Pam Bondi Tries New Intimidation Tactic With Protester Arrest Photos
Attorney General Pam Bondi has started sharing the names and photographs of protesters arrested in Minneapolis—in violation of Department of Justice rules.
Bondi took to X Wednesday to share the names and photographs of 16 protesters who had been arrested for allegedly assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal law enforcement agents. “We expect more arrests to come,” she warned.
DOJ policy expressly prohibits releasing mug shots of defendants charged with federal crimes, unless releasing their photo would serve a “legitimate law enforcement function.” Not only did Bondi’s posts fail to serve a clear law enforcement function, they were blatantly intended to have a chilling effect on protesters’ expression of their First Amendment rights.
Notably, these protesters have only been arrested—not convicted. And somehow, the public still hasn’t been told the names of the federal agents who shot and killed Alex Pretti.
Among those Bondi posted about was Nasra Ahmed, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen who said she was wrongly detained by ICE for two days, that one federal agent called her a racial slur, and that she suffered a concussion after officers pushed her to the ground.
Bondi’s escalating antics come as immigration agents have repeatedly failed to provide sufficient evidence that demonstrators in Minnesota have committed actual crimes, such as assault, when trying to obtain warrants for arrest.
There is mounting evidence that suggests federal law enforcement has lost the plot on what protesters “impeding” their work actually looks like. Federal agents have aggressively approached citizen ICE watchers simply monitoring their operations, threatening to arrest them—or worse. And former FBI agents have complained of watching ICE officers in Minnesota arrest protesters who appear to be using their First Amendment rights to taunt or yell at federal officers, according to MS NOW.
There’s also evidence that federal agents don’t know what assault looks like—or that they don’t care. Last year, when ICE pursued felony assault charges against anti-ICE protesters in Los Angeles, inaccurate and misleading testimonies from law enforcement officers unraveled multiple cases.