Dropped cases against LA protesters reveal false claims from federal agents

Revealed: records show border patrol gave inaccurate testimony about people it jailed. Prosecutors now face embarrassing' dismissals

US immigration officers made false and misleading statements in their reports about several Los Angeles protesters they arrested during the massive demonstrations that rocked the city in June, according to federal law enforcement files obtained by the Guardian.

The officers' testimony was cited in at least five cases filed by the US Department of Justice amid the unrest. The justice department has charged at least 26 people with assaulting" and impeding" federal officers and other crimes during the protests over immigration raids. Prosecutors, however, have since been forced to dismiss at least eight of those felonies, many of them which relied on officers' inaccurate reports, court records show.

Out of nine assault" and impeding" felony cases the justice department filed immediately after the start of the protests and promoted by the attorney general, Pam Bondi, prosecutors dismissed seven of them soon after filing the charges.

In reports that led to the detention and prosecution of at least five demonstrators, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents made false statements about the sequence of events and misrepresented incidents captured on video.

One DHS agent accused a protester of shoving an officer, when footage appeared to show the opposite: the officer forcefully pushed the protester.

One indictment named the wrong defendant, a stunning error that has jeopardized one of the government's most high-profile cases.