🔵 Derek Chauvin Pardon?

Author

Citizen Frank
May 14, 2025

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, May 14.

 

State and local leaders are reportedly preparing for potential unrest amid the possibility that President Donald Trump may pardon Derek Chauvin.

According to KSTP, Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, the Minnesota National Guard, and Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt have all been briefed about possible fallout if a federal pardon is issued.

Chauvin was convicted in both state and federal court in 2021. While Trump has no authority over Chauvin’s second-degree murder conviction under Minnesota law, he can issue a pardon for the federal charges related to Floyd’s civil rights.

President Trump met Wednesday with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and urged him to sign a peace deal with Israel, the White House said in a statement.

The extraordinary meeting in Riyadh between Trump and al-Sharaa — who remains on the U.S. terrorist list due to his past ties with al-Qaeda — marks the first meeting between a U.S. and Syrian president in 25 years.

On Tuesday in a speech at an economic conference in Riyadh, Trump shocked the world when he announced he’d lift U.S. sanctions imposed on the Assad regime — which al-Sharaa and his fighters toppled last December — in order to “give a chance” to the new Syrian government.


Erik and Lyle Menendez will have a new shot at freedom after 35 years behind bars for murdering their parents, a judge ruled Tuesday.

The ruling from Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic reduced the brothers’ sentences from life in prison without parole to 50 years to life, making them immediately eligible for parole. The state parole board must decide whether to release them.

The judge’s decision followed months of pushback from prosecutors who opposed resentencing, arguing the brothers hadn’t taken adequate responsibility for their crimes. Ultimately prosecutors did not call any witnesses, saying they had presented all of their evidence.

Outgoing acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin said Tuesday the Department of Justice is reviewing several of former President Joe Biden’s final-hour pardons, vowing that his new office will scrutinize whether clemency was used “correctly” or politically.

Martin, whose nomination to the Washington, D.C., prosecutor post collapsed last week after key Senate Republicans pulled support, confirmed that President Donald Trump has reassigned him to two new high-profile roles: Director of the Office of the Pardon Attorney and head of the DOJ’s recently established Weaponization Working Group.

“I do think that the Biden pardons need some scrutiny,” Martin said at a press conference announcing the transition. “We want pardons to matter … to be accepted and to be something that’s used correctly. So I do think we’re going to take a hard look.”

A USAID employee in charge of managing contracts for the agency created a fake company to fraudulently secure coronavirus benefits for himself, federal prosecutors said Friday.

“Yusuf Akoll worked as a Senior Procurement Contract Specialist at the U.S. Agency for International Development,” according to a previously unreported court document. “From at least in or around March 2021, and continuing through at least in or around August 2021, Akoll [made] materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements…that resulted in Akoll receiving two [Paycheck Protection Program] loans totaling approximately $16,666 that he was not entitled to receive.”

Prosecutors said that in November 2020, Akoll registered a company in Virginia called Naagode Consulting LLC, then applied for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan under the coronavirus bailout package, claiming he worked at Naagode and the money was necessary to prevent job losses.

While flying above the Arctic Circle last spring, a team of NASA scientists testing a new radar system over northern Greenland detected something unusual.

Deep into the ice sheet, their instruments showed, sat a cluster of settlements connected by a network of tunnels, like a bygone civilization frozen in time.

“It’s like flying over another planet, and it’s hard to imagine anyone or anything ever being able to survive there,” said NASA scientist Chad Greene, who was on the plane.

Planned Parenthood released its latest annual report the day after Mother’s Day. For 2023-2024, abortions are at an all-time high. So is government funding.

Nearly three years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and many states enacted strong pro-life protections, business is still booming. Congress and President Donald Trump can take action—but will they?

Here are the key takeaways you need to know.

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