Investigators found no evidence of undercover FBI employees at the Capitol, but the presence of FBI informants could further fuel right-wing “fedsurrection” conspiracy theories. 0 WASHINGTON — The FBI failed to take the “basic step” of canvassing its field offices for intelligence ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a long-awaited Justice Department’s inspector general report released Thursday. FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate told investigators that the lack of a canvass was a “basic step that was missed” and that he would have expected it to have occurred, the inspector general’s office said. The inspector general did find that the FBI “recognized the potential for violence” and took “significant and appropriate steps” even though it played “only a supporting role in preparing for and responding to” the events of Jan. 6. The report also includes details that will almost certainly fuel the “fedsurrection” narrative that has been growing on the right and among Donald Trump supporters: the false notion that the federal government was responsible for instigating the attack. While the review found “no evidence in the materials we reviewed or the testimony we received showing or suggesting that the FBI had undercover employees in the various

The former president threatened the Meta CEO with possible “life in prison” during the campaign. Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, said Thursday it had donated $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund.  A spokesperson for the company confirmed the donation, which The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday.  The donation is the latest swing in the up-and-down relationship between Trump and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s company. Trump this year publicly threatened Zuckerberg with “life in prison” if he did anything Trump viewed as illegal during this year’s presidential election campaign.  The two men had dinner together last month at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.  Zuckerberg declined during the campaign to endorse either Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris, although he did praise Trump’s response to an assassination attempt in July, calling his raised fist after the shooting “one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life.” 

The president commuted more than 1,500 sentences, setting a record for the most executed by a president in a single day. 0 WASHINGTON — A county commissioner who was convicted of taking nearly half a million dollars’ worth of bribes, including a stone-fired pizza oven; a tax attorney wrapped up in the “biggest tax fraud prosecution ever”; and the owner of a Detroit-area Medicare billing company who orchestrated a $26 million Medicare fraud.  All had their federal sentences commuted by President Joe Biden on Thursday in the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history. Biden commuted close to 1,500 sentences and pardoned 39 people in a sweeping and historic act for people who had been convicted of nonviolent crimes — many related to illegal drugs — and released from prison more than a year ago under a pandemic-era law, the CARES Act, to limit crowding in federal prisons. Many of those who received pardons had long ago completed their sentences, but the crimes will now be wiped from their records. Biden said in a statement that Sherranda Janell Harris, a Connecticut woman who was convicted on federal drug charges at 24, had been pardoned. Now 43, she has worked

Adams, a Democrat, spoke Thursday with Trump’s pick to oversee the border, a meeting that both men described in positive terms. 0 0 New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, met with incoming border czar Tom Homan on Thursday, a meeting that both men described in positive terms. “His goal is the same goal I have,” Adams said at a press conference following the meeting. “We cannot allow dangerous individuals to commit repeated violent acts of violence in our cities across America.” Homan said in an interview with Dr. Phil McGraw after the meeting that he believes what he and Adams discussed Thursday “may save lives,” expressing gratitude toward Adams for meeting with him. “I’m grateful that biggest city in this country, the biggest sanctuary city in this country, is willing to come to the table and help me with my two biggest priorities: criminals and children,” Homan said in the interview with McGraw, which aired on his platform Merit TV. Homan also laid out during the interview what he sees as misconceptions about President-elect Donald Trump’s deportation plans. “This isn’t a racial sweep. This isn’t military personnel driving through your neighborhood. This is a targeted, well-planned operation,” Homan said.

alk of entitlement cuts is swirling around Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s spending-cut project, showing how the politics differ for Senate-confirmable appointees and others. Some of President-elect Donald Trump’s most vulnerable Cabinet picks are racing to smooth out or overwrite past statements before contentious Senate confirmation fights, a political concern not shared by the duo of influential Trump allies who have been given wide-ranging power to recommend up to $2 trillion in cuts in federal spending.  The contrast illustrates a key split defining Trump-world as it prepares to take over the federal government. The incoming president has spent the weeks since winning the election preparing to stock key administration posts with high-profile conservative media stars who have ably used that ecosystem to bolster their right-wing policy proposals. But facing the political pressure of getting confirmed by the Senate, some of those Cabinet picks are now having to moderate. Meanwhile, others in non-Senate confirmable positions — co-chairs of the “Department of Government Efficiency” Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — can continue mostly unbothered by any prospect that their seats at the table could get yanked away. “The truly shaky to get 50 votes are in full bleach mode,” said one longtime