this report.

• IRS
• Taxes

A Connecticut jury on Tuesday convicted a man of murder and evidence tampering in the 2019 killing of his girlfriend, while the disappearance of their young daughter remains a mystery.

Jose Morales, 48, of New Haven, faces 25 to 65 years in prison when he is sentenced on July 8 for the beating death of Christine Holloway inside her home in Ansonia, about 10 miles west of New Haven. 

Morales testified at the trial in Milford that he did not kill Holloway. He said he, Holloway and their daughter, Vanessa, who was 14 months old at the time, were in Holloway’s apartment when two intruders broke in. He said one of the intruders attacked Holloway with a crowbar and he was assaulted before they kidnapped Vanessa, who has never been found. Morales also said he was high on PCP at the time.

Days after the killing, authorities issued an Amber Alert for Vanessa, whose missing person case remains posted on the websites of the FBI and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Ansonia police said in late 2019 that Morales was a suspect in Vanessa’s disappearance, but he was never charged.

Local police said at the time that Morales lived at his parents’ home in New Haven and was cooperating with the investigation after Holloway’s body was found. Authorities added the father occasionally stayed at the Ansonia home but didn’t live there.

Morales was later arrested on weapons charges, but those charges were not related to Holloway’s death or Vanessa’s disappearance, CBS affiliate WFSB-TV previously reported.

Prosecutors argued that Morales’ story about how Halloway was killed did not match the evidence, WFSB reported.

During closing arguments on Monday, Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney Howard Stein said the evidence showed that Morales repeatedly struck Holloway in the head with an object and tried to cover it up by cleaning up the crime scene. 

Morales had admitted on the stand that he attempted to clean the apartment after Halloway was killed and had also put some of the blood-soaked evidence in a donation bin, according to WFSB.

“Why would you believe that home invaders that committed murder and kidnapped a child would leave behind a living witness? How does that make sense?” Stein asked in his closing argument.

Morales’ lawyer, Edward Gavin, in his closing argument asked the jury, “Who calls 911 before committing a homicide? No one.” The question was referring to the call Morales made before he allegedly killed Holloway. Gavin then replayed the call for the jury.

“And don’t forget, that’s Christine Holloway’s voice in the background on the call. Christine was there,” Gavin said.

Gavin declined to comment after the verdict. During his closing argument, he said there was no evidence that Morales had any intent to kill Holloway.

The jury began deliberating Monday afternoon and reached a verdict Tuesday morning after about two total hours of discussion.

Morales’s bond was increased to $2.5 million following the conviction, according to WFSB.

In Connecticut, a person who has been convicted of any offense is still eligible for bail while waiting for sentencing or an appeal.

• Connecticut

Two years ago, Kash Patel emerged as a vocal critic of then-FBI Director Christopher Wray for his use of the government’s fleet of private aircraft for personal travel.

The FBI should “ground Chris Wray’s private jet that he pays for with taxpayer dollars to hop around the country,” Patel said during his “Kash’s Corner” podcast in 2023.

Now, Patel himself is the director, and questions have begun circulating inside the FBI about the degree to which Patel is using governmental airplanes for his personal travels.

The FBI declined to share Patel’s flight schedule and would not confirm his presence on a number of flights to destinations where he later appeared. During the first weekend in April, for instance, a Boeing 757 owned by the Department of Justice made two round trip flights from Washington to New York.

On Saturday, April 5, the narrow-body jet took a 57-minute flight to Stewart International Airport, a short drive from West Point, where Patel made an appearance at a charity hockey event hosted by the FBI. The next day, the jet was back in the air to JFK Airport, landing just hours before Patel resurfaced in box seats next to hockey legend Wayne Gretzky and watched Capitals star Alex Ovechkin break the NHL scoring record.

The New York Times first reported on Patel’s use of FBI aircraft on Sunday.  

It’s unclear if Patel was on these flights — and if he was, whether they were purely personal, work related, or both. But on Monday, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee told CBS News in a statement that he wants the answer to those questions.

“The Judiciary Committee must investigate Director Patel’s apparent misuse of taxpayer dollars,” said U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois. “The American people expect an FBI Director who focuses on the security and safety of the nation, not someone wrapped up in the trappings of the spotlight.”

FBI directors are required by executive branch policy to use government aircraft for air travel, whether official or personal. That enables them to maintain access to secure communications wherever they travel. And it gives the director the ability to move quickly in an emergency.

If the travel is personal, the director must reimburse the government the cost of a commercial coach airfare. When traveling for personal reasons, the director may bring family or friends, but guest travel must be reimbursed to the government as well. Friends or family members are never allowed to fly on FBI aircraft unaccompanied by the director. It is unclear whether Patel has brought friends or family aboard government jets.  

But Durbin said the use of the plane still has limits and questioned whether the use of the aircraft cut against the Trump administration’s professed commitment to rooting out government waste.

Patel’s use of Gulfstream jets operated by the FBI appears to extend to his frequent trips to Las Vegas, where he has a home, and to Nashville, where Patel’s girlfriend, who is a country singer, lives. Sources familiar with Patel’s travel confirmed to CBS News that the director was on the plane for several trips captured by FlightRadar24, including a weekend dash to Las Vegas on March 7 and a weekend in Nashville on March 14.

It is unclear if he was aboard on Feb. 24, when one of the FBI’s Gulfstream 5 jets flew from Manassas, Virginia, where the plane is based, to Nashville, stayed on the ground for an hour and 27 minutes before returning to Manassas.

On some occasions, Patel may have traveled for both pleasure and business. An FBI jet flew on March 21 from Washington to Nashville. That day, Patel attended a roundtable meeting with state and local law enforcement officials in Tennessee, and also visited the FBI field office in Nashville. The plane returned to Washington later that afternoon. It is unclear whether he saw Alexis Wilkins, his girlfriend, while he was there.

In a statement to CBS News, the FBI said it “does not comment on travel arrangements for security purposes. All ethical guidelines are followed rigorously.”

Some bureau veterans told CBS News they have been troubled by the frequent use of government aircraft by FBI executives, making the aircraft less available to support operations in line with the primary mission of investigating crimes, chasing spies and preventing terrorist attacks.

“Those aircraft have been procured or leased specifically to support operational needs,” said Christopher O’Leary, a former senior counterterrorism official at the FBI who has used the planes dozens of times for sensitive missions and critical response. “The concern is that the routine use of them by the director and deputy director for personal travel could take a critical resource offline when they are sometimes needed at a moment’s notice.”

O’Leary and others said they also worry that the use of the planes sets the wrong tone.

“It’s a bad leadership example,” he told CBS News. “All agents are provided an FBI vehicle, and they cannot be used for personal use.  They can only be used for going to and from work, for official duties or to respond to a crisis and that is strictly enforced.” 

Congressional watchdog advised limits on personal jet travel

In 2013, the Government Accountability Office probed the Justice Department’s and the FBI’s use of the FBI G5 jets for “non-mission purposes.” The report that followed laid out how often and for what reasons the planes were used by the attorney general and the FBI director, the costs associated with the flights and the rules and regulations governing them. At the time, the GAO did not find any specific instances of wrongdoing, although it did emphasize the importance of officials being responsible stewards of taxpayer funds when using the planes. 

Diana Maurer, a director at GAO and author of the 2013 report, told CBS News that the same principles that were at play when the congressional watchdog agency did its review remain relevant today.

“I don’t know what the current FBI director did or didn’t do, and we haven’t updated our 2013 report,” Mauer said in an interview.  “But just because you’re allowed to do something doesn’t necessarily mean you should.” 

Maurer noted that government officials should not abuse their privileges at the expense of the taxpayer. 

“Using government aircraft, as FBI Directors are required to do for security reasons, costs significantly more than commercial flights. I hope the FBI and the Department of Justice are considering the implications for taxpayers when the Director uses government aircraft for non-mission purposes.”

Past FBI directors faced scrutiny

During the years that Wray ran the FBI, his personal use of the jet became a touchstone for conservative critics. Wray occasionally flew from Washington to his hometown of Atlanta, where his family maintained its residence. He drew criticism from Republicans in Congress and some former FBI agents for summoning the G5s to Reagan National Airport from Manassas, a 15-minute flight, rather than being driven 30 miles to the Virginia airport where it maintains a hangar. 

FBI whistleblower Steven Friend, a close ally of Patel’s who was suspended by the bureau over concerns that his views on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol affected his work, criticized Wray in more than a dozen social media posts for his use of the jets. “Chris Wray abuses his  @FBI jet privileges because he doesn’t like to sit in traffic,” Friend wrote in a Dec. 14, 2023, tweet. 

Wray was also raked over the coals by Republican lawmakers for cutting short a Senate oversight hearing in 2023 to fly on an FBI aircraft to a family vacation in the Adirondacks. (Wray at the time pointed out that he had negotiated the length of the hearing with committee staff.) The chairman of the committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley, later questioned Wray’s use of the FBI jets and whether it amounted to an abuse of taxpayer money, a suggestion that Wray rejected, noting that he was a “required use traveler,” and that he reimbursed the government in every instance he used the planes for personal purposes. 

A spokesperson for Grassley said the senator is “still waiting on the FBI” for records regarding Wray’s use of the jets and criticized Democrats and the media, claiming they never showed “any interest in scrutinizing FBI Directors’ travel logs until Kash Patel came on the scene.” Grassley’s office did not respond to a question about whether the senator would continue his oversight of FBI directors’ government jet travel while Patel is director.

FBI directors have also at times been sensitive about the potential misuses of the FBI’s fleet. In at least one case, a former FBI director went to extraordinary lengths to save the taxpayer money for his air travel. 

Soon after he became FBI director in 2013, James Comey traveled back and forth to Connecticut where his family was still living. At the time, Washington was in the midst of a heated budget battle with the possibility that government workers would be furloughed and have their paychecks withheld. So, according to two former law enforcement officials, Comey asked President Barack Obama for a special dispensation from the “required use” rule so that he could fly commercial at a much lower cost to the government.

• Kash Patel
• James Comey
• Christopher Wray
• FBI

Karen Read’s second trial started today with opening statements and witness testimony in the high-profile Massachusetts murder case. Read, who is accused of hitting her Boston police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow in Canton in 2022, is being retried less than a year after her first trial ended in a mistrial. 

The 45-year-old Read is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol and leaving the scene of personal injury of death. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges and argues she is being framed by several people, including law enforcement. 

Eighteen jurors – nine men and nine women – have been seated after a grueling jury selection process that took 10 days. One of the alternate jurors from Read’s first trial is now a member of her legal team. 

How to watch the Karen Read trial

You can watch Read’s trial streaming live from Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham on CBS News Boston or in the video player above when the proceedings begin at 9 a.m.   

Click here for a full timeline of events in the case. 

Karen Read opening statements

Special prosecutor Hank Brennan, the former Whitey Bulger attorney who was not part of the first trial, made the opening statement for the Commonwealth. 

Brennan started by setting the scene in Canton, describing how firefighter and paramedic Timothy Nuttall responded to 34 Fairview Road in “near blizzard conditions” and found O’Keefe in the snow without a pulse.

“He looked up at Ms. Read and he said, ‘what happened?” And you’ll hear her words through firefighter Nuttall, she said ‘I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,” Brennan said. “We are here today because John O’Keefe was killed by the actions and conduct of that defendant, Karen Read.”

Brennan told the jury that data from Read’s cellphone and car will be a key part of the the prosecution’s argument. In addition to location information, Brennan said data showing the temperature of the cellphone battery “will be critical to your analysis of this case” – an element that wasn’t raised during Read’s first trial. 

When it comes to Read’s SUV, Brennan suggested there is “black box” data that reveals different things than what were discussed in the first trial. He says she threw her Lexus into neutral and then reverse, and put her foot on the gas pedal to 75% acceleration.

“She clipped John O’Keefe, he fell backwards, hit his head, broke his skull,” Brennan said.

Brennan also brought up angry voicemails that Read left for O’Keefe after midnight. The prosecutor referenced a 12:59 a.m. message in which Read says “John, nobody knows where you are.”

“‘And this is where the plot and the cover-up begins,” Brennan said. “The evidence will make clear that she knew he was there. She did not call 911, she did not go back for him, she did not leave an anonymous tip. She left him.”

Brennan ended by playing a clip from an Oct. 2024 Dateline interview with Read. Prosecutors said in a filing last week that they plan to use Read’s own words against her at trial, and it’s expected that they will play clips from Read’s various media interviews that she has done in recent months.  

“I didn’t think I hit him, hit him, but could I have clipped him? Could I have tapped him in the knee and incapacitated him? He didn’t look mortally wounded, as far as I could see,” Read says in the interview clip. “But could I have done something that knocked him out in drunkenness and in the cold, he didn’t come to again?”

Read’s lawyer Alan Jackson delivered the opening statement for the defense. During last year’s trial, it was attorney David Yannetti who spoke first to the jury.

Jackson started by telling jurors that the evidence will establish “there was no collision with John O’Keefe.”

“John O’Keefe did not die from being hit by a vehicle. Period,” he said. “The facts will show that, the evidence will show that, the data will show that, the science will show that and the experts will tell you that.”

Jackson said the investigation into O’Keefe’s death was “corrupted by bias, corrupted by incompetence, and corrupted by deceit.” He blasted former Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator in the case, as a “cancer” who never went into the Fairview Road home owned by Boston police officer Brian Albert or canvassed witnesses. 

“You’ll see during the trial that he intentionally lied and fabricated evidence during the course of this investigation. He lied in reports, warrants, he lied under oath. He lied about the time that he actually secured Karen Read’s vehicle. Why?” Jackson asked. “He lied because he did not want it revealed that he had access to that vehicle and he had access to that taillight before any taillight fragments were found at 34 Fairview.”

At the end of his opening statement, Jackson asked the jury to find Read not guilty on “all three” verdicts. After the first trial concluded, some jurors told the defense that they had agreed that Read should be acquitted on two charges, but weren’t sure how to communicate that to the judge.

“Not guilty, not guilty, not guilty,” Jackson repeated. 

Canton firefighter, paramedic Timothy Nuttall testifies

After opening statements, prosecutors will begin calling witnesses to testify at trial. Canton firefighter and paramedic Timothy Nuttall, whom Brennan referenced in his opening statement, was the first to take the stand.

He said snow was coming down heavily when he arrived at 34 Fairview and followed the sounds of women screaming. He said he saw O’Keefe laying on his back and took his pulse.

“I looked for any signs of breathing. I found none,” Nuttall said. “He was very cold to the touch.”

While he was attending to O’Keefe, Nuttall says he looked up and saw a middle-aged woman with blood on her face. He identified her in the courtroom as Read.

“I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,” Nuttall recalled Read saying. “I remember it very distinctly.”

He said he observed that O’Keefe had a “pretty good bump” over his right eye and several “notably deep” scratches on his right arm. The defense has argued that O’Keefe’s injuries came from a dog attack inside the Albert home and not from Read’s SUV. 

In cross-examination, Jackson asked Nuttall about his previous meetings with prosecutors and pointed out that Nuttall testified in the first trial that Read said “I hit him” only twice.

“If you testified last year that you heard the phrase twice, and now a year goes by and you’re testifying in front of this jury this year that you heard it three times, those two statements are inconsistent with one another, correct?” Jackson asked.

“Yes sir,” Nuttall replied.

Karen Read trial witnesses

There are 150 names that the prosecution and defense could call, but not all are expected to testify. 

Among those who played a major role in the first trial and could testify again are former Trooper Proctor, who was fired for his conduct while leading the Read investigation, and Jennifer McCabe, who made the controversial “hos long to die in cold” Google search. 

Also on the witness list are Brian Higgins, Brian Albert and Colin Albert. The defense has argued they could have killed O’Keefe during a fight inside Brian Albert’s home at 34 Fairview Road. Judge Beverly Cannone, however, has ruled that the defense cannot argue that Colin Albert, who was a teenager at the time, could be one of the men responsible for O’Keefe’s death.

Click here for more about the key witnesses in the case. 

Karen Read trial schedule

Karen Read’s first trial consisted of 29 days of testimony over nearly two months. The second trial may move faster, as Cannone said the court will be doing as many full days as possible, as opposed to half days of testimony that were a frequent occurrence in the first trial.

Court generally starts at 9 a.m. and goes until 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. They take a short morning break around 11 a.m. and a longer break for lunch at about 1 p.m.

At some point early on in the trial, the jury will take a trip to Fairview Road in Canton to view the crime scene. That visit will not be shown live for the general public. 

• Karen Read
• Canton News
• Dedham News

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday announced a “reorganization” of the State Department, with plans to make staffing cuts and consolidate domestic offices. 

The cuts aren’t happening immediately, but a senior State Department official told reporters that Rubio’s announcement sets forth a road map for future cuts, and Congress has been notified to set the process in motion. The senior official said State Department undersecretaries for the various bureaus must in about 30 days present a plan on how they will eliminate positions. 

Rubio reposted “X” posts in which Free Press journalists said the move would entail closing 132 offices, moving 137 offices elsewhere, and directing undersecretaries to reduce personnel by anywhere between 15-17%. Another senior State Department official told reporters on Tuesday that the personnel reduction would be 22%.

Among the agency offices to be cut, according to an “X” post Rubio reposted, are those intended to further human rights, advance democracy overseas, counter extremism, and prevent war crimes. Asked during Tuesday’s departmental press briefing about the department’s office of Global Criminal Justice, which plays a role in investigating war crimes and is missing from the proposed “reorganization” chart, Pentagon spokesperson Tammy Bruce said that just “because it’s now folded into another larger bureau, doesn’t mean that it’s gone or we don’t care.”

Rubio called the State Department in its current form “bloated, bureaucratic, and unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission in this new era of great power competition.” 

“Over the past 15 years, the department’s footprint has had unprecedented growth and costs have soared,” Rubio said in a statement. “But far from seeing a return on investment, taxpayers have seen less effective and efficient diplomacy. The sprawling bureaucracy created a system more beholden to radical political ideology than advancing America’s core national interests.”

“That is why today I am announcing a comprehensive reorganization plan that will bring the Department into the 21st Century,” Rubio continued. “This approach will empower the Department from the ground up, from the bureaus to the embassies. Region-specific functions will be consolidated to increase functionality, redundant offices will be removed, and non-statutory programs that are misaligned with America’s core national interests will cease to exist.”

The senior State Department official who briefed reporters stressed this is a “purely domestic plan” that “does not have anything to do with any foreign missions.”

“That’s not to say that there won’t be subsequent decisions on foreign missions, but that’s not what this is,” the official said. 

According to Rubio’s notification to Congress, the State Department would formally assume responsibility for remaining humanitarian assistance programming, and most remaining USAID functions would be absorbed by the State Department. 

The senior State Department official said these changes are an “attempt to go back to the traditional roots of the State Department, which are the primacy of the regional bureaus and of our foreign missions.” 

The changes to the State Department come amid the Trump administration’s efforts to shutter most of USAID.