Programming note: This afternoon, The Next Level will livestream at 2 p.m. Eastern. Sarah, Tim, and I will talk over the latest from Minnesota. The livestream will be unlocked, so anybody can tune in. We’ll send a link as we get started. And speaking of Minnesota, Tim has Gov. Walz of Minnesota on The Bulwark Podcast today. You can watch/listen to their conversation here.
1. Retreat Is Not Enough
Yesterday Gregory Bovino got the first taste of what is coming to him. Trump’s Obergruppenführer had his Twitter taken away from him by the administration and was removed from command in Minneapolis and ordered back to California, where he reportedly will retire shortly, in disgrace.1
It is also reported that Tom Homan—who is somehow now the responsible adult in the room—is being given control over federal forces in Minneapolis and that some of the DHS agents on the scene have been ordered out of the state.
This might be the beginning of victory. But it is not enough.
For starters, many of the the DHS agents in Minneapolis appear to have committed crimes that can and should be prosecuted under state law. If their removal from the scene places them beyond the reach of Minnesota law, that is a bad outcome. In a normal world, the FBI would undertake the kind of detailed forensic investigation against DHS agents that it did against January 6th insurrectionists and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. Obviously, that is not going to happen. So the Minnesota attorney general should create a task force whose sole purpose is to gather footage and testimony about law-breaking on the part of DHS agents and bring as many criminal cases as the evidence warrants.2
In addition, citizen groups in Minneapolis should bring as many civil suits against the government and individual government employees as the evidence warrants and the law permits. There should be an avalanche of litigation burying every member of the federal government who so much as jaywalked in Minneapolis over the last several weeks.
And if, at some point in the future, the opposition takes power at the federal level, then it should seek legal accountability for the government officials who ordered, organized, and then covered up for these crimes.
We will need an American Nuremberg.
I understand that if, by the grace of God, Democrats regain power they will be loath to chart such a divisive, backward-looking course. Responsible voices will argue that in order to succeed, this new government must look forward and focus on kitchen-table issues that affect all Americans, rather than obsessing over past injustices.
This would be a mistake.