Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:30 a.m. CST

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An election watchdog group has filed a federal lawsuit in Washington claiming the Iowa-based nonprofit organization Iowa Values violated election laws by failing to register as a political committee while spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to support the reelection of Sen. Joni Ernst. Campaign Legal Center, a Washington-based nonprofit campaign finance watchdog group, filed the lawsuit on Friday. The lawsuit asks a federal judge to declare that Iowa Values became a political committee as of June 2019 and order the group to register, file documents and to provide information on fundraising and expenditures. The lawsuit also seeks a civil penalty against Iowa Values along with court and attorney fee costs.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Years of corruption and mismanagement allegedly preceded the arrests of a northwest Iowa town’s mayor, police chief and three current and former clerks who are charged with theft and fraud. Officials in the city of Armstrong stole tens of thousands of dollars in public funds, falsified public records to conceal their wrongdoing and used city property for personal gain. Prosecutors allege in a court document that some of the wrongdoing dates back to 2013 and continued in 2020. The arrests over the weekend stunned the city of 900 people, which is located near Iowa’s border with Minnesota and about 40 miles from the popular Okoboji vacation destination in the state’s northwest corner.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A 56-year-old Minnesota man has pleaded guilty to receiving more than $1.2 million in loans in a fraud scheme involving federal programs offering help for coronavirus-related losses. Donald Franklin Trosin, from Champlin, Minnesota, pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Sioux City, Iowa, to major fraud against the U.S. and money laundering conspiracy. Federal prosecutors said Trosin conspired to launder funds from loans he received from banks in northwest Iowa and Minnesota. Trosin admitted he defrauded the banks out of Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans. After receiving the loans, he wired the money to other people in different states.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Prosecutors have upgraded charges against an Iowa man who led a crowd of insurgents in taunting a police officer up several flights of stairs inside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack. Douglas Jensen has been seen frequently in video wearing a QAnon shirt and leading an angry mob toward an officer protecting the Capitol. An updated indictment filed in federal court in Washington D.C. now includes dangerous weapons charges to reflect that Jensen carried a knife in his pocket during the attack. Jensen remains in custody and has a court hearing on Feb. 23.