Good morning. I'm James Holman from the Washington Post and this is the Daily

2002 for Monday January 18th. In today's news, President Trump plans to offer clemency

to more than a hundred people.

So many people have died in Los Angeles because of COVID that they've had to lift air quality

regulations to increase the number of cremations.

And global pressure mounts for the release of Russian opposition leader Alexei Novala.

But first, the big idea.

Top US defense officials say that the federal government is conducting insider threat screening on all 25,000 National Guard troops who have flowed into our nation's

capital to secure the inauguration. This extra precaution comes as concerns

intensify about right-wing pro-Trump extremism in the ranks.

Many of the rioters involved in storming the capital on January 6th turn out to have extensive military ties.

Paul Sunny, Dan Lymouth, and Miss E Ryan

report that the Army is working closely with the FBI

to vet all service members supporting the inauguration.

The Army is also working in consultation with the Secret Service

to determine which service members in DC right now require deeper levels of

screening or should be moved away from places

where President-elect Joe Biden will be nearby as a precautionary measure.

Major General William Walker, the commanding general of the DC National Guard, says the screening

represents what he calls an extra layer of security for the deployment, on top of what he

says is continuous monitoring that the military does on service members.

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, who's overseeing the DC Guard and the military's preparations

...