Arkansas legislators announce 'recent development' in ATF raid of Bryan Malinowski

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:02:35]Good afternoon.

[00:02:37]If anybody needs to bring their mic up or anything, I'll Okay, we're all set. Uh Thank you for coming out today. Uh I'm Senator Mark Johnson, District 17, Arkansas State Senate.

[00:02:50]Uh Today, we're sharing with the media uh a letter that was Are we on? Yeah, we're on now for sure.

[00:03:02]Okay. Thank you. I'll start all over again. Uh Good afternoon. I'm Senator Mark Johnson, representing District 17, which is West Pulaski and South Faulkner Counties. Uh I recently decided that we needed to do something uh collectively uh to ask President Trump and and his administration, especially the Justice Department, to uh fully investigate the tragic death uh Mr. Bryan Malinowski, who was the uh director of the Clinton National Airport, and uh uh died in a incident at his home uh when his uh home was uh served or he was served due to be served by a a search warrant by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.

[00:03:53]Uh I I this letter doesn't have a lot of answers, and I come I wanted to have a press conference to share the questions and things with you. But, we're not here because we know what's going on, but we think that the public and certainly Mrs. Malinowski need to know that. And that's why we have 30 members of the Arkansas Senate that signed this letter, and it's a bipartisan effort. Uh we have uh proportion It works out to about proportionate representation of the entire Senate. Uh and I'm grateful for uh my friends who are members of the minority caucus, uh the Democrats, uh who joined with us. This is not a a Republican or a uh Democrat effort. This is an Arkansas effort. And I think that the people of Arkansas want to know what happened fully and find the truth. The only way any of us in any legislative office can do the right thing is to work from a a position of knowing the truth. I will put put a few things out. I've give each of you a copy of of the letter, but I did want to uh uh cover some of the the questions, the concerns that we want that we we bring up. We found that uh uh there is a conflicting analysis after the incident. Uh the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms publicly characterized Mr. Malinowski as a significant gun trafficker who knowingly fired on law enforcement officers.

[00:05:34]These statements conflict with the ATF's own search warrant affidavit, with statements made by agents to the Arkansas State Police indicated that they did not expect Mr. Malinowski to be dangerous and anticipated a routine warrant execution.

[00:05:50]And subsequent testimony before our legislative committee uh by law enforcement officers suggested that Mr. Malinowski intentionally chose to fire on officers performing lawful lawful duties, an assertion that directly contradicts earlier statements in the factual record known before this raid.

[00:06:11]Several things I do want to point out.

[00:06:14]Uh The ATF identified no exigent circumstances, no criminal history by Mr. Malinowski, and no credible risk of violence prior to deploying the high-risk tactic that that they used.

[00:06:30]The pre-dawn dynamic entry, normally reserved for dangerous suspects, appears irreconcilable with known facts.

[00:06:40]Thing that jumped out to me was that there were neither the ATF nor the Little Rock Police Department officers utilized body-worn cameras during the operation, despite departmental policies absolutely requiring their use.

[00:06:57]Questions remain about whether the timing and aggressive addition of the operation was influenced in some way by the impending rollout of ATF's final rule coming with a definition of engaged in the business of selling firearms, something that as of yet has never been defined. Most of you know Mr. Malinowski was a highly paid professional. He was the highest paid employee of the city of Little Rock as the director of the airport, and it's important that uh uh those facts Uh I want to thank my colleagues, and I'm going to read the names of all the senators that joined me and signed it. Again, I'm Mark Johnson, and I will read those that have joined me in signing it.

[00:07:44]Senator Justin Boyd, who is here.

[00:07:47]Senator Ronald Caldwell, I don't believe I think he's here. Senator Alan Clark.

[00:07:52]Senator Steve Crow.

[00:07:54]Senator Briana Davis, who is our majority whip.

[00:08:00]Senator Tyler Dees.

[00:08:02]Senator Jonathan Dismang.

[00:08:04]Senator Jim Dotson.

[00:08:06]Senator Jane English. Senator Scott Flippo. Senator Ben Ben Gilmore. Senator Kim Hammer.

[00:08:14]Uh Senator Bart Hester, who is our President Pro Tempore. Senator Jimmy Hickey Jr.

[00:08:20]Senator Ricky Hill.

[00:08:22]Senator Missy Irvin.

[00:08:24]Senator Blake Johnson, our majority leader.

[00:08:28]Senator Greg Leding.

[00:08:30]Senator Matt McKee.

[00:08:33]Senator John Payton.

[00:08:34]Senator Clint Penzo.

[00:08:36]Senator Jim Petty.

[00:08:39]Senator Terry Rice.

[00:08:41]Senator Jamie Scott.

[00:08:43]Senator Brad Simon.

[00:08:45]Senator Matt Stone. No one is here. I didn't name all of you, but there were several of my colleagues are here.

[00:08:51]Senator Dan Sullivan.

[00:08:53]Senator Clark Tucker.

[00:08:55]And Senator David Wallace. A copy of this letter to the President was also sent to uh uh Acting Attorney General Todd Blane, and to all of the members of the Arkansas Congressional Delegation in Washington. Uh We're simply asking that the proper authorities, which we believe is the Justice Department, and the President can refer this to the Acting Attorney General, and to get the truth about what really happened. I will, to the best of my knowledge, answer any questions you have, but again, we're not here because we have answers to questions. We're here because we have questions that need answers.

[00:09:35]But, I'll give it my best. Mrs. Malinowski is here, and I'd like to introduce her.

[00:09:42]I want to thank all of you for being here.

[00:09:46]And I want to thank all the people that signed this letter. It means a lot to me. It means not just to me, but to the whole people in Arkansas. We need answers.

[00:09:57]And I'm hope hopefully we'll get some.

[00:10:00]Thank you. Thank you all.

[00:10:03]Thank you.

[00:10:07]And I will do my best quick questions.

[00:10:23]I hope for different results.

[00:10:26]I pray for different results and but you know, you have to start somewhere and the start is this letter is asking.

[00:10:34]Other questions? Yes, ma'am.

[00:10:56]Those are the questions we want to get answered. Uh I don't see to date. Again, that's why you have to look. You have to investigate. I see in no culpability by the state police. I fear some culpability by the Little Rock Police Department.

[00:11:12]We had the chief come to testify for one of our legislative committees and he effectively declined to answer any of our questions and he said it was at the advice of the Little Rock City Attorney.

[00:11:24]Which is very troubling to me because you know, again, we were simply looking for answers and he stonewalled us.

[00:11:43]It It happened over about a week and completed it I guess last Thursday and the date on the letter is the 22nd. So, you know, we got I did FedEx it to the White House and it was also sent it by by text to all of our congressional delegation and cuz I had their their their cell phone. I have gotten positive responses from I haven't heard from all of them but the ones that I have and it's been a positive response.

[00:12:14]And one I want especially thank Congressman Womack from the third district. He was especially responsive and said he would see that it would would get to some of the people that he thought should go to in the administration. And but everyone supported.

[00:12:32]Both senators, Congressman Crawford and Congressman Hill. I spoke to Congressman Hill this morning and of course Congressman Westerman, long time friend, former member of the General Assembly and he gave me a thumbs up that he appreciated me doing it.

[00:12:49]Other questions?

[00:13:01]That's correct. That's my understanding.

[00:13:15]That's one of the things that we can work on when we get some of these answers and and of course that issue is not solely related to this case.

[00:13:25]But you know, as technology changes, we need to to back our law enforcement officers not just to protect citizens but to protect them.

[00:13:36]Body cameras can can someone makes a erroneous accusation, it can protect that law enforcement officer and certainly can does things to protect the general public. So, we if there are policies in place that haven't been followed, we need to learn why and I trust my colleagues in the General Assembly to work on legislation that will clarify the law as it's needed and and that's why we have hearings and look at that very carefully.

[00:14:07]Anyone else?

[00:14:10]Okay. Well, thank you all for coming out. I'm going to sit these over on the table. Everyone that needs one, just members of the media come get a copy.

[00:14:17]I'm not rationing them but I wanted to make sure everyone with the news organizations was able to get one. And thank you for coming out. Thank you.