FBI Director Kash Patel said more arrests are coming in Minnesota in the midst of a federal operation and local protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, and said the bureau has made progress in its investigation of groups who are allegedly funding the demonstrations.
Speaking to podcaster Benny Johnson on Monday, the FBI director said the bureau is investigating alleged group funding of ongoing protests against ICE officials in Minneapolis, coming in the wake of two shootings that left protesters dead.
“We’ve got also investigations ongoing into the funding of this. We’ve made substantial progress,” he said. “We’ve actually found groups and individuals responsible for funding it ‘cause it’s not happening organically.”
Also in the interview, Patel said four people were arrested earlier this month after a federal vehicle was broken into in Minneapolis. He said that another person was arrested on Sunday.
“In a vehicle, we discovered not just [FBI] firearms, which thankfully we recovered, but also personal information about law enforcement,” Patel told Johnson. “That personal information was being used on the ground to issue threats of life to FBI agents, along with their wives and their children. There are going to be more arrests on that same matter, today and tomorrow. We’re not done.”
The FBI recently announced it would be offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the arrest and capture of individuals who allegedly stole government property out of an FBI vehicle.
This comes after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said a protester, Alex Pretti, was shot and killed after he approached Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun.
Videos from the scene circulating on social media appear to show Pretti holding an object in his hand as he struggles with agents. The man’s family said in a statement shared by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that Pretti was “clearly not holding a gun” but instead had “his phone in his right hand, and his empty left hand is raised above his head.”
Earlier this month, Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE officer in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. Videos show she was driving her Honda Pilot toward the officer when he fired at her. Federal authorities said the officer was struck by the vehicle and hospitalized with internal bleeding.
The Trump administration has defended the ICE agent involved in the shooting, saying his life was at risk. Local and national Democratic officials say both shootings were unjustified and threatened to shut down the federal government before the Jan. 30 funding deadline if funding for DHS, the agency that oversees ICE, was included in the package.
“Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, but because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement last Saturday. “I will vote no.”
Former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton also decried the shooting of Pretti, with Obama claiming it’s a sign that “many of our core values” are “increasingly under assault.” In a statement Sunday, Clinton also offered critical comments about the Minneapolis operation and condemned the events leading to Pretti’s death.
President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Jan. 26 that he had spoken with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, and told Walz that “I would have (Border Czar) Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all Criminals that they have in their possession.” Walz on Monday confirmed he spoke with Trump.
This article was originally published by The Epoch Times.
