Ken Dilanian: “Since nothing goes without saying anymore—it is not normal for the FBI to fire experienced and accomplished senior leaders without explanation. The purge that is ongoing is without precedent in the modern history of the bureau.”

“It raises questions about whether the Trump administration is trying to turn the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency into an instrument of presidential whim—exactly the thing he baselessly accused his opponent of doing.”

“FBI Director Kash Patel is stepping up his campaign to take on some of President Trump’s top partisan priorities,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“In the last few days, Patel has forced out another round of agents who worked on investigations that upset the president and his supporters, and enlisted the FBI to help track down Texas Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to block Republicans from taking up redistricting legislation. The firings are the latest in a series of changes as Patel tries to reshape the nation’s premier law enforcement agency in Trump’s image.”

“Top staff for Indiana’s lieutenant governor played a video showing a state lawmaker’s wife seemingly topless, apparently using an AI program to alter the woman’s real performance at a state talent show hosted on April 9,” 24sight News reports.

“The FBI is forcing out at least two agents, including a former acting head of the bureau, as the director, Kash Patel, continues a purge at the nation’s premier law enforcement agency,” the New York Times reports.

“Less than five years after urging rioters to ‘kill’ police at the Capitol, a former Jan. 6 defendant is working as a senior adviser for the Department of Justice, which has been dramatically remade under the second Trump administration,” NPR reports.

“NPR has obtained police bodycam footage from multiple angles of the former defendant and current administration official, Jared Wise, berating officers and calling them ‘Nazi’ and ‘Gestapo.'”

“NPR also obtained the transcript of Wise’s testimony, in which he acknowledged that he repeatedly yelled ‘kill ’em’ as officers were being attacked and tried to explain his actions.”

“During her nine hours speaking with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche last month, Ghislaine Maxwell said nothing during the interview that would be harmful to President Donald Trump, telling Blanche that Trump had never done anything in her presence that would have caused concern,” ABC News reports.

“Democratic state lawmakers who left Texas to block a Republican plan to redraw the congressional map, were evacuated from a suburban Chicago hotel Wednesday morning because of what police called a potential bomb threat,” the Washington Post reports.

NBC News: “According to the FBI, murder and nonnegligent manslaughter decreased an estimated 14.9%, robbery decreased an estimated 8.9% rape decreased an estimated 5.2%, and aggravated assault decreased an estimated 3.0%.”

“Property crime also decreased an estimated 8.1% from 2023 to 2024, and hate crimes decreased an estimated 1.5%, the report found.”

“President Donald Trump is bending the U.S. justice system to his personal purposes in a way that is unprecedented in American history, prompting significant questions about how a system built on independence will fare in the months and years to come,” the Washington Post reports.

“Trump’s team has mounted a direct assault on all three pillars of the justice system, attacking judges whose rulings he dislikes, firing prosecutors for doing their jobs and taking revenge on law firms for having clients or partners he considers hostile.”

“Last year, an 18-year-old Utahn was staring at the potential of years in prison, accused of having sex with a 13-year-old,” the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

“Plea bargain negotiations were at an impasse. Then the Utah Legislature — based on an initial suggestion from Senate President J. Stuart Adams (R) — changed the law.”

“Two months later, prosecutors offered the 18-year-old, who is related to Adams, a plea deal. The teen would plead guilty to reduced charges, face no additional jail time beyond a week already served, and would not have to register as a sex offender.”

The Senate confirmed former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia in a 50-45 vote along party lines, the Washington Post reports.

The family of Virginia Giuffre and other accusers of Jeffrey Epstein expressed “outrage” over Ghislaine Maxwell’s move to a minimum security prison in Texas Friday, calling it “a cover up,” Axios reports.

Allison Gill reports that someone at the Bureau of Prisons waived Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex offender status in order to transfer her to a minimum security prison in Texas.

“Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein now serving a 20-year prison sentence for sexually exploiting and abusing teenage girls, was moved to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas,” the New York Times reports.

“Her relocation, from a federal prison in Tallahassee, Fla., came about a week after she was interviewed by a top Justice Department official about the Epstein case.”