Judge Blocks DHS From Destroying Evidence From Alex Pretti’s Execution By Federal Officers
from the possibly-won't-get-away-with-this-one dept
First, there’s the lies: the immediate, reflexive flurry of posts meant to portray anyone federal immigration officers kill as a threat to public safety. When an officer murdered Renee Good, the administration claimed she was a terrorist who was trying to run over the officer that killed her. Recordings proved this was all a lie.
Even before multiple recordings of the incident surfaced (including one leaked by the murderer himself), the administration was locking everything down. Whenever a law enforcement officer — federal or otherwise — kills someone, an investigation is opened. In almost every case, a parallel investigation is run by an outside agency to at least give the impression that the fix isn’t in.
That didn’t even happen in the Renee Good execution. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension arrived at the scene of the shooting assuming it would be opening an investigation. After momentarily granting the BCA access, the feds not only kicked the BCA out, but changed the locks.
Joseph H. Thompson, a career federal prosecutor who was running the office the day Ms. Good was killed, called on the Department of Homeland Security to halt immigration enforcement operations while the F.B.I. and state investigators began gathering evidence, according to an email he sent to colleagues that morning.
Yet, shortly after Mr. Thompson set out to launch a conventional review of Ms. Good’s killing, senior officials in the Trump administration overruled him on two fronts.
They sent immigration agents back into the streets of Minneapolis that same day and they barred the B.C.A. from the investigation.
A few days after that, former Trump personal lawyer/current deputy attorney general Todd Blanche made it clear there wasn’t going to be an internal investigation either.
“Look, what happened that day has been reviewed by millions and millions of Americans because it was recorded on phones,” Blanche said. “The department of justice, our civil rights unit, we don’t just go out and investigate every time an officer is forced to defend himself against somebody putting his life in danger. We never do.”
“The department of justice doesn’t just stand up and investigate because some congressman thinks we should, because some governor thinks that we should,” Blanche said. “We investigate when it’s appropriate to investigate and that is not the case here.
Todd, maybe this is something this administration never does/never will do, but internal investigations (and outside investigations) have been the status quo for decades, even if the officer claims they were acting self-defense.
Instead, the FBI decided to investigate Good’s surviving partner as well as the person ICE agent Jonathan Ross murdered. This prompted a wave of resignations by DOJ prosecutors in the Minnesota US Attorney’s office. The shedding of talent continues in the aftermath of this abhorrent miscarriage of justice:
The FBI agent who initially began working with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to investigate the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Good has resigned from the bureau, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Soon after the agent opened the civil rights investigation, she was ordered to reclassify it as an investigation into an assault on the officer. The FBI blocked the BCA from participating in the investigation.
Anyone with half a soul should be exiting this administration as quickly as possible. When an administration chases lies with an absolute refusal to even take a second look at a killing by an officer, it’s pretty clear the DHS’s roving kidnapping squads are also allowed to be roving death squads.
Federal officers have done it again. They’ve executed another protester who posed no threat, shooting Alex Pretti 10 times while he lay face down in the street. Again, the administration led with lies that were soon exposed by multiple recordings of the shooting. And again, the feds are locking local law enforcement out to prevent an independent investigation of the shooting.
After a federal agent shot and killed a man on Saturday, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said he was told over the radio his local officers weren’t needed.
O’Hara ordered his officers not to leave the crime scene. He then requested the state’s top criminal investigators take the case, but when Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigators arrived they were blocked by federal Homeland Security officers, the bureau said.
The BCA wasn’t going to fall for this a second time. State investigators headed to court to secure a search warrant to access evidence held by the DHS and FBI. That warrant was approved. This one may not be so easy to sweep under the Trump regime rug, as Minnesota Public Radio reports:
Judge Eric Tostrud’s order bars the federal government from “destroying or altering evidence related to the fatal shooting involving federal officers that took place in or around 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis on Jan. 24, 2026, including but not limited to evidence that defendants and those working on their behalf removed from the scene and/or evidence that defendants have taken into their exclusive custody.”
Nice. Granted, we know the administration tends to blow off court orders it doesn’t like. So, there’s not much stopping the feds from destroying or altering evidence, other than the threat of contempt charges, which isn’t quite the deterrent one would hope it to be.
But this is all on the public record now. And it leaves the administration with basically only one response to the lawsuit filed by state investigators: argue for its “right” to destroy or alter evidence related to a killing committed by one of its own officers. I mean, it’s obviously not going to show up to court and claim this is something it can legally do. There will be lots of stuff said about jurisdiction and other procedural steps, but underneath it all, the government will basically be fighting for judicial blessing of its planned disappearing of everything that might indicate this wasn’t a clean kill. Remember that because what follows from here will be the administration trying to lock the judicial system out as well.
Filed Under: alex pretti, border patrol, dhs, eric tostrud, execution, kristi noem, mass deportation, minneapolis, minnesota, trump administration
Comments on “Judge Blocks DHS From Destroying Evidence From Alex Pretti’s Execution By Federal Officers”
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Funny way to write “very obviously justified self-defense.” I know you ret@ards just can’t comprehend this but when you drive your car at an LEO (let alone hit him!) it is open and shut self-defense.
The Pretti shooting is a lot more fuzzy but the only “evidence” to worry about is various cell footage, none of which is in any danger of being destroyed.
In other words: You are lying about this and the Judge’s order is completely unnecessary: destroying or “altering” (wtf?) evidence is always illegal, in all contexts.
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There is body cam footage in both cases which contradict your lies and that of your man crush!
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Talk about lying. Where is the bodycam footage of Good?
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Better liars than you have failed to convince the American people on these incidents. Give it up.
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A more concise post of yours should have been as follows:
“Fox News tells me what to say.”
Why do magats always rush into situations right after they paint “Stupid MAGAt” on their foreheads?
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Video says you’re full of shit.
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So open and shut that you have to keep the state investigators from having access to any evidence the feds collected. Wouldn’t want anyone else able to draw conclusions other than the official narrative that was stated before anyone even saw any of the footage…
Your orange idol doesn’t read Techdirt (or read for that matter). He’s not going to see your performative denial of reality as a fascist vice signaling. You’re just monkey-dancing out here but no one believes you and no one who would approve of your performance matters here.
But yes, please rush back to defend a billionaire and his army of thugs the next time an embarrassing truth is discussed. They desperately need the really effective PR you’re providing for free.
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Can they see what you can see?
Because you and everyone else here, me included, have seen enough footage to reach a conclusion.
Anyone putting themselves in the same spot as the LEO would see it is justified.
From the comfort of my lazy boy I can see that it may have been avoided.
It could have been avoided and no confrontation at all had the state cooperated with the feds. Why don’t you blame them?
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No, because they’re blinded by their bias. You appear to be also.
Signficantly different conclusions.
Fuck no. First, I wouldn’t work for ICE or CBP. I have morals. Second, they weren’t enforcing the laws their agency is tasked with enforcing. They approached the vehicle. Third, I’d not get in front of a vehicle with a driver currently in control of it (you know, like they have been expressly told not to do in order to justify shooting drivers, which they’re also not supposed to do even if they aren’t in front of the vehicle.
US Border Agents Intentionally Stepped in Front of Moving Vehicles to Justify Shooting at Them
And you’re not an American, much less a lawyer, and lawyers familiar with use of force law in the US disagree with “your” conclusion.
Absolutely, just not for the reasons you imagine.
Because that’s the language of a bully and an abuser. First, the state has no legal obligation to cooperate with the federal government on immigration. Immigration enforcement is designated by the Constitution and case law as a federal prerogative. States are explicitly not supposed to enforce immigration law. Second, the federal government didn’t need to deploy as they did to Minneapolis. They didn’t need to be violent. They didn’t need to violate multiple court orders. They didn’t need to violate constitutional and human rights. They aren’t even legally allowed to arrest citizens, but they are. They’ve complained that the city and state won’t give them access to the jails, but they do have a process for getting prisoners from the jails. It’s a matter of record who is in jail and the feds have access to those records with the tap of a few keys. They don’t need to go into the jails. They can make official requests for prisoner extradition and custody changes. Also, the actual criminals in jail aren’t a threat while in custody, so the excuse is bullshit on its face.
But the actual answer is that you’re moron or a disingenuous asshole because you’re taking the administration at face value on their claims. The desire to get cooperation from the state is victim-blaming. They want to brutalize people. They want to commit violence. They want violence committed against their agents as retaliation. If you actually watched the accounts of protests in Minneapolis, the Trump mouthpieces kept calling protesters terrorists and insurrectionists, despite the actions of the protesters falling well short of those terms being appropriate. They want to be able to deploy the national guard and declare martial law and suspend rights, including voting rights. As much as the Trump administration has fucked with the safeguards of our democracy, there are still some in place holding him back. One of those is the midterm elections. Trump has literally already said he doesn’t want us to have midterm elections and he’s admitted to knowing that bad things will happen for his party if they lose even one chamber of Congress.
Trump chose to send ICE and CBP into cities. And he chose blue cities. Notice that they’re not surging in Texas or Florida, which actually have larger immigrant populations than the cities he’s chosen to attack. That’s entirely on him. The entire action is unnecessary. They made up fictional numbers of criminal immigrants and made unrealistic quotas for arresting said fictional numbers of people, and they had to just start arresting anyone they could find to pump the numbers up artificially, including people who were here legally, who followed the legal process for asylum (which Trump still confuses with people having escaped from a mental asylum).
They are abducting children and using them as bait. In another country, we’d call that human trafficking, but the administration pretends it’s necessary to enforce the law, even though the law doesn’t require it.
And you’re defending these human traffickers and you don’t even have a dog in the fight.
I’m sorry you bought a shitty La-Z-Boy recliner that impairs your vision and your empathy.
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So clearly self defense they’re trying to stop state law enforcement and the FBI from investigating, because nothing says innocent like screaming ‘YOU CAN’T LOOK THERE!’ after a crime committed in public, in frontnof numerous witnesses which has been recorded from multiple angles.
Murder charges never go away. Maybe this administration won’t pursue an investigation or prosecution, but the next one can, as well as pursuing conspiracy charges against current ICE, DHS, and FBI officials and all the way up to the White House. No one is above the law… at least, that’s what “the law” always says (until it affects them).
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Which is exactly the point of meticulously collecting all evidence in order to destroy it. And the FBI has a right to collect/subpoena evidence in an ongoing investigation. Which is most likely the reason they decided to fabricate the utterly preposterous “investigation” into Good’s wife. Not because they think this will go anywhere before court, but because it gives them the authority to subpoena any amount of evidence (including witnesses’ original recordings and devices) and destroy all evidence after not doing anything with it.
Re: What about Trump's pardons?
Here’s a genuine question. If Trump gives a blanket pardon to everyone in Ice, can another level of government (i.e. the state or the municipality) prosecute them instead?
If so, the problem would be how to get the evidence against them since I’m sure it will all be impounded and “lost” as rapidly as possible, more so if there was any reasonable chance of charges being laid.
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Presidential pardons only apply to federal charges; state- and local-level charges can only be pardoned by the state in which those charges apply. For example: Donald Trump couldn’t pardon himself of the 34 felonies for which he was convicted in New York because the charges were brought by the state of New York instead of the federal government.
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It only applies to convictions.
All the wiggling will have to be prior to charges and cases as they do not want this shit anywhere near a court.
Except maybe the Supreme Court, who can, without reason, expand the power of pardon even further than the extreme stretch it has already been granted by same.
Re: Re: Re:2 Nope.
As probably the most famous example, Gerald Ford’s presidential pardon of Richard Nixon happened before Nixon was even indicted for any crime in the context of the Watergate scandal.
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Not according to Biden
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Some points:
So your “Not according to Biden” should actually be “No according to historical precedence” but you couldn’t bear the indignity of failing to make a jab at Biden when in reality you should blame Trump for what happened.
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If the state were to declare independence from their king, they could do what they want to any ICE agents still inside. Including extradition to other friendly states, or perhaps to the International Criminal Court over war crimes.
It’s happened before, and the probability of a repeat no longer seems negligible. When the feds are in open revolt against the United States, why should we expect the states to deal with them as if the rule of (federal) law still applies?
But does he have enough power in practice to enforce any contempt-of-court penalties?
…which makes the headline wrong. The judge hasn’t “blocked” DHS from doing this, but has only ordered them not to. Actual blocking would look more like the judge gathering all the evidence and shipping copies to Iceland.
I don’t think this is a minor point. To quote Mark Carney:
In other words, don’t use language that presumes people will follow the rules, when we have no good reason to expect they will.
This whole court is out of order...
Until a Trump Cabinet Member is in the pokey on a contempt-of-court charge, no judicial ruling has any real impact in the US…
Their boss has indeminified them from any legal ramifications from their actions either by pardon or the ability to get SCOTUS to overturn anything.
To the judge...
Your Honor, do you seriously think that these people give a rat’s arse about your ruling? If they destroy or conceal evidence in the future or perhaps have already done so what could you possibly do about it? These people are the law and if the present laws don’t seem to fit their desires they will imagine new ones and SCOTUS will validate same. Judicial rulings only count in a functioning government.
i have enjoyed the “there is no bodycam footage because there are no bodycams” right up to when there is clearly footage.
Todd is right tho’. There is no need for investigation or review. These people are obviously guilty as hell and will continue to commit assault and murder. Since we never closed places like ‘Gitmo’, i suggest we finally put them to good use for once.
Nuremberg
It will take a Nuremberg-like tribunal for ALL of this administration’s people, including ALL of ICE/DHS and the entire cabinet. With no sentence off the table.
An execution is a term used when the Three Pashas were killed. What happened to Alex Prettis is a murder. Killing Trump, Noem, Miller, and ICE agents for their crimes would be executions and not murders.
It would be nice to have ethically straight and not ethically crooked people in government organizations
There was no attack by Alex and there was no brandishing of a weapon by Alex – as Noem has been saying. All of the video coverage shows this! When it comes to the recent killings of both of the innocent Americans in Minneapolis, it is clear that members within the governmental organizations responsible for conducting immigration-related activities are lying and still up to no good.
Re: They are worse than lying
Lying requires you to know the truth. But knowing the truth would take time from being the first to shaping public discourse. They make their inflammatory and definitive statements stoking the flames in their interest before they even have a chance of knowing the facts.
Their incitement propaganda is not as much a lie as it is fiction. Sociopathic fan fiction.