A senior Justice Department official struck a notably extra cautious tone on Monday than the Department of Homeland Security had at some point earlier over the deadly capturing of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident and U.S. citizen who was killed by a Border Patrol agent throughout an enforcement operation in Minnesota.
One day after the capturing of Pretti, who was armed throughout a bodily confrontation with Customs and Border Protection brokers Saturday morning, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche emphasised the necessity for restraint whilst different Trump administration officers publicly assigned blame to Pretti and framed the capturing as essential to cease a broader lethal assault on federal brokers.
FOX & FRIENDS: Do the actions of Alex Pretti quantity to home terrorism?
BLANCHE: Look, it is an investigation, so I’m not going to prejudge
FOX: It does not seem to most of the nation to have met that definition
BLANCHE: I do not suppose anyone thinks they had been evaluating… pic.twitter.com/kkHFADtukS
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 26, 2026
“You cannot look at a 10-second video and judge what happened,” Blanche stated throughout an look on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. While defending the actions of the immigration brokers concerned, Blanche pressured that video clips circulating on-line don’t seize the total context of the encounter. “That’s exactly why you have to have an investigation,” he stated.
Blanche notably contradicted the phrases of DHS officers, together with Secretary Kristi Noem, who stated Saturday that Pretti’s actions mirrored these of “domestic terrorism.”
“I don’t think anybody thinks they were comparing what happened Saturday to the legal definition of domestic terrorism,” Blanche stated. “I’m not describing it as anything except for a tragedy.”
Following Pretti’s death on Saturday, Noem and different officers moved swiftly to sentence him, with some labeling Pretti as somebody who “committed an act of domestic terrorism.”
Kristi Noem is a whole ignoramus. If getting in a scuffle with federal brokers makes somebody a “domestic terrorist,” then January 6 should’ve been the most important “terrorist attack” in American historical past pic.twitter.com/7VAlPu78Jr
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) January 25, 2026
Gregory Bovino, a high official overseeing Border Patrol operations, instructed CNN’s State of the Union that “the suspect put himself in that situation,” including that “the victims are the Border Patrol agents there,” as video of the capturing performed onscreen.
BASH: It feels as if you are blaming the sufferer right here
BOVINO: The victims are the Border Patrol brokers. I’m not blaming the Border Patrol brokers. The victims are the Border Patrol brokers. pic.twitter.com/rjmB7bOzrn
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 25, 2026
FBI Director Kash Patel echoed that sentiment on Fox News: “You do not get to attack law enforcement officials in this country without any repercussions.”
Multiple movies present Pretti restrained on the bottom within the seconds earlier than he was shot. Bovino claimed it appeared that Pretti supposed to inflict “maximum damage and massacre law enforcement,” assertions that further footage has known as into query.
President Donald Trump prevented instantly addressing Pretti’s death in public remarks on Sunday, although he praised allies who defended federal brokers on tv. Instead, Trump used social media to repeat claims that Minnesota officers had been engaged in “a Criminal COVER UP of the massive Financial Fraud that has gone on!”
The capturing marked the second time this month that federal brokers fatally shot a U.S. citizen throughout immigration enforcement actions in Minneapolis. Both instances appeared to contain activists trying to hinder immigration enforcement operations.
On Jan. 7, Renee Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, was killed by an immigration officer. Trump and different senior officers shortly defended that capturing, asserting Good had hit the officer together with her car, which prompted him to want medical consideration. Blanche stated on Jan. 14 that the DOJ wouldn’t open a legal civil rights investigation into the capturing.
Although Blanche, a former private lawyer to Trump, emerged Sunday urging endurance earlier than assigning blame to Pretti, he sharply criticized Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for failing to stop the confrontation. Last week, the DOJ opened an investigation and served subpoenas to each officers as half of a federal investigation into whether or not they’re obstructing the federal immigration effort codenamed Operation Metro Surge, which started on Dec. 1, 2025.
Behind the scenes, federal legislation enforcement sources instructed Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin Sunday night that DHS’s public messaging has brought about rising frustration throughout the administration. According to Melugin, sources stated current claims by officers that Pretti supposed a bloodbath had been unsupported by video proof and have broken credibility, morale, and public belief.
DHS defended its statements in a response to Fox News, saying Pretti dedicated a federal crime whereas armed and obstructing an lively operation. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt responded affirmatively on Monday afternoon when requested whether or not the president stays assured in Noem’s management of DHS.
Meanwhile, Walz penned an op-ed within the Wall Street Journal on Monday arguing the administration has been deceptive the general public concerning the state’s cooperation with the federal authorities and underscoring that protests prompted by the surge aren’t “making anyone any safer.”
I spoke to the President earlier. We had a productive dialog and I defined to him that his workers doesn’t have their info straight about Minnesota. My ideas within the Wall Street Journal: pic.twitter.com/XFJyv6V1yH
— Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) January 26, 2026
“Some of the administration’s claims are ridiculous on their face. For example: It claims that 1,360 non-U.S. citizens are in Minnesota prisons. The truth: Our total state prison population is roughly 8,000, and only 207 of them are noncitizens,” Walz wrote, including {that a} Minnesota Public Radio investigation discovered that “Most of the people on the list had been immediately transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody at the end of time served in Minnesota prisons.”
Critics of Walz’s insurance policies have argued that Minnesota metropolis and county jails proceed to defy ICE detainers, whereas state prisons have honored these detainers. The Washington Examiner contacted DHS for a response to Walz’s feedback within the op-ed and for a response to criticism over officers’ characterization of the Pretti capturing.
TRUMP SAYS HE AND WALZ ARE ON ‘SIMILAR WAVELENGTH’ AFTER PHONE CALL OVER ICE OPERATIONS IN MINNESOTA
Amid tensions over the state and federal operations, Trump introduced Monday that he had a “very good call” with Walz and stated border czar Tom Homan would journey to Minnesota on Monday. Leavitt stated Homan would be the “point person” within the state going ahead.
“Mr. Bovino is a wonderful man, and he’s a great professional. He is very much going to continue CBP throughout and across the country,” Leavitt stated Monday, including, “Mr. Homan will be the main point of contact on the ground in Minneapolis.”
