Minnesota authorities have initiated legal proceedings against the Trump administration, demanding access to crucial evidence needed for their independent investigations into three shootings involving federal officers. Among the incidents under scrutiny are the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

The lawsuit alleges that the federal government failed to honor its commitment to cooperate with state-level investigations following increased federal law enforcement activity in Minneapolis. Minnesota officials are now seeking a court mandate to ensure compliance from the Trump administration.

“We are determined to secure the transparency and accountability that the federal government is seemingly eager to evade,” stated Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty during a press briefing.

This legal action intensifies the ongoing conflict between Minnesota state leaders and the Trump administration over the contentious shootings. These events have sparked widespread public protests and outcry. The Trump administration contends that state officials lack the jurisdiction to carry out such investigations, but Minnesota authorities argue the necessity of independent probes due to their mistrust of federal investigations.

“An investigation is imperative whenever a federal or state agent is involved in the loss of life within our community,” Moriarty emphasized.

The Trump administration had previously deployed a significant number of officers to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area as part of a national immigration crackdown. This operation, lauded by the Department of Homeland Security as their most extensive immigration enforcement effort, faced sharp criticism from Minnesota leaders concerned about the conduct of federal officers.

There continues to be fallout from Operation Metro Surge in the form of a Homeland Security shutdown, as Democrats in Congress hold up funding in an effort to secure restraints on Trump’s immigration agenda.

Minnesota’s lawsuit said the federal government is not permitted to “withhold investigative evidence for the purpose of shielding law enforcement officers from scrutiny where a State is investigating serious potential violations of its criminal laws, targeting its citizens, within its borders.”

Moriarty said Tuesday that the federal government “has adopted a policy of categorically withholding evidence,” calling the practice unprecedented and alarming. She said the lawsuit followed formal demands for evidence after the federal government blocked Minnesota investigators from accessing evidence related to the shootings.

In addition to the Pretti and Good cases, the lawsuit demands access to evidence in the case of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, who was shot and wounded in his right thigh by a federal agent in January.

Federal officials initially accused Sosa-Celis and another man of beating an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel. But federal prosecutors later dropped all charges against the men and authorities opened a criminal investigation into whether two immigration officers lied under oath about the shooting.

Emails seeking comment were sent to DHS and the Justice Department.

The Justice Department in January said it was opening a federal civil rights investigation into Pretti’s killing but has said a similar federal probe was not warranted in the killing of Good. The decision in Good’s case marked a sharp departure from past administrations, which moved quickly to investigate shootings of civilians by law enforcement officials for potential civil rights offenses.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has said that the department’s Civil Rights Division does not investigate every law enforcement shooting and that there have to be circumstances and facts that “warrant an investigation.”

Moriarty has said a lack of confidence in the federal government’s review of these incidents makes the state’s independent investigations into the shootings, as well as officers’ actions during the immigration enforcement operation altogether, especially important. The county office received over 1,000 tips from the public on the shootings of Good and Pretti via an online portal they opened to collect evidence. Earlier this month, Moriarty initiated a second portal and said her office was investigating a number of incidents of potentially unlawful action by officers over the course of the immigration enforcement operation.

Fingerhut reported from Des Moines, Iowa.