There’s not really a “taking over” the FBI can (legally) do here. The murder happened in Minnesota, so the state of Minnesota can bring a state criminal case against the ICE agent for violating state law while acting within the state. If the FBI also wants to open a federal criminal case against the agent for violating a federal law while in the country, they can open a parallel investigation using the same evidence. But the FBI can’t (legally) “take over” a state criminal case. That’s not how our legal system works.
I keep putting “legally” parenthetically because this administration does whatever it wants and uses contorted readings of the law for creating after-the-fact justifications, but here there are few options available to them even to contort.
They can and should pursue a state investigation. However, it’s important to note that key evidence is in federal hands and it’s not clear they will turn that over. I’m not sure the publicly available evidence to date is enough to convict but hopefully we’ll see.
There’s not really a “taking over” the FBI can (legally) do here. The murder happened in Minnesota, so the state of Minnesota can bring a state criminal case against the ICE agent for violating state law while acting within the state. If the FBI also wants to open a federal criminal case against the agent for violating a federal law while in the country, they can open a parallel investigation using the same evidence. But the FBI can’t (legally) “take over” a state criminal case. That’s not how our legal system works.
I keep putting “legally” parenthetically because this administration does whatever it wants and uses contorted readings of the law for creating after-the-fact justifications, but here there are few options available to them even to contort.
They can and should pursue a state investigation. However, it’s important to note that key evidence is in federal hands and it’s not clear they will turn that over. I’m not sure the publicly available evidence to date is enough to convict but hopefully we’ll see.