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The Justice Department has issued subpoenas to at least five criminal grand juries Minnesota Democratic Party official who is accused of obstructing federal law enforcement support Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
Federal investigators are targeting Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and St. Paul Mayor Cauley Hull, among others, marking a sharp escalation in the Trump administration’s conflict with Democratic officials who have criticized the operation as a violent attack on the state and its residents.
The subpoenas also target top Minnesota prosecutors, including state Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepin County Prosecutor Mary Moriarty.
The Justice Department appears to be investigating whether state and local officials conspired to prevent federal officers from enforcing immigration enforcement.
The Department of Homeland Security has deployed hundreds of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection officers to the state in recent weeks, arresting more than 10,000 people, according to the department. The surge is the Department of Homeland Security’s largest immigration enforcement operation to date, and officials have been charged Violence targets immigrants and citizens, confronting protesters in clashes in the Minneapolis area.
Demonstrations against his agenda escalated after Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE officer earlier this month, and the president has repeatedly suggested that he could deploy active-duty troops against Americans. The president has called the protesters “professional agitators and insurrectionists” who are now accused of conspiring against the federal government.
Meanwhile, Minnesota officials have Sue the government to stop the surgealleging the operation was a politically motivated and unconstitutional attack on the state.
Tuesday’s subpoenas appear to be related to the work of their offices rather than their personal identities.
The subpoena requires the officials to testify before a federal grand jury and provide prosecutors with a trove of documents, including all records and communications related to immigration enforcement and instructions regarding cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
The subpoena also seeks all documents “relevant to the obstruction, doxxing, identification or surveillance of immigration officials.”
Walz said his state “will not get involved in the political arena.”
“This Department of Justice investigation was prompted by calls for accountability for violence, chaos and the killing of Renee Goode, not a search for justice,” he said in a statement Tuesday. “It is a partisan distraction. Minnesotans care more about safety and peace than baseless legal tactics designed to intimidate public servants who stand shoulder to shoulder with our communities.”
“Every American should be concerned when the federal government uses its power to intimidate local leaders from doing their jobs,” Mayor Frey said in a statement.
“We should not live in a country where federal law enforcement agencies are used to play politics or suppress local dissent,” he added. “In Minneapolis, we will not be afraid. We know the difference between right and wrong, and as mayor, I will continue to do the job I was elected to do: keep our communities safe and stand up for our values.”
Ellison said Trump was “weaponizing the justice system” against him and other officials instead of seriously investigating “the murder of Renee Goode.”
“This is all very irregular, especially so soon after my office sued the Trump administration to challenge their illegal actions in Minnesota,” Ellison said in a statement. “Let’s be clear about why this is happening: Donald Trump is going 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 revenge and revenge.”
The Twin Cities are home to approximately 80,000 people of Somali descent, the vast majority of whom are legal residents or U.S. citizens. But the President – got it A series of fraud cases involving government projects, with most of the defendants coming from Somalia – is sending federal law enforcement and Justice Department resources to the state as part of his effort to deport millions of people across the country.
The Pentagon has Nearly 1,500 troops prepared for possible deployment The president has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to quell protests over aggressive immigration enforcement against immigrants and citizens.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said 10,000 people have been arrested.