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Prosecutors Drop Charges Against Immigrants Accused Of Attack On ICE Officer

In mid-January, right-wing media figures seized on a story that could serve as a narrative reset after an

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis. Amid rising backlash to the Trump administration’s mass deportation operation across Minnesota, MAGA pundits hyped claims from the Department of Homeland Security that Venezuelan immigrants had attacked federal agents with a shovel and broomstick. Federal agents shot in response, the story went, wounding one of the men accused in the attack.

Since then, those claims have totally fallen apart, and on February 12 prosecutors asked the presiding judge to dismiss the case with prejudice. The prosecutor wrote that “newly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations” put forward by the government in official filings and testimony.

Right-wing media coverage of the story was unhinged, and it followed a clear, established pattern of hyping dubious initial government claims that would later turn out to be false.

As news of the incident broke on January 14, Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin called in to Sean Hannity’s show to read a DHS statement he’d been given “literally 45 seconds ago” and to lay the foundation for the coverage to come, a role he often plays in the conservative media ecosystem.

“While the subject and law enforcement were in a struggle on the ground, two subjects came out of a nearby apartment and also attacked the law enforcement officer with a snow shovel and broom handle,” Melugin read. “As the officer was being ambushed and attacked by the two individuals, the original subject got loose and began striking the officer with a shovel or broomstick.”

“Fearing for his life and safety as he was being ambushed by three individuals, the officer fired defensive shots to defend his life,” Melugin continued.

The narrative was set, and the next morning Fox News’ Fox & Friends weighed in on the story.

“You come at these guys and these women with a shovel and if you are being apprehended and try to run away or drive over them, you will be featured in retaliation videos,” said host Brian Kilmeade. “That's what this is about."

Kilmeade’s co-host, Steve Doocy, also bought the government’s line. “You cannot hit a cop with a shovel or a broom. You just can't do that. It is against the law,” Doocy said. “It is terrible when anybody gets shot. But, unfortunately, a lot of people don't realize, if you break the law -- when you're breaking the law, there's going to be repercussions.”

Co-host Ainsley Earhart suggested capital punishment should be on the table. “When we were growing up, if you harmed a police officer, if you killed a police officer, in South Carolina you got the electric chair,” Earhart said. “When we were growing up, you didn't go after police with your car. You listened to what they said.”

Guest Trey Gowdy, who hosts another Fox show, said the supposed attack and the broader resistance to ICE’s presence gave President Donald Trump “all the justification” he needed to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota, thereby deploying active military units against civilians.

The tenor of the coverage was similar elsewhere, and sometimes even more irresponsible.

On the podcast of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, Kevin Posobiec — brother of MAGA influencer Jack Posobiec — said an immigrant was “shot in the leg because he was trying to kill an ICE agent with a shovel.”

At The Daily Wire, host Matt Walsh claimed that after a foot chase, “the illegal alien began attacking the officers and then two individuals, apparently family members of this person, came out of a nearby apartment and began ambushing the officers with a shovel and a broom handle.”

Walsh called it “another clear-cut, totally justified shooting by law enforcement.”

Walsh’s colleague, Michael Knowles, said, “The poor ICE agents now getting ambushed — they take out shovels, they start beating this guy with a shovel, and, so, luckily, happily, the ICE agent was able to get his gun out and shoot the Venezuelan.”

Although the exact details of what happened in the incident remain unclear, the prosecutor’s own words make it plain that the government's account was false. Less than two weeks after the shooting, two Border Patrol agents would shoot and kill Alex Pretti. Right-wing media tried to justify that shooting as well.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters

Why Donald Trump Is Finally Waving A White Flag In Minnesota

After weeks of vicious rhetoric aimed at Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, after cheering on some of the most aggressive interior immigration enforcement the country has seen in decades, Donald Trump suddenly wants everyone to know he had a “very good call” with the Democratic governor on Monday and that they are on a “similar wavelength.” He even emphasized how “respectful” Walz was, a word Trump rarely uses for Democrats unless there’s a reason.

And there is a reason.

In the wake of a Border Patrol agent’s Saturday murder of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti, the politics around the president’s chaotic and cruel immigration agenda have gone south fast—and Trump knows it.

Minnesota has become the clearest example yet of what happens when maximalist immigration rhetoric collides with reality. Two U.S. citizens are dead following encounters with federal immigration agents in the North Star State, and the administration didn’t just spin what happened—it went full George Orwell and told us not to believe our own eyes.

This isn’t political disagreement or ambiguity: This is Trump’s gestapo goons killing Americans and then trying to launder those murders through a propaganda-filled narrative—one that flies in the face of what heroic Minneapolis citizens captured on video at the literal risk of their lives.

Trump, of course, helped create this moment. Over the past several weeks he has personally targeted Walz, calling him “crooked,” accusing him of election interference, fraud, coddling criminals, and standing in the way of federal enforcement. Minnesota was held up as a symbol of Democratic lawlessness, proof that only Trump and the use of brute federal force could restore order.

Republican acolytes went even further, rushing to defend Pretti’s execution before basic facts were known and insisting that any questioning of Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics amounted to domestic terrorism—a line that out-of-control and cowardly masked ICE agents themselves have embraced:

Polling on ICE has deteriorated sharply as horrific footage and first-hand accounts circulate. Support for aggressive interior immigration enforcement drops once it is no longer abstract—once it involves names, faces, and video. Trump’s political instincts may be erratic, but they are not nonexistent. He can read a trend line. He can feel a backlash bubbling.

Two weeks ago, support for abolishing ICE was already climbing, with a record share of Americans backing the idea of getting rid of Trump’s private militia. Now the latest YouGov data shows that support has reached 46 percent, outpacing opposition at 41 percent.

As you’d expect, Republicans remain far less inclined to back abolition than Democrats or independents, but the shift within the GOP is notable: Two weeks ago, opposition among Republicans sat at 79 percent, with only 14 percent in favor. In the most recent poll, those numbers are now 73–19—a significant 11-point shift in a short amount of time.

Furthermore, there were new cracks in Trump’s own party, as not everyone was happy to defend the indefensible. It was easy to cynically roll one’s eyes at the handful of Republicans breaking ranks, convinced they’d be brought back in line with the mere threat of a nasty tweet.

And for Trump and his party, cruelty has always been acceptable. It was acceptable to abuse and deport Black and brown people. It was acceptable to kidnap brown children. It was acceptable to lock up Native Americans. It was even acceptable to murder a gay woman.

But this time they crossed a line they couldn’t spin away. They killed a man.

Not just a man, but a white man. Not just a white man, but one who worked as an ICU nurse, caring for veterans. Not just a VA worker, but a gun owner.

Alex Pretti didn’t fit the caricature. He looked like one of them. And that made demonization harder for Trump and his minions, and the backlash unavoidable.

Hence, the off-ramp.

Governor Tim Walz called me with the request to work together with respect to Minnesota. It was a very good call, and we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength. I told Governor Walz that I would have Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all Criminals that they have in their possession. The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future. He was happy that Tom Homan was going to Minnesota, and so am I! We have had such tremendous SUCCESS in Washington, D.C., Memphis, Tennessee, and New Orleans, Louisiana, and virtually every other place that we have “touched” and, even in Minnesota, Crime is way down, but both Governor Walz and I want to make it better! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP

Trump’s Truth Social post reads less like a victory lap than a damage-control memo. He suddenly wants coordination. He suddenly wants to suggest that Minnesota officials are partners, not enemies.

Sending Trump border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota is framed not as a crackdown, but as cooperation. Trump even suggests he and Walz share the same goal. Walz is no longer crooked. They both want to “make it better.”

This is not strength. It is retreat.

Nothing substantive has changed on the ground. What has changed is the politics. The White House understands that “law and order” stops working when voters see chaos, destruction, and murder caused by the federal government itself.

There is nothing comforting about masked agents in civilian clothes, without badges or body cams, demanding to see people’s papers. It’s a dystopian nightmare, and people aren’t having it.

Walz has played it cool, even activating the Minnesota National Guard—clearly marked in orange vests—to stand guard and hand out refreshments to protesters.

That is what actually providing safety and security to a community looks like—and it only happened because the Supreme Court stripped Trump of the power to turn the National Guard into his personal riot squad. The contrast couldn’t be clearer: a Democratic governor using the Guard to deescalate and protect, versus Trump’s earlier attempts to use it to intimidate and provoke. Trump has to see the optics are brutal for him.

As a result, Trump, who thrives on dominance displays, is now publicly flattering a Democratic governor he was attacking days earlier. That tells you everything you need to know.

He, his party, and his goons have gone too far. He’s now looking for a way out.

Markos Moulitsas is founder and editor of the blogging website Daily Kos and author of three books.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

After Constitutional Outrages In Minnesota, Congress Must Act Immediately

It’s more than a crime now.

It’s a violent reign of lawlessness against Minnesota, perpetrated by the federal government.

We are once again madly analyzing a kaleidoscope of images through a smoke screen of ICE lies. So I’ll attach the prosecutorial asterisk and say my immediate impressions—strong and disgusted as they are—aren’t designed to substitute for the constitutionally required, beyond a reasonable doubt, final take on what’s happened. We have to hope far more information brings the focus into crystal clarity, even as it looks as if the feds are taking action to prevent it.

But, from what we have in only the hours after the horrific episode, the latest fatal shooting of Alex Pretti replicates the worst, most lawless features of the Renee Good killing.

Pretti, a 37-year old ICU nurse and American citizen, is holding a phone, with which he is recording the scene. Filming public spaces, including the actions of law enforcement officers, is generally protected by the First Amendment, much as it seems to infuriate ICE officers on the ground.

An agent roughly shoves a protester to the ground, and Pretti helps lift her up. Four or five officers surround Pretti. They pepper spray him twice and wrestle him to the ground, on his back. Although he has a gun and a license to carry it under Minnesota law, he never takes it out (though officers will later publish a picture of it with the false impression that he was threatening them). It looks, in fact, as if they take it away, and he is disarmed on the ground.

One of the officers suddenly fires a shot, and after a brief pause, fractions of a second, nine more shots, apparently from multiple officers, ring out in quick succession. 1 1-2-3 1 1-2-3 1-2.

It looks like nothing so much as a mob execution.

The feds, up to and including the President, not simply officials on the ground, immediately circle the wagons and proffer a series of lies.

DHS attributed the killing to “defensive shots” after Pretti “violently resisted” attempts to disarm him.

Stephen Miller branded Pretti a “domestic terrorist” and “would-be assassin.” Vice President JD Vance issued a statement blaming public officials.

Trump immediately posted to social media praising ICE officials as “patriots,” blaming Governor Tim Walz and other Minnesota officials for “inciting insurrection.”

Greg Bovino, quickly shaping up as the comic-book-character evil face of the whole operation, claimed that Pretti approached officers with a drawn handgun. Bovino continued, “This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”

Whatever one’s views of the circumstances that ICE agents confront, the gravity of these reflexive official lies to the American people can’t be overstated. The highest federal official immediately jumped in to defame and disparage the victim of an ICE killing. That is exactly how totalitarian governments react. It’s the sort of official dishonesty that can and should bring down governments, as with the Dreyfus affair in France.

Next in the familiar template, federal officials band together to forcibly keep local law-enforcement from investigating the crime scene. Their bullying of state counterparts extends to the raw refusal to honor a state-issued judicial warrant.

Taken together—the shooting itself and the federal response afterward—the episode screams out profound contempt for both the Constitution and the public it exists to serve.

There are dozens of critical details that require immediate attention on the part of dozens of different actors in Minnesota, Washington, and around the country. These include, most exigently, the preservation of the crime scene and the strongest countermeasures to prevent ICE and the feds—the suspects here in a homicide and cover-up—from interfering with the ability to fully investigate and prosecute.

I and many commentators will speak concurrently to those exigencies in coming days. But there is something more urgent that this latest abomination calls for immediately.

Congress has to act now to cut off all funding to ICE.

That means voting to block new funding for ICE in the current DHS appropriations bill for FY 2026. Beyond that immediate step, it means amending the budget to substantially reduce ICE funding in general. And it means thereafter taking up legislation to remove ICE’s authority and dismantle its law enforcement function, which should be transferred to another agency altogether.

Again, whatever one’s views of the costs to the country of illegal immigration—and all indications are that the people caught in the dragnet of the Trump surge have overwhelmingly committed no offense other than possible immigration violations—they pale in comparison to the shredding of the Constitution and the vicious tactics of federal law enforcement, cheered on by the highest government officials.

Members of Congress, every one of them, need to assess with the highest sobriety where they want to be now and what they want the United States to represent and portray to the world.

As a country, we’ve endured some searing examples of law-enforcement overreach, from Reconstruction, to the Red Scares, to segregation, to anti-war protests and the Kent State killings, to the war on terror.

None of these painful episodes, most of which historians and Americans view today as tragic and avoidable, combine the pernicious features of this federal war on Minnesota.

There are many responses to the Pretti killing to undertake from many quarters. But above all, and unavoidably, it’s the immediate responsibility of Congress, which has done so much to enable and encourage the historic abuse of Donald Trump, to step up to its official constitutional role as the people’s representative.

It is now a clarion call of a generation. Congress must answer it, swiftly, fully, and fearlessly.

Harry Litman is a former United States Attorney and the executive producer and host of the Talking Feds podcast. He has taught law at UCLA, Berkeley, and Georgetown and served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Clinton Administration. Please consider subscribing to Talking Feds on Substack.

Reprinted with permission from Talking Feds.

Before Trump Sends Troops To Minnesota, Will Republicans Tell Him No?

President Donald Trump made the threat, where else, on Truth Social:

"If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don't obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State."

The Insurrection Act was signed into law in 1807. It was last invoked by former President George H.W. Bush in 1992, at the request of the California Governor, to deal with the Los Angeles Riots. Unlike deploying the National Guard, which Trump has also done, the Insurrection Act allows armed forces to carry out law enforcement functions for which they may or may not be trained.

You would have the military protecting not only federal buildings but immigration enforcement efforts, whatever form they might take. Talk about turning the streets — and parking lots — into battleground stand-offs. For what?

There is, of course, no insurrection, much less one led by professional agitators. ICE's job is not to kill anyone. If anyone is to blame for the overheated situation in Minnesota, it is Donald Trump, who thrives on it.

Unlike other presidents, who might see this as a time to bring the nation together, to express grief at a tragic loss, to vow to do better, this president does just the opposite. He doesn't want to turn the temperature down. He wants to turn it up. He investigates the widow instead of the officer. The pot boils, prosecutors quit, so what, he'll send more agents in. And if that inflames things further, then he can invoke the Act, which is what he really wants to do and what he views as a means to throttle a city and state he perceives as his opponent.

That's how he plays and that's how his team plays and if that's not how you play, then you shouldn't have voted for him, because he shows no sign of changing. Trumpism has never been about unity; it has always been us against them. Only now it is more so.

So what does everyone else do? Of course, they'll sue; the state's Attorney General has already brought suit regarding the ICE deployment and told the press that if Donald Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, he's prepared to challenge that in court.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, there are three ways the president can invoke the Act. The first is at the request of a state legislature or the governor, facing an "insurrection," which is not the path here. The second is when "unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion" makes it "impracticable" to enforce federal laws — a much more likely path — and the third is to suppress an insurrection that "hinders the execution of the laws" or "opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws."

You don't have to be Stephen Miller in the White House to knit together the Insurrection Act with the enforcement of immigration/deportation law into an unholy manifesto. Or to think that they already have.

Republican leaders are reportedly asking Trump to exercise restraint and not further inflame the situation by sending in the military. Are there enough Republican "leaders" to go to him and actually say something that almost sounds like "no"? And will he listen to them and care? Our military was not trained to march in Minneapolis. This is not what they signed up for. We should not send them there. Enough is enough.

Susan Estrich is a celebrated feminist legal scholar, the first female president of the Harvard Law Review, and the first woman to run a U.S. presidential campaign. She has written eight books.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

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Prosecutors Drop Charges Against Immigrants Accused Of Attack On ICE Officer

After Constitutional Outrages In Minnesota, Congress Must Act Immediately

Before Trump Sends Troops To Minnesota, Will Republicans Tell Him No?

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