Federal judges in Minnesota have several times in recent weeks rejected arrest warrants for people protesting a surge of immigration officers in that state, finding that federal agents do not have sufficient evidence that protesters assaulted officers or committed other crimes, according to two people briefed on the discussions.
In these sealed court proceedings, magistrate judges in the federal court in Minnesota have been deluged with requests from federal prosecutors to arrest and criminally charge protesters. The rise in requests comes amid increasing clashes between protesters and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after a surge of federal officers arriving in the state and in the wake of an ICE officer fatally shooting protester Renee Good on Jan. 7. But some prosecutors have fared poorly in establishing evidence of crime, said the people, who asked to speak confidentially about sensitive court proceedings.
It is exceedingly rare for judges to turn down investigators’ requests for search and arrest warrants or criminal complaints, since the standard of evidence required is so low; a federal agent or officer providing an account of events need only show a fair probability that the suspect engaged in the crime for an arrest warrant.
This spate of rejections in Minnesota would normally cause embarrassment for the U.S attorney’s office that submits the requests. But the Minnesota office has been in turmoil since the Justice Department’s decision not to investigate the officer who killed Good, which led to six senior prosecutors resigning, and more departures are expected.
In one case, a Minnesota-based judge rejected an effort to arrest and charge a protester after they had thrown an egg at a law enforcement vehicle, according to one person briefed on the case.
In another example that has not been previously reported, Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko of the U.S. District Court in Minnesota on Tuesday rejected a complaint to arrest a St. Paul school board member, Chauntyll Louisa Allen, on federal charges of seeking to threaten or intimidate people from engaging in worship. The case stems from a Sunday-morning protest outside the St. Paul service at Cities Church, where protesters chanted “ICE out” and “justice for Renee Good,” because they believed David Easterwood, acting director of the city’s ICE field office, served as a pastor there.
Micko noted in his Tuesday rejection that he found no probable cause for such a claim against Allen; he did, however, grant a separate request from prosecutors allowing them to seek to charge Allen with the separate claim of conspiracy to make threats.
Attorney General Pam Bondi had announced the arrests of Allen and others in the church protest case on Thursday but did not mention the charge the magistrate judge rejected for lacking evidence.
Micko also rejected a criminal complaint against journalist Don Lemon, who had followed protesters inside the church, which the Washington Post reported on Thursday.
Former FBI agents have publicly complained of watching ICE officers in Minnesota arrest protesters who appear only to be taunting or yelling at the officers, which they say appears to be protected free speech and not a criminal act.
Sources have also told MSNOW that Gregory Bovino, the Customs and Border Protection commander who is leading the surge of immigration officers in Minnesota, expressed frustration about the magistrate judge declining to approve arrest warrants. MSNOW asked Bovino about this report at a news conference he held Thursday; Bovino said he had not argued directly with any magistrate judges but acknowledged struggling to get some warrants approved.
“We work very hard with [the] Department of Justice, with the courts, to gather and obtain those warrants,” Bovino said, mentioning that his teams work for “several days” to get a warrant for one person. “We worked through what we needed to do to get a warrant for this individual. And you know, we’re going to, we’re going to continue to work with judges and the courts to obtain these warrants with those judges.”
Bovino’s aggressive methods have come under fire in Minnesota and other cities. He recently was filmed tossing a gas canister into a crowd of chanting protesters. In a video taken during the height of immigration raids in Los Angeles, Bovino exhorted immigration agents to be aggressive in making arrests.
“It’s our f–––ing city,” Bovino is heard saying to his officers. “Arrest as many people that touch you as you want to.”
Patrick Schiltz, chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Minnesota, declined to comment on the magistrate-judge rejections of warrants through a spokesperson for the court, citing the confidentiality of court proceedings.
