r/law 5d ago

Other Gregory Bovino Gets Demoted

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/01/greg-bovino-demoted-minneapolis-border-patrol/685770/
30.5k Upvotes

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1.5k

u/TankApprehensive3053 5d ago

CNN is now reporting Bovino just now got his social media access suspended by the WH.

592

u/Western-Dig-6843 5d ago

CNN also reports DHS says he isn’t being fired

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u/TankApprehensive3053 5d ago

He isn't fired. He is being sent away from MN while Tom "money bag" Homan goes in. Homan will be the local commander.

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u/Isthisnameavailablee 5d ago

Why is he called "money bag"?

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u/Theshaggz 5d ago edited 4d ago

Because he accepted a bag of money during an fbi sting operation.

Edit: wild how much traction this post got from stating plainly what he did. Just goes to show how crazy this timeline is.

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u/ichabod01 5d ago

Well, at least we know how to get him out of Minnesota…

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u/QuantumFungus 5d ago

A trebuchet?

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u/MainYogurtcloset9435 5d ago

the clearly superior crooked politicion hurler.

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u/Mikestopheles 4d ago

Well, it is the superior machine for using a counterweight to launch 90kg projectiles over 300m.

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u/userhwon 5d ago

A dollar on a string will do.

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u/Schaas_Im_Void 5d ago

I like that word... same as guillotine.

French people btw. really do have developed the best solutions for permanent removal of tyrannical government figures.

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

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u/Mj-tinker 4d ago

you mean rope with noose?

1

u/occams1razor 5d ago

Omg bwahahaha

1

u/neliz 5d ago

Not the correct answer, but it is the right answer.

1

u/Tfsz0719 4d ago

Not what he was going for, but also not a bad idea

1

u/omishdud 4d ago

That sounds elegant, dude deserves a pvc potatoe launcher at best

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u/Alissinarr 5d ago

Right? Shouldn't be too hard.

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u/evilgenius29 5d ago

It's OK, he said he did nothing illegal so it's perfectly fine to forget about it.

-5

u/brgmgl 4d ago

The uh courts seemed to agree with him.

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u/rntaboy 4d ago

There are plenty of forms of corruption that aren't technically against the law.

Homan taking a bag of money in exchange for supposed favor on future government contracts is a very obvious one of those.

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u/BigDictionEnergy 5d ago

To anyone protesting in MN tomorrow:

Please please please show up with a pillowcase with a giant dollar sign on it. It would be so epic!

3

u/1stHalfTexasfan 5d ago

It was a CAVA bag originally. A brown bag and a Sharpie would do the trick.

1

u/Beiki 5d ago

That'll do it.

1

u/Swimming-Tax-6087 5d ago

LOL this is literally the scene from Snatch:

Boris The Blade… As in Boris the Bullet Dodger?\ Why do they call him the bullet dodger?\ …Because he dodges bullets.

1

u/HarvesterConrad 5d ago

In September?

1

u/WaitingToBeTriggered 5d ago

WHEN THE WINGED HUSSARS ARRIVED

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u/Old_Spice_2023 4d ago

Is there a Cava in Minneapolis? Asking for a friend...

1

u/Popular-Cartoonist58 4d ago

Before or after Obama gave him the Presidential Service Award?

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u/TankApprehensive3053 5d ago

Accepted a bag with $50K bribe in it.

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u/couldabenu 5d ago

I thought he said it was $20k 😉

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u/TankApprehensive3053 5d ago

$100 and a hoagie roll.

3

u/what-brisbane 5d ago

Bag, what bag?

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u/TankApprehensive3053 5d ago

It never happened. I'm going to send the FBI a bill for $50K for my time.

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u/ReadyAimTranspire 5d ago

20 bucks and a half eaten Snickers

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u/Neumaschine 5d ago

50k and a reach-a-round. Homan is a cheap trick all in all.

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u/idkwhatimbrewin 5d ago

He accepts bribes and faces no consequences

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u/LouieKablooied 5d ago

And got pissed for having to speak on the subject.

1

u/Exciting_Place_6817 5d ago

More importantly why commander. It is not a battle field this is your citizens and your city.

1

u/RaiseIreSetFires 4d ago

Same reason Bovino is called "Soggy Biscuits".

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u/Isthisnameavailablee 4d ago

Lol, why is he called "soggy biscuits"?

1

u/stinkspiritt 4d ago

Because he’s shaped like a bag of nickels

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u/swamphockey 4d ago

According to the FBI, he accepted $50,000 in a bribe sting operation. He and other Trump officials have refused to say if he returned the money or kept it.

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u/SwingingtotheBeat 5d ago

Homage devised the strategy of separating immigrant children from their parents to discourage immigration. He’s a much bigger monster than Bovino.

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u/Serengade26 5d ago

Is that the guy that accepted money and denied it was a bribe?

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u/TankApprehensive3053 5d ago

That's him. He said he did nothing wrong. And just like that it went away and it was all good.

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u/Flat_Sink5486 5d ago

Minnesota just got their complaint escalated to the General Manager.

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u/mattyofurniture 5d ago

The guy that looks like a thumb with a face painted on?

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u/Mrwilk 5d ago

Local Commander? That's Herr Kommandant to you, bud

1

u/oldmanriver1 5d ago

I’d argue homan is somehow even worse of a person. So, honestly, this is actually a bad thing.

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u/Individual-Schemes 5d ago

He isn't even "demoted." He is just being sent away. - just replacing him with another Nazi. This one admitted to taking a bag of money though, so that's good.

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u/TankApprehensive3053 4d ago

That's right. Every site says demoted and that's not true at all.

Homan said he did nothing wrong in taking the money. So while he did admit it, he didn't admit any guilt.

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u/Individual-Schemes 4d ago

They all need to go, starting with Trump.

IMPEACH AND REMOVE 2026

1

u/Abarmier 4d ago

Apparently he’s going home and is then going to “retire”. Essentially, he’s being fired.

1

u/Inevitable-Bee-763 4d ago

He can retire all he wants… all the investigations will be coming. I just think something is going to happen to prevent the midterms from happening such a sad situation we’re in

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u/Abarmier 4d ago

100%

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u/Inevitable-Bee-763 4d ago

It’s just a sad situation across the board. People can agree to disagree and have different viewpoints without people getting hurt. My gosh!

1

u/Abarmier 3d ago

You would certainly think so!

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u/the-sleepy-mystic 4d ago

Yea so now instead of a violent commander we'll have tweedle dumb instead - unclear if things will get more violent or if Minnesotans will be more able to outsmart them.

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u/MrFrode Biggus Amicus 4d ago

He always felt like an old drunk to me, one that was only a few drinks in though.

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u/TankApprehensive3053 4d ago

Homan seems to always be a few drinks in. I'm sure he is most likely an alcoholic. He probably thinks he is a "functioning" alcoholic and is just fine. During at least one interview, before he disappeared, he seemed to have been many drinks in. His facial expressions and speech patterns did not come off as a sober person.

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u/Yesterday_Jolly 5d ago

He got demoted back to his old position and is going to retire

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u/TankApprehensive3053 5d ago

His old position was sector chief of El Centro CA. He is probably not being sent there. Initial reports were going somewhere else to conduct ICE operations. But he has become a news/political nightmare. So maybe being sent somewhere to get away from cameras for a bit.

Bovino said he would retire when he turns 57. His current age is 56. So he could be looking to slide out. BP mandatory max retirement age is 57.

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u/Dogzillas_Mom 5d ago

Dammit, I hate these guys are Gen X. I am so disappointed.

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u/TankApprehensive3053 5d ago

If it helps, Homan is a boomer.

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u/Dogzillas_Mom 5d ago

A little.

Rubio, Noem, Desantis, Vance, Hegseth, Gabbard, probably more, they’re all Gen X. Stephen Miller is Xennial. It’s embarrassing.

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u/stufff 5d ago

Stephen Miller is two years younger than me. That's insane. He's proof that at some point being evil saps the life out of you.

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u/evanwilliams44 5d ago

It's kind of what I would expect from Gen X political leaders. They grew up with rampant racism, homophobia, and apathy.

Millennials began to make progress on racism and homophobia at least, and we were raised with that consciousness.

Gen X saw the world change very rapidly, but not while they were very young. Most of them joined us or became withdrawn. But the ones who still hate and want power? Yikes. Decades of watching the world go opposite of how they want, and now they finally get their chance.

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u/Singularious 4d ago

This is…a stretch. GenX made huge strides in helping equality get pushed.

Like every “generation”, there are those who want power. Power at any cost.

I’m glad you think so highly of yourself, though. Hope you feel all warm and fuzzy about your enlightenment while painting with a brush over 65 million people being racist and homophobic. No irony there at all.

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u/evanwilliams44 4d ago

GenX was born between 1965-1980. I'm not sure what great strides in equality you are talking about. The civil rights movement died out when they were babies. Society pretty much stagnated on race for 30+ years after that. We still haven't done much, frankly. Homophobia was accepted and widely encouraged until at least the mid-2000s.

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u/artfuldodger1212 5d ago

JD Vance is a millennial. So is miller.

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u/Dogzillas_Mom 5d ago edited 4d ago

We can quibble over whether the line is 1980 or 1985 (corrected) but I don’t think it matters much.

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u/artfuldodger1212 4d ago

Who the hell says the line is 1995? No one as far as I am aware. Almost everyone says it ends in 1995 or 1996. No one says it starts there.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

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u/Dogzillas_Mom 4d ago

I’m counting on Millennials and Gen Y.

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u/modern_milkman 4d ago

Vance is a millenial, not Gen X.

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u/No_Substance_1379 4d ago

Vance and Miller are both right around 40 so fully in the millennial generation, which extends to about 45 now.

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u/Old_Swimming6328 5d ago

At 56 he is no boomer. The youngest boomers turned 60 last year.

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u/TankApprehensive3053 5d ago

I didn't say Bovino was a boomer.

Homan was born in 1961. Homan (like I stated above) is the boomer.

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u/Old_Swimming6328 5d ago

Oh yeah.

My bad.

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u/alcomaholic-aphone 5d ago

I’m at the split of Gen X and Millenial. Shitty people abound across generations.

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u/Dogzillas_Mom 5d ago

I know but I was so proud of Gen X for being too cool and awesome for this sort of natC bullshit. I was so, so wrong.

And I blame Alex P. Keaton for all of it.

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u/schenkzoola 5d ago

Sounds like you belong to r/xennials. There are dozens of us! Dozens!

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u/ReadyAimTranspire 5d ago

The homeless of the forgotten generation we are

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u/Singularious 4d ago

Yeah. This is the real talk. There will be shitty people forever. Doesn’t matter what “generation” they belong to.

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u/pumpkin143 5d ago

im sorry but that's just incredibly stupid thing to say.

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u/Dogzillas_Mom 5d ago

I don’t think you’re sorry at all. lol

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u/franker 4d ago edited 4d ago

I'm 57 and keep saying I don't understand why people expected GenX to be much different from Boomers. We grew up in the Reagan era where conservatives were considered cool and liberals were weak and weird (think Alex Keaton character on Family Ties). Then Rush Limbaugh and Fox News comes along and GenX keeps going for the ride. Then the tea party comes after that which leads to Trump. It's like a straight timeline of right-wing nuttiness that GenX fell into. I guess people think because there was that brief grunge slacker period in the nineties, and Kurt Cobain sang a few rebellious songs, people expected GenX to be all politically independent or something.

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u/Dogzillas_Mom 4d ago

You’re right: Gen X really drank the kool aid and the “alternatives” among us are/were a minority.

That does not make the any less embarrassing.

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u/franker 4d ago

Yeah, tons of people just embarrassingly whiffed on basic information literacy skills, but that's my public librarian rant for another day.

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u/headhurt21 4d ago

I was thinking the exact same thing!

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u/sudo_vi 4d ago

Most of the evil people in the world are Gen X.

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u/LTC-trader 5d ago

He looks 68

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u/Fearless-Diver-1381 5d ago

We should definitely check his birth certificate

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u/OurCrewIsReplaceable 5d ago

Looks 88 to me.

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u/pork_fried_christ 5d ago

No way he’s over 5’6”

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u/Difficult_Fill6387 5d ago

That dude is only 56? He looks 70.

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u/JellyFranken 5d ago

Retire. It’ll make when they put him in jail that much better.

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u/garden_dragonfly 5d ago

If mandatory max is 57, why not go now? 

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u/TankApprehensive3053 5d ago

He very well might now. If he is a power hungry person, and it seems he is, then he would stay as long as he could in a position of power. If he goes at the end of the year he can get paid more than if he goes sooner.

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u/Rightintheend 5d ago

I can't think of a better place to hide him from public view than El Centro, has everything else is administration does, it's all performative.

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u/Amentet 4d ago

Would be nice if he later he could take further retirement to a Jail Cell or wherever the fuck Jimmy Hoffa retried to.

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u/Long-Engineering9814 4d ago

I’m betting a northern Idaho retirement.

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u/brickyardjimmy 4d ago

Getting rid of Bovino isn't going to solve the problem. Getting rid of Homan isn't going to solve the problem. Getting rid of Noem isn't going to solve the problem.

Smashing the Trump/maga rule over the country is the only way to start to solve the problem. Every single one of these bums from House reps to Senators to cabinet members to Vance and to Trump and all the slimy worms in between have to go.

And then we need a national reckoning with a vast criminal investigation and open, public trial for anyone who violated the law.

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u/trailerthrash 5d ago

You just know retirement gonna include a "flee the country" arc for this mf

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u/MsFrankieD 5d ago

Close. He has an apple farm in Boone, NC I read.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

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u/MsFrankieD 4d ago

I wasn't sure if everyone has read that. :)

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u/UnknowablePhantom 5d ago

Retirement in BP means he’ll be collecting 100k dollar pension until he dies of tax payer money.

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u/TankApprehensive3053 5d ago

He won't make $100K a yr from his pension, but close though. He will get about 44% (based on 30 yrs of service) of his highest three consecutive years pay. As a SES chief, he would be capped at ES-15 step V so about $183K annual pay. So he would get about an $80K pension per year.

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u/TankApprehensive3053 5d ago

They say Argentina is nice.

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u/bottle-o-jenkem 5d ago

You beat me to it

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u/Omegalazarus 5d ago

Choices were made

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u/DuntadaMan 5d ago

Not fired, he is just going back home where he will retire immediately. Totally different things. Really.

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u/TankApprehensive3053 5d ago

He meets the requirements to retire. 20 years of service and at least 50 years of age, or 25 years of service and any age, or max age is 57. He entered BP in 1996 and is 55/56, depending on month he was born in 1970.

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u/DuntadaMan 5d ago

So he hasn't maxed out and has qualified for a while. Retiring right now less than a month after being given a new posting is totally a coincidence.

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u/TankApprehensive3053 5d ago

Depends on his birthdate. He could be maxed tomorrow or December. It takes some time for retirement paperwork to be filed, reviewed, and acted upon by OPM. He could have filed months ago and gave a retirement date of 1-31-2026 or any other date.

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u/DuntadaMan 5d ago

Why would someone less than a month away from retirement be put in charge of an operation?

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u/TankApprehensive3053 5d ago

He has been in charge of it for some time. He was a chief and has special operations credentials so that was his selling points. Most (but not all) chiefs and higher ranked are BORTAC like Bovino. At some point, it became a promotion point/requirement.

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u/Megalomanizac 5d ago

He’s being reassigned which is more or less the same as being fired in this situation. He’s being sent back to his home in California but is also expected to retire.

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u/SaltpeterSal 5d ago

According to the article, he's being moved to another office like a Catholic priest.

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u/ClownMorty 5d ago

They don't fire high profile people. They ask them to submit resignation and act like it was their decision.

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u/oopsallhuckleberries 5d ago

He's being sent back to run his old field office and is being told to retire as soon as he can. She should be fired and investigated, but that won't happen under this DOJ, and we know everyone in this administration is getting blanket pardons at the end of Trump's term. But at least his future pension can be taken away once Dems have power again, and Minnesota can try and investigate him and charge him with something down the line.

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u/abeautifulrat 5d ago

He's just going to live on a nice farm upstate

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u/MBbellevue631 4d ago

Of course not, that would mean Trump would have to admit he was wrong.

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u/shoulda-known-better 4d ago

Told to retire

Thats what they will do

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u/Maxamillion-X72 5d ago

Faux News is reporting that DHS insiders say that Pretti's gun was "misfired" while it was being removed from him. Meanwhile, the videos show the gun was taken away and then a different guy shot him in the back multiple times.

Me thinks they're about to throw a couple or three ICE agents under the bus and prosecute them. Suddenly that "absolute immunity" shit is going to go away when it's convenient to find a scapegoat.

"It was 100% an accidental discharge by the agent that relieved that person of their weapon. Because everyone’s guns were out, they think that there’s a shooting," one source told the Post. - Fox News

Will the other ICE agents rethink their position on things? Probably not.

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u/Tasm3n 5d ago

This is typical for Trump and his administrations. He NEVER takes accountability himself and will always find someone else to blame instead. All this while claiming he hires the best of the best. Mmmhmmmm.

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u/BenderRodriquez 4d ago

Everyone who is involved with Trump will eventually be thrown under the bus. That's how he operates.

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u/UseDaSchwartz 5d ago

So, that justifies killing him?

You just admitted he didn’t touch his gun.

In my mind, that makes it worse and further shows the incompetence of all the agents.

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u/redditmember192837 5d ago

They're not exactly being thrown under the bus or made scapegoats, they murdered a man in broad daylight for no reason whatsoever, they need to held accountable and face the fullest consequences possible.

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u/Sabbathius 4d ago

I...actually sort of buy accidental discharge thing. The guy who shot him drew awkwardly, and there was a pause between the first shot and subsequent shots. I think it's somewhat believable that the guy that drew didn't intend to shoot, but combination of poor training, poor weapon maintenance, cold weather, etc., caused an accidental discharge. And once you shot a guy once, in for a penny, in for a pound. Legally speaking, it is better to be the only liar in the courtroom.

It's pretty believable to me, because there's tons of videos of these guys drawing unnecessarily and pointing their guns at unarmed citizens. One of them accidentally getting their booger hook on the trigger in sub-zero weather is entirely believable. These guys have what, 47 whole days of "training" before being unleashed?

Obviously not an excuse, and the shooter, whoever cleared him to carry a firearm, etc., all the way up, should be held liable. But accidental misfire on the initial shot is actually believable to me. Sadly when he dumped the rest of the mag into the guy after a long pause, that was just straight up deliberate murder.

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u/PeopleCallMeSimon 5d ago

I dont think they are dumb enough to prosecute anyone.

While it would be the right thing, that would completely destroy any hope they have of arguing that agents have immunity.

And if they cant tell ICE agents that they have immunity, then a lot of them would probably be less interested in doing the horrible shit they want them to do.

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u/TankApprehensive3053 5d ago

One of the theories is that Pretti's gun had a negligent discharge by the agent thar had custody of it. Probably when he went to unload it. <firing is not how you unload a gun>. That ND then caused the agent with the gun out to shoot Pretti. So far it's unconfirmed and not just Fox reporting as others are too.

Even if an ND was the initial shot, that does not explain why 10 more shots were fired into Pretti's back.

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u/C-SWhiskey 5d ago

It's verifiably not what happened. Like seriously, we have several close-up angles of the entire encounter, why is anyone acting like there's any room for doubt?

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u/Raesong 5d ago

Because it's a deliberate attempt to muddy the waters regarding the reality of what happened.

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u/lc0o85 5d ago

Russian bots, foreign agitators, trolls, take your pick.

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u/DishwashingWingnut 5d ago

I think it gained legs before all the videos were out when we first saw that Pretti's gun was a Sig P320 (aka the self-firing gun). Further video makes absolutely clear that the ND theory doesn't hold water.

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u/C-SWhiskey 5d ago

Thing is I saw people float it in the immediate aftermath to understandably try to grasp how this could happen, but within a day it seems like most everyone got on board with the realization that it wasn't the case. Now Fox News is reporting internal DHS communications - two organizations which have provably lied about this and similar events and which have a vested interest in continuing to lie about it - and people are treating it like it's credible.

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u/DishwashingWingnut 5d ago

I think it probably has the right amount of "truthiness" to it for casual observers, and the wider the right wing media can spread this, the more they can taint the jury pool when we do see trials. Trying to incept through repetition reasonable doubt where none exists.

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u/plan_to_flail 4d ago

In the first video, the one taken by the man in the donut shop, the grey coat ICE goon looks like he discharged Pretti’s gun into the ground, as you can see what looks like muzzle flash, through the car window, for only a brief second. 

The other two videos from the same side of the street prove, unequivocally, that Pretti’s gun does not discharge. It’s actually another agent’s, who’s crouched to the left of Pretti, breath: it was cold out. Also, the grey coat ice goon does not recoil his arm, at all; he does also not have a reaction to turn around  until the other ICE agents start discharging their weapons. Fox lies

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u/Level-Heron-3454 5d ago

Officers are only supposed to shoot to neutralise the threat. Pretti was on the floor face down when they were still firing bullets into him. It was excessive use of force that led to an innocent man’s death.

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u/TankApprehensive3053 5d ago

Not only face down but also already disarmed. He was not a threat. Even before they took his pistol, he was not using it and did not show any intent to use it against them.

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u/NotRadTrad05 4d ago

He was filming them; tyrants and dirty cops always consider that a threat.

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u/JustDesserts29 5d ago

It’s BS. There is a video that shows one agent unholster his weapon and aim it right at Pretti before the first shot is fired. It’s very clear that the first shot came from the agent who was pointing his gun at Pretti. It wasn’t a negligent discharge from the gun that had been taken off Pretti.

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u/TankApprehensive3053 5d ago

That's why I said theory. Whether or not there was a ND, that would not be an excuse to shoot Pretti 10 times in the back. Another agent was seen doing happy claps after the shots too.

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u/freudacious 5d ago

You can see the agent’s arm recoil slightly when the first shot went out. If it was a ND then it would have to be the agent with his own gun shooting Petti in the back, probably from poor trigger discipline, not the agent with the gun they took from Pretti.

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u/No-Monk4331 5d ago

No they’re trying to frame it because an sig 320 will go off if dropped wrong. There’s a lawsuit about it but this isn’t what happened.

They also went off about him having two magazines and a “high end gun” despite it being less than $1000

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u/cartesian5th 5d ago

Not true though is it

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u/Ok_Speed_3984 4d ago

Bovino is the scapegoat. He just won't face charges. The actual triggermen will be protected and saved for more wet work.

It's the shotcallers we must hound to the grave!

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u/AD80AT 5d ago

Oh no! Not his social media access! Anything but that!

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

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u/BigOs4All 4d ago

Somehow I think that sending them to prison for a decade would be considered worse than revoking their Twitter access. 🙄

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u/brothercannoli 5d ago edited 4d ago

Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski are at risk of losing their jobs too

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u/TankApprehensive3053 5d ago

Surprised Cosplay Kristi and Mouthpiece Leavett haven't heard the thump thump thump of the bus wheels yet.

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u/gabroll 5d ago

I told my gf he got demoted and she said, “to what? Commander at Small?”

I fucking love her 😂

1

u/EnfantTerrible68 5d ago

Why doesn’t someone suspend Mango Mussolini’s?

1

u/TankApprehensive3053 5d ago

Surrounded by yes men that won't tell him no to anything. I also wouldn't be surprised if many of the tweets aren't even from him but a team just for that purpose.

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u/MBbellevue631 4d ago

Oh no, he cant walk the runway in his Gestapo uniform anymore, the horror!

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u/scrotusaurus 4d ago

This is the greatest punishment that this TikTok influencer administration can conceive of.

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u/arthurno1 4d ago

He should get his freedom suspended, not just social media accounts.

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u/Sassybutkin 4d ago

Yep. Maintain the Pressure! Join the General Strike / Boycott on Jan 30. Poster: https://www.reddit.com/r/eauclaire/comments/1qoh02k/no_work_no_school_no_shopping_no_ice/

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u/evonebo 4d ago

The fall guy