Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot got the call earlier this week from a fellow prosecutor halfway across the country. The man on the other end wanted to know: Would Creuzot join a small group of other law enforcers looking to hold federal agents accountable if they break state law?
Once upon a time, say, 13 months ago, that would have sounded like a ludicrous, unnecessary ask.
But 37-year-old Renee Good of Minneapolis is dead, shot three times, including once in the head, by an agent of the federal government that claimed, despite video evidence to the contrary, he was acting in self-defense as she tried to drive away. And 37-year-old Alex Pretti is dead, shot 10 times by agents of the same government that claimed, despite copious video evidence to the contrary, that the ICU nurse in the Minneapolis VA Health Care System posed a threat.
“It’s like there’s a break in reality,” Creuzot told me Wednesday morning. “What’s being said is not reflective of what we saw. As a citizen, it’s disappointing. As a prosecutor and a lawyer, it’s unacceptable that a branch of our government creates a different set of facts about what’s very obvious. Administration officials are rewriting what we’re looking at, calling these people terrorists, insisting this was justified.”
From 1,000 miles away, he said, “that’s what gave me concern.” It all seems so … “surreal,” Creuzot said after a beat.
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No one has been charged, arrested or held to account for those deaths, nor others involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, whether in the streets or detention centers across the country. At most, the agents involved in Pretti’s killing have been placed on administrative leave. And federal agencies have blocked local investigators in Minnesota from reviewing evidence.
A photo of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, who was fatally shot by a U.S. Border Patrol officer over the weekend, is displayed at the shooting scene Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
Adam Gray / AP
All the while, Minneapolis continues to look and sound like a city under siege by its own government – a place where “there were bloody footprints where mercy should have stood,” as Bruce Springsteen wrote last week.
So, yes. After doing his due diligence, finding out the names of the other prosecutors involved, among them Minneapolis’ DA, Mary Moriarty, and ensuring the money they raised would go toward prosecutions and not campaigns, the Dallas County DA signed on to the project labeled Fight Against Federal Overreach.
Or, as the founders call it, FAFO. Which is short for … well, you really should know by now.
Nine prosecutors initially signed on to the effort, which was revealed Tuesday in a news release and introduced Wednesday morning in a news conference led by Larry Krasner, Philadelphia’s prosecutor. Several of the prosecutors are from Virgina; only one other, José Garza of Travis County, hails from Texas.
José Garza, the Travis County District Attorney, is the only other Texas prosecutor, along with Dallas’ John Creuzot, to sign up for the Project for the Fight Against Federal Overreach.
Project for the Fight Against Federal Overreach
I asked Creuzot if he was hesitant about signing in the midst of a re-election campaign, if he was worried his opponent in the Democratic primary, former Dallas County District Judge Amber Givens, might try to make an issue of the local prosecutor getting out of his lane.
“No, I am not worried about it,” he said, quickly. “Because it’s the right thing to do. I am not concerned about someone else’s opinion about what is the right thing to do.”
The group came together quickly, spurred not just by the cases of Good and Pretti, the news release said, but by “growing concerns about warrantless entries, unlawful detentions, and coercive enforcement tactics by federal agents.” During Wednesday’s press conference, prosecutors from Virginia to Arizona, Texas to Pennsylvania spoke of their commitment to law and order, lamented the “beatings, abductions and killings of everyday American citizens” and warned of the fall of democracy when the vice president goes on television to tell federal agents they have absolute immunity.
“We can all agree we’re in some bad times right now,” said Steve Descano, the elected prosecutor in Virginia’s Fairfax County Commonwealth and an Army veteran, “because we have a federal government deploying masked agents to occupy American cities with the explicit guarantee they have full immunity.”
It should come as little surprise that Krasner wanted Creuzot, who brought felony aggravated assault charges against Dallas police officers who used “less-lethal” ammo against people protesting the murder of George Floyd in 2020. The DA, too, has a Public Integrity Unit, whose duties include investigating officer-involved shootings.
Protesters gathered earlier this month in front of the Minnesota State Capitol in response to the death of Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/John Locher)
John Locher / AP
“Ours was the only district attorney’s office in the United States that successfully prosecuted officers who shot or wounded peaceful protestors during the end of May and June 2020,” Creuzot said. “We have the experience, and it doesn’t come with a lot of cooperation, though I am proud of our police chiefs and the accountability they hold for their officers. We have a great group who wants to do the right thing, but that doesn’t mean everyone does, especially when it’s their friend they ride with, eat with, socialize with. That’s normal human behavior.”
Seeing as how the group of prosecutors won’t hold its first formal meeting until February, there’s still much to work out. For now, members said Wednesday, it’s about sharing best practices, banding together resources, offering experts and advice, raising money to help smaller counties take on the well-funded federal government.
And, Creuzot said, it’s also about reminding federal agents that despite what they’ve heard from Washington, D.C., “you do not have absolute immunity.”
I suggested that all of this felt more symbolic than anything. Creuzot pushed back, insisting that locals tell him they’re “sick and tired of what’s going on in this country – it’s the dominant theme, really, federal overreach. So lending my name, which might be of assistance to others, is a good thing. But I think it also reflects the value of the people I’ve been talking to here in this community.
“I hope this never comes to Dallas,” he said. “There’s nothing inside my soul that says I am champing at the bit to do this. I hope it stops everywhere and that it never comes here. That’s the desire of my soul.”