Just one month ago, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan was one of the most outspoken elected officials in Minnesota in her praise of President Joe Biden’s 11th-hour decision to commute the prison sentence of Leonard Peltier.
But when Peltier was released from prison in Florida on Tuesday and returned to his home in Belcourt, N.D., Flanagan was silent.
Alpha News reached out to the lieutenant governor requesting comment on Peltier’s release from prison, but received no response. Flanagan’s silence over Peltier’s release from prison comes just days after she announced she is planning a run for U.S. Senate.
One politician who took time to celebrate Peltier’s release is Sen. Tina Smith, who announced last week she won’t seek re-election in 2026.
“Welcome home, Leonard. It’s been a long time coming,” Smith wrote in a social media post on Tuesday, quoting a story where Peltier said in a statement: “Today I am finally free!”
For context, Leonard Peltier, now 80 years old, had been serving two consecutive life sentences in federal prison after he was found guilty in the murder of two FBI agents in 1975 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
One of the agents, Ronald Wiliams, worked for the Minneapolis field office of the FBI. Smith, along with Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and Flanagan, praised Biden’s commutation of Peltier’s sentence on Jan. 20, one of Biden’s last acts as president.
“Thank you, President Biden, for this final act of compassion in office to release Leonard Peltier after nearly 50 years in prison,” Flanagan wrote in a statement on Instagram on Jan. 20, just hours after Biden announced his commutation of Peltier’s prison sentence.
“I have seen your compassion many times, most recently in Arizona, where I was honored to bring my daughter to watch you make a historic apology for the government’s role in federal Indian boarding schools,” Flanagan continued. “Today, you are releasing one of the oldest survivors of those boarding schools, an 80-year old man in poor health, to spend his final days in with [sic] his family. You, along with Secretary Deb Haaland, have cemented your legacy as the most beneficial presidential administration for Indian Country. Miigwech.”
In June of 1975, two FBI agents, Ronald Williams and Jack Coler, were shot and killed while investigating a crime on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. After an extended investigation, Peltier was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list for the murder of the agents. He was arrested, tried and convicted in the murder of Williams and Coler and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.
In recent years, political activists had called for Peltier’s release, citing his failing health and his standing within the American Indian activist community, despite the FBI making numerous statements supporting the sentence he was given nearly a half century ago.
“The FBI Agents Association (FBIAA) is outraged by then-President Biden’s decision to commute the sentence of Leonard Peltier, a convicted cop killer responsible for the brutal murders of FBI Special Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams,” said Natalie Bara, president of the FBI Agents Association, in a press statement last month.
Hank Long
Hank Long is a journalism and communications professional whose writing career includes coverage of the Minnesota legislature, city and county governments and the commercial real estate industry. Hank received his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, where he studied journalism, and his law degree at the University of St. Thomas. The Minnesota native lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and four children. His dream is to be around when the Vikings win the Super Bowl.
