A federal judge on Monday threw out subpoenas issued by the Justice Department targeting Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) and other Minnesota officials who requested the state’s records on cooperation with immigration enforcement.
In a scathing 29-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz framed the DOJ subpoenas as harassment, calling the department’s use of a grand jury to initiate an investigation into Walz “unlawful and unethical.”
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“Initiating a criminal investigation in order to harass political opponents or to coerce them into taking official action — particularly official action that the federal government cannot directly require those political opponents to take — is a blatantly unlawful and unethical use the grand-jury process,” Schiltz wrote in his ruling.
Schiltz compared the investigation into Minnesota officials to the Trump administration’s use of “criminal investigations to retaliate against” President Donald Trump’s political foes, specifically noting an investigation into former Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
The subpoenas were issued to investigate whether Minnesota officials, including Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, conspired to obstruct federal law enforcement operations in the state.
Walz issued a statement calling Schiltz’s ruling a “victory for the rule of law,” and echoed the judge’s sentiment that the investigation was an example of political lawfare.
“The U.S. Justice Department is pursuing criminal investigations into the President’s political opponents,” Walz said. “This is just one example of that, but we are seeing daily reminders of this administration’s lawlessness — in Minnesota and around the country.”
Schiltz, a nominee of former President George W. Bush, said the Trump administration failed to “identify a single plausible investigatory justification for the subpoenas” and tried to coerce states such as Minnesota, which it claimed had adopted sanctuary policies, by threatening federal resources.
“The course of events — in and of itself — established beyond reasonable dispute that the subpoenas were part of a broader campaign to coerce state and local officials in Minnesota to assist the Trump administration in its enforcement of immigration laws,” Schiltz said.
Ellison also issued a statement and pointed out the DOJ’s failure to find evidence for the subpoena, as noted in the ruling.
“They came after me for standing up for Minnesota,” he said. They came up empty. I’ll keep standing up for Minnesota. They can keep losing in court.
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The judge added that the subpoenas are “extraordinarily broad” and seek information related to state officials’ cooperation with federal immigration officers deployed to Minneapolis as part of Operation Metro Surge. He added that the subpoena requested information predating the administration’s immigration crackdown in the state.
Schiltz also noted that the federal government cannot make states enforce federal laws under the Constitution.
