Trump Administration Justice Department

A coalition of local prosecutors has launched the "Fight Against Federal Overreach" project to coordinate legal and political pushback against Trump‑era immigration enforcement surges they say are unconstitutional and undermining the justice system. Announced Wednesday and anchored in Minneapolis, the group includes Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty and prosecutors from Austin, Texas, and several Virginia jurisdictions, and is responding in particular to aggressive ICE and Border Patrol tactics during Operation Metro Surge that left two civilians dead in Minneapolis, including Alex Pretti. Krasner blasted masked officers with hidden badge numbers and cited Vice President JD Vance’s blanket assertion of immunity for federal agents, arguing that with DOJ’s Civil Rights Division refusing to open probes and U.S. attorneys’ offices hollowed out, "the federal government are the rogue sheriffs" and local prosecutors must fill the gap because state convictions are beyond the president’s pardon power. The group points to federal officials cutting Minnesota investigators out of crime scenes in the killings of Pretti and Renee Good and says immigration arrests around courthouses are scaring victims, witnesses and defendants away from participating in prosecutions, corroding local public safety. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has defended the enforcement operations as constitutional and necessary, but the project signals a new front in the fight over federal‑state balance on immigration, with local DAs openly exploring state‑level charges and strategies to hold federal officers to account.

PBS reports that Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D‑Mich., says she is under federal investigation for her role in a November video in which she and five other Democratic lawmakers told U.S. military personnel not to follow unlawful orders. Slotkin, an Iraq War veteran and former CIA analyst, organized the video, which President Trump and his aides have publicly branded 'seditious,' and she posted her own response accusing the president of weaponizing the federal government against critics and using 'legal intimidation and physical intimidation' to silence dissent. The piece notes that three other lawmakers in the video have confirmed being contacted by Trump officials, and that Sen. Mark Kelly has already sued the Pentagon over disciplinary moves tied to his involvement. The episode raises serious civil‑military questions about the line between protected speech and incitement inside the chain of command, and about how far an administration can go in pursuing members of Congress over statements about 'illegal orders' at a moment when war‑powers and domestic enforcement controversies are already under scrutiny.