Minn. AG Keith Ellison on ICE Case: The State Has the Authority to Charge a Federal Officer with a Crime, if We Meet the Requirements

RUSH EXCERPT:
ELLISON: "Well, let me tell you, yesterday, myself and Mary Moriarty, the local county attorney, we had a joint press conference where we asked people to provide all the information they had, which we will provide to the state bureau of criminal apprehension to do the best we can with the information we are able to gather. We have been told by the federal government that not only do they that they want to lead the investigation, they want to exclude us from it and deny access to it, which is very unfortunate because they have access to things like shell casings, the car which can show the trajectory of the bullets and placement of the people, these things are all vital. But what our recourses, this is the right question. Well, first of all, we’re going to do all we can, which is to continue to gather information. We need the public’s help. They can call the call the county attorney. They can call my office. They can call the bureau of criminal apprehension. We need them to do all those things. But what we can do is we continue to evaluate our legal position. It is critically important for people to know a few things. One is that the state does, in fact, have the authority to charge a federal officer with a crime. As long as we meet the requirements of the supremacy clause of the Constitution, which say that the officer was one doing something in the course of their job, which this apparently was, but two, that the officer was acting in doing something necessary and proper within their job, which is an open question and arguable, I believe that that there is that there is a basis for jurisdiction and to proceed with an investigation. And I believe that there is a good faith and basis to proceed to get to the bottom of what happened here in this situation. And so there so there is jurisdiction for prosecution from the state. I’m not necessarily saying that there should be or must be because what I’m doing, reverend, is following the evidence as dictated by the investigation, which is not what the federal government is doing so far, because the president, J.D. Vance and Kristi Noem, have all just declared the Jonathan ross, the ice agent, to be innocent, which they can’t possibly do because the investigation’s not complete. So this so this is an outcome determinative thing. And I’m urging the federal government to change its mind and say, look, in order to have an investigation that people can trust, it has to be full, fair, independent and joint, and it has to include the state. So we’re continuing to ask them to change their position on this. And but but just to let you know that we’re going to do the investigation that we’re able to do, we’re doing it together, myself and the county and the state board of and the state bureau of criminal apprehension, and that there’s no there is no statute of limitations on on murder that’s important to maintain, because if the federal government does not relent and does not cooperate, there will come a day when things change. And I think the fact is we just we should just get forward with a full, free, fair and independent and joint investigation with the state and federal authorities."