Bucknackt's Sordid Tawdry Blog: MOTHER JONES DAILY: DOJ’s “Ransom” Letter to Minnesota Reveals How Trump Plans to Rig the Midterms, Nurses union calls ICE agents a “public health threat” after Alex Pretti killing, What’s the deal with that scary-looking green gas ICE is using in Minneapolis?, He spent decades bringing the religious right to power. Now he’s marching to undo it., In Helene’s wake, rural North Carolina turns to solar and battery hubs, Inside the largest effort ever to save the Great Barrier Reef 26JAN26

27 January 2026

MOTHER JONES DAILY: DOJ’s “Ransom” Letter to Minnesota Reveals How Trump Plans to Rig the Midterms, Nurses union calls ICE agents a “public health threat” after Alex Pretti killing, What’s the deal with that scary-looking green gas ICE is using in Minneapolis?, He spent decades bringing the religious right to power. Now he’s marching to undo it., In Helene’s wake, rural North Carolina turns to solar and battery hubs, Inside the largest effort ever to save the Great Barrier Reef 26JAN26

January 26, 2026

Much like the rest of the country, I am wrestling with the killing of Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old ICU nurse who was shot by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis on Saturday.

My colleague Sam Van Pykeren visited the area where Pretti was pinned down and shot multiple times. The site has since been overwhelmed by grief-stricken residents, who continue to bravely decry the occupation, through tear gas and harassment by federal agents. Here’s a small glimpse of what they had to tell Sam:

“If Minnesota falls, everything falls. We’re done as a nation.”
“This is f*cking crazy, I don’t recognize our country.”
“We’re furious that our neighbors are getting kidnapped and murdered in the streets.”

It must be noted that their anguish unfolded as the Trump administration went into overdrive to push lies about Pretti’s killing. Those lies continue, even as some Republicans emerge, ever meekly, to denounce this awfulness. (They still make sure to lavish praise on President Donald Trump and try to blame all this on Democrats.)

I want to make sure you also catch Ari Berman and Abby Vesoulis on the Justice Department’s letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, stating that if he wanted to “bring an end to the chaos in Minnesota,” he should comply with some “common sense solutions.” The letter is effectively a ransom note, a demand for the state’s unredacted voter roll ahead of the midterm elections. As my colleagues write:

State election officials and election security experts say [Attorney General Pam] Bondi’s letter is an outrageous attempt by the Trump administration to coerce Minnesota into providing confidential voter data that could be weaponized by the president and his allies to amplify false claims of voter fraud, wrongly remove eligible voters from the rolls, and challenge election outcomes.

Shameless and outright appalling, no?

—Inae Oh

DOJ’s “Ransom” Letter to Minnesota Reveals How Trump Plans to Rig the Midterms

After a Border Patrol agent killed Alex Pretti, Attorney General Pam Bondi tells Minnesota to hand over its voter roll to “bring an end to the chaos.”

BY ABBY VESOULIS AND ARI BERMAN

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