Minnesota Prosecutors Want Evidence. Guess What the Feds Say?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

A new lawsuit filed by state prosecutors lays bare the appalling reasons why there’s been no movement on the Renee Good and Alex Pretti shootings.

Link to tweet

https://newrepublic.com/article/208182/minnesota-prosecutors-evidence-alex-pretti-renee-good-doj

For weeks, we’ve been waiting for charges to emerge from Minnesota in the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by masked federal agents during Operation Metro Surge. The investigation has gone conspicuously quiet.

Minnesota prosecutors filed a lawsuit Tuesday in federal court in Washington, D.C., that lays out what’s been happening behind the scenes. The federal government has forced Minnesota to run a gauntlet just to obtain basic evidence to move forward: Good’s car, still shrink-wrapped and unexamined in an FBI storage facility in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota; shell casings; forensic evidence; and multiple statements in the wake of the shooting by federal officers.

It turns out that the feds have not only failed to cooperate with the state but have gone to great effort to stonewall the state’s requests, and they continue to do so.

Minnesota has jumped through every procedural hoop the feds have demanded. Even so, the feds’ answer, delivered through a combination of bad-faith denials and contemptuous silence, has been: too bad......

Longtime veterans of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division report that this is the first time they have ever seen the DOJ try to block state prosecutors from proceeding with a civil rights investigation. From my fairly extensive experience in that area, I can second that.

Minnesota’s lawsuit was preceded by more than a month of jumping through federal hoops to request evidence in the feds’ possession. Prosecutors filed so-called Touhy requests, the regulatory mechanism for demanding evidence from federal agencies, with the Department of Homeland Security, which had possession of the evidence. DHS said, “Not our department; try DOJ.” Minnesota did, starting in early February. To date, DOJ has said ... nothing at all. It has simply never responded.

[moniss]

1. I won't be surprised if a court orders the DOJ

to share the materials and DOJ reports back that "somehow" the materials cannot be located or have been "accidentally" destroyed.

[sarisataka]

2. When that happens

I mean if that happens recall a suit had been filed requesting a court order to prevent the Feds from destroying or tampering with evidence.

The judge felt such a ruling was not necessary.