By JOHN HANNA and KENDRIA LAFLEUR

MALAKOFF, Texas (AP) — Some school districts in the U.S. dropped plans for class pictures after widespread social media posts linked a billionaire with ties to Jeffrey Epstein to the photography giant Lifetouch, which on Friday called the claims “completely false.”

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The disruption to school picture plans in Texas and elsewhere began after online posts linked Lifetouch, which photographs millions of students each year, to the investment fund manager Apollo Global Management. Apollo’s former CEO is billionaire investor Leon Black, who met regularly with Epstein and was advised by Epstein on financial matters.

Black led the company in 2019, when funds managed by Apollo bought Lifetouch’s parent company, Shutterfly. The $2.7 billion deal closed in September 2019 — a month after Epstein’s death by suicide behind bars as he awaited trial over allegations from federal prosecutors that he sexually abused and trafficked dozens of girls.

Both Lifetouch and Apollo noted that timeline in statements Friday, two days after Lifetouch CEO Ken Murphy said in an Instagram post that neither Black nor any of Apollo’s directors or investors ever had any access to Lifetouch photos.

“No Lifetouch executives have ever had any relationship or contact with Epstein and we have never shared student images with any third party, including Apollo,” Lifetouch said in its statement Friday. “Apollo and its funds also have no role in Lifetouch’s daily operations and have no access to student images.”

The canceled school pictures are another ripple effect over the release of millions of files from the Epstein investigation, including documents showing Epstein’s regular contacts with CEOs, journalists, scientists and prominent politicians long after a 2008 conviction on sex crimes charges.

In the small Texas town of Malakoff, the local school district canceled a student picture day after several parents told the district they weren’t comfortable with Lifetouch photographing their children, spokesperson Katherine Smith said in a statement e-mailed Friday. Several other schools and districts in Texas also canceled or changed plans, as well as a charter school in Arizona, according to Facebook announcements posted by the schools.

“We decided our students and families would be best served by keeping all of our pictures in-house for the rest of this year, and we are looking at all of our options for the 2026-2027 school year,” Smith said.

Parents concerned about Lifetouch included MaKallie Gann, whose children attend schools in Howe, about 60 miles north of Dallas. She said she was worried about how much information Lifetouch collects on students.

“Whenever you order the pictures, it has their name. It has the age, of course. It has their grade, their teacher, the school that they’re in,” she said.

No evidence of Epstein or anyone in his orbit seeing Lifetouch photos has emerged from news organizations’ review of thousands of documents released this month by the U.S. Department of Justice, though there are at least 1.7 million records.

The review shows Black’s name appeared 8,200 times, though that figure likely includes some duplicate records. Black stepped down as Apollo’s CEO in March 2021, saying he wanted to focus on his family, health, and “many other interests.”

That was two months after a committee of the company’s board issued a report concluding that Epstein had advised Black personally on estate planning, tax issues, charitable giving and running his “family office,” but provided no services to Apollo or invested in no Apollo funds.

The report also said the review — which Black requested — found “no evidence” that he was involved with Epstein’s alleged criminal activities “in any way” or “at any time.” ___

Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas. Also contributing was Associated Press writer Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota.

By CLAIRE RUSH

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Multiple residents of an affordable housing complex in Portland, Oregon, have bought gas masks to wear in their own homes, to protect themselves from tear gas fired by federal agents outside the immigration building across the street. Others have taped their windows or stuffed wet towels under their doors, while children have sought security by sleeping in closets.

Some are now telling their stories to a federal judge Friday, as they testify in a lawsuit seeking to limit federal officers’ use of tear gas during protests at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building following months of repeated exposure.

The property manager of the apartment building and several tenants filed the suit against the federal government in December, arguing that the use of chemical munitions has violated residents’ rights to life, liberty and property by sickening them, contaminating their apartments and confining them inside. They have asked the court to limit federal agents’ use of such munitions unless needed to respond to an imminent threat.

FILE – Law enforcement officers stand in the street to allow vehicles to leave a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility during a protest in Portland, Ore., Oct. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

“They’re simply trying to live their lives in peace in their homes,” Daniel Jacobson, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said during the hearing. “Yet our federal government is knowingly putting them through hell, and for no good reason at all.”

The defendants, which include ICE and the Department of Homeland Security and their respective heads, say officers have deployed crowd-control devices in response to violent protests at the building, which has been the site of demonstrations for months.

”The conduct at issue, law enforcement’s use of crowd control tactics to disperse unlawful crowds, does not even come close to shocking the conscience,” Samuel Holt, an attorney for the federal government, said during the hearing.

The case comes amid growing concern over federal officers using aggressive crowd-control tactics, as cities across the country have seen demonstrations against the immigration enforcement surge spearheaded by President Donald Trump’s administration.

FILE – A view of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, top left, in Portland, Ore., Oct. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

In testimony, tenants of the Gray’s Landing apartment complex described experiencing difficulty breathing, coughing, dizziness and other symptoms following exposure to chemicals from tear gas, smoke grenades and pepper balls.

“I have a gas mask in my bedroom. I have one in my living room. And I have one in my backpack,” said a plaintiff using a pseudonym due to being a domestic violence survivor. “I’ve slept with it on.”

She described how the chemical munitions triggered her post-traumatic stress and entered into her apartment. ”I could feel it, I could see it, I could taste it, I could smell it,” she said of the gas.

Gas canisters have hit apartments and been found in the building’s courtyard and parking garage, according to the complaint.

Another plaintiff, Susan Dooley, a 72-year-old Air Force veteran with diabetes and high blood pressure, was sent by a doctor to the emergency room, where she was diagnosed with shortness of breath and mild heart failure, the complaint said. Whitfield Taylor, who has placed wet towels around his window air conditioning unit in a bid to block the gas from entering his home, had to take his two daughters, 7 and 9, to urgent care for respiratory symptoms. The girls sometimes sleep in his closet to feel safe, according to the complaint.

Of the affordable housing complex’s 237 residents, nearly a third are age 63 or older, according to court filings. Twenty percent of units are reserved for low-income veterans and 16% of tenants identify as disabled.

The plaintiffs filed an updated request for a preliminary injunction limiting federal officers’ use of tear gas late last month, after agents launched gas at a crowd of demonstrators including young children that local officials described as peaceful.

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“As this brief is being filed, tear gas is once again inside the homes of Plaintiffs and other residents of Gray’s Landing,” the filing says, adding that it was launched by officers “despite facing no violence or imminent threats at all.”

The government said in court filings that federal officers have at times used crowd control devices in response to crowds that are “violent, obstructive or trespassing” or do not comply with dispersal orders.

It has also pushed back against the claims of tenants’ constitutional rights being violated, saying that under such an argument, “federal and state law enforcement officers would violate the Constitution whenever they deploy airborne crowd-control devices that inadvertently drift into someone’s home or business, even if the use of such devices is otherwise entirely lawful.”

The hearing comes after a federal judge in a separate Oregon lawsuit temporarily restricted agents’ use of tear gas during protests at the building. The temporary restraining order in that case, filed by the ACLU of Oregon on behalf of protesters and freelance journalists, is set to expire next week.

By JONATHAN J. COOPER

The White House mansion’s eastern facade appears to have been “excellently preserved” when demolition crews tore down the East Wing to make way for President Donald Trump’s planned ballroom, an administration official said in a memo made public Friday.

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Contractors took pains to protect the White House residence during demolition, keeping heavy equipment at a safe distance and removing some pieces by hand, Joshua Fisher, director of the White House Office of Administration, wrote to the commission charged with approving plans for Trump’s ballroom. Some sections of the building were stabilized ahead of time, and vibration and crack movement were monitored, he wrote.

The National Capital Planning Commission, which is led by a top Trump aide, had requested more details about the demolition that began with little advance notice last fall. The agency has jurisdiction over construction and major renovations to government buildings in the region.

The East Wing demolition prompted a public outcry when it began without the independent reviews, congressional approval and public comment that are typical for even relatively minor modifications to historic buildings in Washington. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has sued to halt construction of the ballroom.

The memo documents the history of the East Wing dating back to Thomas Jefferson’s presidency and lays out the White House’s justification for tearing it down, saying it was not feasible to preserve it while meeting Trump’s goals for the project. The completed ballroom will include an improved visitors center for security screening and will lessen the need for road closures during major events, Fisher wrote.

Curators documented and preserved artwork, furniture and other items of historical significance, including “the East Wing cornerstone and plaque, movie theater furniture, the East Colonnade columns, the Porte-cochere columns, interior wood paneling, chandeliers, historic windows and doors, and other hardware and fixtures,” he wrote.

“Our goal is to ensure that some of these items will be integrated into the new structure,” Fisher added.

Engineers are studying whether the West Colonnade, which connects the White House residence to the West Wing offices, can support a second story that would make it more visually symmetrical with plans for a larger East Colonnade connecting to the ballroom, the memo said. No decisions have been made.

The White House also submitted the most detailed renderings of the ballroom published to date. It shows a massive new building that dwarfs the size of the demolished East Wing and matches the height of the historic White House mansion.

The project is scheduled for discussion during a March 5 meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission.

By BILL BARROW

ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump has played many roles. Real estate developer. Marketing extraordinaire. Reality TV host. Candidate. President — twice.

Another part has been constant through all of them: plaintiff.

Trump both threatens lawsuits and files them with aplomb — against individuals, institutions, even the people who elected him. Sometimes the threats are just that, and no lawsuit materializes. And, certainly, Trump has found himself on the receiving end of many lawsuits and legal challenges. But his own litigious bent goes back decades, and it has continued during his time in the White House.

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U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks once described Trump as “the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process.” Trump, Middlebrooks declared in a short-lived 2022-23 Trump case against Hillary Clinton, is a “sophisticated litigant … repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge.”

The president has his latest potential targets. His Justice Department is suing Harvard University, not long after Trump took issue with a New York Times story about his fight with the school, and he recently threatened comedian Trevor Noah, who connected Trump to Jeffrey Epstein during the Grammy Awards show.

“Get ready Noah, I’m going to have some fun with you!” Trump blasted on Truth Social.

Here are some highlights of Trump’s torts and threats.

1973: Cohn, young Trump, racial discrimination and the feds

Trump started in his father’s Queens-based real estate business. They attracted attention from state and federal government authorities in the early 1970s after prospective Black tenants complained of being denied apartments.

Eventually, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development accused the Trumps of violating the 1968 Fair Housing Act. At one point, investigators counted seven Black families across 3,700 apartments in Trump Village, according to Trump biographer Maggie Haberman, and a Trump employee later testified that documents had a special code to flag Black applicants.

Trump dug in. Aided by his lawyer and mentor Roy Cohn, he countersued the federal government for $100 million in 1973 — equivalent to about $700 million today.

They ultimately settled the dispute, but not until 1975, after spending 18 months generating headlines in New York media to counter the government’s case. Trump promised not to discriminate against prospective renters in the future, but the consent decree he signed included no admission that he’d broken the law in the first place.

Trump recounted in “Art of the Deal,” his 1987 ghost-written book: “I’d rather fight than fold, because as soon as you fold once, you get the reputation of being a folder.”

Stubborn NYC tenants — and a Trump loss

Trump wanted to evict rent-controlled tenants from 100 Central Park South so he could raze the building in the early 1980s. They fought him and in 1985 he sued the tenants’ lawyers for $105 million ($300 million-plus today). The suit got thrown out and Trump paid the defendants’ legal fees.

Attorney Martin London represented one of the defendant lawyers, Rick Fischbein, and wrote in his memoir that Fischbein framed his check from Trump after it was deposited. Fischbein later became one of Trump’s attorneys.

Trump eventually dropped his eviction suit, redeveloped the building and allowed tenants to remain there under rent-control agreements.

The 1980s skyscraper that never was

During the same period, Trump proposed a 150-story development off the tip of Manhattan. A Chicago Tribune critic, Paul Gapp, mocked it as “Guinness Book of World Record architecture” and “one of the silliest things anyone could inflict on New York or any other city.”

Trump sued the Pulitzer Prize winner and the Tribune Co. for $500 million (about $1.5 billion today), saying Gapp’s assessment killed the project.

A federal court dismissed the suit.

Before politics, a fight over a net worth

In 2005, a decade before Trump launched his presidential bid and as his TV career blossomed with NBC’S “The Apprentice,” author Timothy O’Brien wrote “TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald.”

The book alleged that Trump was not a billionaire at all and worth between $150 million and $250 million. Trump sued and asked for $5 billion (now $8 billion-plus), saying O’Brien harmed his ability to make business deals. A New Jersey court threw out the lawsuit, and an appeals court agreed.

The 2016 election and ‘Russia hoax’

Trump defeated Hillary Clinton for president in 2016. That did not stop him from making her the lead client, along with a litany of others, in a 2022 lawsuit that alleged a vast conspiracy to cost him the election.

It was part of Trump’s push back against a Justice Department investigation of Russia’s role in the campaign. The inquiry concluded that Russia interfered in U.S. political discourse in “sweeping and systematic fashion” to help Trump and harm Clinton. But the Justice Department stopped short of saying whether Trump was involved. Trump was explicitly not exonerated in the final report, but he still used it to assert that “the Russia hoax” was a deliberate plot against him.

Middlebrooks, the Florida-based judge who got the Trump v. Clinton case, disagreed, tossed Trump’s lawsuit and made Trump pay the defendants’ legal fees, which combined with his reached into the millions.

“This case should never have been brought,” Middlebrooks wrote in a scathing January 2023 order. “A continuing pattern of misuse of the courts by Mr. Trump and his lawyers undermines the rule of law.”

Suing and threatening networks

Since becoming president, Trump has scored two settlements for his presidential library after suing major television news networks.

ABC News agreed in 2024 to pay $15 million to Trump’s future library and $1 million in legal fees after anchor George Stephanopoulos’ legally inaccurate assertion on air that Trump had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll. In fact, a New York jury found Trump had sexually assaulted Carroll in the mid-1990s but concluded she did not prove Trump raped her “within the narrow, technical meaning of a particular section of the New York Penal Law.”

Paramount, which owns CBS, settled with Trump in 2025 after he sued over the way “60 Minutes” edited a Kamala Harris interview during the 2024 campaign. Paramount agree to pay $16 million toward Trump’s future presidential library.

Trump cited those cases in his threat to sue Noah. He followed that a day later with his threat to command $1 billion from Harvard. He’s pushed previously to get $500 million from the school for other educational programs.

His biggest ask is from taxpayers

Trump has bucked presidential tradition by never releasing his tax returns. But after he became president, The New York Times and ProPublica published stories detailing how Trump went years paying no or little in federal income taxes after claiming substantial losses.

In 2024, former Internal Revenue Service contractor Charles Edward Littlejohn, of Washington, D.C. — who worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, a defense and national security tech firm — was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to leaking Trump’s tax information to news outlets between 2018 and 2020.

Trump has not sued the media outlets in response. Instead, he is suing the IRS for $10 billion.

It’s the largest demand ever made by plaintiff Trump, and if he were successful, it would be U.S. taxpayers paying the damages.