Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche got cornered on Fox News regarding DHS’s messy handling of the shooting death of VA nurse Alex Pretti.
On Monday’s Fox & Friends, Blanche was asked about reports that officials inside the Department of Homeland Security have grown “increasingly uneasy and frustrated” at members of the Trump administration, including DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who have repeatedly branded Pretti a “domestic terrorist.”
“This individual who came with weapons and ammunition to stop a law enforcement operation of federal law enforcement officers committed an act of domestic terrorism,” Noem said at a news conference Saturday. “That’s the facts.”
“When you perpetuate violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and perpetuate violence, that is the definition of domestic terrorism.”
But Blanche struck a more cautious tone on Fox News.
When asked if the actions of Pretti amount to domestic terrorism, he replied: “It’s an investigation, so I’m not going to prejudge what his actions were or were not.”
He later added that, “DHS, Border Patrol, operates in 50 states... There is one city where we see this outrage, one city, and that’s Minneapolis.”
Host Griff Jenkins then pressed Blanche on whether DHS officials may have gone too far in labeling Pretti a domestic terrorist, noting that most viewers and available video don’t support that claim under the legal definition of domestic terrorism (18 U.S. Code 2331), which states that for an act to qualify as domestic terrorism, it must be illegal, dangerous, aimed at influencing people or government policies, and take place in the U.S. Mere violent acts without the intent to coerce or influence policy do not meet the legal definition.
“Look, I don’t think anybody thinks that they were comparing what happened on Saturday to the legal definition of domestic terrorism,” Blanche responded.
He added: “What we saw was a very violent altercation. And I am not going to prejudge the facts. You’re right, there’s a bunch of video that’s out there. There’s a lot of video that we haven’t seen yet in the minutes leading up to what happened and what happened afterwards. And you’re right, to the extent there’s bodycam or other videos that witnesses are still providing to us. So I’m not describing it as anything except for a tragedy.”
On Jan. 24, 2026, 37‑year‑old Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse and U.S. citizen, was fatally shot by federal immigration agents during an enforcement operation in Minneapolis. DHS officials initially said Pretti approached officers with a handgun and resisted violently, justifying the use of force.
However, bystander video and multiple witness accounts appear to contradict that narrative. Footage widely circulated and verified by major outlets shows Pretti holding a mobile phone, not a weapon, and trying to assist or film other protesters when a Border Patrol agent pepper‑sprayed him, multiple officers tackled him, and a total of 10 shots were fired.
Some video analysis suggests an agent may have removed a firearm from Pretti’s waistband just before shots were fired, but no released video shows him brandishing or threatening with a gun.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara confirmed in a news conference that Pretti was a “lawful gun owner.”
The incident, which came amid broader federal immigration enforcement actions in the city, has sparked protests, political criticism, and calls for an independent investigation, with local leaders and Pretti’s family members disputing the federal account and questioning the use of force.
But Blanche’s comments to Fox News mark a departure from his remarks to NBC News over the weekend, when he suggested Pretti was impeding federal officers when he was thrown to the ground, beaten, and then shot dead.
“There was an isolated arrest effort yesterday to arrest somebody that did not belong in this country,” Blanche told Meet the Press host Kristen Welker. “He’s here illegally, and he’s a convicted felon. ICE should be able to do that with cooperation and support, not with what we saw happening yesterday.”
Blanche also alleged that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey—both Democrats, who denied that the Border Patrol agents fired in self-defense—had lied about the circumstances surrounding Pretti’s death.
Blanche refused to condemn the conduct of the agents who physically subdued, punched, and then murdered Pretti.
“We will do everything that we need to do to protect the men and women of ICE when the state and local government refuse to do so,” he told Welker.
