He's trying to find a federal nexus so he and AG Barbie can try the case in federal court.
If he can find accomplices or coconspirators who participated in planning the shooting using the Internet, which is an instrumentality of interstate commerce, he can prosecute Robinson in federal court. This would not take the case away from Utah, since there can be parallel prosecutions (though the outcome, the death penalty, would be the same in either case). But Patel stepped pretty hard on his dick during the initial investigation, and he probably figures that if the feds can take the lead in the prosecution he might look less of a putz.
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