(Courtesy of Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office / AP)

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on Wednesday pleaded guilty to federal charges that he abused his position of power to violate the civil rights of George Floyd.

A grand jury indicted Chauvin earlier this year on charges of using the “color of the law” to deprive Floyd of his constitutional rights to be “free from the use of unreasonable force” during an incident in which Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes until he could not breathe.

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