A federal decide on Monday blocked the Justice Department from forcing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and other officers to show over information in its probe of Democratic resistance to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, calling the transfer retaliatory.
In a 30-page ruling, district Judge Patrick Schiltz discovered that subpoenas have been “part of an unconstitutional effort to coerce Minnesota officials into assisting the federal government with enforcing civil immigration laws and to harass and retaliate against them for failing to do so.”
“The Department is not conducting a criminal investigation, but is instead using the grand jury process for other (unlawful) purposes,” wrote Schiltz, an appointee of former President George W. Bush.
His ruling voids subpoenas despatched to the places of work of Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, and officers in Ramsey and Hennepin counties. The subpoenas had sought information and data on whether or not Democratic officers had obstructed immigration enforcement by means of their public resistance to the administration’s deployment of hundreds of brokers to detain migrants accused of dwelling within the US illegally.
NCS has reached out to the Justice Department for remark.
This story is breaking and will probably be up to date.