There’s this mantra out there that oh, the Department of Justice is supposed to protect Donald J. Trump, and that’s what we were — that’s not true. We did not protect President Trump. We didn’t protect or not protect anybody. There’s not some tranche of super secret documents about Jeffrey Epstein that we’re withholding. I think that there’s a hunger or a thirst for information that I do not think will be satisfied by the review of these documents.

January 30, 2026 20:25 UTC

President Donald Trump’s unhealthy “obsession” with an election he lost more than five years ago could damage the GOP in the midterms, according to CNN’s data guru. Donald Trump has now entered his sixth year of pushing false claims about the 2020 election results. “You go to the last midterm election, 2022—Georgia voters were asked whether [Joe] Biden’s win was legitimate or illegitimate. “Every moment that Donald Trump talks about the 2020 election is a chance for Jon Ossoff to boost his probability of winning,” Enten said. Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty ImagesHistorically, the party in power in the White House almost always suffers losses in midterm elections.

January 30, 2026 19:54 UTC

Lemon is being charged with conspiracy to deprive rights and violation of the FACE Act and interfering by force of someone’s 1st Amendment rights, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security told The Times. After the church protest, senior Trump administration officials attempted to charge eight people, including Lemon, citing a law that protects people seeking to participate in a church service. The 1st Amendment does not automatically apply to private spaces. Some legal experts suggest Lemon’s defense based on the 1st Amendment could depend, in part, on whether the church’s Sunday service was open to the public. AdvertisementKatie Townsend, former legal director of Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, noted that both the Department of Justice and Lemon were pushing 1st Amendment claims.

January 30, 2026 18:46 UTC

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January 30, 2026 18:34 UTC

Free Speech. When free expression is challenged, independent journalism matters more than ever. By supporting HuffPost, you stand behind accountability, truth, and a free press. Already a member? Log in to hide these messages.

January 30, 2026 18:27 UTC





Feeling helpless in these times is completely understandable and feeling overwhelmed with empathy for those hit hardest by all that’s happening makes a lot of sense, too. How to turn empathy into compassionWhile empathy is a great asset and can foster healthy relationships, a deep understanding of oneself and others and often a kinder perspective on the world, compassion can elevate that to action which helps others. In fact, if you’re feeling overwhelmed by empathy, compassion is exactly the antidote you need. Psychology Today says: “Moving away from empathic distress and toward compassion involves compassion training, wherein psychologists use meditation-related techniques to foster feelings of generosity and kindness. Of course, ‘compassion training’ isn’t always accessible to everybody but Granneman and Sólo do have a free resource available here.

January 30, 2026 18:23 UTC

LOADING ERROR LOADINGWould you describe your partner as a spender or a saver? Researchers asked members of the couples separately to describe how they felt about their own financial habits as well as their partners’. Overall, partners who saw their partner as a “saver” were both financially and relationally happier. Additionally, spouses seemed to be a lot less worried about their own finances than they were about their partner’s. But 40% of us say we’re unhappy with our own habits, another study found.

January 30, 2026 18:23 UTC

A Kill at Monticello; Betting on U.S. Racing Has Plummeted Over Past 20 YearsBullville Terror, says the NYS Gaming Commission, “broke down” in the 1st race at Monticello yesterday and is dead. A few other notes…According to Equibase, in 2025 wagering on U.S. races was down 2.1% relative to ’24. The Thoroughbred version at Hawthorne is scheduled to open Mar 29, but that, now, is in jeopardy. Says that org’s ED: “There’s a very good chance that the last horse race in the Chicago area has been raced.

January 30, 2026 18:12 UTC

WASHINGTO — Former CNN anchor Don Lemon has ​been arrested for his involvement in a protest at a church, his lawyer and a Justice Department official familiar with ⁠the situation said on Friday. Lemon livestreamed a demonstration earlier this month that interrupted a church ‌service in St. Paul, Minnesota, protesting President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown ⁠in the area. Lemon is charged with conspiring to deprive others of ‌their civil rights and ‍violating the FACE Act by allegedly obstructing access to a ⁠house of worship, according to a ⁠Justice Department official. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. CNN fired him in 2023 after he made on-air comments about women and ⁠then-Republican presidential candidate Nikki ​Haley that were widely perceived as ⁠sexist.

January 30, 2026 18:07 UTC

Former CNN anchor Don Lemon was arrested by federal agents in connection with his presence at a protest in a Minnesota church against the Trump administration's immigration efforts. Department of Justice officials had publicly vowed to bring charges against Lemon, who has vocally criticized the Trump administration, over his presence at a protest at the church. Lemon, an independent reporter who hosts "The Don Lemon Show" on YouTube, has said he was reporting on the protest against immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities. In Friday's statement, Lowell called Lemon's arrest an "unprecedented attack on the First Amendment" and a "transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration." CNN, from which Lemon was fired in 2023, said in a statement that Lemon's arrest "raises profoundly concerning questions about press freedom and the First Amendment."

January 30, 2026 18:06 UTC

Don Lemon | Source: DepositPhotos.comThe arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort following an anti-ICE protest at a Minnesota church have intensified national concerns about press freedom, protest policing and the federal government’s expanding immigration enforcement tactics. “As a member of the press, I filmed the church protest a few weeks ago, and now I’m being arrested for that,” Fort said in the video. Civil rights attorney and racial justice advocate Nekima Levy Armstrong was arrested last week in connection with the same church action. Press freedom advocates say the arrests of Lemon and Fort raise serious concerns about the treatment of journalists covering protests, particularly those involving federal law enforcement. Representatives for Lemon, Fort, and Levy Armstrong did not immediately return requests for additional comment on Friday.

January 30, 2026 17:50 UTC

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January 30, 2026 17:35 UTC

The Senate voted to pass the measure just hours before the funding deadline Friday, but the House is not expected to return to Washington until Monday to give it final approval. In a win for Democrats, the funding bills also include some accountability measures — dubbed “guardrails “ by the party — that effectively force the White House to follow Congress’ spending instructions. (This time, spending leaders included a detailed funding breakdown in the bill itself — rather than the nonbinding language that is typically sent to the White House.) The House in the package voided the controversial law after senators had forced into the bill that ended November’s historic shutdown. I won’t forget this,” Graham said in a fiery speech on the Senate floor on Friday.

January 30, 2026 17:34 UTC

Don Lemon was taken into custody on Thursday night, according to his attorney. “Don Lemon was taken into custody by federal agents last night in Los Angeles, where he was covering the Grammy awards,” his attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement early Friday, per CNN. Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court.”It is unclear what charge or charges Lemon is facing in the Jan. 18 protest. Lemon was one of several journalists in attendance at the protest of Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. In a video of the episode that he posted on YouTube, Lemon says “I’m just here photographing, I’m not part of the group… I’m a journalist.”

January 30, 2026 17:24 UTC

Don Lemon, the former CNN anchor, was released on Friday after being arrested late on Thursday on charges that he violated federal law during a protest at a church in Minnesota earlier this month. Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Lemon, said Lemon was “taken into custody by federal agents last night in Los Angeles, where he was covering the Grammy awards”. A network spokesperson said: “The FBI’s arrest of our former CNN colleague Don Lemon raises profoundly concerning questions about press freedom and the first amendment. “Don Lemon is a professional journalist,” she said. In a video posted on his online show’s YouTube channel, Lemon attended a protest in which demonstrators disrupted a church service.

January 30, 2026 17:12 UTC