January 26, 2026

On Saturday morning, Alex Pretti was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis. While trying to assist a woman who had been pepper-sprayed, he was grabbed and beaten by at least six officers. He was shot 10 times by at least two of them.

Within minutes, administration officials were defaming the dead man. They called him a domestic terrorist and a would-be assassin. Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino even claimed that Pretti “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”

Following the killing of Renée Good, all of this felt disturbingly familiar: the shooting of a U.S. citizen who was observing and recording federal agents; the lies and smears from the White House and its allies; the obstruction of any investigation; and the grieving family and community left behind.

But this time there was a sick twist. Later that day, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Minnesota’s Democratic governor laying out her demands to “restore the rule of law.” The first two were the usual Republican fare: Allow the federal government to investigate fraud and cooperate more closely with ICE.

The third request, however, was something entirely different: “Allow the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice to access voter rolls to confirm that Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal law as authorized by the Civil Rights Act of 1960.” This, she wrote, would “better guarantee free and fair elections and boost confidence in the rule of law.”

In short, in the wake of a tragic killing, Bondi sought to leverage the state’s need for calm into turning over sensitive voting data on millions of citizens. While this might seem outrageous, it was not random.

Donald Trump is obsessed with the midterms and will do whatever he needs to prevent losing control of Congress. Given his unpopularity, that likely means mass voter suppression, election subversion and outright election theft.

To accomplish any of this at scale, he will need unredacted statewide voter files. That would allow him and Bondi to identify which voters to target, which ballots to discard, and against whom to lodge false claims of election fraud.

The Department of Justice has already demanded this information from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. While several red states have voluntarily complied, nearly all blue and purple states have resisted.

As a result, the DOJ has filed lawsuits against 23 states and Washington, D.C. I know these cases well because my law firm is defending voters from this intrusion on their privacy in every single one of them.

So far, the DOJ has lost the first three cases in California, Georgia and Oregon. With these failures weighing on her, I have no doubt that Bondi saw the tragedy in Minnesota as an opportunity to gain access to these records.

It might seem random that Trump is spending so much time and resources targeting Minnesota, but it actually makes sense. For Trump, it’s personal. 

All three times he ran for president, he lost the state. Each time, he falsely claimed the loss was the result of fraud. Minnesota is bordered by Trump strongholds like North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa. Its only other neighbor is Wisconsin, which twice voted for Trump.

Then there are Minnesota’s demographics. It is overwhelmingly white and Christian. In Trump’s racist narrative, that alone is enough “proof” of election fraud.

If Trump and his DOJ gained access to Minnesota’s voter file now, it could supercharge this false narrative. He and his cronies could game out disenfranchisement schemes well in advance of the midterms. Most of all, it would hand them a much-needed win at a time when they are floundering in court.

Donald Trump doesn’t care about law enforcement. If he did, he never would have pardoned those who assaulted police officers on Jan. 6. As his more recent pardons make clear, he doesn’t care about fraud or government waste either.

Donald Trump cares about one thing: Donald Trump. And those around him know it.

That is why Pam Bondi demanded voter records in the wake of a tragedy. That is why she is weaponizing the criminal justice system against Trump’s opponents. And that is why, when the time comes, she will use the power of the Department of Justice to interfere with free and fair elections.

We can be shocked by the events in Minnesota. We can be disturbed by the lies and vitriol spewed by Trump’s supporters.

But we must remember that our first task is to prevent Trump from wielding even more destructive power. And that starts with protecting sensitive voting data — and the elections Trump wants to corrupt.