Shortly after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison heard one thing uncommon was taking place: Federal brokers weren’t going to share their investigative file with their state counterparts.
“It was at least 24 hours before people started publicly saying it,” Ellison mentioned, declining to stipulate precisely how he heard in regards to the federal denial, which occurred after an preliminary settlement for the FBI to work with the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to collectively examine the capturing. “We started hearing they’re not going to release it. They’re going to exclude state authorities from the bullets, the gun, the crime scene.”
Ellison, who mentioned he has a superb relationship with federal regulation enforcement in his state, tried to intervene. “Can we call somebody? Can we work it out? Can we come to some understanding?” he recalled pondering, in an interview with HuffPost. When the information went public, his hopes dropped. He despatched a letter to federal officers pleading with them to alter their minds. He hasn’t heard again.
It wasn’t till Friday afternoon, after Ellison and the district legal professional for Hennepin County held a press convention and introduced they’d proceed with a parallel investigation, in search of extra proof from the general public, that he bought affirmation as to why his entreaties to officers he usually works with every day fell on deaf ears.
“This directive appears to be coming from Trump himself,” Ellison mentioned, pointing to the president’s feedback attacking Minnesota regulation enforcement on Friday.
“Normally I would, but they’re crooked officials,” Trump mentioned when a reporter requested if the FBI ought to share their recordsdata with Minnesota investigators.
The killing is the highest-profile crime Ellison’s workplace has dealt with because it efficiently prosecuted Minneapolis police for the homicide of George Floyd in 2020. One lesson? “Get all the evidence you can,” he mentioned. “Don’t over promise and under deliver.”
While Ellison mentioned he’s doing the whole lot he can to make sure justice is finished for Good, the lesson is clearly on his thoughts. Speaking on Saturday, he repeatedly cautioned that additional investigation was wanted earlier than a call may very well be made on whether or not to cost ICE agent Jonathan Ross. He additionally continued to hope the federal authorities would change its thoughts.
“I’m appealing to the federal government to reconsider their decision to exclude the state from the evidence,” Ellison mentioned. “We do have the right to investigate.”
He scoffed at Vice President J.D. Vance’s declare that Ross had “absolute immunity,” saying it solely reveals his personal “ignorance.”
Ellison, who was a longtime member of Congress earlier than he was elected as legal professional common in 2018, is just not unaware of the political difficulties. The Trump administration seized on a legal case alleging fraud by dozens, most of them Somalis, and hyped the claims, then surged hundreds of federal brokers to Minneapolis — outnumbering the town’s police pressure by a greater than 2:1 margin. The administration has additionally repeatedly tried to chop off federal support, which Ellison’s workplace has sued to cease.
Even so, he appeared baffled by the obvious launch of footage from Ross’s cellular phone to Alpha Newsa right-wing information outlet in Minnesota. Ellison mentioned it undermined no matter potential justifications the administration used to maintain investigative paperwork away from state officers.
“If you’re not giving up the file, then you’re not giving up the file. But now you are giving up the file,” he mentioned. “It’s fundamentally unprofessional from a criminal justice standpoint, from an investigatory standpoint … if you’re not releasing any information to the state, why are you releasing information to a propaganda sheet like Alpha News with your own commentary?”
The footage, leaked on Friday, exhibits Ross’s perspective within the moments main as much as his capturing of Good.
“I’m not gonna characterize everything that I see in that video,” he mentioned. “But I will say this: She’s clearly not demonstrating animosity toward him. So when we get down to intent, she’s not saying ‘I’m going to do this to you. I hate you. I’m going to hurt you.’ She’s saying: ‘Hey man, I’m not mad.’”
After he shot her to loss of life, Ross is heard on the video calling Good a “fucking bitch.”
This will get to the second lesson Ellison took from the George Floyd case.
“When some units of government are connected to the death of a person, it’s very predictable for some elements of the government to smear that person’s reputation,” he mentioned. “That’s happening full-on right now.”
“It’s important for the family of Renee Good to know that we know she’s not a domestic terrorist,” he continued. “We know that she’s not. She was a good person, and we know that when she died, she had love in her heart and was expressing no animosity toward the person who killed her and was in the middle of trying to help the most vulnerable neighbors she had.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/keith-ellison-minnesota-trump-ice-shooting_n_6962cd1fe4b0c587cd6bca8d