“Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys extremist group, has a past as an informer for federal and local law enforcement, repeatedly working undercover for investigators after he was arrested in 2012,” Reuters reports.

“Among the dozens of pardons and commutations former President Donald Trump issued before leaving office, one name has left some law enforcement officials reeling: Jaime A. Davidson, notorious in upstate New York for planning a 1990 robbery that ended in the murder of a police officer,” the New York Times reports.

“The commutation bypassed the typical federal process for seeking clemency, and was championed by an advocate who was herself granted a pardon in 2018. Experts said Mr. Trump’s decision to cut Mr. Davidson’s life sentence short was evidence of the problems that arise when presidential allies exert strong influence.”

“Law enforcement has identified more than 400 suspects and has brought federal criminal charges against over 150 people for actions related to the storming of the Capitol,” Politico reports.

New York Times: “The leadership of the Proud Boys has come under increased scrutiny as agents and prosecutors across the country try to determine how closely members of the far-right nationalist group communicated during the riot at the Capitol this month… At least six members of the organization have been charged in connection with the riot, including one of its top-ranking leaders, Joseph Biggs.”

New York Times: “The pardon also left three other men who were indicted with Steve Bannon in an unusual and unenviable predicament. None of them received pardons and so they still must face a trial in May. What’s more, legal experts said, Mr. Bannon could now be called as a government witness to testify against them, potentially increasing their legal jeopardy.”

President Joe Biden intends to keep FBI Director Christopher Wray in his post, a sign of confidence for the bureau’s leader who has more than six years remaining in his term, CNN reports.

Bloomberg reports that “selfie-snapping rioters” at the U.S. Capitol last week left the FBI a trail of over 140,000 images.

“Justice Department prosecutors have formally walked back their assertion in a court filing that said Capitol rioters sought to ‘capture and assassinate elected officials,'” CNN reports.

“A federal prosecutor in Arizona asked a magistrate judge in a hearing on Friday to strike the line in a recent court filing about defendant Jacob Anthony Chansley, a man who is alleged to have led some in the crowd in the first wave into the Capitol with a bullhorn while carrying a spear and wearing a fur headdress.”

Federal prosecutors offered the most chilling description yet of rioters who seized the Capitol last week, writing in a new court filing that the intention was “to capture and assassinate elected officials,” CNN reports.

“The view was included in a memo seeking to keep Jacob Anthony Chansley, who rallied people inside the Capitol using a bullhorn, in detention. According to Capitol Police information included in the filing, Chansley was notable for his headdress, face paint and carrying of a six-foot spear.”

Wrote prosecutors: “Strong evidence, including Chansley’s own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States government.”

A must-read in the New Yorker from Luke Mogelson:

“The Capitol was breached by Trump supporters who had been declaring, at rally after rally, that they would go to violent lengths to keep the President in power. A chronicle of an attack foretold.”

“The vast majority of Americans say they oppose the actions of the rioters who stormed and ransacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, while smaller majorities say President Trump bears responsibility for the attack and that he should be removed from office and disqualified from serving again,” according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

“As President Trump’s supporters massed outside the Capitol last week and sang the national anthem, a line of men wearing olive-drab helmets and body armor trudged purposefully up the marble stairs in a single-file line, each man holding the jacket collar of the one ahead,” the AP reports.

“The formation, known as ‘Ranger File,’ is standard operating procedure for a combat team that is ‘stacking up’ to breach a building — instantly recognizable to any U.S. soldier or Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was a chilling sign that many at the vanguard of the mob that stormed the seat of American democracy either had military training or were trained by those who did.”

“Dozens of people on a terrorist watch list were in Washington for pro-Trump events Jan. 6, a day that ended in a chaotic crime rampage when a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol,” the Washington Post reports.

“The majority of the watch-listed individuals in Washington that day are suspected white supremacists whose past conduct so alarmed investigators that their names had been previously entered into the national Terrorist Screening Database, or TSDB, a massive set of names flagged as potential security risks.”

“On Dec. 8, someone made a simultaneous transfer of 28.15 bitcoins — worth more than $500,000 at the time — to 22 different virtual wallets, most of them belonging to prominent right-wing organizations and personalities,” Yahoo News reports.

“Now cryptocurrency researchers believe they have identified who made the transfer, and suspect it was intended to bolster those far-right causes. U.S. law enforcement is investigating whether the donations were linked to the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.”

The FBI urged police chiefs across the country to be on high alert for extremist activity and to share intelligence on any threats they encounter, as the U.S. government issued a dire intelligence bulletin warning of potential violence ahead of the inauguration, the New York Times reports.