“Sheriff Steven W Tompkins, who serves as the Sheriff for the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department, has been charged with extortion involving the purchase of an equity interest in a Boston-based cannabis company. Tompkins, 67, of Boston, Mass, was indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of Extortion Under Color of Official Right. He was taken into custody this morning in the Southern District of Florida and will have an initial appearance at 11:00 am He will appear in federal court in Boston at a later date,” says a Friday Justice Department press release.

The release goes on for quite some length with the details of the accusations and receipts of wire transfers, making it clear that the feds probably have a pretty good case against him. The questionable element to the charges surfaces in the Gateway Pundit’s coverage of the indictment, right in their clickbait-y headline “BREAKING: Boston’s Sanctuary Sheriff Arrested on Federal Extortion Charges” and its lede “Boston’s sanctuary Sheriff Steve Tompkins was arrested on federal extortion charges on Friday. Recall that Sheriff Tompkins kicked ICE out of his jails back in 2019.”

After that is when they finally let on that this has nothing to do with ICE cooperation or illegal immigration… At least as far as the charges go. The decision to go ahead and seek an indictment against him? There’s no reason whatsoever to believe the MAGA Reich is prosecuting Tompkins solely because he’s credibly alleged to have committed a major federal felony. The already told us this with Eric Adams. Let ICE do whatever they want and you can do whatever you want.