(The above link is for the video interview at the top of this Substack page; 20 minutes and small change. -A.)
Happy Superbowling to all who celebrate.
It’s been less than 48 hours since I sent out the first episode of I Spent Three Days in Minneapolis. (Are these “episodes”? I don’t know what else to call them. They are more than interviews… Moments? Happenings? Witnessings?) The response from you all has been amazing and truly heartening. It is inspiring to think that me and a small crew turned all this around so quickly AND ALSO that it has found an audience. It really makes me proud. I can’t wait to share more, so leeeeeeeeet’s gooooooooooo!
I’m sending this today, because my subscribers don’t seem like the types of people who’d get upset having their Superbowl activities interrupted with an incredible conversation. One of the big “gets” that my producer Deshawn Plair chased down was this meet-up with three-time Emmy-winning, Twin Cities journalist Georgia Fort. Luckily, our film crew, Destiny and Kai, were already working on a project with Georgia, so they helped set this up.
And while I’m always down to talk to an independent Black journalist, this was extremely special. Georgia was only a few days removed from making international news. On January 30, Georgia Fort and my fellow ex-CNNer Don Lemon were arrested for the “crime” of reporting on a news story. Georgia and Don were covering the protest of a church where a pastor is being accused of being a member of I.C.E. (FYI, joining I.C.E. is what Jesus wouldn’t do.)
The Trumped up charges (literally TRUMPED UP) against Georgia and Don are for conspiracy(?) and for interfering with the church goers first amendment rights(??). (Yeah, suuuuuuuuure!) As much as I am mocking the anti-constitutional arrests, these are still FEDERAL charges. Two other people (both Black) were also arrested at the protest.
Let’s not forget that arrests like these are even bigger than our country’s already big need to defend the first amendment. These arrests are about punishing people who the administration simply doesn’t agree with, and more people than just the ones arrested are affected. In addition to being an award-winning independent Black journalist, Georgia is a mom, a wife, a daughter, a mentor to young Black journalists, and community member who cares. During our talk Georgia bravely admits to being terrified, but as she declares, “God did not give me a spirit of fear.”
“God did not give me a spirit of fear.” – journalist Georgia Fort
This interview was taped around 5pm on February 3, 2026. Georgia was kind enough to sit with me after she had already had a day filled with interviews. As always, shout out to Destiny and Kai for turning this around so quickly. Again, I hope you don’t mind me filling up your inbox.
Thanks again to The McKnight Foundation for partnering with me on this project.
WHO’S WITH ME?
Here’s the video I made the day I learned about the arrests.
I had no idea that I would be talking with Georgia only four days later,
Notice that she mentions that Schumer caved on the one demand the democrats were fighting for during the government shutdown, while the public supported us. He got a promise for a worthless vote in the senate but not the House. A vote he knew would fail. Why cave, because the filibuster was on the line and both parties are desperate to keep that to prevent the status quo of supporting the donor class from changing. She is talking about body cam footage which the democrats are demanding, but 90+% of the time they were not used against the officer but the victim. The officers who killed Pretti had body cams but that footage has not been released. Hugs
At the end of this clip the guest describes the conditions the kids are being held under in these for profit prisons. Horrible food, prison like conditions which means no freedom of movement, and other things. Remember the boy and his father are here legally like so many others scooped up by these racist ICE goon Gestapo gang thugs and the tRump admin. Hugs
The 2 year old got her hand cut during the attack on him. The father signed his deportation order because he worried they would keep coming back after his daughter and wanted to spare her that. The racists got what they wanted. The video also describes how ICE was arresting people, detaining them, and then releasing them in other parts of the country. Hugs
Listen to tRump’s crazy ranting in the video below and it is so bizarre. He claims he built the military and so many crazy things I am stunned that this person is the US president. Hugs
Trigger warning. This is difficult to watch. ICE threatens a woman who stands up to them and threatens her. Lots of yelling and swearing.
An immigration attorney goes after ICE gang Gestapo thugs who pretend they know the laws and make claims that the lawyer shoots down with ease. However at the start one of the gang thugs reacts angrily and shoves her, then gets in her face to threaten her claiming she shoved him. She told him she was an attorney which seemed to give him pause even though he ran his mouth at her making threats to detain her or take her down, which is a euphemism for a beating. Hugs
One of the intended consequences of President Trump’s politicization of the Justice Department is to leave behind a weakened, overwhelmed, decimated organization that simply can’t do its job.
They’re hollowing out the DOJ by purging nonpartisan career attorneys, making life intolerable for those who remain, and replacing them with loyalists sucks the capacity out of the organization. It can’t handle as many cases, isn’t capable of tackling ambitious ones, and the quality of the lawyering suffers in all cases.
This is all coming home to roost in a very visible way in Minnesota, where the lawless Operation Metro Surge has produced hundreds of habeas cases filed by wrongfully detained immigrants. The chief federal judge in Minnesota, speaking for an overwhelmed judiciary, has already publicly castigated the Trump administration for not preparing for the flood of cases that its mass deportation operation in the state was bound to generate. (Chris Geidner explains the ins and outs of why we’re seeing so many cases.)
Meanwhile, the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office has been crippled by mass resignations, including some of its most senior career attorneys. That has left the remaining DOJ attorneys in Minnesota inundated with more cases than they can keep up with. But I’m not sure that does justice to what’s been happening. It’s quite a bit worse than that.
The quality of lawyering has eroded to such a point that government lawyers have been unable to keep up with the court orders demanding that detainees be released. As a result, detainees have lingered in confinement even after courts have ordered their release.
Last week, as the Star Tribune first reported, Ana Voss, a career DOJer who was the chief of the civil division in the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office, submitted an astonishing court filing in which she admitted that her office had not followed a judicial order to release a detainee because they hadn’t seen the email.
“I did not timely read these orders,” Voss reportedly said in the court filing. “I understand that is inexcusable.”
But it doesn’t appear to be a case of incompetence or willful disregard. As Voss explained in the filing: “It has become apparent to me that I am not able to effectively triage and review every order which is not an acceptable practice for me or the United States.”
Numerous reports have suggested that mass resignations in the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office are not due solely to the failure to investigate the fatal shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti. My suspicion is that the hell-on-wheels inundation of immigration cases is another contributing factor.
More evidence of that emerged yesterday, when Julie Le, an attorney for the government, essentially melted down in court, as FOX9’s Paul Blume reported :
“I wish you would just hold me in contempt of court so I can get 24 hours of sleep,” Le said. “The system sucks, this job sucks, I am trying with every breath I have to get you what I need.”
As Joyce Vance notes, Le is not a regular assistant U.S. attorney but a “special” AUSA. She is reported to have been working as a DHS attorney before being detailed to the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office to help with the flood of immigration cases. Le had been assigned over more than 88 cases since December.
It’s easy to see this as attorneys getting what they deserve for participating in a corrupted system, but remember it’s the detainees who are languishing despite courts ordering their release. I’ve seen defiant DOJ political appointees in court telling judges to shove it. Le does not appear to be one of those kinds of attorneys:
“I am here to make sure the agency understands how important it is to comply with court orders,” said Le, who became visibly emotional during the court hearing.
Le was removed from the U.S. Attorney’s Office after her courtroom remarks, NBC News reports.
When chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz said last week that the Trump administration had violated 96 court orders in 78 cases since Jan. 1 in Minnesota alone, I first thought this was another Trump administration gambit to defy the judicial branch. And it may be, but it’s not as direct as the confrontations in the Alien Enemies Act and Abrego Garcia cases.
It seems increasingly clear the rampant noncompliance with court habeas orders happening in immigration cases now is not a problem of attorney ethics. It’s a symptom of structural, institutional collapse at the Department of Justice.
The Trump administration is tearing down U.S. Attorney’s offices and undermining Main Justice so that there simply aren’t the resources to even respond to the judicial branch. A burn it all down ethos. Catch me if you can.
Keep an Eye on This One …
U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson of Minneapolis ordered the pretrial release of two immigrants accused of assaulting an ICE agent who shot one of the men in an incident last month. But the men did not make it out of the courthouse before they were re-detained, by ICE, the Star Tribune reports.
Attorneys for Alfredo Aljorna and Julio Sosa-Celis were quickly back in court, filing a habeas petition seeking their release from ICE custody. Last night, chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz ordered the Trump administration not to remove the men from Minnesota and, if they already had, then to return them to Minnesota immediately.
Not to get overlooked: At the pretrial hearing, the mens’ attorneys introduced into evidence photos of the shooting scene that suggest the ICE agent shot through a closed door and undermine the government’s account what happened.
Quote of the Day
“In the last few weeks, our family took some consolation thinking that perhaps Nee’s death would bring about change in our country. And it has not.”—Luke Ganger, brother of Renee Good
Judge Protects Anti-ICE Protesters
U.S. District Judge Michael Simon issued a temporary restraining order barring federal agents from using tear gas and other crowd-control weapons against peaceful protesters and journalists outside an ICE facility in Portland, Oregon.
In his order, Simon was harshly critical of the Trump administration:
“the repeated shooting and teargassing of nonviolent protesters at the Portland ICE Building will likely keep recurring … Defendants’ violence is in no way isolated.”
“statements made by DHS officials and senior federal executives show that the culture of the agency and its employees is to celebrate violent responses over fair and diplomatic ones.”
“Rather than reprimanding DHS violence against protesters, senior officials have publicly condoned it.”
“There are clear instances of excessive force, including a use of force incident recorded by ICE’s own cameras and deemed “inappropriate” and “not reasonable” by a Federal Protective Service (“FPS”) Deputy Regional Director. Yet, the agents involved were not put on leave and do not appear to have been held accountable in any way.”
Scottie's Playtime 