A federal judge has upended Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's campaign to "retaliate" against Minnesota Democrats who refused to help enforce President Donald Trump's immigration agenda.
Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota quashed all six grand-jury subpoenas Monday targeting Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her — all Democrats — as well as county officials in Ramsey and Hennepin counties.
The subpoenas, served on Jan. 20, sought sweeping records related to immigration enforcement dating back to Jan. 1, 2025 — the opening salvo of a Justice Department investigation into whether Minnesota officials had obstructed federal immigration agents during "Operation Metro Surge."
The judge shot down the DOJ's arguments in his Monday order.
"The evidence that the challenged subpoenas were issued for unlawful reasons is overwhelming," he wrote. "The Department has struggled — without success — to identify a single plausible investigatory justification for the subpoenas."
The Justice Department couldn't point to an instance of a Minnesota official actually obstructing a law enforcement officer. It withdrew one of its five stated justifications after admitting it had no verifiable source.
On Jan. 13, Trump posted on Truth Social, threatening "RETRIBUTION" against Minnesota's political leaders. Three days later, the subpoenas leaked to multiple outlets — with at least one citing "U.S. officials" as its source.
On Jan. 14, he posted on X accusing Walz and Frey of "encouraging violence against law enforcement" and vowing to stop their "terrorism by whatever means necessary."
Four months later, Blanche went on Fox News and named Walz again — this time in the context of a fraud investigation, saying the governor had "done nothing but sue us."
Schiltz found the subpoenas "were not issued to investigate, but to harass, coerce, and retaliate."
"The dominant purpose of the challenged subpoenas," he wrote, "is to coerce Minnesota officials into assisting the federal government with enforcing civil immigration law and to harass and retaliate against them for failing to do so."