They asked nicely at first.
After an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three who had recently moved to Minneapolis, local law enforcement officials requested a partnership with the federal government to investigate the case, as they had done in previous shootings involving federal agents.
When the Trump administration refused to cooperate, Minnesota prosecutors stepped up their efforts. They sent a series of strongly worded legal letters demanding evidence about Good’s shooting as well as the shootings of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan immigrant who was injured a week after Good was shot, and Alex Pretti, who was killed on January 24.
The administration nevertheless rejected these requests.
This week, Hennepin County and Minnesota state prosecutors took another step to force the Trump administration’s hand. They filed a federal lawsuit against the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice over evidence from the shooting, an action that Hennepin County Prosecutor Mary Moriarty, whose jurisdiction covers Minneapolis, called “unprecedented in American history.”
The Trump administration refused to release the names of the officers involved in the shooting, even after the Minnesota All-Star Tribune And ProPublica identified the officers involved in the Good and Pretti incidents.
“The federal government has refused to cooperate with state law enforcement, which is unique, rare and simply cannot be tolerated,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison told reporters. “[We] I can’t stand by and let them do this.
Deadlocked over evidence, the case has already become a game of constitutional chicken between states’ rights and federal immunity, a battle that will have implications for those who wish to hold agents of the president’s immigration spree criminally accountable.
So far, neither side is showing any signs of backing down, pointing to a fight that could take years. If prosecutors ultimately file charges against the federal agents involved in the shooting, legal experts say the road to trial, much less securing a conviction, will be fraught with legal and procedural pitfalls.
“Prosecutors across the country are going to be watching very closely what happens in Minnesota,” said Alicia Bannon, director of the justice program at the nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice.
The first test for prosecutors, if they file charges, would be to prove that the officers cannot benefit from immunity under the Constitution. supremacy clausea rarely invoked legal doctrine that protects federal officers from state prosecution if they act lawfully and within the scope of their duties.
Failing to pass this test would likely end the matter.
The U.S. Supreme Court has not taken up a case involving Supremacy Clause immunity in more than 100 years, Bannon said, and justices have ruled differently on legal questions related to its application.
There is no easy answer as to whether Minnesota will be able to overcome a Supremacy Clause defense, said Jill Hasday, a constitutional law professor at the University of Minnesota.
“It depends on the facts, but the odds are probably against it,” she said.
Even if they survive such a fight, these cases could face a series of logistical challenges. Moriarty, who led the investigations, has decided not to run again and will leave office at the end of the year. That means whoever wins the election for his seat in November could inherit the lawsuits.
In addition to not having the agents’ names, prosecutors do not know where these agents are currently located. Minnesota may have to extradite them, potentially from a MAGA-leaning state that might be reluctant to send them to Hennepin County to stand trial.
“Will the federal government or other states cooperate on this? I think the answer to that question is rather uncertain,” said Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason University in Virginia. (Indeed, in a case involving a doctor accused of illegally sending abortion drugs to a Louisiana woman, the state of California rejected an extradition requestciting its own laws protecting doctors from prosecution elsewhere.)
The fight focuses on three shots. But Moriarty’s office has opened criminal investigations into 14 other cases of potentially illegal behavior by federal agents during Operation Metro Surge, which began in early December and concluded over the past few weeks.
Other cases reviewed by Moriarty involve allegations of excessive force or other misconduct by federal agents, such as an incident in early January in which agents allegedly used force on staff and students on the grounds of a high school.
Prosecutors are also investigating Gregory Bovino, the outgoing Border Patrol commander who helped lead an immigration surge in several U.S. cities and was seen on video throwing green smoke canisters in the crowd in a Minneapolis park. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said at the time that Bovino and other agents were responding to a “hostile crowd.”
The tension manifested itself in a series of demand letters sent by Moriarty to the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security. “Public transparency is vitally important in these cases, not only to the people of Hennepin County and Minnesota, but to the public across the country,” Moriarty wrote in one of the letters. “The only way to achieve transparency is to conduct investigations at the local level. »
In January, after Good’s shooting, federal officials agreed to participate in a joint investigation with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension — the Minnesota state police agency responsible for reviewing deadly force cases — according to letters signed by Moriarty.
State officials assumed they would be able to examine evidence, such as the car Good was driving and the weapons used to shoot her and the other victims. But investigators later learned through public statements by senior Trump administration officials that federal agents no longer intended to share evidence, the letter said.
Local and state prosecutors do not have the power to subpoena them for evidence as in a typical criminal investigation. Demand letters, called Touhy letters, are formal written requests, used as an alternative to a subpoena, asking a federal agency to provide evidence or testimony in a case in which the government is not a party. Moriarty searched a long list of evidence regarding the shootings, from weapons fired by officers in all three cases to official reports, officers’ GPS devices and witness statements. Touhy’s letters requested a response by February 17.
Normally, the federal government complies with Touhy’s letters as a matter of protocol, as long as releasing the information does not violate an internal policy, said Timothy Johnson, a professor of political science and law at the University of Minnesota.
But on Feb. 13, the FBI told BCA investigators it would not share investigative materials in the Pretti case, BCA Superintendent Drew Evans said. said in a statement. Evans said police have reiterated their requests for evidence in the Good and Sosa-Celis cases.
More than a month after the deadline set by prosecutors, the Trump administration has still not turned over the documents.
“There has been no cooperation from federal authorities,” BCA spokesman Michael Ernster said.
The agents involved in the shooting have not spoken publicly, but a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson defended Good’s shooting, saying the agent acted in self-defense. They said Pretti’s shooting was being investigated by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, and that the Border Patrol was conducting its own investigation. These investigations could result in disciplinary action or charges, including for civil rights violations.
The Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said federal officials discovered that after the Sosa-Celis shooting, agents made false statements. But the agency did not say whether it would cooperate with local authorities or follow a court order requiring it to do so.
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment or questions. Neither agency responded to the lawsuit.
Moriarty called the trial “critically important” to investigating the shooting cases, but also said she had made no decision on whether her office would file charges.
“There needs to be an investigation every time a federal agent or state agent takes the life of a person in our community,” she said. “And ultimately the decision could be legal. You don’t know, but that’s why you’re doing the investigation. You’re being transparent with the results of that investigation, and you’re being transparent about the decision and how you arrived at it.”
But a trial doesn’t guarantee prosecutors will get everything they want. “The question then becomes: Even if Hennepin County or Minneapolis wins the lawsuit, will they then comply? » asked Johnson. “And the answer is probably no.”
If the Trump administration ends up defying a judge’s order, he said, prosecutors could try to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. As for what could t happen next: “Everyone can guess.” »