Federal Accountability

State prosecutors will need to be painstakingly precise for these investigations to succeed and the prosecutions to stick. I have led investigations that demand that kind of rigor.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office has begun partnering with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Attorney General’s Office to advance independent investigations. That work must continue, with investigators collecting every piece of available evidence and pressuring the Trump administration -- through the Courts and the public -- to turn over evidence from the crime scenes of the Good, Pretti, and Sosa-Celis shootings, and every other incident of potential criminal activity. While investigations are underway and even before charges are brought, public safety leaders need to be prepared for what could come next.

Operation Metro Surge was the largest federal immigration enforcement action ever taken -- and poses unprecedented legal challenges. Trump officials, from Vice President JD Vance to former Department of Homeland Security head Kristi Noem, have falsely argued that federal agents enjoy absolute immunity and are shielded from accountability. They are not.

What makes this moment unique is that state prosecutors will need to bring state charges against federal agents -- without any cooperation from the federal government.

When state prosecutors charge a federal agent, we can expect two procedural fights before any jury hears testimony. The agent will likely remove the case to federal court, where a district judge decides whether it stays there or goes back to state court. If it stays, the agent will then move to dismiss the case under the Supremacy Clause.

The leading case would then become In re Neagle, which was decided in 1890. Its test turns on two questions: was the agent performing an act authorized by federal law? And did the agent do no more than what was permitted in carrying that act out? Those answers are intensely fact-specific -- video, eyewitness accounts, training, instructions on the day of the incident -- which is why investigators and prosecutors must be painstaking in their work.

I have offered a fuller analysis on the Supremacy Clause and legal questions it poses here.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office will need to plan and prepare for every possible outcome. Under my leadership, it will.

The rule of law matters today more than it ever has.

As a former federal prosecutor and Acting U.S. Attorney, I have handled and guided cases against international terrorist groups such as al-Shabab and ISIS; anti-government groups including the Boogaloo Boys and Sovereign Citizens, and some of the largest fraud conspiracies in the nation. I signed the federal indictment of Derek Chauvin for violating George Floyd’s civil rights. I have prosecuted gun crimes, white collar fraud, and organized criminal groups. I led our U.S. Attorney’s Office as we held accountable those who attacked a mosque in Minnesota.

I will draw from those experiences to ensure that collaboration with our state partners remains strong throughout the process, that our teams are prepared every day to fight the Trump administration in the courtroom, and that the public fully understands what their County Attorney’s Office is doing to deliver justice and accountability.

We will conduct ourselves with integrity, and we will work to uphold one simple principle: nobody is above the law.