Woman who falsely accused Black teen of stealing phone tells Gayle King enough 02:15 (CNN)A woman charged with attempting to assault a 14-year-old and falsely accusing him of stealing her cell phone has been granted supervised release after her arrest and extradition to New York, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney s Office told CNN.
Miya Ponsetto, 22, of Piru, California, was arraigned Saturday evening on charges of attempted assault, endangering the welfare of a child, attempted robbery and attempted grand larceny, according to charging documents.
None of the charges is eligible for monetary bail, Manhattan DA spokeswoman Naomi Puzzello told CNN. The judge also granted orders of protection for the victims.
January 9, 2021
For Miya Ponsetto, a nationally televised interview was an opportunity to apologize, her lawyer said, for falsely accusing a Black teenager of stealing her cellphone and then tackling him in the lobby of a Manhattan hotel.
Instead, Ponsetto, 22, went off-script. She stormed out of the disastrous interview with “CBS This Morning,” recorded Thursday, only to be arrested hours later by California authorities. By the time the interview aired Friday morning, Ponsetto was facing a charge of attempted robbery in New York, her attorney and police officials said.
Her personal attorney, Sharen H. Ghatan, said Friday that she had become concerned for Ponsetto, who had behaved erratically in the hours before her arrest.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Former FBI Director James Comey writes in a new book that even if there is overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing by Donald Trump while president, the new attorney general in the Biden administration should not pursue a prosecution.
Comey said the Justice Department should not initiate an investigation of the former president, “no matter how compelling the roadmap left” of crimes he may have committed.
“Although those cases might be righteous in a vacuum,” he wrote, “the mission of the next attorney general must be fostering the trust of the American people.”
The stance is surprising coming from the former FBI director, whose abrupt firing in May 2017 served as the catalyst behind the Mueller investigation into Russian election interference and possible Trump campaign contacts with Russia.
He added that the case to pursue an investigation against Mr Trump might be “righteous in a vacuum” but “the mission of the next attorney general must be fostering the trust of the American people”.
Mr Comey’s stance is a surprising one, given his vocal opposition of the president after he was abruptly fired in May 2017.
Mr Comey’s firing was investigated by Mr Mueller as part of his sweeping probe into Russian election interference and potential links between the 2016 Trump campaign and Moscow.
The special counsel did not reach a conclusion on whether Mr Trump obstructed justice. “While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him, Mr Mueller wrote.