ICE and Border Patrol officials say ‘domestic terrorism’ claim about Alex Pretti didn’t come from them
Top immigration enforcement officials in Donald Trump’s administration testified Thursday that an initial characterization of Alex Pretti as a “domestic terrorist” did not come from them or their staff, appearing to contradict White House claims that the accusation originated in the agency whose officers fatally shot him in Minnesota.
The same day Border Patrol officers shot and killed Pretti on January 24, White House deputy chief of policy Stephen Miller called him a “domestic terrorist” and an “assassin” who “tried to murder federal agents.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti “committed an act of domestic terrorism.”
“That’s the facts,” she said. “This looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.”
Those near-instant allegations appeared to be swiftly contradicted by multiple videos showing officers pepper spraying, wrestling to the ground and fatally shooting the 37-year-old nurse without ever having reached for the holstered pistol that he was legally carrying.
But the top officials at Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement told the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Thursday that those descriptions did not come from them or any of their staff.
“Did you provide Secretary Noem with an assessment of what Mr. Pretti was engaged in, and that he was engaged in domestic terrorism?” asked Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, the committee’s top Democrat.
“Is that why she said that, because you told her that was your belief at the time?” he added. “Are you the ones who told her that?”
ICE’s acting director Todd Lyons and CBP commissioner Rodney Scott both testified that they did not tell her that.
Asked whether anyone who reports to him or if anyone on his staff provided her with that assessment, Scott replied: “Not to my knowledge, sir.”
“Why would she tell the public that this was an act of domestic terrorism, right in the heat of the moment?” Peters fired back. “How could she possibly come to that kind of conclusion to tell the American public that when they’re watching this video?”
“I can’t speculate on what someone else would say or why, sir,” said Lyons.
“I can’t speculate to what the secretary thought at that time, sir,” Scott replied.
A White House spokesperson told The Independent that there is no contradiction between their testimony and Miller’s statements.
