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Andrew Harnik and Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
As America and the world continues to react with condemnation to the news of a federal agent shooting and killing ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minnesota in Saturday (24 January), US attorney general Pam Bondi has faced criticism herself over a letter sent to state governor and former vice presidential candidate Tim Walz the same day, in which she lays out “solutions” to the crisis facing the state.
In the letter, dated 24 January, Bondi called on the Democrat and his office to “restore the rule of law, support ICE officers, and bring an end to the chaos in Minnesota”, and listed three “common sense solutions” to said problems.
The first two concern sharing the state’s records on Medicaid and Food and Nutrition Service programmes, and repealing “sanctuary policies” Bondi says “have led to so much crime and violence” in Minnesota – but it’s the third and final request which has social media users outraged.
Bondi writes: “Third, 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 authorised by the Civil Rights Act of 1960.
“Fulfilling this common sense request will better guarantee free and fair elections and boost confidence in the rule of law.”
On the same day that Bondi’s letter was sent to Walz, the Minnesota governor said in a press conference that the “federal occupation” of the state is “a campaign of organised brutality” against the people of Minnesota.
“As I told the White House in no uncertain terms this morning, the federal government cannot be trusted to lead this investigation [into the death of Pretti]. The state will handle it. Period.
“They think they can provoke us into abandoning our own values. They are wrong. We will keep the peace. We will secure justice for our neighbours. And we will see this occupation end,” he said.
On X/Twitter, Connecticut senator Chris Murphy shared the news of the US attorney general’s correspondence and said it was a “pretext for Trump to take over elections in swing states”:
Jeremiah Johnson, of the Center for New Liberalism, branded Bondi’s letter “an attempt to end democracy”:
Democratic strategist Matt McDermott tweeted the Trump administration was “openly using state violence as a bargaining chip to seize election infrastructure”:
And the Voter Protection Project, a political action committee, said it was “election interference dressed up as ‘enforcement’”:
indy100 has approached Walz's office for comment on Bondi's letter, and the US Department of Justice.
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