Federal judge bars ICE agents from targeting peaceful protests
A federal district judge in Minnesota issued a preliminary injunction on Friday, restricting tactics that have been used widely by ICE agents against protesters in Minneapolis.
In a filing on Friday, Judge Katherine Menendez found that the federal officers’ actions, which included “the drawing and pointing of weapons; the use of pepper spray and other non-lethal munitions; actual and threatened arrest and detainment of protesters and observers; and other intimidation tactics,” had a chilling affect on protesters exercising their First Amendment rights.
The preliminary injunction, which will prohibit the actions while litigation continues, bars officers from retaliating against peaceful protest activity, arresting or detaining people who are participating in peaceful protests, using pepper-spray or other nonlethal munitions on crowds, or stopping or detaining drivers and passengers without good cause.
The court repeatedly made clear that observing Operation Metro Surge – the DHS action in Minneapolis that flooded the area with thousands of Border Patrol and ICE agents – was not cause for retaliation, arrest, or enforcement action.
Key events
Mayor Jacob Frey has issued a statement in response to the reports that he is under investigation by the Department of Justice.
“This is an obvious attempt to intimidate me for standing up for Minneapolis, our local law enforcement, and our residents against the chaos and danger this Administration has brought to our streets. I will not be intimidated,” he said in a post on X, sharing the CNN report that the Trump administration was looking into whether his rhetoric against the ICE surge and recent violence in his city could amount to criminal interference.
“My focus will remain where it’s always been: keeping our city safe,” he added. “America depends on leaders that use integrity and the rule of law as the guideposts for governance. Neither our city nor our country will succumb to this fear. We stand rock solid.”
Governor Tim Walz responded to the news about the federal investigation in a post on X listing others who have come under investigation after pushing back against the Trump administration.
“Two days ago it was Elissa Slotkin. Last week it was Jerome Powell. Before that, Mark Kelly. Weaponizing the justice system against your opponents is an authoritarian tactic,” he said. “The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her.”
According to CNN, Walz’s office had not yet received a notice of a subpoena as of Friday evening.
Report: DoJ is investigating top Minnesota officials
The Trump administration is investigating Minnesota officials, including Tim Walz, the state governor, and the Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey, CBS News reported on Friday evening, citing multiple unnamed sources.
The investigation, which they said relates to an alleged conspiracy to impede federal agents, followed the surge in border patrol and ICE agents as part of the what the Department of Homeland Security called the largest immigration crackdown in its history. Thousands of agents have been deployed to the area and thousands of local residents have been detained.
Protests have erupted throughout the area, especially following the death of Minnesota resident Renee Good, who was shot and killed by an ICE officer last week.
The Washington Post also reported the investigation, saying subpoenas had been issued for Walz and Frey, as the justice department determines whether public statements made by the state and local leaders could be seen as criminal interference.
From the Washington Post:
The subpoenas, which are without recent precedent, escalate an already bitter political battle between the Trump administration and state officials following the fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by an immigration officer last week. That shooting happened amid a surge of federal immigration officers in the state ordered by President Donald Trump.
A US official who reportedly spoke to CBS and who was kept anonymous, claimed the federal government began investigating because of the statements made by Frey and Walz about the federal immigration operations happening in the city and state. Both have called for peaceful protests, but have also condemned the actions taken by the administration and the agents on the ground.
“Let’s be very, very clear,” Walz said in a speech on Wednesday night. “This long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement. Instead, it’s a campaign of organized brutality against the people of Minnesota by our own federal government.”
The US Department of education has softened its plans to garnish wages or seize tax refunds from student loan borrowers in the red. In an announcement on Friday, officials said the programs to crackdown on default would be delayed and new repayment reforms will be implemented to give “borrowers more options to repay”.
A press release about the decision suggested that borrowers who are behind on their payments use the delay to explore their options, and linked to a federal student aid site about delinquency and default.
The Trump administration began withholding federal benefits from people behind on their loan payments in May after a 5-year pause.
“After the Biden Administration misled borrowers into believing their student loans would not need to be repaid, the Trump Administration is committed to helping student and parent borrowers resume regular, on-time repayment, with more clear and affordable options, which will support a stronger financial future for borrowers and enhance the long-term health of the federal student loan portfolio,” said Nicholas Kent, under secretary of education, in a written statement issued with the press release.
While there’s no indication when harsher penalties will resume, Kent added that it was determined the involuntary collection efforts would work better after the administration makes improvements to the “broken student loan system”.
A reporter for Al Jazeera spoke to people in Gaza City after the news broke of Trump’s new “board of peace” and the beginning of the “second phase” to a ceasefire that’s been in place since 10 October, now focused on demilitarization and reconstruction.
From Al Jazeera:
A lot of political decisions are distant from the reality faced in Gaza … our daily life that is filled with blockades, fear, loss, tents and a terrible humanitarian situation,” said Arwa Ashour, a freelance journalist and writer based in Gaza City. “Even when decisions are made to ease the suffering, they are obstructed by the Israeli occupation authorities.
“People want everything back like it was before the war: schools, hospitals, travel,” Ashour said. “If the ‘board of peace’ is going to resolve all these crises, then we welcome it. But if it’s unable to do so, then what is its benefit?”
Trump appoints Tony Blair, Jared Kushner and others to «board of peace» overseeing Gaza reconstruction
Robert Mackey
The White House has released a list of officials appointed by Donald Trump to what he’s calling a “board of peace”, tasked with overseeing the reconstruction of Gaza, and its transitional administration.
The board members were listed by the White House as follows:
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Marco Rubio, US secretary of state.
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Steve Witkoff, Trump’s diplomatic envoy.
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Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
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Sir Tony Blair, the former UK prime minister.
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Marc Rowan, a billionaire Wharton business school graduate.
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Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank Group.
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Robert Gabriel, a former Fox News producer, now a US national security adviser.
The statement also says that a National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) will be led by Ali Sha’ath, a former Palestinian Authority official and Gaza native.
Trump also appointed Aryeh Lightstone and Josh Gruenbaum as senior advisers to the board, to oversee “day-to-day strategy and operations”.
Nickolay Mladenov, a Bulgarian politician and former UN envoy to the Middle East, will also serve as the high representative for Gaza.
In support of the office of the high representative and the NCAG, a Gaza executive board is being established, the White House says. The board “will help support effective governance and the delivery of best-in-class services that advance peace, stability, and prosperity for the people of Gaza”. Its appointed members include Mladenov, Blair, Kushner, Witkoff, Rowan and:
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Hakan Fidan, the Turkish foreign minister.
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Ali Al-Thawadi, a Qatari diplomat.
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General Hassan Rashad, the head of Egyptian military intelligence.
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Reem Al-Hashimy, UAE’s minister for international cooperation.
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Yakir Gabay, an Israeli real estate billionaire.
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Sigrid Kaag, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.
The White House also announced that Maj Gen Jasper Jeffers, a former US special operations commander, “has been appointed Commander of the International Stabilization Force (ISF), where he will lead security operations, support comprehensive demilitarization, and enable the safe delivery of humanitarian aid and reconstruction materials”.
Donald Trump returned to Mar-a-Lago today, to speak at a ceremony honoring him with the renaming of a four-mile stretch of road in Palm Beach “President Donald J. Trump Boulevard” . The president left Washington for the event, flying to Florida after the rural health roundtable.
After being introduced by Florida representative Meg Weinberger – who Trump proudly referred to as “Maga Meg” – he said the road was “a very important stretch”.
The portion of the road named for him goes from the Palm Beach international airport to the Mar-a-Lago club.
“A lot of people, a lot of important people, and I don’t care if they’re important or not, but important and not important people travel on that road,” the president said, adding, “I will remember this amazing gesture for the rest of my life,” he said.
Attorneys for suspect in Charlie Kirk killing attempt to disqualify county attorney’s office
Lawyers for Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old man accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a university event in September, are seeking to disqualify the Utah county attorney’s office from prosecuting the alleged gunman.
At a hearing today, Robinson’s attorneys argued that since the child of one of the prosecutors attended the Utah Valley University where Kirk was shot, there was a conflict of interest.
Speaking before district judge Tony Graf, a lawyer for Robinson said that he believed “the court has the discretion to say to the Utah county attorneys, ‘you shouldn’t be representing yourself in this case’.”
He added that an evidentiary hearing would be needed to settle the matter.
New poll finds majority of Americans disapprove of Trump’s first year back in office, most call it a ‘failure’
A new poll by CNN finds that 61% of Americans disapprove of Donald Trump’s first year back in office. While 58% categorized his return to the White House as a “failure”.
When it comes to specific policy issues, only 42% of respondents said they approved of Trump’s handling of immigration and border policies, while 58% disapproved.
Sixty per cent of people disapproved of the president’s work on foreign policy, while 63% disapproved of the administration’s handling of health care policy.
Incident reports provide details of emergency response after fatal ICE shooting in Minneapolis
Anna Betts
New incident reports from the Minneapolis police and fire departments, along with transcripts of 911 calls, provide new details about the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good last week in Minneapolis by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer.
According to a Minneapolis fire department incident report obtained by the Guardian, along with police records and 911 transcripts, paramedics arrived at the scene at about 9.42am on 7 January and found Good “unresponsive” in the driver’s seat of her car, “with blood on her face and torso”.
The report states that paramedics removed Good from the car and reported that she was “unresponsive, not breathing, with inconsistent, irregular, thready pulse activity”.
According to the report, paramedics identified two “apparent gunshot wounds” to the right side of her chest, another apparent gunshot wound “to the patient’s left forearm”, and a “possible gunshot wound with protruding tissue on the left side of the patient’s head”. The report also notes that she had “dilated pupils” and blood “discharging” from her left ear.
Responders moved Good down the block “for a more workable scene, better access for ambulances, and separation from an escalating scene involving law enforcement and bystanders”.
Paramedics began performing chest compressions and applied a tourniquet to Good’s left arm before transporting her to a nearby hospital. The report states that CPR was continued during transport.
Upon arrival at the hospital, the report states that paramedics continued chest compressions while hospital staff “assumed airway and ventilation responsibilities”. According to the report, “resuscitative efforts were discontinued at approximately 10.30am”.
Read more about the report and the transcripts of multiple 911 calls obtained by the Guardian:
Sam Levine
The justice department is not entitled to sensitive information on California voters, a federal judge ruled on Thursday, writing that the administration’s efforts to obtain the information on voters in the state is a threat to democracy.
The Trump administration has filed similar lawsuits in nearly half of US states.
Last summer, the justice department asked California for a list of all voters, including their dates of birth and the last four digits of their social security number, claiming the information was needed to ensure the state was keeping ineligible voters off its rolls.
California’s secretary of state offered to let the justice department inspect a redacted version of the voter registration list, but refused to turn over all of the requested information. The justice department responded by filing a lawsuit against the state and went on to file similar litigation in 23 states and the District of Columbia.
The ruling is a setback to the Trump administration’s controversial efforts to gather sweeping voter information, which experts have said are based on weak legal arguments. The suits have nonetheless caused considerable alarm among voting rights activists, who see them as a vehicle to make exaggerated claims about noncitizens on the voter rolls and sow doubt about the integrity of the US election system ahead of this fall’s midterms.
Despite the Nobel Institute’s statement earlier, the president said that Mariá Corina Machado’s offer to share her peace prize with him was “a very nice gesture”.
He said called Venezuela’s opposition leader a “very fine woman” and added that the two will be talking again.
When asked about why Trump is supporting the country’s interim leader Delcy Rodríguez, instead of Machado, the president referenced the repercussions of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
“Everybody was fired, every single person, the police, the generals, everybody was fired, and they ended up being ISIS. Instead of just getting down to business, they ended up being ISIS,” Trump said.
He added that he had a “great meeting” on Thursday with Machado. “I never met her before, and I was very, very impressed,” Trump said.
The president also pushed back against a reporter’s question about Israeli and Arab insistence that the US hold off on strikes against Iran.
“Nobody convinced me. I convinced myself,” Trump said. “You had, yesterday, scheduled over 800 hangings. They didn’t hang anyone. They canceled the hangings – that had a big impact.”
