“When you attack American citizens, when you attack our institutions of legislation, when you attack our nation’s Capitol, you attack the very being of our way of life.”

— FBI Director Kash Patel, announcing the arrest of a suspect in the January 6 pipe bomb case.

The Justice Department on Thursday failed to secure an indictment against New York Attorney General Letitia James, NBC News reports.

The presentation to the grand jury came less than two weeks after the original criminal case against her was dismissed.

“The Department of Justice has instructed inspectors to stop evaluating prisons and jails using standards designed to protect transgender, intersex and gender-nonconforming people from sexual violence,” NPR reports.

Prosecutors helped identify Brian Cole Jr. as the suspected pipe bomber by tracing purchases he made in 2019 and 2020 that included all the components of the pipe bombs discovered outside the Republican and Democratic headquarters on January 6, 2021.

They also used cell phone tower pings and license plate reader checks to see that he was in the area.

There is no information given on his motive.

“In a stunning break in one of the FBI’s most high-profile unsolved cases, agents arrested a suspect Thursday morning who investigators believe placed pipe bombs outside Republican and Democratic headquarters in the hours before the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot,” MS NOW reports.

“The suspect has been charged with placing the bombs, which did not detonate. The allegations, if proven, would end a longstanding mystery that sparked a multitude of conspiracy theories over who planted the pipe bombs before a mob of pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol aiming to stop Joe Biden from being installed as president.”

Federal prosecutors are “expected to seek to re-indict New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday in Norfolk, Va. on charges related to alleged mortgage fraud,” MS NOW reports.

Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend who was convicted of recruiting young girls into sex trafficking, is planning to ask a judge to release her from prison, CNN reports.

New York Times: “The letter, submitted by her lawyer, offers no details about what grounds Ms. Maxwell will cite in her filing, known as a habeas petition. But the letter indicated that she would file the request shortly, and that it would be done without a lawyer representing her.”

“More than a week after a federal judge tossed the Trump administration’s cases against two of the president’s top political foes, the Justice Department is weighing whether to re-indict former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James,” NBC News reports.

“And the Justice Department is considering taking that step without the legal complications caused by the previous ‘unlawful’ actions of Lindsey Halligan as the purported top federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia.”

“It’s a criminal offense—war crimes or murder are criminal offenses. Hegseth doesn’t have the immunity that the President of the United States does.”

— Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), quoted by Time, on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s role in the boat strikes.

“As members of Congress grapple with growing personal threats, top Democrats in the US House are lobbying Republicans to let each lawmaker’s office employ an armed staff member to accompany them in their districts, as well as a law enforcement coordinator,” Semafor reports.

Benjamin Wallace-Wells: “During the Trump era, political violence has become an increasingly urgent problem. Elected officials from both parties are struggling to respond.”

New York Times: “In court, each blamed the other. Both were convicted. He began serving an 11-year sentence in June; she is expected to report to prison this summer after undergoing breast cancer surgery.”

“But in the five months that Mr. Menendez, 71, has been in prison, the couple has been barred by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons from seeing each other, even though the federal judge who sentenced them and the prosecutors who tried the case have said they have no objection to such visits.”

Two National Guardsmen were shot just before 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, right next to Farragut Square Park and two blocks north of the White House, NBC News reports.

“A federal appeals court has upheld a penalty of nearly $1 million against President Donald Trump and attorney Alina Habba, concluding they committed ‘sanctionable conduct’ by filing a frivolous lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey,” Politico reports.

“The Fulton County judge overseeing the 2020 election interference case against President Donald Trump and more than a dozen others agreed to kill the probe on Wednesday after a state prosecutor said the alleged criminal conduct amounted to more of a federal, not state, case,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

“While the development isn’t a surprise, it places a capstone on the last criminal prosecution of Trump and one of the most sweeping, divisive cases in Georgia history.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the Justice Department would take “all available legal action, including an immediate appeal,” after a federal judge tossed out separate criminal charges against the former FBI director James Comey and New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, the New York Times reports.

“In April, Alina Habba, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, extolled her office’s role in the sentencing of a former nursing home magnate to three years in prison for defrauding the government of $38 million. The man, Joseph Schwartz, was alleged to have overseen a ‘collapsed nursing home empire’ and ‘willfully’ failed to pay employment taxes, Habba’s announcement said,” the Washington Post reports.

“Around that time, Schwartz paid $960,000 to two lobbyists ‘seeking a federal pardon,’ according to their lobbying filing.”

“While many people have sought pardons from President Donald Trump, few could afford to spend such a sum to seek their freedom. The disclosure provides a rare look at how federal convicts are maneuvering to gain clemency during Trump’s second term and at some of the people offering to help them.”