Qualified Liar, Absolute Nonsense
At a White House press briefing, JD Vance claimed that the ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Nicole Good is “protected by absolute immunity” because he was acting as a federal law enforcement official carrying out his duties. He said: “You have a federal law enforcement official engaging in federal law enforcement action — that’s a federal issue. He is protected by absolute immunity. He was doing his job.” First of all, what he is describing sounds more like qualified immunity ( I know this from all the years I spent watching L.A. Law ), and JD Vance has a law degree from Yale , so he has necessarily been exposed to the concept and should therefore know this to be false . He framed his statement to mean that a state prosecution attempting to hold the agent accountable under Minnesota law would be inappropriate. Federal agents do not have absolute immunity from state criminal prosecution. Further, while everyone is conc...