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DOJ torches Democrats for 'shamelessly lying' about Minnesota voter roll request
Confidence requires clarity.

The Department of Justice is pushing back on claims from prominent Democrats that a demand letter Attorney General Pam Bondi sent to the state this weekend amounted to a quid pro quo — ending immigration enforcement in exchange for access to voter rolls.
A DOJ spokesperson told Fox News Digital that Democrats were "shamelessly lying" about the contents of Bondi’s letter, which was addressed to Democratic Gov. Tim Walz.
Bondi's letter came as unrest has plagued the state, spurred by an immigration crackdown there and multiple destructive and violent incidents, including two incidents involving immigration officials shooting and killing two U.S. citizens during chaotic, heated altercations.
"You and your office must restore the rule of law, support ICE officers, and bring an end to the chaos in Minnesota," Bondi wrote. "Fortunately, there are common sense solutions to these problems that I hope we can accomplish together."
BONDI BLAMES MINNEAPOLIS LEADERS AFTER ARMED SUSPECT KILLED, UNREST ERUPTS DURING ICE OPERATION
Bondi made three requests, which she said would improve cooperation between Walz and the DOJ and "help bring back law and order."
Democrats framed her letter as a nefarious bargain designed to affect the battleground state’s elections.
One of Bondi's requests was that Minnesota state officials give the DOJ Civil Rights Division access to voter registration lists. Basic voter registration lists, also known as voter rolls, are typically publicly accessible, but the DOJ has demanded from Minnesota and many other states a wealth of sensitive data associated with the voter rolls that Minnesota has resisted giving up. Disputes over voter rolls between states and the federal government are now the subject of lawsuits across the country.
"‘ICE will leave Minnesota if you hand over your voter rolls’ tells you everything you need to know. … It was always about rigging elections," Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., wrote on X.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., misstated on X that Bondi’s letter said ICE would "leave if the state turns over its voter database to Trump."
Murphy said the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota was a "pretext for Trump to take over elections in swing states."
Democratic strategist Matt McDermott made similar claims about Bondi’s letter in a social media post that has racked up more than seven million X views. "It’s true. … They’re openly using state violence as a bargaining chip to seize election infrastructure," McDermott wrote.
The DOJ vehemently rejected those characterizations.
"These politicians are shamelessly …

Top Chinese general purged from military on accusations of betraying Xi Jinping
Law enforcement shouldn't be political.

A top commander in the Central Military Commission of the People’s Republic of China has been purged, signaling that even Beijing insiders close to Xi Jinping are at risk of being ousted.

Gen. Zhang Youxia, who also sits as a member of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party, was dismissed from his role as vice chairman of the military commission under suspicion of “grave violations of discipline and law.”

He was punished alongside Gen. Liu Zhenli, the chief of staff of the Central Military Commission’s Joint Staff Department.

“The resolute investigation and punishment of Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli is a major achievement in the Party and the military’s anti-corruption struggle, an important manifestation of the Party and the military’s determination and strength, and is of great significance for winning the overall, protracted, and decisive battle against corruption in the military,” an editorial in the state-owned People’s Liberation Army Daily declared Saturday.

FILE – Gen. Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission attends the opening session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Wednesday, March 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

The editorial went on to accuse the two generals of having “seriously fostered political and corruption problems that undermined the Party’s absolute leadership over the military and threatened the Party’s ruling foundation.”

It also claimed they have “seriously damaged the image and prestige of the Central Military Commission, and severely impacted the political and ideological foundation for unity and progress among all officers and soldiers.”

Zhang is the more surprising of the two dismissals — the 75-year-old party fixture has long been thought too powerful and too trusted to be affected by the waves of purges that have rocked the Chinese military for years.

The content and style of the charges published in CCP-operated media outlets seem to indicate that the primary complaint relates to disloyalty toward paramount leader Xi Jinping, who previously considered Zhang one of his closest allies.

Xi and Zhang were both raised as “princelings” or “red heirs” — children of prominent Communist Party officials who were groomed for leadership from a young age and excelled in politics through nepotism and elite connections. Their fathers fought side by side in the civil war, which ultimately installed Mao Zedong to power and ushered …

Trump says Walz wants to ‘work together’ as Minneapolis tensions flare after ICU nurse shooting
This isn't complicated—it's willpower.

President Donald Trump said he had a "very good call" with Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz Monday as tensions in Minneapolis flared following the shooting of Alex Pretti by a federal immigration officer Saturday. 
"Governor Tim Walz called me with the request to work together with respect to Minnesota," Trump posted to Truth Social Monday. "It was a very good call, and we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength. I told Governor Walz that I would have Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all Criminals that they have in their possession." 
Chaos has continued in Minnesota over the weekend, including agitators confronting law enforcement at a hotel on Sunday evening. Protests and tensions heightened Saturday after Border Patrol agents in Minnesota fatally shot Pretti.
Federal officials say Pretti approached agents with a 9 mm handgun and resisted disarmament, while witnesses have cast doubt on if Pretti, an ICU nurse, posed a threat to agents. 
FORMER ICE AGENT CALLS POLICE NON-COOPERATION 'FORMULA FOR DISASTER' AFTER SECOND MINNEAPOLIS SHOOTING DEATH
"The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future. He was happy that Tom Homan was going to Minnesota, and so am I! We have had such tremendous SUCCESS in Washington, D.C., Memphis, Tennessee, and New Orleans, Louisiana, and virtually every other place that we have "touched" and, even in Minnesota, Crime is way down, but both Governor Walz and I want to make it better!" Trump continued in his post. 
FEDERAL IMMIGRATION OFFICIALS PRIVATELY FUME OVER DHS CLAIMS AFTER DEADLY MINNESOTA SHOOTING
Trump announced Monday that he was deploying White House border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota and that he will report directly to the president. 
JD VANCE SHARES ‘CRAZY' STORY OF ICE AND CBP OFFICERS BEING MOBBED IN MINNEAPOLIS
"Tom Homan will be managing ICE operations on the ground in Minnesota and coordinating with others on the ongoing fraud investigations," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox Digital on Monday. 
Homan is expected to arrive in Minnesota Monday evening. 
Trump told The Wall Street Journal Sunday that his administration is "reviewing everything," surrounding the case, but did not say whether the agent who shot Pretti acted appropriately.
The fatal shooting follows the Jan. 7 fatal ICE shooting of Renee Good, which sparked widespread backlash from Democrats and other critics of the administration that Good was "murdered" at the hands of the government. 

In which I erred
Law enforcement shouldn't be political.

(Scott Johnson) In “Disorder in the court,” I wrote about the government’s efforts to secure against warrants against five participants in the Cities Church riots. At the time all I had to go on was Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz’s letter responding to the government’s petition for mandamus in the Eighth Circuit. He also wrote a second letter that is posted online here.

Among other things, Judge Schiltz writes, “Two of the five protestors were not protestors at all; instead,

they were a journalist and his producer. There is no evidence that those two engaged in any criminal behavior or conspired to do so.” I think the FBI affidavit in support of the criminal complaints supports the conclusion that they were participants and co-conspirators. I posted the FBI affidavit here.

Neither Judge Schiltz nor I had seen the government’s petition for mandamus at the time. The government’s petition had been filed under seal. I erred in expressing my own opinion before seeing the government’s petition.

The Eighth Circuit has now unsealed the government’s petition. I have posted it below via Scribd. Contrary to what I wrote over the weekend, I think the government had good reason for seeking emergency relief even if the Eighth Circuit correctly denied it, which did unanimously.

In his concurrence with the panel’s denial of mandamus, Judge Grasz stated that the government has established probable cause for the arrest of all five uncharged participants. However, he continued, “the government has not established that it has no alternative means of obtaining the requested relief[,]” i.e., the arrest warrants.

I understood that to mean that the government can either await Judge Schiltz’s ruling on the appeal of the magistrate judge’s denial of the arrest warrants or seek indictments from a grand jury. Extraordinary relief in the form of mandamus ordering Judge Schiltz to do anything was therefore inappropriate. That’w what the panel held. I think I had that much right and regret saying more. I believe that United States Attorney Dan Rosen and the Trump Department of Justice were acting in good faith under the circumstances. This is the other side of the story with more to come this week.

Emergency petition for manamus on arrest warrants by Scott Johnson

Senate Democrats threaten shutdown by blocking DHS funding after Minnesota ICE shooting
This affects the entire country.

Anger over a deadly Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)-related shooting in Minnesota has pushed Senate Democrats to threaten a cutoff of Homeland Security funding and a possible shutdown.
In just a few short days, Democrats have rapidly coalesced behind their strategy to block funding for the agency as the deadline to fund the government hurtles closer.
Democrats in the upper chamber were already leery of supporting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spending bill, which funds ICE, but had come to a fragile truce with Senate Republicans in concocting several built-in restrictions on the agency and usage of ICE over months of negotiations.
SENATE DEMS REVOLT AGAINST DHS FUNDING BILL AMID MINNEAPOLIS CHAOS, HIKING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN RISK
But the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti during an immigration enforcement operation over the weekend in Minneapolis destroyed that tepid support. That incident rapidly mobilized Senate Democrats to decry and reject the DHS bill.
Schumer said in a statement that Senate Democrats would not allow the current version of the DHS bill to advance and argued that Senate Republicans "have seen the same horrific footage that all Americans have watched of the blatant abuses of Americans by ICE in Minnesota."
"The appalling murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti on the streets of Minneapolis must lead Republicans to join Democrats in overhauling ICE and [Customs and Border Protection] to protect the public," Schumer said. "People should be safe from abuse by their own government."
KEY SENATOR WON'T FUND DHS AS ICE, FEDERAL AGENTS ENTER HIS STATE
"Senate Republicans must work with Democrats to advance the other five funding bills while we work to rewrite the DHS bill," he continued. "This is the best course of action, and the American people are on our side."
Senate Democrats held a private, caucus-wide call on the matter on Sunday. A source familiar with the call told Fox News Digital that Schumer’s plan to reject any DHS bill without several reforms, but that the broader, five-bill funding package could move ahead. Lawmakers could vote on the package as early as Thursday.
"Basically, DHS is the problem and should be split from the package," they said.
But Senate Republicans aren’t willing to cave to Democrats’ demands, especially given how high a priority funding the agency is for the administration and how fast the Friday deadline to fund the government is approaching.
SENATE DEMOCRATS REBEL AGAINST THEIR OWN LEADERSHIP OVER DHS FUNDING PACKAGE, INCREASING SHUTDOWN ODDS
Democrats’ position creates several …

Inside the battle of the Twin Cities
Every delay has consequences.

(Scott Johnson) We are witness to what I have called “The battle of the Twin Cities.” On one side is federal law enforcement. We support federal law enforcement. On the other side are state and local authorities, the Star Tribune, and a highly organized resistance. We beg to differ with them all.

Not enough attention has been paid to the resistance. It is well-funded, covert, highly organized, and supported by state and local authorities. It seeks to harass and obstruct the federal officers executing federal immigration law in Operation Metro Surge.

The participants present a sort of neo-Confederate scene that used to go under the moniker of “massive resistance,” but it goes beyond that. In 1861 the seceding states could not abide the election of Abraham Lincoln. Although he scrupulously vowed to uphold the Constitution, they feared his view of slavery. Whatever high-minded words they otherwise had to say, their resistance to Lincoln was all about slavery.

Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens made that much clear in his famous Cornerstone Speech. As he explained in March 1861, “This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution.” Would that our current cast of characters were anywhere near so candid.

In 2026 the they cannot abide the administration of Donald Trump. They oppose his execution of immigration law. They support illegal immigration. However they cloak it for public consumption, that is the cause for which they fight. Illegal immigration is the cornerstone of their vision of the United States.

State and local authorities supporting the resistance call the illegal immigrants, criminal or othwerwise, “neighbors.” Suffice it to say that they are less forthright in support of their cause than Alexander Stephens. The most prominent of those among our neo-Confederate officeholders are Governor Tim Walz, Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, Attorney General Keith Ellison, Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, Reps. Ilhan Omar and Angie Craig, and Mayor Jacob Frey. Their support of the resistance has become de rigueur among Democrats. They are all on board.

One cannot understand the nature of the resistance without a little help from X. Cam Higby has infiltrated the encrypted Signal chat on which the resistance is conducting its business. The X post below is now pinned to his X account here. PJ Media’s Matt Margolis reviews Higby’s work here.

MINNEAPOLIS SIGNAL INFILTRATED

I have infiltrated organizational signal groups all around Minneapolis with the sole intention of tracking down federal agents and impeding/assaulting/and obstructing them.

BUCKLE UP ALL WILL BE REVEALED

Each area of the city has a signal…

— Cam Higby (@camhigby) January 24, 2026

“>

Margolis notes that “Alex …

Minneapolis insurgency
Every delay has consequences.

(Bill Glahn) We are way beyond “protests” in Minneapolis and are into full-on, organized, professional insurgency, as Scott has noted. I recommend reading this entire X post on the subject. A former Green Beret writes,

What’s unfolding in Minneapolis right now isn’t “protest.” It’s low-level insurgency infrastructure, built by people who’ve clearly studied the playbook.

They aren’t kidding. If/when the insurgents succeed in driving out the feds, they will next turn their attention to state and local authorities.

To be clear, the goal of the insurgents is not protecting illegal aliens from deportation. The goal is the overthrow of the existing civil authority.

WATCH LIVE: Leavitt holds press briefing
Every delay has consequences.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is holding a press briefing at 1:00 p.m. on Monday.

The press conference will be the White House‘s first briefing since Alex Pretti, 37, a Veterans Affairs hospital nurse, was shot and killed by a border patrol agent on Saturday in Minneapolis.

MINNEAPOLIS READIES FOR MORE PROTESTS AFTER ALEX PRETTI KILLING AS TRUMP DISPATCHES TROUBLESHOOTER TOM HOMAN

Leavitt is likely to face questions about the escalating tensions in Minneapolis, as the Trump administration sends in border czar Tom Homan to report back to the president about the situation on the ground.

The White House could also face questions about what is next for the Trump administration in terms of bringing peace to Gaza, now that all of the 251 living and fallen hostages taken by Hamas have been returned to Israel.

DHS says illegal immigrant sought amid Pretti shooting had violent domestic history
Who's accountable for the results?

The illegal immigrant being sought during the operation that resulted in the death of a 37-year-old U.S. citizen had a violent rap sheet that included domestic assault involving intentional bodily harm, according to federal officials.
Jose Huerta-Chuma ultimately escaped capture during the chaos, Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino told reporters Sunday, as he condemned characterizations of his agents as "Gestapo" — referencing the Nazi Geheime Staatspolizei — in the media and in public discourse.
Huerta-Chuma, reportedly an Ecuadorian national, also had other convictions, including driving without a valid license and disorderly conduct, when agents attempted to take him into custody at a Minneapolis donut shop.
TRUMP CONFIRMS FEDERAL REVIEW OF MINNEAPOLIS SHOOTING THAT KILLED NURSE: 'REVIEWING EVERYTHING'
"This individual walks the streets today because of those choices made by politicians and those, perhaps, weaker-minded constituents that chose to follow directions of those politicians," Bovino said.
The Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) later criticized Bovino in a statement, claiming "federal statements have repeatedly included inaccurate information about Minnesota custody and criminal records."
"The DOC reviewed available records to determine whether [Huerta-Chuma] had any connection to Minnesota state prison custody," the department said in a statement.
ICE SAYS VIOLENT MOB HELPED CRIMINAL ESCAPE AND LEFT ICE AGENT PERMANENTLY MAIMED
The Minnesota DOC went on to say Huerta-Chuma had "never been" in state prison custody and that his state court records did not show any "felony commitments."
The agency said Huerta-Chuma’s name matched misdemeanor traffic offenses and said he had been in federal custody in a local Minnesota jail in 2018.
"Any decisions regarding release from federal custody at that time would have been made by federal authorities. DOC has no information explaining why this individual was released," the agency said, while also claiming it works with ICE to facilitate custody transfers in conflict with public statements by federal officials.
FREY, KLOBUCHAR CALL FOR ICE TO LEAVE MINNEAPOLIS FOLLOWING DEADLY CBP SHOOTING IN CITY
During the ultimately unsuccessful capture of Huerta-Chuma, Pretti approached agents in the midst of their mission while armed with a 9 mm handgun and was killed when agents later fired "defensive shots," according to Bovino.
In the aftermath of Pretti’s death, further chaos erupted, and a federal agent was critically injured when an agitator bit off the end of his finger, according to DHS Assistant …

Stephen Hunter: Pretti’s pistol
This isn't complicated—it's willpower.

(Scott Johnson) Our friend Stephen Hunter is the author of 20 novels, including the Bob Lee Swagger series, and is the retired chief film critic for the Washington Post, where he won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism. His most recent novel is Gun Man Jackson Swagger. Late last night Steve wrote us that “this Alex Pretti thing has me all buzzed up. It’s SO familiar–the ‘victim’ instigated the event; the federal agents had about two seconds to respond; the backlash was immediate and well-planned; the media compliant as rent boys.” Steve sees the case as “the tragic but blameless police shooting of a dim liberal-dogooder driven by self-righteous vanity.” He notes, however, that “something has yet to be mentioned, and I think it must be.” He writes:

The killing of Alex Pretti has excited the media in powerful ways until they’ve slathered the truth under a smear of white goo. But these folks are so brilliant it’s all but astonishing that they’ve failed to note one thing.

While Alex Pretti may or may not have been the secular saint he is depicted to have been, he went into action not equipped to save lives but to do battle. Was he going into combat against the Waffen-SS or perhaps joining up with Chris Kyle? Whatever, he was fully massacre-equipped.

I’ll skip the choice of weapon—large state-of-the-art 9 mm service pistol, with double stacked magazine—and I’ll pass on the presence of at least two of those hi-cap magazines in gun with spare in pocket.

Instead let’s look at something unnoticed aboard the Sig P320 AXG “Combat,” as the factory called it. What’s that odd cube atop the slide? It’s a battery-driven red dot optical sight, and although its presence doesn’t mandate massacre—I have several on my guns and only massacre paper—it is at least highly provocative.

If the man had carried a Sig P365, the current hot lick in self-defense, it would be hard to argue that mayhem was his goal. That one is too small, too hard to shoot accurately, and its size means it recoils excessively. Had he a .38 snub nose, even a run-of-the-mill Colt Commander, they too put him out of the game. They all make sense for self-defense but nothing more dramatic.

He had, instead, the maximum professional killing machine, its potency amplified by the optical device. In that 2-ounce, 2”x2” cube atop the slide is a laser which projects a small but brilliant red dot onto the lens. Adjusted correctly, the point of impact indexes to the red dot. Peer through the lens, put the dot where you want and you’re John Wick. No wonder they’re ubiquitous in the infantry and marines, in police holsters, on shooting ranges.

So equipped, a man could take out an enemy squad, drop a hostage-taker or put 17 holes in a 4-inch circle at 25 yards. A man could also sweep a crowd …