DOJ Prosecutors Hit Minnesota Democrats With Subpoenas

The Department of Justice issued federal subpoenas for at least five Democratic Minnesota officials on Tuesday, alleging that they interfered with the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics in the state.

The subpoenas were all served formally at the subjects’ state offices, a list that included Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Saint Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, state Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepin County attorney Mary Moriarty, according to multiple reports.

The subpoenas did not cite a specific criminal statute, The New York Times reported, and instead focused on whether Minnesota officials had conspired to impede federal immigration enforcement agents from carrying out deportation orders.

In a statement posted to social media Tuesday afternoon, Walz said “Minnesota will not be drawn into political theater.”

“This Justice Department investigation sparked by calls for accountability in the face of violence, chaos and the killing of Renee Good, does not seek justice. It is a partisan distraction,” he continued. “Minnesota will not be intimidated into silence and neither will I.”

In a statement to NOTUS, Frey’s office did not confirm whether it intends to comply with the subpoena, instead decrying the investigation as an attempt to intimidate Minnesota leaders into backing down.

“When the federal government weaponizes its power to try to intimidate local leaders for doing their jobs, every American should be concerned,” Frey said in a statement. “We shouldn’t have to live in a country where people fear that federal law enforcement will be used to play politics or crack down on local voices they disagree with.

“As Mayor, I’ll continue doing the job I was elected to do: keeping our community safe and standing up for our values,” he added.

Ellison, in a statement posted to X, confirmed his office received the subpoena. The state attorney general said the subpoena asks for “records and documents related to my office’s work with respect to federal immigration enforcement” and did not target him personally.

“Everything about this is highly irregular, especially the fact that this comes shortly after my office sued the Trump Administration to challenge their illegal actions within Minnesota,” Ellison continued. “Donald Trump is coming after the people of Minnesota and I’m standing in his way. I will not be intimidated, and I will not stop working to protect Minnesotans from Trump’s campaign of retaliation and revenge.”

Early last week Ellison announced a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security — alongside a similar suit filed by Illinois and Chicago officials — to end the surge of federal immigration agents deployed to Minneapolis and Chicago. On Friday, the district judge assigned to the case temporarily barred federal officers in Minnesota from using chemical irritants against or otherwise retaliating against peaceful protesters.

Friday’s ruling also prohibits federal law enforcement officials from stopping or detaining drivers without “reasonable articulable suspicion that they are forcibly obstructing or interfering” with their work, stating that safely following agents does not constitute reasonable suspicion.

The situation follows the ICE-involved fatal shooting of 37-year-old U.S. citizen Renee Good earlier this month in Minneapolis. Since Good’s death, the city has seen daily protests against aggressive federal immigration enforcement, resulting in DHS deploying additional officers to the state.

Over the weekend, the Justice Department said it was looking into a protest group that interrupted a Sunday church service.

“Everyone in the protest community needs to know that the fullest force of the federal government is going to come down and prevent this from happening and put people away for a long, long time,” Harmeet Dhillon, the DOJ’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, said in a Monday interview with NBC News about the incident.