Trump administration officials are fighting a court order issued late Saturday that requires federal agents to preserve evidence in Alex Pretti’s death.
The temporary restraining order stemmed from a request from the Minnesota bureau of criminal apprehension (MBCA) and Hennepin county attorney’s office. They alleged that feds had stymied their investigative efforts of Pretti’s death at the hands of federal agents.
Trump’s justice department claimed in court papers that they “fail to establish that they will be irreparably harmed absent a temporary restraining order”.
They claim that federal agents “are already obligated to preserve the evidence at issue here under their own policies”.
They contend that the FBI gathered evidence from the scene of Pretti’s death “using appropriate collection and handling procedures, and that evidence is currently preserved and stored in a secure evidence room at the Minneapolis field office”.
“The evidence is being preserved; nothing has been destroyed or altered. [Customs and Border Protection] has preserved all relevant body-worn camera footage from the incident and will do so for 75 years.” They also said that ICE was in possession of “limited evidence and follows stringent requirements for the documentation, retention, and accountability of its investigative records and evidence”.
The justice department insists that Minnesota and Minneapolis officials don’t have a right to steer the feds’ evidence-handling procedures, “particularly procedures involving an immigration-enforcement incident”.
