Just a few hours after Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a statement that said, without evidence, that the 37-year-old registered nurse \u201cwanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.\u201d <\/p>\n
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem would later imply Pretti had been \u201casked to show up and to continue to resist\u201d by Minnesota\u2019s governor. <\/p>\n
Multiple videos from the scene immediately undercut those claims, and there has been no indication in the days since that Pretti threatened or planned to hurt law enforcement. <\/p>\n
Several high-profile use-of-force incidents and arrests involving federal immigration agents have involved a similar cycle: Strident statements by Trump administration officials, soon contradicted by video footage or other evidence. Some law enforcement experts believe the repeated falsehoods are harming federal authorities both in the public eye and in the courtroom. <\/p>\n
The top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, Bill Essayli, has taken five defendants to trial on charges of assaulting officers \u2014 and his office has lost each case. Court records and a Times investigation<\/a> show grand juries in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles have repeatedly rejected criminal filings from prosecutors in similar cases. <\/p>\n Despite the repeated judicial rebukes, administration officials have continued to push for criminal charges against people at protest scenes, including the controversial arrest of former CNN anchor Don Lemon on Friday.<\/a> <\/p>\n \u201cWhen top federal law enforcement leaders in the country push false narratives like this, it leads the public to question everything the government says going forward,\u201d said Peter Carr, a former Justice Department spokesman in Washington who served in Democratic and Republican administrations. \u201cYou see that in how judges are reacting. You\u2019re seeing that in how grand juries are reacting. You\u2019re seeing that in how juries are reacting. That trust that has been built up over generations is gone.\u201d<\/p>\n The credibility concerns played out in a downtown L.A. courtroom in September, when Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino served as the key witness in the assault trial of Brayan Ramos-Brito,<\/a> who was accused of striking a Border Patrol agent during protests against immigration raids last summer. Video from the scene did not clearly capture the alleged attack, and Bovino was the only Border Patrol official who testified as an eyewitness.<\/p>\n Under questioning from federal public defender Cuauht\u00e9moc Ortega, Bovino initially denied he had been disciplined by Border Patrol for calling undocumented immigrants \u201cscum, filth and trash,\u201d but later admitted he had received a reprimand. The jury came back with an acquittal after deliberating for about an hour. A juror who spoke to The Times outside court said Bovino\u2019s testimony detailing his account of the alleged assault had \u201cno impact\u201d on their decision.<\/p>\n Last year, a Chicago judge ruled Bovino had \u201clied\u201d in a deposition in a lawsuit over the way agents used force against protesters and journalists. <\/p>\n Spokespersons for Essayli and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Essayli\u2019s prosecutors have seen four additional cases involving allegations of assault on a federal officer end in acquittals, a nearly unheard of losing streak. A Pew study found fewer than 1% of federal criminal defendants were acquitted throughout the U.S. in 2022. <\/p>\n \u201cThe credibility of the prosecutor\u2019s office and the credibility of the law enforcement officers testifying is key,\u201d said Carley Palmer, a former federal prosecutor in L.A. who is now a partner at Halpern May Ybarra Gelberg. \u201cThat is especially true when the only witness to an event is a law enforcement officer.\u201d<\/p>\n Jon Fleischman, a veteran Republican strategist and former spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Department, said federal law enforcement officials have a responsibility to be the \u201cmature, responsible player in the room\u201d and remain as apolitical as possible. While he is a firm supporter of President Trump\u2019s immigration agenda and said the Biden administration shares some blame for politicizing federal law enforcement, Noem\u2019s handling of Pretti\u2019s killing was problematic. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat she said really doesn\u2019t bear out in terms of what the facts that are available tell us,\u201d Fleischman said. \u201cI think it undermines the credibility of the justice system.\u201d<\/p>\n Fleischman added that he feared some of the government\u2019s recent missteps could dull approval of the platform that twice carried Trump to the White House. <\/p>\n \u201cOne of the main reasons I\u2019ve been so enthusiastic about this president has been his stance on immigration issues,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you see unforced errors by the home team that reduce public support for the president\u2019s immigration agenda, it\u2019s demoralizing.\u201d<\/p>\n Another top Trump aide, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, also spoke out after the Minnesota shooting, calling Pretti an \u201cassassin.\u201d<\/p>\n Responding to a Times reporter on X, Miller said <\/a>recent legal defeats in Los Angeles were the result of \u201cmass judge and jury nullification, deep in blue territory, of slam-dunk assault cases.\u201d<\/p>\n Accounts from inside L.A. courtrooms paint a different picture.<\/p>\n Carol Williams, a jury foreperson in the most recent assault trial which federal prosecutors lost in L.A., said the people she served with steered clear of conversations about the news or ICE raids.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t talk about the protests in L.A. and we didn\u2019t talk about the protests that were in Minnesota or anything,\u201d Williams said. \u201cPeople, I\u2019m sure, probably keep up with the news, but in terms of bringing that into the jury room, we did not.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year, Essayli and Tricia McLaughlin, the chief Homeland Security spokesperson, accused Carlitos Ricardo Parias of ramming immigration agents with his vehicle in South L.A., causing an agent to open fire. Video made public after the assault charges were dismissed<\/a> last year, however, do not show the vehicle moving when the ICE agent opens fire, injuring Parias and a deputy U.S. marshal.<\/p>\n After being presented with the body-camera footage, McLaughlin reiterated the claim that Parias weaponized his vehicle and said officers \u201cfollowed their training and fired defensive shots.\u201d<\/p>\n