The state of Minnesota sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over access to evidence in the shootings of several Minneapolis residents by federal agents.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and named as defendants the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. Earlier this month, Noem announced she was stepping down from her position and President Donald Trump nominated then-Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) to take her place. Mullin’s nomination was confirmed by the Senate this week; the complaint will presumably be amended soon to switch out Noem’s name for his.

Trump’s immigration crackdown has sparked backlash across the country, sparking nationwide protests and multiple court challenges. Minneapolis has been at the epicenter of the controversy, specifically regarding two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis: Renee Good on Jan. 7 by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, and Alex Pretti on Jan. 24 by Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.

In the immediate aftermath of Good’s shooting, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) accused the FBI of blocking its access to evidence, and it had “reluctantly withdrawn from the investigation” as a result.

In the 43-page complaint, Minnesota argues that federal authorities have continued to deny it access to evidence in both the Good and Pretti shootings, as well the Jan. 14 shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan immigrant who was shot in the leg by an ICE agent and survived.

In all three shootings, the narratives initially presented by the federal government were called into question by eyewitnesses, video and photos from the scenes, and other evidence. Two ICE agents have been suspended for their roles in shooting Sosa-Celis and a criminal probe has been opened into whether they lied to a jury.

The complaint describes how Minnesota’s state investigators “expected federal cooperation, consistent with longstanding historical practices” as they “responded to the scene of each shooting to investigate,” but instead the federal authorities thwarted their efforts:

At the scene of the first two incidents — the killing of Renee Good and the shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis — federal agents initially indicated that they would work with Minnesota authorities and share relevant information. State investigators thus began their work in reliance on that understanding.

But in both cases, federal agents quickly reneged on their pledges to cooperate. Instead of sharing information, federal authorities took exclusive possession of evidence that had been collected, and they denied Minnesota investigators access to key information.

At the scene of the third shooting — the killing of Alex Pretti —federal immigration officers physically blocked investigators of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (“BCA”) from accessing the scene. That physical obstruction persisted even after state officials obtained a judicial warrant authorizing access to the scene. As with the previous two shootings, federal authorities took exclusive control of evidence and refused state and local authorities access to even the most basic information related to the incident – such as the identities of the involved officers.

This was an “unprecedented noncooperation,” the complaint argued, further exacerbated when the requests that Minnesota authorities sent to DOJ and DHS were largely ignored or denied, establishing a federal policy that “has deprived state investigators of timely access to evidence in federal custody that is directly relevant to their investigations of potential violations of Minnesota criminal law.”

The complaint seeks “to secure access to the evidence necessary to investigate these shooting incidents and to ensure that the State of Minnesota can fulfill its sovereign duty to determine whether federal officers committed crimes within its borders,” and asks the court to grant “declaratory and injunctive relief to set aside Defendants’ unlawful policy of noncooperation and their resulting refusal to comply with the investigative demands of Minnesota authorities,” including specifically declaring that the actions by DOJ and DHS violated the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, declare that the denials of Minnesota’s requests were unlawful and compel the federal government to comply and “provide Plaintiffs access to evidence and investigative materials in the Good, Pretti, and Sosa-Celis shootings,” plus an award of costs and attorneys’ fees.

“At stake is not only Plaintiffs’ access to evidence central to these shootings but also a fundamental principle of our constitutional system: that the States retain the sovereign authority — and responsibility — to investigate crimes committed within their borders,” the complaint argued.

Read the complaint here.

The post JUST IN: Trump Administration Sued By Minnesota — Accused of Blocking Evidence in ICE Shootings first appeared on Mediaite.

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