Trump: Americans Can Now Be Paid To Uncover Fraud In Their Communities

'If you're a middle-class taxpayer in this country ... you spent half your working life paying for fraudsters and scammers, many of whom are refugees, illegal aliens, and foreigners who came to this country to loot and plunder us,' Stephen Miller said.

FBI: Pro-ISIS Somali Anchor Baby Plotted Terror Attack On Mall Of America

Mohamud allegedly described himself as '100% sure' and '100% commited [sic]' to carrying out the attack and 'dying for the sake of Allah only.'

Teen wannabe ISIS terrorist plotted to slaughter dozens of non-Muslims at Mall of America, FBI says



An 18-year-old man allegedly paid $600 in exchange for an AK-47 and 200 rounds of ammunition before getting arrested by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud allegedly plotted a terrorist attack on non-Muslims at the Mall of America for two years, according to U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen.

'This was a radicalized young man who needed to be watched.'

The suspect believed he was purchasing the items for his attack from a member of the ISIS terrorist group, but the person was in fact an undercover FBI agent.

Among the evidence gathered by the FBI were messages Mohamud allegedly exchanged with an FBI informant about his terrorist mission.

Mohamud was arrested on Tuesday after allegedly making the exchange, prosecutors revealed Wednesday.

"The FBI rendered the AK-47 rifle inert prior to the transaction," the DOJ said.

"During the sale of the firearm and ammunition, Mohamud reaffirmed his plan to use the firearm and ammunition to shoot people at the Mall of America," it added.

Mohamud allegedly indicated that he wanted to attack the Minneapolis mall on Oct. 24, the day of an arts celebration for the Hmong people, an ethnic group from China and Southeast Asia. He also allegedly claimed to have picked the site because it is owned by Jews, the DOJ press release said.

Rosen described Mohamud as an American citizen of Somali descent.

The messages obtained by the FBI allegedly showed that he wanted to go to Somalia to join ISIS but decided to attack the mall instead because he could not afford to travel. He intended to kill between 30 and 60 people at the mall, and he sought martyrdom, according to the FBI.

He has been charged with one count of knowingly receiving a firearm and ammunition in order to commit a federal crime of terrorism.

"This was a radicalized young man who needed to be watched," Rosen said.

FBI Director Kash Patel posted a statement about the operation on social media.

"ARRESTED before he could hurt a single American," he wrote. "This FBI doesn't wait for terrorists to attack. We find them, disrupt them, and put them in handcuffs. Outstanding work by our Minneapolis team. We are staying on offense. America First. ALWAYS."

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The FBI said it began tracking Mohamud in Dec. 2024 and had spoken to his parents about his radicalization.

"What I would say to parents all over Minnesota, and all over America: If you get any indication — especially if you hear from federal law enforcement — that your son or daughter is being radicalized, to the point where federal law enforcement wants to come and give you that warning, those are warnings that ought to be heeded," Rosen said.

Booking records indicated that Mohamud is 5'11" tall and weighs 120 pounds.

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Resurfaced video shows Democrat disrespecting the US flag — and she is now running for governor



A resurfaced video showing a Democrat U.S. Senator waving an upside-down American flag at a 2017 rally with the Somalian community is going viral online.

The video on social media is taken from a speech Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) gave at a Somalian celebration for a presidential election in the African country.

'We have more to do, but we will continue to fight for you!'

In the video she promises to remove restrictions on cash remittances to Somalia and uses a traditional Somalian phrase to show her support for the interests of the Somalian community in Minnesota.

"As you know, we are home to the largest Somali population in the United States, and we are so proud of that fact in Minnesota!" she yells to loud applause.

At one point someone hands her the upside-down U.S. flag, and she waves it haphazardly.

"Oh, thank you. Very good!" she says.

While it might have been an oversight on her part, the video shows Somalian attendees waving U.S. flags upside down. Mostly, they wave the Somalian flag and others wave the U.S. flag right side up.

One apparently upside-down U.S. flag can even be seen in the background of a photo Klobuchar posted from the event on social media.

"Congressman [Keith] Ellison and Senator [Al] Frankin and I worked so hard to reduce the redundant regulations on remittances to Somalia, lessening the burden for banks!" she added, referring to other Democrat officials. "We have more to do, but we will continue to fight for you!"

A short clip on social media showed the objectionable parts spliced together, but the longer video is available for context on the YouTube channel for Somali TV of Minnesota.

A Blaze News request for comment from the Klobuchar campaign was not returned before time of publication.

RELATED: ICE deports Somali man accused of torture and war crimes who was found driving for Uber in DC

In 2025, BlazeTV host Christopher Rufo and his colleague at City Journal reported on how some of the remittances to Somalia have ended up funding terrorist groups like Al-Shabaab.

This is not the only time Somalians in Minnesota have seemingly treated the American flag with irreverence. For example, a similar incident unfolded years later when community leaders accidentally raised a large U.S. flag that was upside down during a Somali Independence Day event in July in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The St. Cloud Police Department told Fox News they were alerted to the incident and an officer was sent to the event. The officer was able to correct the flag "without objection," and the event's organizers "indicated to City staff that the flag being flown upside down was not intentional."

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DOJ Brings Complaint Against Minnesota Judges For ‘Pandering’ To NYT About Deportations

The Department of Justice filed a judicial misconduct complaint on Wednesday against several Minnesota-based federal judges for “pander[ing]” to legacy media about ICE operations in the state. “Seven federal judges in the District of Minnesota talked to the New York Times about cases, some of which are on-going, in a manner that the Department of […]

The kindness con: Fraudsters exploit America’s safety net



Governments have been handing out public work since men were laying stones on the Appian Way. And wherever government hands out money, people line up to get some.

Abraham Lincoln was said to have faced so many office-seekers and applicants for government favors that he finally complained, in his usual earthy fashion, that “there are too many pigs for the teats.”

The Democratic Socialists of America do not own the word ‘kindness.’

The pigs have multiplied.

During the New Deal, Franklin Roosevelt dramatically expanded Washington’s role in the economy. His administration also strengthened organized labor. The Wagner Act of 1935 guaranteed workers the right to organize and bargain collectively, and unions became a central pillar of the Democrat coalition that dominated American politics for decades.

The same political pattern appeared again during the War on Poverty.

Michael Harrington’s 1962 book, “The Other America,” helped force poverty onto the national political agenda. Lyndon Johnson’s anti-poverty task force later brought Harrington to Washington as a consultant.

The federal government also needed a way to measure poverty. That measure was developed principally by Mollie Orshansky, an economist at the Social Security Administration, whose thresholds became the basis of the official federal poverty measure.

Then came the Great Society: Medicare, Medicaid, food assistance, housing programs, and a vast expansion of Washington’s responsibility over Americans’ lives and livelihoods.

The political argument over those programs has raged ever since. But one fact should not be controversial: Americans have transferred staggering amounts of wealth through government because they believe people in genuine need should be helped.

That is kindness on an industrial scale. And wherever kindness operates on an industrial scale, thieves notice.

The Government Accountability Office estimates that the federal government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion every year to fraud, based on data from fiscal years 2018 through 2022.

That is not “waste” in the loose political sense. The GAO is estimating losses from deliberate fraud.

Look around the country. In Minnesota, the House Oversight Committee says at least $300 million was stolen through the Feeding Our Future child-nutrition scandal. The committee also says federal prosecutors estimate that fraud involving several high-risk Medicaid programs could total billions.

RELATED: The government would like to discuss your allowance

Erhui1979 / Getty Images

In New York, federal prosecutors charged 15 defendants in health care schemes involving more than $10.6 billion in fraudulent billings to Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers.

Arizona’s Medicaid system was hit by another grotesque scheme aimed at programs serving Native Americans struggling with addiction. The state attorney general says losses from the wider scandal reached into the billions. In one recent federal case alone, an addiction-treatment operator was sentenced to 14 years after fraudulently billing Medicaid more than $69 million.

In California, Paul Richard Randall orchestrated a scheme that submitted nearly $270 million in false Medi-Cal claims for expensive medications that were often unnecessary or never provided. Medi-Cal actually paid about $179 million. Randall got 30 years in federal prison.

Across seven Southeastern states, the Justice Department this summer announced 17 cases involving more than $350 million in intended losses involving SNAP, housing benefits, Small Business Administration loans, and tax fraud.

This thieving from American kindness is nationwide.

The Trump administration has now made federal fraud a major target. This month, the government canceled Affordable Care Act policies covering roughly 760,000 people whose enrollments it says were fraudulent or otherwise ineligible. The administration projects about $2.2 billion in savings.

It turns out that industrial-scale redistribution creates industrial-scale opportunities for fraud.

The Biden-era immigration surge adds another political argument. The Congressional Budget Office estimates net immigration at roughly 1.5 million people in 2021, 2.8 million in 2022, 3.3 million in 2023, and 2.7 million in 2024. Much of that increase fell into the CBO’s “other foreign national” category, which includes people who entered without lawful status as well as others admitted under temporary authorities.

But illegal immigrants are generally barred from SNAP, nonemergency Medicaid, SSI, TANF, and most federal housing assistance. States can choose to spend their own taxpayers’ money anyway. California sure does, to the tune of $22 billion a year.

And immigration has a political consequence separate from voting. The census counts residents, not merely citizens, for congressional apportionment. Illegal aliens count in those population totals just like everyone else living in the country.

When Washington spends money on a colossal scale, responsibility becomes diffuse. A federal agency sends money to a state. The state sends it to a provider. The provider bills a program. A nonprofit administers another piece. Somewhere along that chain, the pigs find the teats.

Then everybody expresses shock.

RELATED: Can a $1.2 trillion giveaway become a fiscal bargain?

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Perhaps the 50 states should shoulder far more responsibility for caring for their own poor. Perhaps Washington should stop pretending that every human problem requires another federal funding stream.

The alternative is industrial-scale socialism accompanied by industrial-scale fraud.

Something else eventually gets stolen, too: trust. Every dollar stolen from Medicaid makes taxpayers more suspicious of Medicaid. Every fake food-benefit claim makes it harder to defend assistance for the family who actually needs groceries. Every crooked nonprofit feeds the suspicion that “compassion” has become a business model.

That may be the most destructive theft of all.

The Democratic Socialists of America do not own the word “kindness.” Neither does any political party. Americans who work, pay taxes, and agree to help their neighbors have every right to demand that their money reach the people it was intended to help.

And they have every right to be furious with the pigs at the teats who steal it.

Left-wing mayor who declared 'I am illegal in this country' sued by police chief over alleged touching, sexualizing cops, retaliation



The Democrat mayor of St. Paul — who once proclaimed that she is "illegal in this country" — has been hit with a lawsuit by her own police chief over shocking sexual harassment accusations, according to new court documents. The police chief said the mayor has "embarked on a campaign" of retaliation.

On Wednesday, St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry filed the lawsuit against Mayor Kaohly Her over alleged "inappropriate" encounters, sexual harassment, and retaliation, NBC News reported.

'Why is Tim’s bigger?'

Mayor Her, 53, created "a hostile and demeaning environment" for the chief's staff by sending a meme about "good weinering," according to the 73-page lawsuit filed in Ramsey County District Court.

NBC News reported, "'Wienering' is an internet slang term for sexual intercourse and is frequently misspelled as 'weinering.'"

The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that Her made "unwanted and nonconsensual physical contact" with Henry by "placing her hand on his upper thigh beneath a conference-room table — not once, but twice — during a [St. Paul Police Department] budget meeting."

According to the complaint, Assistant Chief Paul Ford witnessed the contact.

According to the court filing, Her stood with Henry and Deputy Chief Tim Flynn during a police academy graduation on Feb. 19, 2026, and asked the police chief: "Why is Tim’s bigger?" The lawsuit asserts that Her made a "facial expression that suggested to Henry the comment was meant to be a sexual innuendo regarding the size of his penis," the New York Post reported.

Henry, who has led the St. Paul Police Department since 2022, asked the mayor what she was referring to, and she allegedly pointed toward the ribbon bar on his uniform, according to the court filing.

The court filing states that at least five police officers witnessed Her making loud grunting and moaning noises while exercising at the St. Paul police department gym. The lawsuit claims these workout sounds were intentionally exaggerated to sound sexual.

The left-wing mayor allegedly approached officers working out and called them "beefy," according to the lawsuit.

On multiple occasions in January 2026, Her allegedly photoshopped the faces of Henry and other police department members onto a variety of bodies, including boy band members, UFC fighters, and "bodybuilders with prominent bulges in the crotch area of their compression shorts," the court document states.

The suit, which names Her and the city as defendants, says the mayor printed the photoshopped images, placed them in gold frames, and displayed them throughout the police department. Some of the altered images were displayed in areas accessible to both sworn officers and civilians, showing pictures of police leadership "being mocked and sexualized" in public view, the complaint alleges.

The complaint claims that after two officers saw one of the doctored images, "they both remarked that their wives would be offended if they saw it," and Chief Henry's longtime partner described the images as "offensive and utterly inappropriate."

Her allegedly pasted her own headshot over official staff command portraits, department awards, and SWAT retirement plaques within the police department hallways, the lawsuit states.

The court filing states that Her scolded Henry for failing to find the photoshopped pictures amusing, telling the police chief he lacked "a sense of humor."

In December, Her and Henry met with St. Paul Port Authority President Todd Hurley at a cigar lounge to discuss possibly relocating the police station to downtown to help spur local business growth.

The Minnesota Star Tribune, citing the lawsuit, reported, "Her allegedly told Henry at that meeting that if she didn’t get her way, she would just tell people that Hurley 'grabbed her ass.'"

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Blaze News previously reported that Henry filed a formal complaint with the city attorney on April 1, claiming that the mayor sent "inappropriate, and indeed, unlawful text messages" to city staffers.

An investigation of the accusations was launched just six months into her term.

The lawsuit alleges that Her's administration then "embarked on a campaign" of retaliation.

"But instead of accountability, the retaliation began. Rather than confront Mayor Her’s misconduct, her administration, and those acting at her direction, embarked on a campaign to retaliate against and discredit Chief Henry," the lawsuit states.

The suit accuses St. Paul officials of violating the Minnesota Whistleblower Act when they "engaged in a series of retaliatory acts."

Minnesota Public Radio reported, "Henry says Her retaliated after he filed a human resources complaint by excluding him from personnel decisions, publicly criticizing his complaint, and giving raises to other members of the police command staff but not to him."

The complaint claims Her hired a private public relations firm to discredit Henry after the investigation began.

"[Henry] knew that accusing the Mayor of St. Paul of sexual harassment could jeopardize his career," the suit reads. "He reported it anyway. He did so because he recognized the seriousness of the misconduct, the vulnerability of those subjected to it, and the likelihood that the conduct would continue if no one spoke up."

The investigation into Her wrapped up less than a week before the lawsuit was filed, and a two-page summary of the outside investigation was released last Friday.

The misconduct investigation said Her "engaged in offensive and inappropriate behavior" in violation of St. Paul's workplace conduct policy, but that she did not sexually harass or retaliate against anyone.

Matt Wagenius, a spokesman for the mayor, said in a statement that the independent investigation "did not substantiate claims of sexual harassment or retaliation against any city employee."

Wagenius stated that the mayor "will continue to lead Saint Paul and follow the recommendations of the report."

"Beyond that, the City of Saint Paul doesn’t comment on active litigation," the statement concluded.

Chris Madel, Henry's attorney, told the Minnesota Star Tribune, "Axel Henry is an honorable man and a dedicated public servant. He didn’t come forward for attention or advantage — he came forward because what happened was wrong and needed to be reported."

Madel continued, "We look forward to proving our allegations in a court of law, where all evidence, not some sanitized summary written by the City about itself, can finally be heard."

Henry’s lawsuit requests that the city release the full report on its investigation into Mayor Her.

The suit also demands a jury trial to determine damages for "lost wages and benefits, emotional distress, humiliation, and harm to reputation."

Her's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

As Blaze News previously reported, Her shockingly admitted that she and her parents are in the United States illegally.

Her, who was born in Laos, defiantly claimed on the state House floor in June 2025: "And so, I am illegal in this country. My parents are illegal here in this country."

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2 5th-grade teachers at same school convicted of child sex crimes — and investigators uncover disturbing connection



A former Wisconsin fifth-grade teacher admitted to sexually assaulting two 15-year-old boys, becoming the second educator from the same elementary school to be convicted of sex crimes involving minors, according to authorities. The teacher is also accused of kissing an 11-year-old student.

Abigail Faust, 25, pleaded guilty to child enticement and second-degree sexual assault of a child under 16 on Sept. 14, the Pioneer Press reported, adding that the prosecution dismissed "nearly a dozen" other charges, including allegations of her kissing a fifth-grade student. However, the charges were read in and still can be considered at sentencing.

'[The victim] explained that during this time period, he believed he and [Faust] were in an exclusive relationship and that [Faust] referenced the two having a child together some day.'

"What I did was not a mistake or a lapse of judgment," Faust said in St. Croix County Circuit Court, according to the Pioneer Press.

Faust admitted that she "violated trust" and has been undergoing therapy to understand "why I allowed myself to make those choices," the paper reported.

Faust is scheduled to appear in court for sentencing on Dec. 15.

Faust had been a fifth-grade teacher at the Rivercrest Elementary School in Hudson. However, she resigned in May 2024 after allegations that she kissed a fifth-grade boy.

KARE-TV reported that court documents allege a student told authorities that Faust kept him after class one day, pushed him against the wall, and kissed his cheek.

The boy later told a therapist that Faust kissed him on the lips after she had requested that he stay after class, and she left her phone number on his desk, according to the criminal complaint.

When police interviewed the boy about the incident, he was uncomfortable, scared, and cried when talking about the situation, the complaint said.

Parents of another boy saw reports about Faust and became alarmed since she had been the family's nanny since 2021.

The Pioneer Press reported that the teen told a Washington County (Minnesota) deputy that Faust sent provocative Snapchat messages to him in December 2024 followed by pictures of herself wearing lingerie.

Court documents note that the teen said Faust told him she knew what they were doing was "bad" and that they would both be in trouble if their actions came to light.

The criminal complaint states that Faust and the boy kissed and then "went through the motions of having sexual intercourse without actual penetration" in December 2024.

Faust and the boy she had babysat exchanged nude photos, according to court records.

Court docs say Faust told the minor they could have sex if he did well in the sport he was playing.

The Pioneer Press reported that Faust first sexually assaulted the boy in early January 2025 at her home in Hudson and then on two more occasions that month when she spent the night at his family's home.

Faust sexually assaulted the teen approximately twice a week in the months following, the complaint said.

"[The victim] explained that during this time period, he believed he and [Faust] were in an exclusive relationship and that [Faust] referenced the two having a child together some day," the criminal complaint states.

In April 2025, the boy went on a family trip to Florida, and Faust took care of the family's pets.

While the teen was on vacation, Faust began a "sexual relationship" with one of the boy's 15-year-old friends, the complaint states.

RELATED: Ex-mayor convicted of child sex crimes walks free after 90 days — judge admits key mistake he made in sentencing

People magazine reported that Faust was charged in Washington County, Minnesota, in connection with the sexual misconduct with the 15-year-old boy for whom she worked as a nanny. She pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal sexual conduct earlier this month.

Faust is scheduled to be sentenced in that case on Dec. 8, according to the Pioneer Press.

Another fifth-grade teacher at Rivercrest Elementary School — 27-year-old Madison Bergmann — was charged and convicted of child sexual assault of one of her own students in a separate case.

Prosecutors said the criminal investigation into accusations against Bergmann exposed allegations against Faust.

The criminal complaint states that investigators discovered Faust and Bergmann were friends and texted each other about their inappropriate relationships with the students.

WEAU-TV previously reported that prosecutors accused Faust of knowing about the inappropriate relationship between Bergmann and Bergmann's victim and failed to notify authorities.

As Blaze News previously reported, Bergmann and her victim exchanged approximately 33,000 text messages, and the relationship became more sexual and explicit over time.

Bergmann pleaded guilty to child enticement and sexual misconduct involving an 11-year-old student.

Bergmann in December 2025 was sentenced to six years in prison.

St. Croix Circuit Judge Scott Nordstrand said Bergmann's crimes were "deliberate, purposeful," and "have been devastating to the victim, life-changing for that young boy," according to the Pioneer Press.

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DOJ claims ICE agent made up wild 'broom' attack story after shooting — but lawyer says he's being used as a 'political pawn'



Did an ICE agent spin up a wild story after shooting a Venezuelan national in Minnesota early this year? Or has he been scapegoated by a state filled with "rage" over immigration law enforcement in general?

Both federal and Hennepin County prosecutors have formally charged Christian Castro, 52, for allegedly lying to investigators, but one of his attorneys, David Lindenmuth, told Blaze News that his client has been unfairly targeted by "rabid" officials looking for someone to blame for other controversies associated with Operation Metro Surge.

'He was in pursuit of people in a vehicle who fled. ... There was a person on that porch that apparently had a weapon at some point.'

"They went through some pretty serious things up there with the federal law enforcement being sent up there. There's a couple of high-profile deaths," Lindenmuth said. "And because of that, I think that what happened, to be quite honest ... [is] Mr. Castro is basically the one that they chose to prosecute."

Lindenmuth did not name names regarding the "high-profile deaths," but the incident involving Castro occurred just one week after Renee Good was fatally shot on January 7.

On January 14, the Department of Homeland Security reported that an unnamed federal immigration officer had "fired a defensive shot to defend his life" during an immigration operation in Minnesota.

The officer had sustained a brutal attack, during which three individuals "ambushed" him and struck him with a "broom handle" and a "snow shovel," the DHS claimed on January 14.

Now, however, the Department of Justice claims the officer made the whole thing up. On September 2, a federal grand jury indicted Castro on six counts of making a materially false statement.

RELATED: Trump threatens Insurrection Act after ambushed ICE agent shoots illegal alien: 'Put an end to the travesty'

Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

The federal indictment claims that on January 14, Castro told the FBI that while he was attempting to arrest one man, a second "unknown man grabbed a red broom off the front porch," "a third unknown man came out of the house, grabbed a black snow shovel," and all three ganged up on him.

Castro then claimed that "he tried to block strikes from the broom to his face with his left hand and reached for his gun," according to the indictment. The men then bolted for a nearby residence, and Castro "lifted his back off the ground and fired one round from his gun in the general direction of the men at the same time they started running."

Castro estimated to the FBI that he struggled on the ground with the original subject, identified as "A.A.," for "approximately three minutes," the indictment said.

According to federal prosecutors, none of Castro's claims are true. Instead, prosecutors claim: No one struck Castro with a broom or a snow shovel at that time; there was no third person involved; Castro was standing when he shot through the front door of the duplex residence, where the two men had already hidden themselves; and the scuffle on the ground lasted only 11 seconds.

A probable cause statement from Hennepin County indicated that, following a 911 call, Minneapolis police took "remote-control of a city camera" and angled it at the residence in time to capture much of the incident.

Castro's bullet struck one subject, identified as Julio Sosa-Celis in news reports but referred to as "J.S.-C." in the federal indictment. Sosa-Celis was wounded in the leg but has recovered from his injury.

The indictment describes J.S.-C. as a 24-year-old "citizen of Venezuela" who resided in the duplex.

The probable cause statement claimed that at the time of the shooting, Sosa-Celis and A.A. "were residing in Minnesota lawfully, having been granted 'Temporary Protected Status' by the United States Department of Homeland Security."

Sosa-Celis was arrested shortly after the incident, but all charges against him have since been dropped.

Though Lindenmuth admits that Castro "fired his weapon" that fateful night, Lindenmuth insisted that Castro is "innocent" and "had no intent to lie to federal agents."

"The federal government has to prove that Mr. Castro lied to them, and then the state government has to prove that he actually committed a crime," he explained to Blaze News. "The facts as I understand them is that he was in pursuit of people in a vehicle who fled, right? They fled. Then they fled on foot. There was a person on that porch that apparently had a weapon at some point."

In the county probable cause statement, the original subject of the operation — whom the federal indictment referred to as "A.A." — admitted to investigators on January 14 that he fled from the agents in his vehicle because "he feared for his life" and led them on a 25-minute chase. Once he arrived at his residence, he made a run for the front door but "slipped on the ice" and was then "tackled" by the ICE agent.

Video of the incident also shows that prior to the shooting, Sosa-Celis "stepped onto the front lawn of the home holding a snow shovel," the probable cause statement indicated.

Castro was originally indicted by the Hennepin County district attorney back in May on four counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and one count of falsely reporting a crime.

He was arrested following the federal indictment and booked into Hennepin County Jail. Jail records show only the state charges.

Castro pled not guilty to the federal charges on Friday. He was released from jail after posting a $200,000 bond.

Castro is scheduled to appear in court again for the state charges on November 3. The DHS has suspended him without pay, Lindenmuth confirmed.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota, the DHS, the Hennepin County Prosecutor's Office, and the office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (DFL) did not respond to requests for comment from Blaze News.

RELATED: Anti-ICE aid fund in Minnesota shuts down — and you can probably guess the reason why

Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Lindenmuth characterized the charges as a miscarriage of justice against a devoted American patriot who has been turned into a "political pawn" by bad actors.

"Mr. Castro was a 13-year veteran in the Army, a combat veteran deployed to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he received a 100% disability rating as a result of his service for 70% for PTSD, 30% for traumatic brain injury, where he was hit by the last wave of a suicide bomber on the American embassy over there. And so this is a person who was injured serving his country," Lindenmuth claimed, adding that Castro has also spent a decade as an immigration officer.

"He has given his life to serving this country, and he's not [been given] the benefit of the protections of the presumption of innocence. ... Basically he's being tried out in public by the state of Minnesota, and it's sad to see.

"That's not how we're supposed to operate."

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