Major League Baseball said its authorized gaming operators will cap bets on individual pitches at $200 and exclude them from parlays, a day after two Cleveland Guardians were indicted and accused of rigging pitches at the behest of gamblers. MLB said Monday the limits were agreed to by sportsbook operators representing more than 98% of the U.S. betting market. The league said in a statement that pitch-level bets on outcomes of pitch velocity and of balls and strikes “present heightened integrity risks because they focus on one-off events that can be determined by a single player and can be inconsequential to the outcome of the game.”

Cleveland Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz is due in court on charges accusing him and teammate Emmanuel Clase of taking bribes to help bettors in their native Dominican Republic win prop bets placed on pitches they threw. According to the indictment against the two, the highly paid hurlers took several thousand dollars in payoffs to help two unnamed gamblers in their home country win at least $460,000 on bets placed on the speed and outcome of certain pitches. Ortiz was arrested Sunday by the FBI in Boston while Clase wasn't immediately taken into custody. Lawyers for the pitchers said their clients are innocent. MLB and the Guardians say they are cooperating with the federal investigation.

Two pitchers with the Cleveland Guardians have been indicted on charges they took bribes to give sports bettors advance notice of their pitches and intentionally tossed balls instead of strikes to ensure successful bets. Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz have been on non-disciplinary paid leave since July while MLB investigated what it called unusually high in-game betting activity when they pitched. Ortiz was arrested Sunday by the FBI in Boston while Clase was not in immediate custody. Lawyers for both pitchers said their clients were innocent. MLB and the Guardians said they were both cooperating with the federal investigation.

The Justice Department is investigating whether leaders in the Black Lives Matter movement defrauded donors who contributed millions of dollars during racial justice protests in 2020. That's according to multiple people familiar with the matter. In recent weeks, federal law enforcement officials have issued subpoenas and warrants as part of an investigation into the Black-led organizations that helped spark a national reckoning on systemic racism. The investigation invites fresh scrutiny to a foundation whose leaders in recent years have faced criticism about their public accounting of donations. But the recent burst of investigative activity is also unfolding at a time when civil rights groups have raised concerns about the Trump administration targeting left-leaning groups.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is scheduled for trial in January after pleading not guilty to federal charges accusing her of lying on mortgage papers to secure favorable loan terms in a case pushed by President Donald Trump. James left the courthouse Friday smiling to cheers from supporters, who chanted, “We stand with Tish!” James says the case is about “a justice system which has been used as a tool of revenge." James faces bank fraud and false-statements charges in connection with a 2020 home purchase in Norfolk, Virginia. James’ attorney calls the Democrat's case a vindictive prosecution brought at the direction of the Republican president.

The head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers and a player for the Miami Heat have been arrested along with more than 30 other people in a takedown of two sprawling gambling operations that authorities said leaked inside information about NBA athletes and rigged poker games backed by Mafia families. Portland coach Chauncey Billups was charged Thursday with participating in a conspiracy to fix high-stakes card games tied to La Cosa Nostra organized crime families that cheated unsuspecting gamblers out of at least $7 million. Heat guard Terry Rozier was accused in a separate scheme of exploiting private information about players to win bets on NBA games.

Freed from the prison where he had been serving time for ripping off his campaign donors, former U.S. Rep. George Santos says he’s humbled by his experience behind bars. But he says he's also unconcerned about the “pearl clutching” of critics upset that President Donald Trump granted him clemency. Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Santos said Sunday that if Trump “had pardoned Jesus Christ off the cross, he would have had critics.” Santos won office after inventing a bogus persona as a Wall Street dealmaker. He was serving a 7-year prison sentence for fraud and identity theft when Trump ordered him released him Friday.

President Donald Trump has commuted the sentence of former U.S. Rep. George Santos, who was slated to serve more than seven years in federal prison after pleading guilty to fraud and identity theft charges. One of Santos’ lawyers told the New York Post late Friday that the former lawmaker was released from the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, New Jersey, around 11 p.m. The New York Republican was sentenced in April after admitting last year to deceiving donors and stealing the identities of 11 people — including his own family members — to make donations to his campaign.