https://minnesotareformer.com/2026/06/16/feds-charge-anti-ice-activists/
Minimal commentary here. The matter is examined in a post today at EmptyWheel.
=======================================
Two Minnesotans were murdered in plain sight and with video capture of each murder, by perps proven to be super-aggressive federal thugs. No federal charges.
Then this. Trump/JD together, are who they are, and we've more time to put up with them. This move by Todd Blanche's local rep is insane, and crazy too.
Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Two brazen murders, no charges. Then this.
From an eminent domain lawyer:
“If you’re going by traditional credentials, it’s a very unusual pick,” said David Schultz, a professor of political science and law at Hamline University in St. Paul. “Generally, you’re looking for people with more of a prosecutorial background. I can’t think of any situation where you would need an eminent domain expert in that office.”
The term "prosecutorial discretion" takes a right turn, a hard right turn, into outlandishness. What you say and how you say it can get a load of shit dumped on your head in Trump/JD land.
===================================================
That item leads with this image, from back then. Brought to you by the same people who joined Bibi in his Iran war wet dream extravaganza.
In closing, detail from the image -
.png){kind=tracking} |
| My victim is your criminal? Strange world where power defines all. |
_____________________UPDATE___________________
Heather Cox Richardson in a June 16 substack post analyzes the situation -
In Chicago, a case against six protesters for interfering with a federal agent and conspiring to interfere with a federal agent at a detention facility protest fell apart in May when the judge discovered that prosecutors had talked to individual grand jurors outside the courtroom and removed those jurors who refused to indict, as well as apparently overstating the strength of the evidence against the defendants. Then the prosecutors tried to hide evidence of their misconduct by redacting the transcripts from the grand jury.
As Julie Bosman of the New York Times reported, U.S. District Judge April Perry dismissed the case against the “Broadview Six,” saying: “I have read hundreds—if not thousands—of grand jury transcripts involving prosecutors who are the most junior of prosecutors to several U.S. attorneys who appeared before the grand jury. I have never seen the types of prosecutorial behavior before a grand jury that I saw in those transcripts.”
Today U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota Daniel Rosen announced his office was charging fifteen people with conspiracy to impede or injure federal officers over their behavior during the federal immigration crackdown in Minneapolis last year that led to the deaths of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Rosen alleges that the defendants are part of two “antifa” groups that “violently oppose immigration law enforcement.”
At the press conference about the charges, prosecutors introduced a Facebook post from one of the accused that said: “We need to become ungovernable.” Journalist Aaron Rupar noted: “Oh, so they have NOTHING nothing.” It’s actually even more embarrassing than that: Trump attended the Libertarian National Convention in 2024 when its theme was “Become Ungovernable,” and stood in front of the banner bearing that slogan, so the idea that the phrase is part of a criminal conspiracy will be awkward to argue.
From Minneapolis, Matt Sepic of MPR News reported that Rosen said the people were “charged not for what they said but what they did.” But Rosen did not answer questions about whether any law enforcement officers were injured and said evidence would come out later. Sepic notes that federal prosecutors charged thirty-six people with assaulting or impeding immigration agents in December and January, but have now dropped eighteen of the cases entirely and eleven more through nonprosecution agreements. Sepic notes that Magistrate Judge David Schultz in April called one of the prosecutors’ charging documents a “false affidavit.”
At the time of the Good and Pretti killings, Open Measures, which tracks the spread of harmful social media activity, noted that right-wing social media personalities tried to redirect public outrage by claiming that community organizers using group chats on Signal were threatening the safety of federal officers. As those claims spread, right-wing media amplified old stories that those opposing ICE agents were “antifa” or part of a “radical left.” They demanded such chats be investigated. Today’s charges cited messages sent in Signal chats.
Reporter Christopher Mathias of MS NOW noted that while the Department of Justice is going after Minneapolis protesters, Greg Bovino, the commander-at-large of the Border Patrol during the Minneapolis crackdown that cost Good and Pretti their lives, has appeared on a white nationalist podcast as he teases a bid for the presidency.
Journalist Kat Abughazaleh, who is one of the Broadview Six, commented: “As the government raids “antifa groups” in Minneapolis with the SAME charges levied against myself and the rest of the Broadview Six, we need to be asking how they got this indictment. And as charges (hopefully) get dropped, we must remember the process is the punishment.”
But today’s charges have redirected at least some media energy from the details emerging about Trump’s “deal” with Iran. While the U.S. has declined to publish details of what appears to be a memorandum of understanding that participants hope will lead to a final agreement, Dov Lieber, Summer Said, Alexander Ward, and Rebecca Feng of the Wall Street Journal report that the agreement says the U.S. will waive sanctions to allow Iran immediately to sell oil and to access the banking, transportation, and insurance systems it will need to do so.
Alayna Treene and Kevin Liptak of CNN report that U.S. negotiators are downplaying the significance of the language in the memorandum of understanding, claiming that language that seems to favor Iran is designed to give cover to Iranian officials back home.
And why might that be, for people not assassinated when others were?
Continuing -
But Philip Wegmann and Lindsay Wise of the Wall Street Journal report that the vagueness of the language of the agreement is not fooling Republican war hawks who stood behind Trump in his attacks on Iran. They are calling early reports about the deal “disturbing” and “utterly disastrous.”
There is other news the administration would likely prefer to cover up, as well.
Sarah Blaskey and Jonathan O’Connell of the Washington Post reported today that even as Trump was assuring the American public that private donors would pay for his ballroom, the White House had already approved tens of millions of taxpayer money for the contractor building the addition.
With access to project summaries, the journalists were able to show that “internal cost estimates have been significantly higher than administration officials have acknowledged in public comments or court filings. They also show that the work was projected to rely heavily on taxpayer dollars from the moment it was announced.”
And Trump’s renovation of the Reflecting Pool by the Lincoln Memorial is having the effect experts warned of. Because of the dark paint on the floor of the pool, the sun heats the water up even faster than it did before, and the resulting algae bloom has turned the pool bright green. Today, workers poured hydrogen peroxide into the pool to try to kill the algae.
And JD will spin out future "truth" with the Iranian negotiators who were not assassinated while others were. That will be interesting in how it evolves. And in who the Iranians in this regime transition, not change, transition, are and what finally emerges will be illustrative of something. What, your guess is as good as Crabgrass can guess. They know the plan. We know there is one, and it will be dripped out in a context as free as they can spin it as to The War, Who Won. So far the Gulf Arab states do not show up as winning anything, yet, if ever. Other fossil fuel producers not tied to the Hormuz Strait situation have seen higher fossil fuel pricing for months.
At a guess, the spinout of the MOU will take months more.
The Richardson post has been quoted at length as each paragraph seemed insightful. If Richardson wants, she can sue me for too long a quote to call fair use. Given the whole context of the post, Crabgrass says, "Fair Use." And it will not be done again until it is.
And the EmptyWheel commentary community will be adding to the post linked to at the outset, so check back to see how it goes there.
