criminal case

Josh Jacobs’ court appearance on two misdemeanor charges resulting from an alleged altercation with his girlfriend in May isn’t until Nov. 27. The Green Bay Packers, the team for which he stars at running back, will have played 11 regular season games by then.

That means the NFL will likely determine whether to let him play before knowing the outcome of his criminal case.

Jacobs was placed on the commissioner‘s exempt list, the league announced Sunday. He is not allowed to play or even practice — although he will be paid — and only commissioner Roger Goodell can remove him from it.

Former USC running back Marshawn Lloyd is expected to get the first shot at filling Jacobs’ shoes when the Packers open at the Minnesota Vikings on Sept. 13. Lloyd was a third-round pick in 2024 after leading the Trojans with 820 rushing yards and nine touchdowns. He averaged 7.1 yards per carry and 17.8 yards on 13 receptions.

Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs during training camp in Ashwaubenon, Wis.

(Abbie Parr/Associated Press)

Injuries have kept Lloyd off the field for all but one game in his two seasons with the Packers. However, he has been healthy throughout training camp and worked with the first-team offense while Jacobs was slowed by a groin injury.

Lloyd will have competition. Shortly after Jacobs was placed on the commissioner’s exempt list Sunday, Green Bay acquired second-year running back Kaleb Johnson from the Pittsburgh Steelers. Johnson was a third-round pick out of Iowa, where he led the Big Ten with 1,537 rushing yards and 21 touchdowns in 2025. He rushed for only 69 yards with the Steelers last season, seeing action mainly on special teams.

Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said last week that the team was preparing for Jacobs serving a potential suspension.

“We’ll deal with that when that comes, but we’ve obviously prepared for [a suspension] in case that happens,” he said. “But at the same time I feel really good about the guys we’ve got in that room, and I think we can survive that.”

The only other running back on the roster besides Lloyd and Johnson is Chris Brooks, who served primarily as a blocking back and special teams contributor last season.

Jacobs’ attorneys released a statement underscoring that the NFL is reviewing his case. The time spent on the commissioner’s exempt list would be counted toward any suspension, although he would have to pay back salary earned while on the list.

“Josh Jacobs has been placed on the commissioner’s exempt list, which is an administrative procedure used by the NFL while a matter is being reviewed,” the statement read. “It is not a final determination. Josh respects the NFL process, the Packers, and his coaches and teammates. He looks forward to his return to the team and the NFL.”

Jacobs was formally charged Thursday with misdemeanor battery and misdemeanor criminal damage to property, stemming from the May 23 incident at his home near Green Bay. The Brown County (Wis.) District Attorney’s Office released an incident report that describes video footage taken inside Jacobs’ garage. A felony and four misdemeanor charges pertaining to domestic violence were dropped.

Jacobs and his girlfriend quarreled over content on both of their phones, according to the report, and video from the garage allegedly shows that Jacobs grabbed her, threw her to the ground and she struck her head.

Packers coach Matt LaFleur said Friday that he expects Jacobs to remain with the franchise regardless of the outcome of the case. Jacobs would be subject to a fine of no more than $10,000 and no more than nine months in jail if he is convicted.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A former Southern Poverty Law Center official has been charged in the Department of Justice’s broader criminal case against the Alabama-based civil rights group, a frequent target of conservative critics who claim the nonprofit is politically biased.

Heidi Beirich, a political extremism expert who left the law center about six years ago, was named in an indictment unsealed Wednesday.

Beirich, 59, of Palm Springs, is charged with wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured bank and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. She was charged in the government’s existing case against the SPLC in Montgomery, Ala.

In ankle cuffs and wearing a red T-shirt, Beirich made her initial court appearance for a bond hearing in Riverside, Calif., on Wednesday afternoon. She did not enter a plea and U.S. Magistrate Judge David T. Bristow ordered her to surrender her passport and appear in court in Alabama within two weeks.

The judge released Beirich on her own recognizance after prosecutors declined to file a request for detention. Her lawyer, Michael Proctor, said in court that Beirich is a “highly, highly responsible, pro-social and trustworthy” member of society with no criminal history.

Earlier in the day, Proctor said his client is innocent of the charges and described the case as politically motivated. He accused prosecutors of trying to punish his client for her “decadeslong record of success dismantling hate groups.”

“A free and fair society does not use the justice system to silence its political opponents,” Proctor said in a statement.

Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche announced the new charges at a news briefing in Washington, but did not name Beirich. CNN was first to report on the charges against Beirich.

“This is exactly what we said would happen in a case like this,” Blanche said. “Our investigators and the U.S. Attorneys and the agents working the case will keep on working it even after the initial indictment.”

An SPLC spokesperson said the case against it and Beirich “will not shake our resolve.”

“Taking on violent hate and extremist groups is among the most dangerous work there is, and we believe it is also among the most important work we do,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We are confident in our position and look forward to presenting the evidence and making our case in court.”

Beirich led the SPLC’s Intelligence Project, which incurred the anger of conservatives with its annual report on organizations that it classified as hate groups. Critics accused the law center of unfairly tarnishing right-wing groups with the same label that it applied to white supremacists.

Beirich co-founded the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism in 2020 after leaving the SPLC. She has testified before Congress about far-right extremism and is frequently interviewed about the subject by news outlets. Her current organization did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment Wednesday.

A superseding indictment filed in June appears to refer to Beirich as “Employee-2” and by her former title as director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project.

The indictment alleges that between 2007 and 2023, more than $4 million in donated funds were secretly funneled to people who infiltrated or were associated with violent extremist groups. Prosecutors said some of the money was used for recruiting new members and purchasing Ku Klux Klan robes and materials for cross-burning ceremonies.

The indictment says “Employee-2” oversaw the payment of donor money to SPLC informants or “field sources,” including KKK members and white nationalists who initially approached the SPLC for help leaving the extremist organizations. The SPLC employee was in a romantic relationship with a source who infiltrated a neo-Nazi group at the direction of the law center, the indictment alleges

Proctor said Beirich “won’t be silenced or intimidated by the government’s false and politicized allegations.”

Kunzelman, Chandler and Ding write for the Associated Press. Kunzelman reported from Washington and Chandler from Montgomery, Ala. AP writers Eric Tucker, Alanna Durkin Richer and Collin Binkley in Washington and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department moved Friday to dismiss a criminal case charging a former Olympian with deliberately damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Government lawyers said in a 20-page court filing that information provided since the indictment of David Hearn shows that the damage was the result of a “flawed installation by the contractor” as well as “the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026.”

“Given all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt,” said the filing from U.S. Atty. Jeanine Pirro.

Hearn’s lawyers said in a statement that the case against him should never have been brought.

“Its dismissal today does not erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American who did nothing wrong. The government’s approach was ready, fire, aim. The administration owes Mr. Hearn an apology,” the lawyers said.

Hearn pleaded not guilty earlier this month to one felony count of property destruction and has a trial scheduled to start Sept. 28 in D.C. Superior Court. The charge, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years upon conviction, accuses Hearn of causing at least $1,000 in damage to the pool.

Hearn told the Associated Press he was detained by National Guard troops and U.S. Park Police for five hours after stopping by the pool during a bike ride on June 19. He said he reached in to examine the pool’s newly peeled coating and briefly touched a chunk attached to the side of the pool, but said he obeyed a park worker who told him to let go of it.

Hearn, 67, of Bethesda, Md., competed in three Summer Olympics, earning his best finish, ninth, at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee says on its website.

He and his supporters have said the prosecution is a politically motivated attempt by the Trump administration to deflect blame and scapegoat others.

Tucker writes for the Associated Press.