Politico: “In extraordinary but little-watched court proceedings since Election Day, judges appointed by presidents of both parties have emphasized the need for accountability for the people who stormed the Capitol in an attempt to derail the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.”

“These judges have sounded dire warnings about the fate of the country if the lessons of the 2020 election go unlearned, and they are bluntly bracing for a turbulent start to the second Trump presidency…”

“The judges’ clarion calls are becoming markedly more frequent and pointed as Trump’s inauguration nears.”

“The federal judge who oversaw the trial and sentencing of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy for orchestrating a plan to violently stop the certification of Joe Biden’s presidency, said Wednesday that the prospect Donald Trump might pardon him is ‘frightening,'” Politico reports.

Said U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta: “The notion that Stewart Rhodes could be absolved is frightening and ought to be frightening to anyone who cares about democracy in this country.”

Mehta sentenced Rhodes to 18 years in prison last year, calling him “an ongoing threat and a peril to this country, to the republic and to the very fabric of our democracy.”

“A Justice Department watchdog found that there were no undercover FBI employees at the US Capitol during the January 6, 2021, riot, rejecting speculation from allies of President-elect Donald Trump who have for years suggested that the violence that day was provoked by federal agents,” CNN reports.

“A former FBI informant accused of fabricating a claim that President Biden and his son Hunter were each paid a $5 million bribe by a Ukrainian oligarch has agreed to plead guilty to a range of federal charges,” the New York Times reports.

“Alexander Smirnov, a profiteer, fixer and gossip based in Las Vegas, reached a deal with the special counsel overseeing the investigation into Hunter Biden, David C. Weiss, that could lead to 48 to 72 months in prison.”

“President Biden will commute the sentences of around 1,500 people, in what constitutes the largest single-day act of clemency for any president in modern history,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The commutations, announced in a statement Thursday, are for people who were released from prison and placed in home confinement during the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to the commutations, Biden is also pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes.”

Adrienne LaFrance: “The brazen murder of a CEO in Midtown Manhattan—and the cheering reaction to his execution—amounts to a blinking-and-blaring warning signal for a society that has become already too inured to bloodshed.”

“Luigi Mangione, who has been charged with killing Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthCare, was found with a notebook that detailed plans for the shooting,“ the New York Times reports.

Wrote Mangione: “What do you do? You wack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention. It’s targeted, precise, and doesn’t risk innocents.”

Ken Klippenstein has obtained the 262-word “manifesto” written by suspected killer Luigi Mangione.

“Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg says Donald Trump’s imminent return to the presidency is not a reason to throw out the 34-count conviction that jurors delivered in the hush money case earlier this year,” Politico reports.

“Bragg conceded in a court filing that Trump cannot be sentenced while he is president. But he said Justice Juan Merchan has a variety of options to put the case on hold during Trump’s second term — and then issue a sentence after he leaves office in January 2029.”

The man New York City police have described as a “strong person of interest” in the killing of the health care executive Brian Thompson was taken into custody on Monday while in possession of a handwritten document that spoke to his “motivation and mind-set,” the New York Times reports.

The Washington Post reports the document did not appear to contain specific threats to other people, “but it does seem that he has some ill will towards corporate America.”

“A group of human rights activists, former corrections officials and families of crime victims asked President Biden on Monday to use his clemency power to take all 40 inmates off federal death row before he hands over power to President-elect Donald J. Trump,” the New York Times reports.

Far-right influencer Nick Fuentes is due in court later this month after a woman accused him of pepper-spraying her when she showed up at his suburban Chicago home, the AP reports.

“Donald Trump campaigned on a pledge to pardon a vast swath of supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021,” Politico reports.

“But his silence on the matter since winning the election has begun unsettling some fervent allies awaiting even the slightest signal from Trump about how he intends to turn his campaign rhetoric into reality.”

“A Tennessee man who was among the first wave of rioters to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was convicted on Wednesday of separate charges of plotting to kill the FBI agents who investigated his role in the attack,” the New York Times reports.

A New York judge on Monday postponed ex-Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon’s state trial on fraud charges until late February, Axios reports.

A January 6 defendant’s lawyer says he’s spoken with “a high member of the future Trump Administration” and claims a pardon is almost certain, Politico reports.