New York Times: “Even though the Trump administration has portrayed protesters as left-wing terrorists and pushed for serious charges to be filed, often over actions that defense lawyers say are protected by the First Amendment, the efforts have failed so far to reveal a pervasive web of leftist groups working together.”

“Indeed, the conspiracy cases the Justice Department has filed against demonstrators it has cast as left-wing activists have had limited success, for now.”

“A Minnesota woman running for U.S. Senate, accused of throwing a live tarantula onto a staircase leading to where her then-tenant was staying, has been convicted in the 2024 incident,” CBS News reports.

“A judge ruled this week that a top Georgia Republican Party official, who has promoted former President Donald Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud affecting the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, has repeatedly voted illegally,” NBC News reports.

“Brian Pritchard, first vice chairman of the Georgia Republican Party and a conservative talk show host, was fined $5,000 for voting illegally and registering to vote while serving a sentence for a felony conviction. Pritchard was also ordered not to commit further violations, to face public reprimand for his conduct and to pay the State Election Board’s investigative costs.”

As Sam Bankman-Fried, the convicted former crypto mogul, tries to convince Trump to grant him a pardon, some of the biggest crypto supporters in Congress are warning the president to steer clear of his efforts, Politico reports.

Said Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH): “The guy’s a piece of shit. The guy shouldn’t be pardoned. The guy should go to jail for a long, long time.”

Jonas Murphy quietly pleaded guilty just before Christmas to felony interstate transportation of stolen property, according to the previously unreported plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, NOTUS reports.

The crime carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

Former Missouri House Speaker John Diehl (R), who resigned from office a decade ago after he admitted to sending sexually explicit messages to a House intern, is now headed to federal prison for using pandemic loan money for personal expenses, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

“Kellie Lauwers, the wife of Michigan state Sen. Dan Lauwers (R), is facing two felony charges, after a small chamber of commerce in St. Clair County accused her of stealing from the organization,” the Detroit News reports.

“Just months after President Trump’s mass pardons for Jan. 6 rioters freed him from prison, a Florida man repeatedly sexually abused two middle-school aged children,” NPR reports.

“On Thursday, the man, Andrew Paul Johnson, was sentenced to life in prison, after a Florida jury found him guilty of five criminal charges, including molestation, lewd and lascivious exhibition and transmission of material harmful to a minor.”

“The use of a chemical irritant by U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino is among 17 instances of “potential unlawful behavior” by federal agents during Operation Metro Surge currently being investigated for criminal charges,” the Minnesota Star Tribune reports.

“The incident involving Bovino included a chaotic scene where federal agents deployed smoke and chemicals as they clashed with protesters and observers in south Minneapolis. Bovino was captured on video lobbing a canister into Mueller Park in the Lowry Hill East neighborhood.”

“Pardoned Jan. 6 rioter Jake Lang has been charged with making threatening statements about one of the officers he faced off with at the U.S. Capitol,” NBC News reports.

Adam Serwer: “Around the world, powerful men are facing consequences for their actions. Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was convicted of trying to overthrow the government in a January 6–style coup, as was his South Korean counterpart, Yoon Suk Yuol. Marcin Romanowski, the former deputy justice minister in the right-wing Polish government, is in hiding in Hungary, accused of misusing public funds. The former Prince Andrew—Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor—became the first member of the British royal family in several centuries to be arrested; he’s been accused of crimes related to his relationship with the late sex-trafficking financier Jeffrey Epstein.”

“They’re all unfortunate not to be American. Otherwise they probably would have gotten away scot-free.”

“One way to look at the rise of Donald Trump is as part of a decades-long backlash among the American leadership class to the idea of accountability. Since Richard Nixon was forced to resign, powerful people in both political parties have worked assiduously to ensure that their leaders would escape the consequences of their actions… This is not just about Trump; his impunity is the product of a society that has worked hard to help the rich and powerful elude punishment for criminal behavior.”

“President Trump made his first public remarks about the gun-wielding intruder shot and killed by the Secret Service as he entered Mar-a-Lago’s grounds early Sunday,” the New York Post reports.

Said Trump: “You read about all these crazy shooters, but they only go after consequential presidents. They don’t go after non-consequential presidents.”

He added: “I don’t know how long I’ll be around. Got a lot of people gunning for me, don’t I?”

“Former British ambassador to the U.S. Peter Mandelson has been arrested by London police on suspicion of misconduct in public office,” Reuters reports.

“Mandelson, 72, was fired from the most prestigious posting in Britain’s diplomatic service in September, when the depth of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein started to become clear.”

“U.S. Secret Service agents and a deputy officer from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office shot and killed a man who entered the secure perimeter of President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate early Sunday morning,” the Washington Post reports.

Wasatch County GOP chairman David Johnson, who is also a father, was charged with waterboarding his teenage daughter, KSL reports.

“Video footage appears to contradict key aspects of a federal indictment’s descriptions of former CNN anchor Don Lemon’s actions at a protest last month inside a church in St. Paul, Minnesota,” the Washington Post reports.

“President Trump on Thursday pardoned five former professional football players, including Super Bowl champions, a Hall of Famer and a Heisman Trophy winner, for crimes ranging from perjury to drug trafficking,” the New York Times reports.