“A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to continue providing gender-affirming care to hundreds of transgender prison inmates, ruling that an abrupt decision to curtail their medical care was not based on any ‘reasoned’ analysis, as the law requires,” Politico reports.

Reason: “One of the most predictable clichés in journalism is ‘if it bleeds, it leads’—the idea that media have a bias for salacious, grisly stories. Like many stereotypes, it’s very much based in truth, which might explain why plummeting murder rates nationwide have not managed to capture national attention.”

“Despite a news cycle that prioritizes doom, the U.S. has seen that decline take hold over the last couple of years, with the murder rate in 2024 not just falling from the 2020 spike but returning to pre-COVID levels. That brings us to the present, and to a question: Could 2025 see the lowest murder rate ever recorded?”

“A South Florida man sentenced to 50 years in prison for ripping off tens of millions of dollars from Medicare was among the more than two dozen people whom President Donald Trump granted clemency to this week,” the Miami Herald reports.

Eight people marching in support of Israeli hostages held in Gaza were burned Sunday by a man wielding what authorities called a “makeshift flamethrower” and an incendiary device, the Denver Post reports.

Playbook: “Citing multiple DHS sources, Fox News reports the suspect in Boulder is an Egyptian national who overstayed his visa but was given permission to remain under Joe Biden’s presidency. The report — yet to be confirmed elsewhere — was immediately seized upon by MAGA figures both inside and outside the Trump administration as further evidence that Biden dangerously lost control of immigration.”

A jury convicted a former Republican political strategist on two counts of stalking after prosecutors charged Daniel Duffey with sending harassing text messages and letters to the victim and his family, the Montana Free Press reports.

Duffey also created a fake Grindr account under the victim’s name and asked app users to attend the victim’s wedding to have sex with him.

“Before being confirmed as the director of the FBI, Kash Patel made clear his intent to remake it in his own image, reflecting a larger desire by the White House to bend the agency to its will,” the New York Times reports.

“Behind the scenes, his vision of an FBI under President Trump is quietly taking shape. Agents have been forced out. Others have been demoted or put on leave with no explanation. And in an effort to hunt down the sources of news leaks, Mr. Patel is forcing employees to take polygraph tests.”

“Taken together, the moves are causing worrisome upheaval at the FBI, eliciting fear and uncertainty as Mr. Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino, quickly restock senior ranks with agents and turn the agency’s attention to immigration.“

“President Trump is employing the vast power of his office to redefine criminality to suit his needs — using pardons to inoculate criminals he happens to like, downplaying corruption and fraud as crimes, and seeking to stigmatize political opponents by labeling them criminals,” the New York Times reports.

“Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted a stunning allegation on Wednesday: A undocumented migrant sent a letter threatening to kill President Donald Trump, promising to ‘self deport’ after the assassination,” CNN reports.

“The story was picked up by multiple news outlets. The president’s allies used it to highlight what they see as the dangers of undocumented migrants and the work of the administration to boot them out of the country.”

“The problem: Investigators believe the migrant was a victim of a setup.”

Philip Bump: “Comparing their original sentences with the dates of sentencing and clemency, I calculate that Trump has wiped away more than 700 years of prison time that convicted individuals were otherwise slated to serve. That includes more than 600 years of prison time to which Jan. 6 rioters had been sentenced — including a number of the most violent actors and individuals affiliated with extreme right-wing groups.”

Twice-convicted former Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland (R) received a pardon from President Donald Trump today, the Hartford Courant reports.

President Trump pardoned former Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) as part of his latest round of clemencies, the New York Post reports.

Grimm, a former FBI agent and business owner, served seven months in prison in 2015 and 2016 after pleading guilty to underreporting taxable revenue from his restaurant in Manhattan.

President Trump said he will “take a look at” pardoning a group of men charged with planning to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) in 2020, calling the case — which has resulted in two convictions and two guilty pleas — a “railroad job,” CBS News reports.

Said Trump: “I did watch the trial. It looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job, I’ll be honest with you. It looked to me like some people said some stupid things.”

Garrett Graff: “A lot of attention has come in recent days to the sheer size of the corruption racket surrounding the president and the White House. The New York Times did a great piece this weekend about how Trump is pillaging the presidency, and Evan Osnos — the current reigning king of reporting on oligarchs and the super-rich — this week has a New Yorker piece about ‘Donald Trump’s Politics of Plunder.’ As one lobbyist told Evan, Trump’s influence-selling behavior in office is ‘outer-borough Mafia shit.'”

“But the spreading corruption around the presidency doesn’t stop with the president.”

“There’s also a broader, equally worrisome trend playing out at the margins of the national headlines: Day by day, we’re seeing the Justice Department effectively decriminalize and wave away crimes by Trump’s friends and instead selectively focus investigatory resources on Trump’s adversaries and enemies.”

“This is textbook authoritarianism, a classic example of what one-time Peru president General Óscar Benavides captured in his adage: ‘For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.'”

President Trump “is set to pardon reality TV stars Julie and Todd Chrisley, the couple famous for ‘Chrisley Knows Best,’ which followed their tightly knit family and extravagant lifestyle,” the AP reports.

“A jury in 2022 found them guilty of conspiring to defraud community banks out of more than $30 million in fraudulent loans. The Chrisleys were also found guilty of tax evasion.”

Trump said “he will be granting full pardons,” adding, “Trump Knows Best!”

“President Donald Trump on Monday announced that he will pardon a former Virginia sheriff convicted of taking more than $75,000 in bribes in exchange for appointing businessmen as auxiliary deputy sheriffs within his department,” Fox News reports.

New York Times: “Sunday is the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer, a searing moment of brutality that ignited what may have been the largest social movement in U.S. history. Five years later, the movement that his death helped begin may feel like it’s in reverse.”

Fast Company: Have social media platforms rolled back the promises they made after George Floyd’s death?

“A magistrate judge upbraided federal prosecutors Wednesday as he granted their request to dismiss trespassing charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, calling the government’s abrupt about-face ‘a worrisome misstep’ in a case that has stoked a political firestorm,” the Washington Post reports.

Said U.S. Magistrate Judge Andre Espinosa: “An arrest of a public figure is not a preliminary investigative tool. It is a severe action. It should only be undertaken after a thorough, dispassionate investigation of credible evidence.”