WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan is calling on DHS’s Inspector General to investigate whether Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s public characterizations of Renee Good and Alex Pretti as “domestic terrorists” biased the ongoing investigations into their deaths. The request follows testimony from the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Senator Hassan, who stated under oath that comments like these “put a bias” on information relevant to investigations.
Read more from the Washington Post here or below:
Washington Post: Democrat wants DHS to examine potential bias in Minneapolis investigations
By Theodoric Meyer
Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-New Hampshire) has asked the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general to investigate whether Trump administration officials’ derisive characterizations of two U.S. citizens killed by federal agents in Minneapolis have biased the investigations into their deaths.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem and Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy and a homeland security adviser, both described Renée Good and Alex Pretti as domestic terrorists after immigration agents fatally shot them last month in separate incidents in Minneapolis.
Their comments drew criticism from lawmakers in both parties, and the administration quickly backtracked.
In a letter, Hassan asked the DHS inspector general to investigate whether those comments have impeded or biased the investigations into the deaths of Good and Pretti, citing an exchange with another administration official as reason to open a probe.
Hassan asked Todd M. Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing last week whether Noem’s and Miller’s comments could bias the investigations.
“Any comments that are made publicly, privately — texts, email or Instagram posts, whatever — is going to put a bias on the information,” Lyons responded.
“In light of Secretary Noem and Deputy Chief of Staff Miller’s public statements calling Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti domestic terrorists, and the fact that the leader of ICE subsequently testified to Congress that comments like these inject bias into investigations, I call on you to conduct an inquiry into the impact these statements may have had on federal investigations related to the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti,” Hassan wrote Thursday in a letter to Joseph Cuffari, the DHS inspector general.
She also asked Cuffari to look into whether Noem’s comments violated DHS policy, and whether Noem and other DHS officials have exerted improper influence over the investigations into the deaths of Good and Pretti.
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