After assault allegations, DOJ walks back charges against ICE protesters

The federal government accused dozens of Minnesota’s anti-ICE protesters of attacking law enforcement agents and ramming their cars into federal vehicles, inflicting bodily injury. Prosecutors posed them for photos, shackled and flanked by Department of Homeland Security agents.

In January, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi posted their photos in a virtual perp walk and called them “Minnesota rioters” in a social media post viewed more than 3 million times. Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen said the federal government will “not tolerate assaults on federal officers and those who commit that crime will be held accountable.”

Yet weeks later, federal prosecutors quietly charged the protesters with less serious crimes in about 20 cases. In at least three instances, charges were dismissed.

Former federal prosecutors say it’s unprecedented to allege assault on a law enforcement agent and then charge it as a misdemeanor rather than a felony, which typically carries a harsher penalty. John Marti, former acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota, said proceeding with lesser charges is an indication that prosecutors don’t have strong evidence and are “trying to avoid taking these cases before grand juries.”

“Are they really interested in getting convictions, or are they more interested in charging as a means to intimidate and abuse citizens who are opposing this administration’s policies?” he said.

The backtrack comes as Minnesota’s U.S. Attorney’s Office has admitted in court filings that it’s been overwhelmed with the volume of immigration cases and has been unable to keep up with judicial orders and court deadlines.

Elsewhere in the country, the U.S. Department of Justice has also failed to get indictments and convictions on lawmakers and protesters accused of undermining the rule of law.

While some of the protesters have spoken publicly about their experiences of being apprehended and held in detention, the majority have not.

Rather, President Donald Trump posted on social media last month that Minnesota would soon face a “day of reckoning and retribution” for the actions of whom the president has labeled “anarchists and professional agitators.” The president and his officials have also repeatedly used the term “domestic terrorist” to describe those who are organizing within their communities to oppose Operation Metro Surge.

Trophy photos

North Minneapolis resident Paul Johnson was detained by ICE in the parking lot of the Super USA Deli on Jan. 22. He was taken to the Whipple Federal Building, followed by the hospital, where he passed in and out of consciousness because of injuries sustained during his detainment, he said.

Four days later, federal prosecutors issued a complaint and called for his arrest, saying he approached agents with a baseball bat and sprayed the side of a federal vehicle with pepper spray.

His lawyer, Kevin Riach, said agents brutalized Johnson during his arrest, giving him potentially permanent brain injuries and injuring his left shoulder so severely that it will need reconstructive surgery. At one point in the hospital, Johnson woke to find agents taking pictures of him in violation of his medical privacy rights.

“HSI’s staged photograph of Defendant was immediately shared with Attorney General Pam Bondi, who had scheduled a visit to Minneapolis that day as part of a blatant public relations stunt meant to distract from ICE agents’ recent murder of Alex Pretti,” Riach wrote in the motion requesting the photos of Johnson in a hospital bed.

Bondi posted a photo of Johnson, with his ankles shackled and his arm in a sling next to a DHS agent. U.S. marshals are supposed to carry out federal arrest warrants, not DHS agents, Riach said, and U.S. Marshals Service policy on prisoner photographs forbids the posing of prisoners for photos except for ID purposes.

Government lawyers have not yet indicated whether Johnson will be charged with a felony or a misdemeanor.

Johnson and his wife have a small construction business, and his violent encounter with federal agents has put him out of work.

Levy Armstrong was not allowed to turn herself in, and a photo of her arrest was doctored by the White House to show her crying. She and fellow church protesters have been indicted on felony conspiracy to violate rights.

“There’s actually no regard whatsoever what the legally appropriate thing to do is,” Kushner said. “It’s all about scoring their political points.”

A national trend

Another former assistant U.S. Attorney, Surya Saxena, is defending Mohamed Jama, a U.S. citizen from St. Cloud who is accused of assaulting Border Patrol agents by allegedly crashing a van into their vehicle. Jama was not protesting, Saxena said. He was running errands before work when he was detained by agents and transported to the Whipple Federal Building, released and then charged three days later with assaulting a federal agent. Prosecutors charged him this month with a misdemeanor.

“Based on my experience as a former federal prosecutor, the circumstances suggest that the government knows they can’t prove the case at trial,” Saxena said. “If somebody actually assaults a federal officer, you don’t let them go for days, charge them in a felony complaint based on an affidavit of an agent that wasn’t present during the incident and then reduce the charge to a misdemeanor to avoid calling a witness at a preliminary hearing.”

He worries that if this trend continues, it will erode the public’s trust in federal prosecutors.