D.C. Memo: Congress wades into the Trooper Londregan case

WASHINGTON — Congress this week jumped into the controversy surrounding the prosecution of trooper Ryan Londregan, who was charged with murder, manslaughter and assault in the death of Ricky Cobb II at a traffic stop.

Rep. Michelle Fischbach, R-7^th District, announced that Minnesota’s GOP members of Congress will ask the House Judiciary Committee to investigate the conduct of Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, who brought charges against Londregan for Cobb’s shooting death.

The lawmakers also want Moriarty to be removed from the case.

Moriarty is under fire for allegations she ignored a use-of-force expert’s assessment that the trooper acted as a “reasonable officer” would be expected to in the situation.

Minnesota law bars law enforcement officers from using deadly force to prevent a motorist from fleeing, as Cobb was accused of trying to do. The law only allows deadly force to be used if it would prevent serious bodily harm or death.

Fischbach, along with Reps.  Tom Emmer, Brad Finstad and Pete Stauber, have written to Gov. Tim Walz, expressing their “outrage” at Londregan’s continued prosecution and informing the governor of the effort to hold a congressional hearing on the case.

“Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty has weaponized her position against law enforcement,” the lawmakers wrote. “She ignored an independent use-of-force expert chosen by her own office, who stated that Trooper Londregan acted as a “reasonable officer” would have.

The lawmakers also said that Londregan’s continued prosecution “can lead us to only one conclusion; this prosecution is politically motivated.”

Walz seemed to question Moriarty’s handling of the case during a press conference this week.

“As a layman on this, why would you not listen to use-of-force?” the governor asked. “Why would that not be central to something you do? And I will say if there are allegations at this time, release documents and let us know.”

Moriarty has said she based the charges on evidence revealed during a grand jury and on other information and evidence.  

The state’s Republican lawmakers are not the only ones weighing in on the case that has become extremely politicized.  

Rep. Angie Craig, D-2^nd District, issued a statement this week that said, after hearing from constituents, “it’s clear to me that it’s time for state leaders to take over or reassign the Trooper Londregan case from the Hennepin County Attorney’s office.”

“Minnesotans deserve to have confidence in our state’s criminal justice process, and recent disclosures in this case have seriously damaged that process,” Craig said. “This action would help restore public confidence and ensure an objective review of the case is completed.”

GOP embraces a political third rail

Every once in a while, almost like clockwork, House Republicans propose an unpopular and politically risky plan to shore up the Social Security program and it happened again this week.

The latest GOP plan involves raising the Social Security retirement age. Currently, Americans are eligible for Social Security at age 62 and the full retirement age for those who were born after 1960 is 67.

But that would be changed in a budget released this week by the House Republican Study Committee (RSC), an influential and very large group of House Republicans that counts every Minnesota GOP lawmaker among its members.

The budget proposes “modest adjustments to the retirement age for future retirees to account for increases in life expectancy.” It also calls for lowering benefits for the highest-earning beneficiaries.

The RSC emphasized the changes would be phased in and would not take effect immediately, saying its proposal “does not cut or delay retirement benefits for any senior in or near retirement.”

The RSC issued its budget for 2025 on Wednesday to counter President Biden’s budget, which was released last week.

The RSC budget would also take away Medicare’s new power to negotiate lower prices on prescription drugs and accelerate the privatization of the popular health plan for the elderly.

In total, the RSC budget would cut about $2.7 trillion from Social Security and Medicare over the next decade.

The White House immediately jumped on the GOP budget, which would also reauthorize Trump-era tax cuts that are slated to end next year. In a “fact sheet,” the White House reiterated Biden’s promise to protect entitlement programs.

“Like President Biden promised in the Capitol, ‘If anyone here tries to cut Social Security or Medicare or raise the retirement age I will stop them,’” the fact sheet said.

Most of Social Security’s benefits are funded by payroll taxes. The program has for decades spent less than it collected, resulting in a $2.8 trillion in trust fund. But that trust fund is now expected to be depleted by 2034 as the baby boomers continue to retire and there will be fewer people in the workplace paying Social Security payroll taxes because of a drop in the birthrate.

So, as of 2034, Social Security would only be able to pay roughly 80% of scheduled benefits using its tax income — unless policymakers take steps to shore up the program.

Yet the RSC rejected several options to address the problem, including raising the Social Security payroll tax and transferring money from the general fund to make up the shortfall.

Meanwhile, Medicare is solvent until 2028 and will also need more funding to continue after that date.

The GOP budget was released just as Donald Trump, who realized too late that he touched a third rail in politics, was rolling back on vague comments he made last week about “cutting” programs like Medicare and Social Security.

The offices of Minnesota’s RSC members Reps. Tom Emmer, Brad Finstad, Pete Stauber and Michelle Fischbach did not respond to requests for comment on the proposal’s plan for the entitlement programs.

Emmer: No more SOTUs for Biden

Rep. Dean Phillips, D-3^rd District, mocked Rep Tom Emmer, R-1^st District, because Emmer said House Republicans should not invite President Biden to give a State of the Union speech next year.

“So fragile and snowflakey,” Phillips said of Emmer on X. “We sat through Trump’s State of the Unions and you can sit through Biden’s.’

During an interview with Axios at the House GOP retreat in West Virginia last week, Emmer knocked Biden’s speech as overly political. “That was about the most divisive State of the Union — I wouldn’t extend him an invitation next year, if that’s what we’re going to get,” Emmer said.

Of course, the issue of whether or not Biden would be asked to address Congress next year would only come up if the president were re-elected, and the GOP could hold on to the majority in the U.S. House, which they hold now by the slimmest of margins.

Emmer, however, was quick to say Donald Trump would win the election.

“He’s not going to be there next year — it’ll be a different president. But I think you’ve got to rethink issuing invitations for a State of the Union if it’s not going to be a State of the Union, and that was not. That was a campaign speech,” Emmer told Axios.

Your questions and comments

A reader was critical of the efforts of Minnesota lawmakers to protect the state’s large sugar beet industry by opposing a Biden administration effort to increase sugar imports to lower prices and increase availability.

“…Like the ethanol industry, the domestic (especially including Minnesota) sugar industry is massively subsidized. ‘Price supports’ simply guarantee a price that farmers will be paid for product ‘X,’ whether the demand for that product supports that price or not,” the reader wrote. “Second, you won’t find many nutritionists willing to endorse policies designed to continue or even increase our ongoing societal addiction to sugar, with its attendant negative effects on our health.”

The same reader also weighed in on Rep. Angie Craig’s endorsement of state Sen. Kelly Morrison in the race to represent the 3^rd District in Congress.

“I don’t live in the 3rd District, but I heartily endorse Angie Craig’s endorsement of Kelly Morrison as a replacement for Dean Phillips. If she becomes, as Craig is quoted as saying, ‘the only pro-choice OB-GYN in Congress,’ that, in itself says some less-than-complimentary things about this Congress.”Please keep your comments, and any questions, coming. I’ll try my best to respond. Please contact me at aradelat@minnpost.com.