Trump officials have tried to justify ICE shootings. Is it backfiring?

Just hours after Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a statement saying, without evidence, that the 37-year-old registered nurse “wanted to inflict maximum harm and decimate law enforcement officers.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem would later imply that Pretti was “asked to show up and continue to resist” by Minnesota’s governor.

Multiple videos from the scene immediately disproved those claims, and there has since been no indication that Pretti threatened or planned to harm law enforcement.

Many high-profile use-of-force incidents and arrests involving federal immigration officials have involved a similar cycle: Harsh statements from Trump administration officials quickly contradicted by video footage or other evidence. Some law enforcement experts believe repeated lies harm federal officials both in the public eye and in the courtroom.

Bill Essayli, Los Angeles’ lead federal prosecutor, brought five defendants to trial on charges of assaulting police officers, and his office lost every case. Court records and Times investigation show that grand juries in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles have repeatedly rejected prosecutors’ guilty pleas in similar cases.

Despite repeated judicial rebukes, administration officials have continued to push for criminal charges against people at protest scenes, including the controversial arrest of former CNN host Don Lemon on Friday.

“When top federal law enforcement leaders across the country push these types of false narratives, it makes the public question everything the government says,” said Peter Carr, a former Justice Department spokesman who served under Democratic and Republican administrations in Washington. “You see it in how judges react. You see it in how grand juries react. You see it in how juries react. That trust that was built over generations is gone.”

Credibility concerns emerged in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom in September while Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino served as a key witness in the assault trial of Brayan Ramos-Brito, who is accused of assaulting a Border Patrol agent during protests against immigration raids last summer. Video of the scene did not clearly capture the alleged attack, and Bovino was the only Border Patrol official to testify as an eyewitness.

Under questioning by federal public defender Cuauhtémoc Ortega, Bovino initially denied being disciplined by the Border Patrol for calling undocumented immigrants “scum, filth, and garbage,” but later admitted he had been reprimanded. After deliberating for about an hour, the jury returned an acquittal verdict. One juror who spoke to The Times outside court said Bovino’s testimony detailing his account of the alleged assault had “no impact” on their verdict.

Last year, a Chicago judge ruled that Bovino “lied” during testimony in a lawsuit over how agents used force against protesters and journalists.

Spokespeople for Essayli and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.

Essayli prosecutors saw four more cases involving allegations of assault on a federal officer end in acquittals, an almost unheard of losing streak. A Pew study found that less than 1% of federal criminal defendants across the U.S. will be acquitted in 2022.

““The credibility of the prosecution and the credibility of the law enforcement officers who testify are very important,” said Carley Palmer, a former federal prosecutor in Los Angeles who is now a partner at Halpern May Ybarra Gelberg. “This is especially true when the only witness to an incident is a law enforcement officer.”

Jon Fleischman, a veteran Republican strategist and former spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, said federal law enforcement officials have a responsibility to be the “mature, responsible player in the room” and remain as apolitical as possible. Although she is a staunch supporter of President Trump’s immigration agenda and has said she shares some of the blame for the Biden administration’s politicization of federal law enforcement, Noem’s handling of Pretti’s killing was problematic.

“What they are saying does not align with what the current facts tell us,” Fleischman said. “I think this undermines the credibility of the justice system.”

Fleischman added that he fears some recent missteps by the government could blunt approval of the platform that twice carried Trump to the White House.

“One of the main reasons I was so excited about this president was his stance on immigration issues,” he said. “It is disheartening to see the home team make unforced errors that diminish public support for the president’s immigration agenda.”

Another senior Trump aide, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, also spoke after the shooting in Minnesota, calling Pretti an “assassin.”

Responding to a Times reporter at X, Miller said Recent legal defeats in Los Angeles were the result of “mass judge and jury cancellations of slam dunk cases deep in the blue zone.”

Testimony from LA courtrooms paints a different picture.

Carol Williams, the jury foreman in the last assault case that federal prosecutors lost in Los Angeles, said her co-workers stayed away from conversations about the news or ICE raids.

“We didn’t talk about the protests in Los Angeles, we didn’t talk about the protests in Minnesota or anything like that,” Williams said. “I’m sure people were probably following the news, but in terms of getting this into the jury room, we just couldn’t do that.”

Last year, Essayli and Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin accused Carlitos Ricardo Parias of hitting immigration agents with his car in South Los Angeles, causing one agent to open fire. In the video, made public after assault charges were dismissed last year, the vehicle is not seen moving when the ICE agent opened fire, wounding Parias and a deputy U.S. marshal.

After being presented with the body camera footage, McLaughlin reiterated Parias’ claim that he armed his vehicle and said the officers “followed their training and took defensive shots.”

McLaughlin also labeled Los Angeles man Keith Porter Jr., who was shot and killed by an off-duty ICE agent in Northridge on New Year’s Eve, as an “active shooter” in his initial media comments about the incident, using a term that often refers to a gunman trying to kill multiple people.

Los Angeles police said that no one else was injured at the scene and that they did not use the term “active shooter” in their statements about the incident.

Porter’s family and lawyers argued that resorting to force was not necessary. They said that Porter fired a gun into the air to celebrate the new year, that this behavior was illegal and was not recommended by public officials because it was dangerous.

The manager’s attorney, Brian Palacios, said there was evidence that Porter shot at the manager.

Carr, the former Justice Department spokesman, said the Trump administration has broken years of cautious norms around public statements designed to protect the credibility of federal law enforcement.

“That trust is eroded when they rush to push stories before any real investigation has taken place,” he said.

In one case, Homeland Security officials’ refusal to back down could lead to the public release of video footage that further undermines their narrative.

Last October, Marimar Martinez was shot five times in Chicago by a Border Patrol agent who claimed he was following her in a car and interfering with an operation. In a statement, McLaughlin accused Martinez of striking a law enforcement vehicle while armed with a “semi-automatic weapon.”

Federal prosecutors in Chicago dropped the charges, but McLaughlin and others continued to describe Martinez as a “domestic terrorist.” As a result, Martinez filed a petition to vacate the protective order suppressing videos of the incident and other evidence.

“Although the United States has voluntarily dismissed official prosecution of her with prejudice … government officials continue to prosecute Ms. Martinez’s character in the court of public opinion,” the motion said.