Judge Drops Emergency Order to Stop Destruction of Evidence in Alex Pretti Case

Summary

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Legal AF by MeidasTouch

Episode: Judge Drops Emergency Order to Stop Destruction of Evidence in Alex Pretti Case
Date: January 26, 2026
Host: Michael Popok (MeidasTouch Network)

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Overview

This episode provides an urgent, in-depth analysis of the legal chaos unfolding in Minnesota after the killing of Alex Pretti by federal officers. Host Michael Popok covers the bombshell move by Judge Tostrid—a Trump appointee—who issued an emergency order blocking the Trump administration and federal agencies from tampering with evidence connected to the high-profile shooting. The conversation explores the clash between state and federal authorities, constitutional questions, and the growing public and even conservative backlash against the Trump administration’s hardline tactics in Minnesota.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Breaking Legal Development: Emergency Order Issued

• Judge Tostrid's Immediate Action

  • Without even hearing arguments from Trump administration attorneys, Judge Tostrid issues a temporary restraining order preventing Border Patrol, ICE, and related federal parties from altering or destroying any evidence related to the shooting of Alex Pretti.
  • “A federal judge who's a Trump appointee doesn't trust the Trump administration and has to enter an order to make sure they don't conceal or destroy evidence…”
    — Michael Popok (03:53)

• Context of the Shooting

  • Alex Pretti was shot and killed by federal agents on January 24th, 2026, in Minneapolis, drawing comparisons to the earlier killing of Renee Good where the crime scene was quickly compromised.

2. Federal-State Conflict Over Investigation Rights

• Blocking State Investigators

  • Popok highlights how federal agents “boxed out” Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), preventing them from preserving the crime scene, interviewing witnesses, and collecting evidence.
  • “That crime scene was trampled on. They weren't able to get... bullet casings... video, had already been done by the feds. And so they ran to court.”
    — Michael Popok (05:31)

• The Legal Complaint

  • Minnesota’s Attorney General, Keith Ellison, filed the complaint the same day as the shooting, citing violations of the state’s sovereign rights to investigate crimes within its borders.
  • Citing the 10th Amendment and the Fourth Amendment's protections, the complaint decries federal overreach and obstruction.

3. Pattern of Federal Violence and Obstruction

• Comparison to Renee Good Case

  • The episode draws parallels between the Pretti and Good shootings, emphasizing a repeated pattern where the federal government prevents state-level investigations.
  • “They already destroyed the crime scene... That crime scene is long gone.”
    — Michael Popok (04:55)

• Movement and Protection of Involved Agents

  • Top Border Patrol officials, including Greg Bevino, have moved the five agents involved out of Minneapolis for their safety.
  • Border Patrol Spokesperson: “All agents that were involved in that scene are working not in Minneapolis, but in other locations. That's for their safety... There’s this thing called doxing...” (07:44)

4. The Constitutional and Civil Rights Issues

• Possible Violations Cited

  • Popok enumerates alleged rights violations:
    • First Amendment: Pretti was peacefully protesting with his cell phone.
    • Second Amendment: He had the lawful right to carry a firearm.
    • Fourth Amendment: Detainment and search without probable cause.
  • “We saw multiple violations of Alex Pretti's rights on the street before he was executed.”
    — Michael Popok (10:24)

• Federal Overreach and the Founders

  • Popok contextualizes the conflict in historical terms, linking the federal behavior to what the Founders sought to prevent with the Fourth Amendment (illegal searches/seizures).

5. Political and Media Fallout

• Right-Wing Media’s Unprecedented Rebuke

  • Sustained public outrage and pressure have led even usually pro-Trump outlets (Wall Street Journal, NY Post) to urge withdrawal from Minnesota.
  • “Even he [Trump] is starting to backpedal in his own public statements.”
    — Michael Popok (13:19)

• Contrast in Official Narratives

  • The administration’s rhetoric has shifted from labeling previous victims "domestic terrorists" (Renee Good) to more guarded, wait-and-see statements about Alex Pretti.

  • “Oh, we have to... everybody calm down. Can't rush to judgment…”
    — Michael Popok (14:48)

    • Notable audio exchange between a Department of Justice official and interviewer regarding whether Pretti brandished a gun (16:28-16:47).

6. Civil Rights Investigation & Future Steps

• DOJ Reluctance to Investigate

  • Department of Justice asserts that it doesn’t investigate every police shooting and is not currently opening an investigation into Pretti's killing.
  • “The Department of Justice just doesn’t go out and investigate every time an officer is forced to defend himself… and that is not the case here.”
    — DOJ Official (17:02)

• Victory for Public Outcry and State Rights

  • Popok emphasizes the effectiveness of rapid legal action and the critical role of public pressure, crediting the Minnesota state team and local activism.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On judicial distrust of the administration:
  “He had to give an order to an administration—not to destroy evidence. Tells you everything you need to know.”
  — Michael Popok (18:05)

• Comparing First and Second Amendment Rights:
  “We saw multiple violations of Alex Pretty’s rights on the street before he was executed. His First Amendment rights to peacefully protest... his Second Amendment rights... his Fourth Amendment against illegal search and seizure.”
  — Michael Popok (10:24)

• On public outcry and the importance of court action:
  “What has this taught us? Public outcry, courage and crowds work. We've had some fallen leaders of our First Amendment, Renee Good. And now Alex Pretti, who gave their life for the First Amendment and for the Fourth Amendment. But they will not have died in vain.”
  — Michael Popok (18:05)

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Important Segments & Timestamps

• [03:43] - [05:50]: The issuance of the emergency restraining order and the context of the federal-state legal clash.
• [07:44] - [08:15]: Border Patrol spokesperson on the transfer and safety of involved agents.
• [10:00] - [11:00]: Popok outlines constitutional rights at stake in the Pretti case.
• [13:00] - [14:48]: Popok discusses growing political backlash, even in right-wing media, and contrasts to administration response to Renee Good.
• [15:22] - [16:47]: DOJ official exchange about investigation, whether Pretti was armed or threatening, and government reluctance to investigate.
• [18:05] - [End]: Popok wraps up with reflections on lessons learned and the necessity of vigilance and public pressure.

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Tone & Style

• Hard-hitting, urgent, and passionate in both legal analysis and condemnation of federal overreach.
• Language is direct, sometimes caustic in criticism of federal officials, but emphasizes the importance of constitutional protections and the impact of public dissent.

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Conclusion

This Legal AF episode highlights a dramatic new front in the struggle over state sovereignty, federal power, and civil rights in contemporary America. Through incisive legal breakdown, Michael Popok documents the pivotal moment when a Trump-appointed judge steps in to shield crucial evidence from destruction—a move signaling severe institutional mistrust. The episode captures the gravity and national implications of the conflict and offers a rare window into how legal systems can react under intense political and public scrutiny.

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Transcript

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[Michael Popo]

Some breaking legal news coming out of Minnesota. Where else? With a late night new lawsuit filed and already a Trump appointed judge without even hearing from the Trump administration, I got entered a temporary restraining order to stop the Trump administration, Border Patrol, ICE and the rest from destroying any evidence concealing it or altering it related to the shooting, death execution style of Alex Pretty on the streets of Minneapolis 9am on January 24th. Things are going pretty terribly for the Trump administration in the public's eye when a federal judge who's a Trump appointee doesn't trust the Trump administration and has to enter in order to make sure they don't consist, conceal or destroy evidence in a state investigation about whether federal officers have violated criminal law in the state of Minneapolis or state of Minnesota located in Minneapolis, I'm Michael Popo. Let's get to the new reporting in front of Judge Tostrad. Judge Tostrid was appointed in the first Trump term, not a MAGA judge and he's holding a hearing later today. But before he even gets to the hearing, he's he's already entered the temporary restraining order. He may extend it, make it into a preliminary injunction, but he does not want anything concealed, altered, deleted from the crime scene. Why has this happened? Because once again the Trump administration has ordered its agents to box out state, investigate state investigatory officers and agents from doing their job to get to use the crime scene to investigate the crime scene to get to the bottom whether state criminal law has been violated by federal officers. Now we saw what happens when you don't run to court like what happened with the Renee Good execution at the beginning of January on the 6th of January, they already destroyed the crime scene, have blocked out the Minnesota officials from doing their job and the Attorney General Keith Ellison from doing his job and now they're trying to reconstruct everything to determine whether Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent, committed state crimes. Right. That's what's happening but they didn't run to court. That crime scene is long gone. Fast Forward to the 24th. Immediately upon shots ringing out, striking down and murdering Alex Pretty, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, their bca, ran to the scene and they were blocked and boxed out. Again, that crime scene was trampled on. They weren't able to get gun casing, you know, bullet casings. They weren't able to take witness statements. They weren't to pick up video, had already been done by the feds. And so they ran to court. And this is what the judge has ordered. Defendants, together with their employees, agents and anyone acting in concert with them, that's everybody in Trump world, are enjoined from destroying or altering evidence related to the fatal shooting involving federal officers that took place on 26th street and Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis on January 24, 2026. That's Alex Preddy, including, but not limited to evidence that defendants and those working on their behalf removed from the scene and our evidence that defendants have taken into their exclusive custody. Greg Bevino, head of Border Patrol, you know, the Gestapo that wears that long coat looking like he's part of the ss. He's already said that the five officers that were involved in the gang tackle and the disarming of Pretty before they shot him 10 times after they took the gun off of him, not before he already said he's transferred those five people away from the crime scene and out of Minneapolis. Let's play the clip.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

We know one of the agents had eight years experience and we know he was a less lethal instructor and had this training. What did the other agents, what was his history? And are they both working right now or are they on administrative leave?

[Border Patrol Spokesperson]

All agents that were involved in that scene are working not in Minneapolis, but in other locations. That's for their safety. There's this thing called doxing. And the safety of our employees is very important to us. We're going to keep those employees safe. As far as the number of shots, the number of agents involved, that again is going to come out in the investigation. I'm not going to speculate on who did what, when they did it, how they did it, or what exactly occurred there. I'm going to wait for the investigation to let me know what happened.

[Michael Popo]

Now there's going to be a hearing on this. Here's what the complaint immediately filed on, on the day this was actually filed on the 24th, on the day Alex Preddy was murdered. That's how quickly Minnesota, led by its Attorney General, Keith Ellison, ran into court. They said that They've been denied their ability to carry out their sovereign right and duties to investigate possible violations of state law within the state's borders. That' paragraph one. They said in paragraph three that as is typical of an officer involved shooting involving a federal officer, that the bca, the state personnel headed to the scene, preliminary investigatory measures were blocked. They could not establish a perimeter, preserve the scene, take photographs and measurements, identify and speak to witnesses involved, and take statements and collect physical evidence like bullet casings, shell casings. That's paragraph three and paragraph four. Critical evidence denied them. According to reports in paragraph five, federal personnel seized the cell phones and detained witnesses. But then after they left, they allowed the perimeter, right, the crime scene perimeter to collapse, potentially spoiling evidence. In fact, as we know from that last clip from Pavino, they left Minnesota, continuing to deny them access. This is not the first occasion in paragraph nine, they said in the complaint, where the federal officers have committed a fatal shooting during their unprecedented show of force and willingly interfering with the ability of the estate of the state to investigate. And then they go off and describe Renee Good on January 7, who was shot and killed in her car by a federal agent. Um, and, and all of that now they're going to run into court. There's going to be a hearing at 2 o' clock in the afternoon on Monday. But I would be shocked if bas on the complaint that's been filed, the violations that have been alleged, including of the 10th Amendment State sovereignty to to investigate local criminal conduct of a federal officer sort of goes to our founding, our founding days. The reason we have illegal search and seizure on the books under the fourth Amendment is because that is what the King did by allowing military officers to burst through doors and go and go take you out of your home and take over that house. We don't like illegal searches and seizures. And that's. We saw multiple violations of Alex Pretty rights on the street before he was executed. His First Amendment rights to peacefully protest with his cell phone in hand with whistles blaring in the background by other First Amendment peaceful onlookers violated his Second amendment rights. I mean, I may not agree with how the United States Supreme Court has expanded that right of personal carry, but it is expanded. He had the right to have that firearm, you know, in his jacket, under his jacket. And the fact that they found a proper firearm and however it, you know, claiming now that it may have gone off, yeah, it may have gone off when you pulled it out of his holster. And then you use that as an excuse to shoot him 10 times, right? So his Second Amendment rights violated, his First Amendment rights violated. And when he was stopped, when he was stopped without probable cause of having done anything and gang tackled and brought to the ground, that's a violation of the Fourth Amendment against illegal search and seizure. And then you've got, you know, murder, which is part of the Ten Commandments. Let's talk candidly about something that no one wants to talk about, what happens when you pass on. Because unfortunately it's going to happen to you and me. 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Protect your loved ones today, tomorrow and beyond with Trust and Will, the most trusted name in online estate planning. Go to trustandwill.com legalaf and get 20% off. That's trustandwill.com legal af to get your 20% off. Trustandwill.com legal a fan f It is so bad and I think this is weighing on the minds of judges like like the this judge Tostrad. Judge Menendez, a Biden appointee, is holding another hearing today about the state of Minnesota's efforts on a temporary restraining order and under preliminary injunction to get ICE out of Minnesota. This was Border Patrol, by the way. This wasn't even ICE that killed Pretty. And it's starting to work. That's why coverage here is so important. Public outcry about what happened to Alex Pretty on the on the heels of what happened in the aftermath of what happened to Renee Good Americans are in revolt against the Trump administration. It's so bad that right wing media are now siding against Donald Trump. Wall Street Journal controlled by who? By Rupert Murdoch, says in his editorial board get out of Minnesota. The New York Post also controlled By Rupert Murdoch says in another editorial, get out of Minnesota. You know, MAGA legislators, senators and congresspeople are telling Donald Trump to get out of Minnesota. And even he is starting to backpedal in his own public statements and postings and in people like Todd Blanch, who went on Sunday morning talk shows and said, oh, you know, we gotta, we gotta reserve judgment here. We, you know, we have to, you know, we gotta look at the videos. That's much different than what he said with Renee Goode. Right. Here's a clip of Todd Blanche talking about Alex Preddy. You see the public pressure working when you compare it back to. Back to his statements about Renee Goode. Renee Goode was a domestic terrorist that tried to hit somebody with her car. We all know that's a. That's a lie based on the video. But Alex Brady. Oh, we have to. Everybody calm down. Can't rush to judgment the way they rush the judgment on. On Renee Good. Let's play the clips back to back.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

What exactly threatened those law enforcement officials? Did at any point, Mr. Preddy, brandish a gun?

[Department of Justice Official]

I can see the same video that everybody else can see, and we're still. It's been analyzed up and down for the. For the past 24 hours, but there is obviously an investigation that's. That's on. Secretary Noem talked about that yesterday, which is what we would expect anytime a tragedy like this occurs. But I disagree with you when you say what was there that looked as if there was a confrontation that was. We don't know what happened in the minutes leading up to that, to what we just watched. We don't know what ICE saw, what ICE heard. That's part of the investigation that's gonna be happening. But what we did not see, again, and we cannot avoid this conversation, what we did see is a single cop helping with that isolated, targeted effort by ICE to arrest a criminal. And. And you're right. There are three. Go ahead. Sorry.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Did you see him at any point brandish a gun? Have you been told by law enforcement there on the ground that at any point he brandished a gun, that he threatened them with a gun? The video shows he's holding up a cell phone.

[Department of Justice Official]

No, you can't see what. Everything is happening.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Is the FBI conducting investigation into that agent, into the shooting? What can you tell us about that? Will it be made public?

[Department of Justice Official]

What happened on that day has been reviewed by millions and millions of Americans because it was recorded on phones when it happened.

[Michael Popo]

Okay.

[Department of Justice Official]

The civil rights. The Department of Justice, our civil rights unit. We don't just go out and investigate every time an officer is forced to defend himself against somebody or putting his life in danger. We never do. That has nothing to do with what happened in Minneapolis. There are over 1000 shootings every year where law enforcement are put in danger by individuals and they have to protect themselves and they have a lawful right to do so. The Department of Justice just doesn't just stand up and investigate because some congressman thinks we should, because some governor thinks that we should. We investigate when it's appropriate to investigate. And that is not the case here. It wasn't the case when it happened and it's not the case today. If circumstances change and there's something that we do need to investigate around that shooting or any other shooting, we will. But we are not going to bow to pressure from the media, bout of pressure from politicians and do something that we never do, not under this administration, not under the last administration. And so no, we are not investigating. And if there comes a time when we need to, we will.

[Michael Popo]

So what has this taught us? Public outcry, courage and crowds work. We've had some fallen leaders of our First Amendment, Renee Good. And now Alex Preddy, who gave their life for for the First Amendment and for the Fourth Amendment. But they will not have died in vain, not with people like Attorney General Keith Ellison in Minnesota. Midas Touch Legal AF staying on top of it from from our vantage point as independent media doing what we're doing and even judges like Judge Tostrett, a Trump appointee issuing an immediate injunction, immediate temporary restraining order because he doesn't trust the Trump administration or its Department of Justice or its Border Patrol or its ice has to give. Think about that. He had to give an order to an administration, presidential administration, not to destroy evidence. Tells you everything you need to know. I'll continue to follow the story, update you here and on Legal AF YouTube and on Legal AF substack, where I do two, three lives a day on these important stories at the intersection. And as soon as we get a new ruling from Judge Menendez on her case involving the state of Minnesota and we get our final, final ruling from Judge Tostrett, you know where to find it here on Midas touch on Legal af. Till my next report, I'm Michael Popo. Can't get your fill of Legal af. Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do called, Wait for it Morning af. What else? All the other contributors from ligalayoff are there as well. We got some new reporting, we got interviews, we got AD free versions of the podcast and hot takes where legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.