A federal judge has thrown out Justice Department grand jury subpoenas aimed at Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his allies, calling them an abusive and retaliatory process to punish Walz based on his refusal to assist President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
In a blistering ruling, U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz said there was “no doubt” that the subpoenas were issued to damage Walz — part of what he said was a pattern of Trump administration efforts to use criminal process to punish the president’s adversaries.
“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 a 29-page ruling dated June 17 but unsealed Monday.
The George W. Bush-appointed chief judge said Trump’s repeated attacks and promises of “retribution” against Walz, a Democrat, and other Minnesota officials “establishes beyond reasonable dispute” that the grand jury subpoenas — issued at the height of ICE’s Operation Metro Surge — “were a part of a broader campaign to coerce state and local officials in Minnesota to assist the Trump administration in its enforcement of immigration laws.”
The federal government is barred by the Constitution from forcing states to enforce federal laws, Schlitz added.
Moreover, Schiltz linked the subpoenas to what he called “the Trump administration's well-established history of using criminal investigations to retaliate against and pressure the President's political and personal adversaries.” Schiltz pointed to the recent investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell, in which another federal judge similarly quashed subpoenason the grounds that they were retaliatory.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Walz celebrated the decision as “a victory for the rule of law and our democracy.”
The ruling rejects six grand jury subpoenas that federal prosecutors targeted at Walz, the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul, the Minnesota attorney general and commissioners of Hennepin and Ramsey counties.
The subpoenas were issued at the height of Operation Metro Surge, in which thousands of federal agents descended on the Twin Cities to enforce Trump’s mass deportation agenda. The enforcement surge led to tense protests by local residents, two of whom — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — were killed by federal agents during confrontations on the street. Their deaths drew national attention to the administration’s crackdown and presaged a sharp decline in public support for his immigration agenda.
Schiltz said the subpoenas were “extraordinarily broad” and sought materials related to “constitutionally protected conduct.” And he said DOJ’s effort to connect those materials to any potential criminal activity were strained, at best. Two examples the department cited of potential criminal activity supporting the subpoenas, he noted, were for policy advocacy by two members of the Minneapolis City Council, which was not among the subpoena recipients.
Even if those officials were among those subpoenaed, Schiltz said, “the connection between them and any possible criminal conduct is so remote as to be spurious.”
“The fact that connections between the information sought in the subpoenas and any possible criminal violation range from extremely weak to nonexistent only adds to the overwhelming evidence that these subpoenas were not issued to investigate, but to harass, coerce, and retaliate,” the judge concluded.
Though Walz issued the ruling last week, he said he delayed release until Monday to allow the Justice Department to appeal. But court dockets reflect that no appeal has been filed in the five days following Schiltz’s decision.
Schlitz said he opted to unseal most of the material in the case because the Justice Department itself was apparently responsible for initial disclosures about the grand jury proceedings and subpoenas.
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