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Soon: Key Hearing Over Evidence In Alex Pretti Shooting; WH: DHS & FBI Actively Investigating Minneapolis Shooting As CBP Conducts Internal Review; WH Says Trump Backs Americans' Right To Carry Guns, Despite Blaming Pretti For Possessing A Firearm; Gold Tops $5,000 as Concerns Over Trump Upending Global Order Drive Historic Rally. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired January 26, 2026 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Defiant White House: The Trump administration defending its response to the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. The border czar Tom Homan is now on his way to take over the operation in that city.

And Frigid Temperatures: Ice and snow, and thousands of people without power, possibly without heat for what could be weeks.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

We are following breaking news on the shooting death of Alex Pretti during an encounter with federal agents in Minneapolis. And any minute, a hearing is expected to begin as local officials in Hennepin County are trying to prevent the Trump administration from any destruction or alteration of any evidence that was collected from the scene.

The hearing is happening as several videos of Pretti's killing directly contradict what Trump administration officials have said happened here. The White House just a short time ago saying several investigations of the shooting are now underway, including by DHS, the FBI and the -- and the Border Patrol.

But leaders of these agencies have already publicly blamed Pretti. President Trump's border czar Tom Homan is heading to Minneapolis tonight. CNN's Anderson Cooper is there.

And Anderson, there are calls for an independent investigator to intervene, as we're also learning more about the body cameras some of the agents were wearing during this encounter.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR, "ANDERSON COOPER 360": Yes, Brianna, we're learning that investigators have interviewed the agents involved in the Alex Pretti shooting. These are federal investigators. The senior Department of Homeland Security officials tell CNN they are now reviewing footage from the body cameras of several officers. But again, there is a lot of suspicion.

I want to bring in CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller with me right now.

I mean, John, you talk to people here. There's a lot of doubt among many in the streets around here in Minneapolis about any investigation that the Border Patrol or the Department of Homeland Security is going to be conducting on itself and on its own agents. What more are you learning? How much confidence do you think anyone should have in that sort of investigation if state investigators are not involved?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, I think that's going to be a real problem, Anderson. I mean, the way this would normally unfold would be yes, HSI might assist Border Patrol in an investigation as a -- as a outside entity, but still within the same agency. The FBI would be investigating it, because it's a shooting by another federal entity.

But normally this would be something where the Department of Justice would step up on the level of the Attorney General and say, we are directing the investigation from the Civil Rights Division to determine if the civil rights of the person who was killed were violated. We're conducting an internal review as to the shootings.

We're not quite hearing anything like that. What we've heard is a story that has already been discounted about how it unfolded and one that federal authorities have done very little to readjust, even though more information is out there. And we've heard about internal investigations and investigations, but not one supervised by prosecutors.

COOPER: Well, also, I mean, among many people, obviously, the Department of Justice certainly has shown itself to be closely aligned. I mean, certainly the Attorney General is -- is closely aligned with -- with the President and that Civil Rights Division. Many of the long-term serving prosecutors in the Civil Rights Division have left.

MILLER: Well, and I mean, if you just look back on the Renee Good case, which is not that long ago, we're talking a couple of weeks, the supervising FBI agent who originally opened the investigation into that, which would have probed whether the shooting had a legal basis, basically resigned on the idea that this investigation was not going to happen.

[15:05:12]

So, you're correct. And one way to potentially solve that would be to take the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which has its own police shooting -- officer involved shooting investigative unit, a specialized team. This is what they do. And to bring them into the federal investigation and say, we will now do this as a parallel, it would give you an outside independent entity that could at least sign off on the fact that there was a legitimate investigation, so far still resistance to that. One cue here, though, Anderson, is sending Tom Homan out to

Minneapolis, the border czar, when you already have Greg Bovino on the ground in charge of their ground forces. Tom has been better at creating relationships with law enforcement, even in contentious environments. It may be a sign that they want to tamp some of that dissatisfaction and friction down.

As you know, the IACP, International Association of Chiefs of Police, released a press release, very unusual, on a Saturday night to say that they demanded a meeting with the White House to find a constructive path forward in a way to get local law enforcement to be dealing with their federal law enforcement counterparts again. So, we're seeing those fractures.

COOPER: And we're going to be talking to the president of -- of that group coming up.

When it comes to preserving evidence, how should that be handled right now? Because, I mean, whether it's the body cams that -- that a few of these agents apparently had, the cell phone camera that -- that Alex Pretti was using, which no one has seen that video, how should it be handled right now?

MILLER: Well, this has been a real challenge. Whether it's the Renee Good case or the Alex Pretti case, what you have is a crime scene where they lost control of the crime scene almost immediately. Now part of that is because crowds showed up and, you know, DHS agents became the target of that.

COOPER: (INAUDIBLE) ...

MILLER: It's also because police showed up ...

COOPER: John, I do want to point out that -- so, I do want to point out that -- that some people in the administration have been blaming local officials for that, saying that -- that they lost control of the scene, that protesters essentially came to the scene and ...

MILLER: Yes.

COOPER: ... and -- and took it over. What do you make of that?

MILLER: You can't have it both ways, which is when local law enforcement gets to the scene and federal authorities deny them access, you're already losing the integrity of that crime scene. And then, when the federal authorities decide we have to pull out and you don't know what evidence have they collected. Have they recovered all of the shell casings? Is there one that's, you know, buried beneath the snow?

Have they -- the way a shooting like this should be done is a shooting team, like the one that the state has, should show up. They should get their equipment there. They should document every single piece of physical evidence. They should immediately download all body cameras that were present. And we understand there may have been at least two there. They should be able to contain that crime scene as pristine and work on it for as many hours as possible.

And in both of these things, we didn't really see that happen. And it's going to make any -- any investigation, whether the state does it -- its own or where the federal agents try to pull one together, more difficult and less reliable.

COOPER: Yes, John Miller, I appreciate it. We'll talk to you throughout the day. Brianna.

KEILAR: Anderson, thank you.

And let's turn now to Ankush Khardori, a former federal prosecutor is now senior writer at Politico magazine. Ankush, what are you watching for in this upcoming hearing over evidence in the shooting death of Alex Pretti?

ANKUSH KHARDORI, SENIOR WRITER, POLITICO MAGAZINE: Well, you know, I'm interested in the posture that the Justice Department takes in the hearing and what the tone is, quite honestly. I mean, this litigation should not even exist. There should not be a need for Minnesota authorities to have filed this case. I totally understand why they did, to be clear, but this should not be a situation where they have to ask a court to ensure that the federal government is preserving evidence because of the extraordinary number of irregularities over the last 48 hours alone concerning the federal government's investigation here.

And one of the things that struck me about the government's response to the plaintiffs here was not just that they said, oh, you know, we're doing this ourselves. We're preserving the evidence, so don't worry about it, which is normal, but said, look, by the way, you can't impose an injunction because then that would put the courts in charge of supervising our conduct and potentially even the plaintiffs in charge of supervising our conduct.

Now that happens all the time in federal litigation against the government. None -- none of it surprising.

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So, it seems to me that we have the government here taking not only just another gratuitous provision -- position where they are just insistent that nobody, whether it's state authorities or even the federal courts, can stand in their way.

KEILAR: There -- this is one of two key hearings today in the hearing this morning in the state's -- state government's pursuit of a restraining order to stop this surge, this immigration enforcement surge. Federal Judge Katherine Menendez said that she was, quote, "having a hard time." That's how she put it. She was having a hard time determining how she'd have the authority to roll the surge back.

She said in part, she thinks it, quote, "goes without saying that we are in shockingly unusual times. I don't know that that gives me greater license to craft a remedy in the 10th Amendment." Walk us through the questions that she's raising here. KHARDORI: Look, this is a very tricky situation because it's the

federal government trying to enforce federal law or they claim enforcing federal law in the state. So, as a general matter, they do, of course, have the authority to do that. And they are not entitled to, quote-unquote, "commandeer" state governments in service of federal law enforcement priorities. And that is a phrase that -- is a legal term of order.

It refers to these prohibitions on the federal governments to effectively coerce and to convert state governments into instruments of the federal government. So, it's a Tenth Amendment question and a -- a related sort of anti-commandeering question. And these are very difficult claims for state governments to win against the federal government for obvious reasons. And that -- you can see why the judge would struggle with this because this is an area of federal law where generally speaking, the federal government's authority is considered to sort of be at its peak, right? Because it concerns immigration in states at a much lower level.

So, the balance between, you know, where the federal government's authority stops and where the state government's begins or what the proper spheres are, again, is an -- is an area that -- that is extraordinarily difficult. And I would just say, you know, again, this is a dispute that does not need to happen, it does not need to have occurred. We don't need to be here. The federal government, the White House, the Trump administration in particular, have created this situation gratuitously.

So, the judge is struggling. But the real resolution here is for the federal government and the White House to pull back. That would just stop all of this.

KEILAR: I want to listen to something Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Fox and Friends this morning. Here's part of it.

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TODD BLANCHE, DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: Look, we're -- we'll -- we'll be in court today. There's an ongoing investigation, as -- as we've said, all weekend. And obviously, we're not destroying evidence. And so, to the extent that -- that the -- the state of Minnesota wants to make this a show and -- and -- and go in front of a judge to -- to insist that we do something we're absolutely not ever going to do, we'll be there.

But this was a -- a tragic, a tragic situation that happened. And -- and the fact that -- that now we're going to go to court to -- to say exactly what we're doing, which is, of course, we're investigating, we always investigate any conduct like this, any shooting like this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Of course, there's a difference between an internal investigation and a potential criminal investigation. What do you hear and what the deputy AG is saying there? KHARDORI: I thought it was a remarkable statement on it as well as his

appearance over the weekend. The federal government has forfeited all of its credibility on this subject yet again. The most senior officials in the government, Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller, Greg Bovino were all out lying about the facts with the video showed smearing the victim here. And so, you know, for Todd Blanche to be indignant about how the state is treating him and the Justice Department is totally backwards.

And by the way, one of the things that you didn't get to in that clip was another thing he's been saying is that we all need to take a step back from the death of this poor man over the weekend and consider the fact that the real perpetrators here, the real wrongdoers here are the state and local governments who haven't been helping the federal government enough. This is inane and is obnoxious and offensive.

He knows, he has to know that that is a ridiculous claim. And it sounds like something that was spun up by Stephen Miller to get him through his interviews. So, I don't know, you know, Todd Blanche is making this worse. They've tried to send him out to be sort of maybe the respectable voice. He is not the respectable voice on this. He too, like Pam Bondi, serves at the direction of Trump. And over the last year, they have made very, very clear that they will not deviate from Trump once.

So, in terms of the credibility of any federal investigation or questions about who's preserving the evidence, I agree with everyone who is skeptical. The government doesn't have any credibility here. And I would have no reliability in any federal investigation at this point. No one should.

KEILAR: Yes, there is that talking point where they are pivoting to blame local and state officials. We just heard it from the White House press briefing.

Ankush Khardori, thanks so much for being with us.

KHARDORI: Thank you.

KEILAR: And still to come, we're going to follow -- we're going to continue to follow this breaking news out of Minnesota and look at what the video is telling us about the second fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen in this immigration operation.

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And later, it's very, very cold outside for millions of Americans. And that's a crisis for thousands who are -- without power at this point. In some cases, they don't have heat. We have that and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL?

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KEILAR: Today, the White House is responding to fallout after President Trump and other officials questioned why Alex Pretti, a lawful gun owner, was carrying a firearm before he was shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis. Listen.

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KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There has been no greater supporter or defender of the right to bear arms than President Donald J. Trump. So, while Americans have a constitutional right to bear arms, Americans do not have a constitutional right to impede lawful immigration enforcement operations and any gun owner knows that when you are carrying a weapon when you are bearing arms and you are confronted by law enforcement you are raising the assumption of risk and the -- the risk of -- of force being used against you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN's Tom Foreman is with us on this.

And Tom, the White House continues to blame Alex Pretti for sort of, I think, inviting this altercation that led to his death but a new CNN analysis of video is really important here, what are you seeing?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is well -- and just -- this is not video, it's a still photo, the -- the thing they released almost immediately of the gun that he had at the scene and they started saying, look, he was armed, he was brandishing a weapon he was threatening people. We're going to get to in a minute how that is simply not the case and yet this is what's exciting a lot of the gun rights groups out there.

They're saying you are clearly and she still is implying the fact that you were carrying it somehow makes you responsible for the risk of just being there with it, even if you do nothing with it, so that's one of the problems are running into on that front.

KEILAR: What is the video showing in the run-up to the shooting?

FOREMAN: In the run-up to it, there are several things. First of all, they said we've heard this whole thing about how he was brandishing a weapon. Here he is coming in on the left here. Look, he's got a phone. This hand up here. Those hands never, never in any of the videos we see have a weapon in them at any point of time. So, this brandishing a weapon thing is being put to the lie by simply watching the video that we see here.

Beyond that, there's this notion that he was coming at the officers. Take a look at this video. He starts moving away when he sees this woman being attacked over here. He moves to help this woman out and look the officers come in and they engage with him. We can see it a little bit closer on this one.

Look at this, they come in and shove her. He's trying to go help her with his hands up they engage him and they're dragging him back. So, again, they're saying, oh, he's the aggressor. He was impeding. He was trying to get in their way. He's a nurse trying to help a woman who's just been pushed to the ground and pepper-sprayed, that's what was going on at that point.

KEILAR: And what does the video show right at the moment of the shooting.

FOREMAN: This is really the critical point. I know you've talked about it, but it -- it's worth watching over and over again to truly follow. Take a look at this, here he's being pulled back by the group here. And I want you to watch this man right here, because as Alex Pretti's put in a sort of a down-facing fetal position he reaches in with an empty hand and he comes back in just a moment there's Alex Pretti down here, he comes back and he moves away and I want you to see it from a different angle, this is the other angle of that.

He comes back and pulls away and there's the gun and the shooting happens about a second after he does this, not before, after what looks like the gun. Maybe that's not the case but they presented no evidence to the contrary they just keep saying this is his fault. This is Tim Walz's fault. This is everybody's fault, except these officers who chased him down and dragged him back.

KEILAR: And while he's lying on the ground, Alex Pretti already shot. There are more shots.

FOREMAN: Ten times. It's a lot of shooting.

KEILAR: Total.

FOREMAN: A lot of shooting, no gun on him at the time as far as any evidence we've seen.

KEILAR: Tom Foreman, thanks for taking us through that.

FOREMAN: You're welcome.

Still to come, a record high price for gold could mean some very worried investors hedging their bets. We'll discuss why they're worried next.

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KEILAR: A bit of a gold rush is underway. Prices for the precious metal hitting a new record high as investors remain skittish over numerous market destabilizing moves by President Trump and gold is usually seen as a safe haven asset during uncertain times. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is with us now.

All right, what's driving this?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS & POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, just look at these prices, Brianna. You're looking at gold for the first time crossing $5,000 an ounce and you're talking about a small piece of gold that's less than two inches by one inch, then even look at the price of silver coming off the high of today which was trading around $117. But if you look back even just to December it was $73 an ounce. So, really, really increasing prices just over the last few weeks, because of what you mentioned. Here's what's behind the surge for both gold and silver, geopolitical tensions. This is everything from the President mentioning that he wants to acquire Greenland. This is U.S. military involvement in Venezuela. This is ratcheting up of a trade -- trade war of which we heard President Trump threaten a hundred percent tariff on Canada just this weekend.

So, you have investors getting nervous so they start to move their money into these safe havens or shore bets like gold and silver. And then, if you start to look at where the dollar is sitting right now, it is a bit weaker so why move money into a weakened asset instead of an asset which is hitting record prices like gold and silver and then obviously persistent inflation in many ways just weakens the buying power of the dollar.

So, investors looking at all of this looking at those record prices for gold and silver and saying that is a better move for me right now, Brianna.

KEILAR: So, how high could prices go?

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YURKEVICH: Well, according to Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, they're estimating that in 2026, this year alone, prices could go anywhere from $5,400 an ounce to $6,000 an ounce.