ICE Agents Under Investigation for Allegedly Lying About Shooting

A lot has happened. Here are some of the things. This is the TPM Morning Memo.

“Materially inconsistent”

Two ICE agents have been placed on leave and are under criminal investigation for potential perjury in an incident in which one of the agents shot a Venezuelan national in Minneapolis last month, according to Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons.

As has happened in other shootings by federal agents in Minnesota, video evidence appears to have had an impact on the agents.

“A joint ICE and Department of Justice (DOJ) review of video evidence found that sworn testimony provided by two separate agents appears to have made untrue statements,” Lyons said in a statement.

The dramatic reversal in the case came after Trump’s DOJ last week dropped criminal charges against the injured man, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, and his Venezuelan friend, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna. The two men were accused of assaulting the ICE agent who opened fire, allegedly hitting him with a broom and a snow shovel.

Federal authorities had not yet filed an indictment when, in a highly unusual move, they sought to dismiss the charges with prejudice, meaning they cannot be refiled. A judge granted the request and dismissed the case Friday.

In deciding to dismiss the case, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota made an extraordinary admission: “The newly discovered evidence in this case is materially inconsistent with the allegations contained in the complaint affidavit…as well as the preliminary hearing testimony…which was based on information presented to the affiant.” »

FBI Special Agent Timothy G. Schanz’s complaint affidavit was based, among other things, on “information I learned from other law enforcement agents.” She appears to rely heavily on the stories offered by the two ICE agents now suspected of possible perjury.

Lawyers for the two Venezuelans had insisted that the ICE agent who fired his gun fired through a closed door after the two Venezuelans fled inside. They had presented the court with photographic evidence of what they claimed was a bullet hole in an exterior door and a matching bullet hole in an interior wall.

“Lying under oath is a serious federal offense,” Lyons said, in a significant shift in tone from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s initial assertion that it was an “attempted murder” and DHS’s assertion that the attack was fueled by rhetoric from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, both Democrats.

The investigation into the two ICE agents is being conducted jointly by ICE and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota. Federal authorities continue to refuse to cooperate with a separate state investigation into the shooting.

Another case of “facilitation”…

In a new ruling, U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns in Boston ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Babson College freshman Any Lucia López Belloza, who was arrested while returning home to Texas on Thanksgiving and transferred to her native Honduras, where she had not lived since she was a young child. López’s expulsion took place despite a court ruling prohibiting his expulsion.

January 6 never ends

• Ahead of the midterm elections, President Trump pledged to impose a nationwide voter ID requirement through an executive order if Congress does not act. Your occasional reminder that an executive order is the executive branch’s version of an internal, office-wide memo.
• Current and former DOJ and FBI officials are alarmed that a conspiracy-fueled search warrant for the Fulton County voting center made it past a magistrate judge, MSNow reports.
• Before the FBI’s seizure of ballots and voting records in Atlanta, St. Louis U.S. Attorney Thomas Albus, who signed the search warrant, participated in meetings with some of the fringe lawyers charged by President Trump with reinvestigating his 2020 loss, including Ed Martin and Kurt Olsen, ProPublica reports.

Trump’s attack on higher education

• UCLA: In a major victory for University of California faculty groups and unions, the Trump administration has dropped its appeal of a court order blocking its $1.2 billion deal with UCLA.
• Harvard: Trump’s DOJ sued Harvard University for sensitive admissions data to determine whether it uses race in admissions decisions. According to the WSJ, the administration seeks “all admissions data from the past five academic years, including applicants’ test scores, applicants’ racial breakdown, grade point averages, extracurricular activities, essays and admissions scores.”
• All over the country: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is creating a list of top universities that will no longer be eligible for tuition assistance for the military because they are “biased,” CNN reports:

Death toll from boat strike campaign rises to 124

Three people were killed in a Feb. 13 U.S. attack on a suspected drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean, bringing the death toll from the lawless campaign of attacks to at least 124 dead.

Trump uses the military as a political prop

At a campaign-style rally at the new name of Ft. “Bragg” — no longer named after the famous Confederate general but, in a sly wink from white nationalists, after an obscure World War II paratrooper — President Trump delivered an overtly political speech to uniformed personnel, urging them to vote Republican in this year’s midterm elections.

Judge rejects white nationalist revisionism

On the official day of George Washington’s birthday celebration, when federal courts are usually closed, U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe ordered the Trump administration to restore exhibits about slavery at the national park site commemorating the first president’s former home in Philadelphia.

In his strongly worded opinion, citing Orwell’s article 1984the Bush II appointee wrote:

The government also asserts here that the truth is no longer self-evident, but rather the property of the elected chief magistrate and his appointees and delegates, at his pleasure to be cleaned, hidden or crushed. And why? Only because, as the defendants claim, she has the power.

Rejecting the government’s argument, Rufe filed a preliminary injunction against the administration, ordering it to restore the slavery exhibits and not make any more changes to the President’s House site.

What it means to be a white “race traitor”

Nikole Hannah-Jones:

America’s racial caste system, which puts whites at the top, existed long before the country’s founding. And yet there have always been white people who have worked against and betrayed notions of racial hierarchy, rejecting the fictions that undergird them and the illegitimate power that racial caste justifies. These people are perhaps the most powerful weapon against these systems.

Which is why, like so many archetypal race traitors before them, Good and Pretti’s willingness to put themselves in danger for the cause of racial justice proved an unprecedented galvanizing force., one that simultaneously affirms the best and worst of America.

Jesse Jackson, 1941-2026

In my youth, I struggled with strong feelings about Jesse Jackson, both for and against. As an adult, I was better able to resolve the conflicting elements of who he was when I realized: It was hard for Jesse Jackson to be Jesse Jackson.

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