On January 24, Border Patrol agents murdered Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Pretti was trying to help two women – women being assaulted by Border Patrol agents – and the agents dragged Pretti into the street and shot him repeatedly in the back. Within days, Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino was demoted and “sent home” to California. Bovino was one of the guys “in charge” of the federal operation in Minneapolis. The operation was explicitly to wreak havoc, to terrorize Minnesotans, to rip the community apart. Sending a federal paramilitary into an American city to murder Americans was absolutely part of Donald Trump’s agenda. Still, it’s sort of remarkable that Bovino was too much of a murderous Nazi thug for the Trump administration. Before Bovino was ordered to leave Minneapolis, he apparently mocked the Trump-appointed US Attorney in Minneapolis for… being an Orthodox Jew and observing Shabbat.
A day before six career federal prosecutors resigned in protest over the Justice Department’s handling of the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis, lawyers in the office had a conversation with Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol field leader, that left them deeply unsettled.
According to several people with knowledge of the telephone conversation, which took place on Jan. 12, Mr. Bovino made derisive remarks about the faith of the U.S. attorney in Minnesota, Daniel N. Rosen. Mr. Rosen is an Orthodox Jew and observes Shabbat, a period of rest between Friday and Saturday nights that often includes refraining from using electronic devices.
Mr. Bovino, who has been the face of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, used the term “chosen people” in a mocking way, according to the people with knowledge of the call. He also asked, sarcastically, whether Mr. Rosen understood that Orthodox Jewish criminals don’t take weekends off, the people said.
Mr. Bovino had requested the meeting with Mr. Rosen to press the Minnesota office to work more aggressively to seek criminal charges against people Mr. Bovino believed were unlawfully impeding the work of his immigration agents.
Mr. Rosen delegated the call to a deputy. During the call, with a handful of prosecutors listening in, Mr. Bovino complained that Mr. Rosen had been unreachable for portions of the weekend because of Shabbat. Mr. Bovino’s remarks followed his complaints about having difficulty reaching Mr. Rosen.
Mr. Bovino’s comments raised judgment concerns, but also a potential legal dilemma for government lawyers. Based on a 1972 Supreme Court decision in a case known as Giglio, prosecutors have an obligation to disclose certain information to the defense that could call into question the integrity and character of a law enforcement officer who is involved in an arrest and called as a witness in a trial.
This is one of the biggest “fork found in kitchen” moments of the past year. Yes, when you hire a guy who looks and acts like a Nazi, you can’t be surprised when he’s derisive about observant or orthodox Jewish people. “We thought he just hated Black people and immigrants, we never thought he’d also be an antisemite who murders white Americans” is not actually a legitimate Republican defense. Anyway, I’m glad that it sounds like the US Attorney’s office in Minneapolis is pretty understaffed these days.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
@kaiser: always think it and gotta say it — your political commentary is so very good.
This is absolutely true. Kaiser leads and the rest of the Celebitchy community follows in sharp, lively, and urgent political discourse. This site has given me back hope after the current devastating news we live with, and has helped me find my purpose again. Take the bastards down!
“Mr. Bovino’s comments raised judgement concerns” is putting it lightly. This guy is not just cosplaying a Nazi, he is a Nazi, as are too many people working in ‘border patrol’ now. ICE and DHS need to be dismantled. They are not protecting Americans anymore. They are now the terrorists.
With him being of Italian descent, one would think he knows how the Italians were viewed by many in America as well as the names they were called and how they were treated. It’s always surprising that people forget their ancestors’ walk.
This. I heard many stories of how my Italian grandparents were treated when they came to this country, a little over a hundred years ago. They lived in Brooklyn. The Italians were expected to move over and walk in the roadbed if a ‘white’ person was walking toward them on the sidewalk. My grandfather, who was from Naples and had dark hair and an olive complexion, was regularly called the N-word, as well as ‘Jimmy’, which was apparently a generic term for any Black man when you didn’t know his name. Make America great again, right? This is what they want us to go back to. Blatant and open racism everywhere.
Is it wrong that I’m laughing? I mean. JFC. It’s like a South Park episode that failed to clear the network censors or something. I think mainstream media has downplayed how downright f*cked up, ignorant, low-brow, ham-fisted, and mouth-breathing middle America can be when it goes sideways. No offence to middle America. I came from a “liberal elitist” deep blue state on the Atlantic coast. Thank god. LOL.