“federal immigration agents are still deployed across the city, with U.S. citizens continuing to have aggressive run-ins with them. Community members remain on edge, avoiding work and keeping children home from school. Both Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Wednesday called for a faster and larger drawdown of federal agents, a plea echoed by state, local and federal officials.
“Now we only have 2,300 aggressive, brutal, cosplaying soldiers bursting into people’s homes, brutalizing people on the streets, killing citizens, creating mayhem and chaos,” said state Sen. Scott Dibble, a member of the Democratic-Farm-Labor Party.
…
“You tell us at some point there will only be 2,300, 3.5 times as many police as we have in our city, is that supposed to reassure us?” said Minnesota state Rep. Aisha Gomez, a DFL member who represents parts of South Minneapolis. “They’re in Minneapolis now, but they can be coming for your city next.”
…
White House officials reiterated on Wednesday that Homan’s decision to pull 700 agents was a result of new cooperation with local officials to take custody of immigrants who have committed crimes directly from jails. That meant the government no longer needs as many officers in the state.”
“Raguse, who was in the courtroom, reported that Le said it was like “pulling teeth” to get the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Justice Department to follow court orders.
DHS, which oversees ICE, and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Le could not be reached for comment.
She made the remarks after U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell ordered the government to explain why it had not followed court orders in immigration proceedings, including not releasing several immigrant detainees he had ordered be let out.
Blackwell said in an order this week that the government’s “failures” were “alarming” because the government’s “persistent noncompliance with orders in this District was extensively detailed just last week,” pointing to a decision from Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee. Schiltz wrote that his “patience is at an end” and that the government had failed to comply with “dozens of court orders.”
…
Multiple lawyers at the U.S. attorney’s office have departed over ethical concerns in recent weeks, people familiar with the matter told NBC News. Trump administration officials have been trying to surge resources into the district to fill the gaps.”
“CBP agents shot the Chicago woman and U.S. citizen five times last October after her vehicle was involved in a collision with an SUV with Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum.
The federal government charged Marimar with ramming border patrol agents.
Those charges were later dropped. Marimar was one of many, calling the administration’s narratives into question on Tuesday.
…
Martinez followed the agents for several blocks before the vehicles collided, resulting in minor dents and scrapes on both vehicles.
According to testimony and documents from Martinez’s now-dropped assault case, she stopped her vehicle directly after the collision and the agents’ SUV came to a halt just ahead of Martinez. She then accelerated away, testifying in court that she swerved left to avoid hitting the agents, who were exiting their vehicle.
That’s when the agents opened fire, ultimately striking Martinez five times in the arm, chest and both legs. Only one of the three agents had a body camera activated at the time.
While the body camera footage hasn’t been released publicly, lawyers for Martinez have said in court that it shows an officer shouting “do something b–.”
The agent who shot her allegedly said in a group text to friends: “I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book, boys.””
Trump administration arrests journalist Don Lemon because he tagged along with and covered a protest that invaded a church and interrupted its service. Career officials refused to charge him, but the administration found people willing to bend the law and attack the freedom of press.
The US rebelled against Britain partially because the British would invade people’s homes based on warrants signed by the executive themselves, rather than by a judge approving the justification of the warrant. That’s why the Constitution has the fourth amendment. ICE tried to secretly start using monarchical British-style warrants to invade people’s homes without a real warrant.
“The agent’s resignation comes as the agency has undergone another purge of seasoned FBI agents across several states, multiple sources familiar with the departures told CNN. Some of the people who are being pushed out were confronted after the bureau conducted a review of the FBI’s internal messaging system and discovered instances when they made negative comments about President Donald Trump, according to the people familiar.
Some of those comments go as far back as a decade, the sources said.”
“Hours after the Senate voted to advance the war powers resolution rebuking the White House’s current and future actions in Venezuela, President Donald Trump placed “angry” calls to each of the five Republicans who crossed the aisle, according to people with knowledge of the calls.
Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.; Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; Rand Paul, R-Ky.; Susan Collins, R-Maine; and Todd Young, R-Ind., voted with Democrats to require the administration to get congressional approval for future military action in Venezuela.
Thursday’s vote was a procedural motion, and it advances the legislation to a full Senate vote that will require a simple majority.
Soon after the vote, Trump threatened each senator with primary challenges, vowing to unseat them, the people said.”
The first action in Venezuela already required Congressional authorization and was unconstitutional!
“Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powellsaid Sunday the Department of Justice has served the central bank with subpoenas and threatened it with a criminal indictment over his testimony this summer about the Fed’s building renovations.
The move represents an unprecedented escalation in President Donald Trump’s battle with the Fed, an independent agency he has repeatedly attacked for not cutting its key interest rate as quickly as Trump prefers. The subpoena relates to his testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in June, Powell said, regarding the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation of two office buildings, a project that Trump criticized as excessive.
Powell on Sunday cast off what has up to this point been a restrained approach to Trump’s criticisms and personal insults, which he has mostly ignored. Instead, Powell issued a video statement in which he bluntly characterized the threat of criminal charges as simple “pretexts” to undermine the Fed’s independence when it comes to setting interest rates.
“This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions — or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation,” Powell said.”
The reason so many Trump prosecutions are failing to get indictments is because he is charging people with weak evidence and for political reasons.
“Grand juries have emerged as a major stumbling block for Trump’s drive to use the criminal courts to exact retribution on his perceived political foes.
Federal grand juries operate in near-total secrecy and decide whether prosecutors can bring a criminal indictment in the first place. Unlike trial juries, they don’t need to be unanimous; rather, a majority of their 16 to 23 members must agree to return an indictment. And their only job is to determine if the Justice Department has brought a plausible case — a relatively low standard which led to the cliche that prosecutors could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.
But in the Trump era, grand juries are no longer a rubber stamp. Instead, they’ve become a headache for prosecutors trying to advance controversial Trump policies like mass deportations and militarizing law enforcement. Dozens of recent cases in Washington, D.C., have been met with so-called “no bills” — the shorthand for a grand jury declining to return a bill of indictment. And grand juries in other jurisdictions have turned down high-profile cases that Trump has prioritized.
…
The administration also seems to be losing because it’s pushing for indictments in cases with weak evidence, and due to the unpopularity in some parts of the country of tough tactics against protesters and of policies like Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants. and
U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan recently marveled at the “apparent prosecutorial machinations” at work, emphasizing the “unprecedented” actions prosecutors have taken to bring cases — even when grand juries have rebuffed them.
“Most troubling, prosecutors have rushed to charge cases before properly investigating them,” the Washington-based Biden appointee lamented.
…
The Constitution’s requirement that a grand jury approve serious criminal cases was adopted as a safeguard against executive power and political prosecutions. The move stemmed from what many revolutionaries regarded as political trials instituted by British authorities.”