Families of Boat Strike Victims Sue Trump Admin for Murder

The Trump administration is being sued by the families of two people killed in U.S. military boat strikes.

Civil rights attorneys filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts federal court on behalf of the families of Chad Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, 41, both of Las Cuevas, Trinidad. Both were killed in a U.S. military strike on October 14. The lawsuit was filed under admiralty law by Lenore Burnley, Joseph’s mother, and Sallycar Korasingh, Samaroo’s sister, and alleges that the U.S. bombing campaign in the southern hemisphere is illegal.

“These premeditated and intentional killings lack any plausible legal justification,” the lawsuit states. “Thus, they were simply murder, ordered at the highest levels of government and obeyed by military officers in the chain of command.”

The families are represented by the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Seton Hall University in the first federal lawsuit filed over the strikes. Their lawyers echo concerns made by legal scholars and members of Congress that the bombings may constitute war crimes.

“This is uncharted water. Never before in the country’s history has the government asserted this type [of] power,” Seton Hall law school professor Jonathan Hafetz told The Guardian. “This is a clear example of unlawful killing by the United States. The U.S. is assuming the prerogative to kill victims in international waters.”

The October 14 bombing in the Caribbean was the fifth such strike by the U.S. Since then, the Trump administration has launched 31 more, including one on Friday in the eastern Pacific Ocean that killed two people. The government claims that they are targeting drug cartels and stopping drugs like fentanyl from making their way into the United States. The families of Joseph and Samaroo assert that the pair were fishermen who were arbitrarily targeted.

“This is killing for sport, it’s killing for theater and it’s utterly lawless,” said Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. “We need a court of law to rein in this administration and provide some accountability to the families.”

Melania Trump’s new documentary, Melania, is looking like an opening-week box office flop—after Amazon’s MGM studios paid tens of millions of dollars for the rights to it.

The documentary detailing the first lady’s return to the White House is projected to make just $1 million in its first week. While documentaries generally do worse at the box office, the sheer amount of money Amazon spent—$40 million for the rights, $35 million for an aggressive marketing blitz—and the constant stream of Truth Social posts from President Trump make this a particularly pitiful showing.

Melania’s early failure comes as a new report from Rolling Stone details serious labor issues behind the scenes and a whopping two-thirds of the film’s staff requesting not to be credited at the end of the film. Director Brett Ratner, who made headlines after six women accused him of sexual assault and harassment during the #MeToo movement in 2017, was perhaps the most loathed person on set. (Actress Natasha Henstridge alleged that Ratner forced her to perform oral sex on him when she was 19, Olivia Munn claimed that Ratner masturbated in front of her, and more recently, he was pictured shirtless in the Epstein files.)

“I feel a little bit uncomfortable with the propaganda element of this,” one crew member shared, “but Brett Ratner was the worst part of working on this project.”

“He did actually chew a piece of gum and throw it in a coffee cup on my cart,” a staff member told Rolling Stone, [but] “didn’t acknowledge my existence for even one nanosecond.”

Another member recalled a day when Ratner feasted on his own meal in a set space where food was not allowed, on a day when no one else on the crew got a break to eat.

“Brett, unknowingly or maliciously, got his own food, went up there, was just eating it and just licking his fingers in grubbiest way possible, either being a dick or [having] no awareness whatsoever to the fact that everybody else is working and no one’s eating,” a staffer said.

“Unfortunately, if [the film] does flop … I would really feel great about it,” said another.

Melania herself is pocketing $28 million from the licensing sale. She and President Trump plan to attend a premiere of the documentary at the Kennedy Center on Thursday.

The president’s favorite TV network still has some sway with the Oval Office.

On Monday morning, Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade floated a novel idea on air: Solve the collapsing environment in Minnesota by introducing border czar Tom Homan into the situation. Kilmeade mentioned the idea at 6:15 a.m., again an hour later, and then a third time at 8:10 a.m.

As CNN’s Brian Stelter put it, “Maybe Trump was watching, maybe he wasn’t,” but just 20 minutes after Kilmeade’s third suggestion, Donald Trump followed his advice and announced Homan’s imminent involvement in the North Star State. Shortly afterward, it appeared that Customs and Border Protection boss Greg Bovino—who had until Monday overseen Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CBP activity in Minnesota—was getting the shove.

Homan’s inclusion appears to be a Hail Mary by the White House to salvage a highly advertised immigration crackdown that has turned sour for even the most conservative of Republicans.

The GOP has balked at the national backlash to ICE’s violence in Minnesota, which so far has involved the senseless killing of two U.S. citizens: Veterans Affairs ICU nurse Alex Pretti and award-winning poet Renee Nicole Good.

In the aftermath of their deaths, thousands of Americans have taken to the streets in protest. Trump’s job score has nosedived, hitting a net approval of -19 percent. In an attempt to pivot ahead of midterms, Trump is headed to Iowa Tuesday to reframe his administration’s priorities. Suddenly, the word of the day is affordability, with the president set to give a speech on energy and the economy while the White House decides what to do with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The country, by all means, appears fed up with the reality of Trump’s immigration agenda, which has thus far deported people from the United States without due process, ripped children from their parents, and ushered thousands of untrained ICE agents into cities and neighborhoods where they are not wanted. A CBS News poll published days before agents killed Pretti found that 61 percent of surveyed Americans felt that ICE agents were “too tough” when stopping and detaining people.

On air, Kilmeade implored Trump to display calm leadership, reading aloud an editorial in the New York Post (another Rupert Murdoch–owned entity) positing that the American left will utilize the situation in Minneapolis to instigate a “civil war.”

“The bottom line is, these images are not the ones that are going to help you keep the majorities,” Kilmeade said Monday.

Following the killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents over the weekend, the cell phone Pretti was holding moments before his death has disappeared into federal custody.

The New York Times reports that the FBI initially collected evidence from the shooting, including Pretti’s handgun and phone, but has turned over that evidence to Homeland Security Investigations, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, which is now handling the investigation into Pretti’s death.

Pretti’s family told the Associated Press Monday that they have no idea where the phone is, and his father, Michael Pretti, said they have yet to be contacted by federal law enforcement. But perhaps most troubling, officials told CBS News that there was no documented chain of custody for Pretti’s gun, raising the question of whether evidence has been improperly handled (or footage erased). The Department of Homeland Security has refused to publicly confirm whether it has the video he was recording.

Minnesota state authorities were denied access to the crime scene, despite obtaining a judge’s warrant. The state even had to obtain a temporary restraining order to stop the federal government from altering or destroying evidence, which the Trump administration shockingly is trying to overturn.

“We’ve never had to do anything like this before,” said Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, adding that the situation was “uncharted territory.”

All of this raises the question as to whether the investigation into Pretti’s death will be anything close to fair and independent. Border Patrol is part of DHS, so essentially the department is investigating itself, and the Trump administration isn’t exactly known for accepting negative rulings or restrictions.

Customs and Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Greg Bovino may be on his way out after delivering a full-throated defense for killing a U.S. citizen in broad daylight.

Bovino has reportedly been removed from his position as commander-at-large. He will depart Minnesota for his previous post as a border official in El Centro, California, where he is expected to retire shortly afterward, The Atlantic reported Monday night.

The Department of Homeland Security reportedly suspended Bovino’s access to his social media accounts, after he spent most of Sunday responding to people calling out his outlandish claims about Alex Pretti.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin claimed Monday night that Bovino had “NOT been relieved of his duties,” in a post on X. But several people pointed out that she did not deny the bulk of the reporting regarding his departure from the organization.

Bovino thoroughly made a mess of the Trump administration’s P.R. response to the latest killing by a federal agent, baselessly claiming that Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, had intended to harm CBP officers. He also praised his agents, who shot Pretti at least 10 times as he was pinned to the ground, for killing him.

Speaking to CNN’s Dana Bash Sunday, Bovino backed up Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s outrageous claim that Pretti had “brandished” a weapon at a group of officers. Video of the incident showed that he had been filming officers with his cell phone and tried to help a fellow protester who had been pepper-sprayed.

Donald Trump reportedly complained that Bovino and Noem had appeared too “callous” in their television appearances Sunday, which motivated the president to send “border czar” Tom Homan to Minnesota to do damage control.

“[Bovino]’s a cowboy, and it was a mess. It was only escalation, and no one was going to back down,” a source familiar with the operations told Axios. “Homan going is a good thing. Someone needed to step in.”