PARIS (AP) — Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov promised to step up efforts to fight criminality on the messaging app, his first public comments since French authorities handed him preliminary charges for allegedly allowing the platform's use for criminal activity.
In a Telegram post late Thursday, Durov defended himself against the French judicial investigation, suggesting that he shouldn't have been targeted personally.
“Using laws from the pre-smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach,” the post said. “Building technology is hard enough as it is. No innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be personally held responsible for potential abuse of those tools.”
While insisting that Telegram is not “some sort of anarchic paradise,” Durov said surging numbers of Telegram users “caused growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform.”
“That’s why I made it my personal goal to ensure we significantly improve things in this regard. We’ve already started that process internally, and I will share more details on our progress with you very soon," he said.
French investigators detained Durov at Le Bourget airport outside Paris in late August and questioned him for four days as part of a sweeping probe opened earlier this year. Released on 5 million euros bail, Durov has to report to a police station twice a week. Russia-born, he has amassed multiple citizenships, including French.
French allegations against Durov include that Telegram is used for child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking, and that the platform refused to share information or documents with investigators when required by law.
In his post, Durov said that while in police detention, "I was told I may be personally responsible for other people’s illegal use of Telegram, because the French authorities didn’t receive responses from Telegram.”
“This was surprising for several reasons,” he added.
He said Telegram has an official representative in the European Union who replies to EU requests, with a public email address.
Telegram's website informs users that they can contact the app through a bot and includes a link to report illegal content. It also includes an email address and phone number for “competent authorities of the EU and EU members” to use. “If you are not a competent EU or EU member authority, your request will not be processed,” it says.
In his post, Durov said “French authorities had numerous ways to reach me to request assistance." He said he also had previously worked with them to “establish a hotline with Telegram to deal with the threat of terrorism in France.”
“If a country is unhappy with an internet service, the established practice is to start a legal action against the service itself,” he said.
FILE - Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov appears at an event on Aug. 1, 2017 in Jakarta, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sunday was to be a day of relative rest for Donald Trump, a rare breather this deep into a presidential campaign. Aside from sounding off on social media, golf was on the agenda.
Then the Secret Service spotted the muzzle of a rifle sticking out of a fence in bushes at Trump's West Palm Beach golf club, and everything changed.
For the second time in just over two months, someone apparently tried to shoot Trump and came dangerously close to the former president in that effort — within 500 yards Sunday, law enforcement officials said. This time, the gunfire came from the Secret Service, before the suspect could get any shots off at his target.
The episode raised sharp questions about how to keep the former president safe -- not only while he is campaigning across the country, but while he spends time at his own clubs and properties.
Trump has had stepped-up security since the assassination attempt on him in July, when he was wounded in the ear during an attack that laid bare a series of Secret Service failures. When he has been at Trump Tower in New York, parked dump trucks have formed a wall outside the building. And at outdoor rallies, he now speaks from behind bulletproof glass.
But unlike typical VIPs, who live in private residences with tall fences, Trump, while in Florida, resides at a club open to dues-paying members, and often spends his down time at his golf courses. And this a toxic era in the nation's politics.
“The threat level is high," Rafael Barros, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Miami field office, told reporters Sunday. “We live in danger times."
Sunday in the political world opened with Trump assailing a pop star on social media who had endorsed Kamala Harris — “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT” — complaining about the post office and hitting the links. Running mate JD Vance riffed on TV about that thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory concerning immigrants and pets, refusing to disown it. Democrats were apoplectic.
All that was standard fare for the most tumultuous presidential campaign in anyone’s memory. But shortly before 2 p.m., the subject abruptly changed and this election was thrust ever deeper into unprecedented territory.
Trump and golf partner Steve Witkoff were on the fifth hole of the course and about to putt when they heard the “pop, pop, pop, pop," said Fox News host Sean Hannity, a close friend of the former president who spoke with him several times afterward as well as with Witkoff.
Moments later, Hannity said, a "fast cart” with steel reinforcement and other protection whisked Trump away.
After the Secret Service noticed the rifle and then the suspect, an agent fired on him but apparently missed.
Secret Service agents immediately used their bodies to shield Trump and moved him to the golf course’s clubhouse, where he remained until he went back to Mar-a-Lago about 15 minutes away, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who was not authorized to discuss it publicly and described it on condition of anonymity.
About an hour later, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the agency and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office were investigating an unspecified “protective incident involving former President Donald Trump," adding he was safe.
The meaning was highly unclear. It could have been an unrelated shooting or disturbance near Trump, for all the country knew at first. "There were about 20 or more cop cars flying from nearby streets,” said Max Egusquiza, of Palm Beach, describing the emergency response he witnessed.
The Trump campaign issued a statement saying “President Trump is safe following gunshots in his vicinity." Again, no word whether he was the intended target.
But it soon became known that the Secret Service had fired shots. And about an hour after that happened, Donald J. Trump Jr. posted on X that an AK-style rifle was discovered in the bushes, “per local law enforcement."
All of that was finally followed by an FBI statement saying it is investigating "what appears to be an attempted assassination of former President Trump.”
The suspect quickly vanished but law enforcement had managed to identify his vehicle.
Martin County Sheriff William D. Snyder said his deputies “immediately flooded” northbound I-95, deploying to every exit between the Palm Beach County line to the south and St. Lucie County line to the north.
The suspect was apprehended within minutes of the FBI, Secret Service and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office putting out a “very urgent BOLO” — or be-on-the-lookout alert — detailing the specific vehicle sought, license plate number and description of the driver.
“One of my road patrol units saw the vehicle, matched the tag and we set up on the vehicle,” Snyder said, “We pinched in on the car, got it safely stopped and got the driver in custody."
Snyder added: "He never asked, ‘What is this about?’ Obviously, law enforcement with long rifles, blue lights — a lot going on. He never questioned it.”
With that, police arrested Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of Kaaawa, Hawaii, three law enforcement officials told The Associated Press. The officials identified the suspect to AP but spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.
The suspect had left behind an AK-style rifle with a scope, two backpacks hanging on a fence with ceramic tile inside and a GoPro camera, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said.
The sheriff said the suspect was 400 to 500 yards away from Trump hidden in shrubbery, while the former president played golf on a nearby hole.
“It was certainly an interesting day! ” Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday night. He effusively thanked law enforcement for keeping him “SAFE.”
Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Colleen Long, Eric Tucker, Alanna Durkin Richer, Mike Balsamo and Michael R. Sisak contributed to this report.
Police crime scene vehicles are seen at Trump International Golf Club after police closed off the area following the apparent assassination attempt of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump in West Palm Beach, Fla., Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)
Laura Loomer uses her cell phone near Trump International Golf Club after police closed off the area following the apparent assassination attempt of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump in West Palm Beach, Fla., Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)
Trump was on the links taking a breather from the campaign. Then the Secret Service saw a rifle
Trump was on the links taking a breather from the campaign. Then the Secret Service saw a rifle
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives at Harry Reid International Airport to board a plane after a campaign trip, Saturday, Sept.14, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
