Law & Crime reports: The National Rifle Association cannot transfer, stay or dismiss the New York Attorney General’s lawsuit filed in Manhattan seeking its dissolution, a judge ruled on Thursday. “Today’s order reaffirms what we’ve known all along: the NRA does not get to dictate if and where they will answer for their actions,” Attorney General Letitia James (D) said …

The New York Post reports: The NYPD’s security presence at Trump Tower is going to be significantly scaled-back now that its namesake has turned over the role of commander-in-chief to President Biden, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday. Hizzoner announced the reduction in security around the Midtown skyscraper one day after Biden was inaugurated as president. “It’s still obviously a …

The Washington Post reports: Another one of former president Donald Trump’s banks said Thursday that it is closing his accounts, as Trump returns to a business hammered by covid-19 and the backlash to Trump’s role in the deadly attack on the Capitol. “We no longer have any depository relationship with him,” Bank United said Thursday. The bank declined to give …

Politico reports: Facebook said Thursday it will refer its indefinite suspension of former President Donald Trump’s account to its independent oversight board — the highest-profile test to date for the panel, and a move that could lead to Trump either returning to the platform or facing a permanent suspension. The announcement: Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs and …

Media Matters reports: In a newly uncovered exchange, Marjorie Taylor Greene in 2018 agreed with a Facebook commenter who claimed that 9/11 “was done by our own gov[ernment]” and that “none of the school shootings were real or done by the ones who were supposedly arrested for them,” including the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, …

Mediaite reports: MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell appeared on Flashpoint days after visiting Donald Trump at the White House with an apparent plan for the ex-president to declare martial law and keep the office from President Joe Biden. “Please sue me, Dominion,” Lindell said. He proceeded to mock the threat while saying “it’s like the old mafia days when I used …

Gothamist reports: A Manhattan pickup artist with an interest in the far-right Qanon conspiracy was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly participating in the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month. Samuel Fisher, an Upper East Side resident who appears to run a sparsely-watched YouTube channel devoted to “help[ing] men get high value girls,” was taken into custody at …

Yahoo News UK reports: First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon has said many people in the country “will be very happy to say cheerio to Donald Trump” on January 20, the day the former president left office. Speaking during First Minister’s Questions, she said: “First, I’m sure many of us across the chamber and across Scotland will be very happy …

New York City’s ABC News affiliate reports: Federal prosecutors have charged another person from our area with participating in the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, this time a man who said he traveled to Washington, D.C., with former members of the NYPD and the Proud Boys. The FBI said Christopher Kelly, of New York, posted photos of himself …

Via press release from hate group leader Tony Perkins: President Biden’s executive order effectively targets people of faith and faith-based organizations that provide social services that are even more vital in the midst of a pandemic. Now, those who hold to biological reality and the doctrines of the world’s major religions will be forced to violate their consciences, or even …

CNN reports: Fox News host Judge Jeanine successfully lobbied former President Donald Trump in an eleventh-hour effort to pardon her ex-husband in the final hours of Trump’s presidency, CNN has learned. Pirro was upset that her ex-husband Albert J. Pirro Jr. wasn’t on Trump’s final pardon list that came out early Wednesday morning, and that message was conveyed to the …

The Washington Post reports: Negotiations are expected to continue Thursday over the timing and scope of a Senate trial for Trump, who was impeached last week by the House on a charge of “incitement of insurrection” for his role in the Jan. 6 takeover of the U.S. Capitol by a violent mob. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and …

CBS News reports: A Senate committee will hold confirmation hearings Thursday on Pete Buttigieg, President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Transportation Department. Buttigieg is expected to outline his vision to uphold the safety of travelers, improve the nation’s infrastructure system and fulfill Mr. Biden’s infrastructure goals amid the COVID-19 pandemic. If confirmed, Buttigieg would oversee a department that requested …

The New York Post reports: Tiger King Joe Exotic lashed out at former President Donald Trump after being passed over for a pardon on Wednesday — claiming he was denied for being “too gay” for the president. Exotic, real name Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, released the statement on his Twitter account Wednesday afternoon, seething at Trump for refusing to commute his …

Politico reports: Actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger received his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday, making him among the first residents 65 and older to get the shot in Los Angeles County. Schwarzenegger, 73, booked an appointment himself at one of the city’s large-scale vaccination sites Tuesday after county health officials announced that …

Media Matters has the transcript: There are reports that he is considering the possibility of establishing a new political party to further the Trump agenda. As I say, these are rumors and, of course, they’re being reported now by not only Lou Dobbs Tonight but other outlets as well. Many are hoping that he will do something very much akin …

The Associated Press reports: Fireworks lit up the sky behind the Washington Monument to mark the end of Inauguration Day for President Joe Biden. Biden and first lady Jill Biden watched the end of the day’s events from a balcony in the White House on Wednesday night. The Bidens’ grandchildren danced and clapped on the balcony. While the coronavirus pandemic …

NBC News reports: The Trump appointee overseeing the Voice of America and other U.S.-funded broadcasters resigned on Wednesday at the request of the Biden administration, after a tumultuous tenure marked by accusations he was undermining the networks’ editorial independence. Michael Pack, CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, said his resignation was effective at 2 p.m. EST, just two …

CNN reports: In the immediate hours following Biden being sworn into office on Wednesday, sources with direct knowledge of the new administration’s Covid-related work told CNN one of the biggest shocks that the Biden team had to digest during the transition period was what they saw as a complete lack of a vaccine distribution strategy under former President Donald Trump, …

Business Insider reports: One America News Network has quietly scrubbed its website of references to election conspiracy theories, which could be an attempt to fend off a lawsuit from the election-technology companies it had targeted in its stories. For months, the media organization, which is allied with former President Donald Trump, has published stories about Dominion Voting Systems and perpetuated …