Minnesota officials sue Trump administration over access to evidence in ICE-involved shootings
Officials want access to evidence in the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
State officials in Minnesota filed suit against the Trump administration Tuesday alleging they've been improperly blocked from accessing evidence from investigations into the ICE-involved shootings of Renee Good, Alex Pretti and Julio Sosa-Celis, according to new court records.
The lawsuit, filed by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty and Superintendent Drew Evans with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, accuses the federal government of reneging on what were initial pledges of cooperation in investigating each of the shootings.
"The State of Minnesota has the authority and responsibility to protect against and address violence within its borders, including by prosecuting homicides, attempted homicides, and assaults. That responsibility rests primarily with Minnesota's law enforcement and prosecutorial authorities -- in this case, Plaintiffs -- who must gather the evidence, evaluate the facts, and decide whether Minnesota criminal law was violated," the lawsuit said.
"It is a core attribute of state sovereignty -- and a duty owed to the people of Minnesota -- that such investigations be thorough and based on all relevant evidence," said the suit.
The lawsuit provides, in chronological order, a series of steps the state officials argue are deliberate efforts by the federal government to prevent Minnesota officials from having access to evidence from each of the shootings, which took place following the Trump administration's announcement of Operation Metro Surge, its immigration crackdown in Minnesota. Pretti was shot by Customs and Border Protection officers who were there to support the ICE operation.
In the case of the Jan. 7 shooting of Renee Good, for instance, Minnesota police allege that based on their current knowledge her car remains shrink-wrapped in an FBI storage facility in Minnesota and to this day has still not been examined or processed.
The Minnesota officials filed the lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, seeking an order that would declare the government's policy of withholding evidence from the state unlawful.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment on the lawsuit.
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