Trump Caught in the Act by Judge After Destroying Evidence in Pretti Murder

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2:27Michael Popok:A federal judge appointed by Donald Trump in Minnesota believes it's highly likely that evidence at the crime scene of the shooting of Alex Preddy was destroyed, is no longer recoverable, and that in the future, in a lawsuit brought by his estate, they'll be able to use that point to win their case. That is what's within a new order by Judge Tostrad coming out of Minnesota just in the last few hours here on the Midas Touch Network. Now, on the face of it, the judge decided he's not going to continue an injunction, a temporary restraining order that he put in place last week to stop the administration from continuing to destroy evidence, preventing them from destroying evidence.

3:13Michael Popok:He says, whatever's done is done. And if that's already been done, that's something for Alex Preti's lawyers, which he basically invites to bring that lawsuit and make that argument. Particularly, there's focus in the decision, the opinion and order on the gun. No, not the one or two that shot and killed, summarily executed Alex Preti with 10 bullets into his riddled body, but rather his gun, the gun that the defense claims, the government claims, was the reason that he was assassinated. To this day, as I said a week ago, when I saw the government's filings by the Department of Homeland Security and the Border Patrol and the FBI agent, I have no idea where the gun is.

3:56Michael Popok:You know what? The judge doesn't know where the gun is either. And he's questioning why the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension hasn't brought a motion directed right about the gun. But he believes there's so much attention on this case that there's nothing more he can do by way of an injunction. I'll explain to you the difference between an injunction and other types of remedies when a court sits in both law and in equity here on this hot take. I'm Michael Popok. Take a minute, hit the free subscribe button, but then come over to Legal AF YouTube channel and help us continue to grow there and give us the resources we need to meet the moment.

4:33Michael Popok:Let's talk about Judge Tostrid. He was not MAGA, but he was a Trump appointee in the first term sitting in Minnesota. We reported that last week on a temporary emergency injunction, he ordered the federal government not to destroy evidence. This is a case brought by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. All they want to do is do their job. They just want to get access to the evidence. They want it in real time, moments after the shooting, get access to the crime scene that was blocked and denied by the feds. They wanted access to the witnesses. They wanted access to the gun. They wanted access to the shell cases.

5:09Michael Popok:They wanted access and interview the agents who were involved in the shooting. They wanted access to their guns for forensic purposes, you know, like CSI Minneapolis. None of that happened. They ran to court to preserve evidence. The judge did that. The question now was, was he going to continue to have that order out there. But more fundamentally, more importantly, are the observations made by the judge about the crime scene and the future lawsuits, civil lawsuits, brought by Alex Preddy's family. Here's what he says on page 13. It appears likely that evidence was lost or spoliated, that's a fancy word we use for evidence that's destroyed, intentionally or unintentionally, at the scene of Mr.

5:54Michael Popok:Preddy's shooting. What he says about that is, particularly that's an issue. He says on page 15, he said his considerations about continuing the temporary restraining order are dampened because of the continuing, about the continuing existence and integrity of that evidence. He said, Mr. Petty's shooting alone almost certainly triggered defendant's duty to preserve evidence that may be relevant to any excessive force civil suit or proceeding brought on his or his survivor's behalf. And in that proceeding, non-preservation or spoliation would pose significant, perhaps dispositive consequences. Let me translate that.

6:35Michael Popok:He's inviting effectively and knows there's going to be an excessive force lawsuit, excessive force lawsuit brought by Pretti's estate for what happened to him, proving that it's a Section 1983 civil rights violation and the rest. We keep talking about the criminal prosecution against the federal agents. There's also justice to be had on the civil side and for damages, never bringing Alex Pretti or Renee Good back for that matter, but justice nonetheless, an aspect of justice nonetheless. The judge is anticipating there will be such a civil suit and that in that suit, The fact that the feds did not properly secure the crime scene, didn't properly preserve the chain of custody, didn't properly bag evidence and collect it, didn't properly preserve any evidence, seemed to have lost the gun, which I'll talk about in a moment, are all things that the plaintiffs can bring as a motion on spoliation to, for instance, strike any liability defenses of the feds.

7:38Michael Popok:or find against them on liability based on the destruction of the evidence. And therefore, the estate plaintiff's lawyers will be going right to the amount of damages. That's a possibility. He's also concerned, as am I, about the gun. Now, there were three separate affidavits that were filed by government, federal government agents, one for Homeland Security, one for Border Patrol, one for the FBI. For the life of me, I sorted them all out. I laid them all next to each other. I don't know where the gun is for Mr. Preddy. And the judge doesn't either. And what the judge says about that is, on page 13, plaintiffs also identified concerns.

8:17Michael Popok:Remember, the plaintiffs are the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, like the FBI from Minnesota, who are just trying to get access to the crime scene. Plaintiffs also identified concerns regarding defendants' post-incident handling of the firearm allegedly taken from Mr. Preddy. And while I share plaintiff's concerns, they remain undeveloped and nonspecific. Superintendent Evans, who's for the Minnesota side, stateside, explained, it does not appear that the gun was protected according to normal law enforcement processes. And I'm concerned about other evidence not being protected. In his declaration, he also saw he saw images circulating on social media about the alleged gun taken from Mr.

8:59Michael Popok:Pretty. Neither he nor any other witnesses from the feds addressed the firearms ongoing preservation. Where is it? That's what I said. Or disagreed with Superintendent Evans' testimony. They couldn't even get where is the gun right among the three who are supposed to be in charge of the chain of custody. From defendant's silence, the judge says, I infer they failed to safeguard the firearm in compliance with normal law enforcement processes. I mean, there you have it. Yes, the headline is going to be somebody in the Department of Justice bragging about the fact the judge is not continuing to order them not to destroy evidence, but they do so at their own risk.

9:41Michael Popok:I'm more interested in the invitation on the lawsuit about the fact the judge has declared that there was spoliation, there was destruction of the crime scene, and we don't know where the gun is, and the judge concluding that the gun was not properly handled. What about their gun? That begs the question. What about the guns of the five border patrol that jumped on them like a pack of wolves? Where's their guns? Was it one gun firing 10 bullets from an extended magazine? Or was it two weapons? Or was it more? We don't know. We don't even know the names of these people at this late date. So we're going to continue to follow it all right here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF.

10:19Michael Popok:Take a moment, hit the free subscribe button, help us continue to grow Legal AF Substack. I'm running a 35 % sale on annual membership on Legal AF Substack. Come over, become a paid or regular subscriber on Legal AF YouTube. Until my next report, I'm Michael Popak.

10:36MeidasTouch:Hey everybody, Ben Mycelis here from the Midas Touch Network. I wanted to let you know about my podcast partner, Michael Popak's new law firm. It's called the Popak Firm. Michael Popak's pursuing his dream of starting his own law firm, really based on the popular demand by all the Midas, Mighty, and Legal AFers who were approaching Michael Popak with their cases and saying, can you help us? And at that time, Popak was not able to. So he went out on his own. He started the Popak Firm, where he is now handling catastrophic injury cases like car accident cases, trucking cases, malpractice cases, big negligence cases, wrongful death cases.

11:19MeidasTouch:So if you or someone you know have a case like this, the consultation with Popak's firm is free. Give him a call. See if you have a case. It's thepopokfirm.com, thepopokfirm.com, or you can call 877-POPOKAF, P-O-P-O-K-A-F. So 1-877-P-O-P-O-K-A-F. Give Michael Popok a call. And I'm really proud of you, Popok. Thanks for all the hard work you're putting in.

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