Some of President Donald Trump's top aides spent the weekend spreading despicably dishonest smears about the latest American to be killed in his invasion of Minnesota.

But Attorney General Pam Bondi tried a different approach: She wrote a ransom note.

Attorneys for the state of Minnesota, while asking a judge on Jan. 26 to end the violence and chaos created by invading federal immigration agents, took issue with what they called the "ransom note" that Bondi sent to Gov. Tim Walz on Jan. 24.

Bondi's three-page letter used standard Team Trump rhetoric, an inversion of logic that claims that all the problems caused by the invasion are the fault of state officials, and that the real victims here are the agents from Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who have been roughing up people for shooting video of them roughing up people.

But Bondi's letter, which landed in the hours after a Border Patrol agent shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, also included a three-point Trump wish list, which she called "common sense solutions." She asked for the state's voter rolls, records from Medicaid and Food and Nutrition Service programs, and an end to local sanctuary policies.

The attorney general's letter doesn't expressly offer a pullback on the invasion if Minnesota plays ball. But it's easy to read between the lines.

Walz, speaking on Jan. 25, said Bondi's letter was "not a serious attempt" to........

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