The Brief

Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor turned criminal defense attorney, promised to steer a middle course as he was sworn in as Los Angeles County district attorney Tuesday.

Hochman succeeds George Gascón, known as the godfather of progressive prosecutors, after defeating him by a 20-point margin in the November election.

The ceremony

About 300 people attended the event, held on the front steps of the Hall of Justice in downtown L.A. They included Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna, L.A. Police Chief Jim McDonnell and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who administered the oath of office.

Praising Hochman, Schwarzenegger said, “The city of Los Angeles is now going to be back.”

Policies reversed

Hochman, 61, immediately rescinded many of the progressive policies of his predecessor. He said he would allow prosecutors to again seek the death penalty and sentencing enhancements that can add years to a person’s prison term.

Hochman also lifted a ban on prosecutors filing charges for low-level misdemeanors, including driving on a suspended license, drug and paraphernalia possession, and public intoxication. “We begin to get our public safety house in order today,” he said.

Hochman said he would establish six new task forces, including one on homelessness, fentanyl poisoning, human trafficking, hate crimes, organized retail crime and residential burglary.

Hochman's 'middle road'

The new district attorney said he rejects “extreme policies on both ends of the pendulum swing," and that he opposes decarceration (the effort to limit the number of people who are behind bars) as well as mass incarceration.

He said people are looking to live in a county where “safety is prioritized, laws are followed, those who break them are held accountable and the process to get there is fair, impartial, ethical and effective.”

Reaction to Hochman

Many who attended the ceremony were D.A. employees happy to welcome a new boss.

“We’re excited for change,” said Martha Picasso, head secretary to the gang unit. “Morale is down. A lot of attorneys left our office.”

Beverly Hills City Councilmember John Mirisch praised Hochman.

"I’m thrilled," he said. "He is going to be a game changer for all of us. I think our communities will be a lot safer with Nathan as D.A."

The mayor of Arcadia has agreed to plead guilty to a charge she acted as an agent for China, federal prosecutors announced Monday. She has resigned from her position with the city.

Eileen Wang, 58, faces one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The charge carries a potential sentence of up to 10 years in federal prison.

What we know about the criminal case

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Wang and Yaoning “Mike” Sun of Chino Hills worked at the direction of the Chinese government and with individuals based in the U.S. to promote pro-People’s Republic of China propaganda in the United States. Those actions occurred between 2020 and 2022, prosecutors said.

According to federal prosecutors, Wang and Sun operated a website — known as U.S. News Center — billed as a news source for the local Chinese American community in Los Angeles County. They posted content on the site, described as "pre-written articles," based on directives from Chinese government officials.

Sun, 65, pleaded guilty in October 2025 in federal court to acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government. He is serving a four-year federal prison sentence.

Prosecutors also said Wang communicated with John Chen, whom they described as “a high-level member of the [Chinese government] intelligence apparatus,” in November 2021, and asked him to post an article from her website.

In a group chat, Wang referenced the article and wrote: “This is what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to send,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Chen pleaded guilty in New York to acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China and conspiracy to bribe a public official. In 2024, he was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison.

What's next

Wang, who was elected to the City Council in November 2022, was expected to make her first appearance in U.S. District Court Monday afternoon.

Citing a plea agreement, prosecutors said she's expected to enter the guilty plea within the next few weeks.

Arcadia's mayor is selected from the elected council members. A post on the city's website announced that Wang had resigned her position as of Monday and that a new mayor would be picked from the remaining council members at the next meeting.

The Supreme Court on Monday gave itself more time to consider a national ban on telemedicine access to the abortion pill mifepristone.

Justice Samuel Alito extended an earlier order he issued by three more days, so rules for prescribing mifepristone online or through the mail remain in effect through Thursday at a minimum.

The case at issue

The tumult over the future of telemedicine access to mifipristone started on May 1 with a ruling from the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. That ruling re-instituted prescribing rules from before the pandemic that required patients to receive mifepristone in person in a doctor's office or clinic.

The Food and Drug Administration determined that the rule was medically unnecessary in 2021. The state of Louisiana sued last fall, arguing that telemedicine access undermines the state's abortion ban.

What is telemedicine abortion?

The telemedicine abortion process starts with a patient connecting with a healthcare provider on the phone or online. If the patient is eligible, that provider can prescribe two medications — mifepristone and another pill called misoprostol. Patients can pick up the medicine at a local pharmacy, or providers can mail the drugs to a patient's home.

That access is a big part of the reason why the number of abortions nationally has actually increased since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022. Now, most abortions in the U.S. use this combination of medications, and one quarter happen via telemedicine.

After the 5th Circuit ruling, some providers said they would continue offering telemedicine access to abortion medication using a different protocol that involves higher doses of misoprostol and no mifepristone.

Researchers say that method is just as safe and effective, but tends to cause more pain for patients and more side effects, like nausea and diarrhea. Misoprostol has other medical uses, such as treating gastric ulcers and hemorrhage, and has been on the market longer than mifepristone. It is likely to remain fully accessible, even if mifepristone is restricted.

Since the FDA's prescribing rules for medications apply to the whole country, a change to the rules about how mifepristone can be accessed has national impact. That means it affects states with constitutionally-protected access to abortion, states with criminal bans, like Louisiana, and all states in between.

States' rights

Nearly two dozen Democratic-led states submitted an amicus brief in this case, writing that the appeals court decision put the policy choices of states with bans above the choices of states "that have made the different but equally sovereign determinations to promote access to abortion care."

There are also stakes related to the power of FDA and other expert agencies to set rules. While the Trump administration's FDA did not respond to the Supreme Court's request for briefs, a group of former leaders of the agency, who served under mainly Democratic and some Republican presidents, wrote about this in an amicus brief.

They defended the FDA's process in approving the medication and modifying the rules for prescribing it, and say the appeals court decision "would upend FDA's gold-standard, science-based drug approval system."

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