President Donald Trump’s Justice Department crossed a new threshold with its criminal investigation of top Democratic elected officials in Minnesota, targeting vocal critics during a moment of crisis in which protesters and federal agents are clashing on icy city streets.
The Twin Cities have been a tinderbox for more than a week since an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a woman in her vehicle, with residents confronting ICE agents. Trump has raised the prospect of sending U.S. troops into the state, and the Justice Department escalated tensions Friday as it prepared to send subpoenas to Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, two of Minnesota’s highest-profile Democrats.
The pair have loudly disparaged ICE’s presence in the state and the way Trump and his administration have defended the officer and sidelined state officials in an investigation into the shooting. The subpoenas the Justice Department is preparing to send suggest the agency is looking at whether Walz’s and Frey’s public statements about the administration’s actions amount to illegal interference with law enforcement.
The administration has pursued numerous other Democrats and perceived adversaries, fulfilling Trump’s promises to prosecute his foes. However, the administration had not taken such forceful action against elected officeholders at a volatile moment when public safety was at issue — until now.
To Trump’s allies, the latest investigation should serve as a warning to critics who they argue are inflaming matters with their rhetoric. Former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon said he believes Walz and Frey hit Trump’s “trip wire” with their heated comments and expects “intense prosecution.”
“Walz and Frey should listen when the president says, ‘No games,’” he said.
Trump’s critics warned in stark terms that he was crossing a dangerous line.
“This is what totalitarianism looks like,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut). “Trump is now using the full, entire scope of the federal government in order to destroy and suppress dissent and compel loyalty.” Murphy said Minneapolis is a “test case” that will determine whether Trump tries the same approach elsewhere.
The White House and Justice Department had no comment Friday on the probe of Walz and Frey, but Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on social media a “reminder to all those in Minnesota: No one is above the law.” Neither Walz nor Frey had been served with a subpoena by Friday evening, spokespeople for the officials said.
The Justice Department’s investigation of a governor and mayor is highly unusual. In the 1950s and 1960s, presidents used troops to enforce court desegregation orders in the face of defiance from some Southern governors. But the department did not press charges against them, said Steven Lawson, a history professor at Rutgers University.
“The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division did keep track of civil rights incidents in the South, but it did not prosecute or harass governors or mayors for their resistance,” he said by email.
Trump’s administration is taking the opposite approach by going after those who have pilloried the president. Traditionally, the Justice Department has tried to insulate itself from the White House, but Trump has not shied away from getting involved in its investigations. In September, he took to social media to complain to Bondi that she wasn’t taking action against his political opponents.
Many Minnesotans were angry when ICE sent thousands of agents to the state, and they launched widespread protests after an ICE officer fatally shot Renée Good. ICE’s presence and the demonstrations have put Minneapolis on edge, with residents blowing whistles and screaming at agents, and officers at times deploying tear gas. Demonstrations “remained peaceful until last night,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said last weekend after 29 people were arrested and an officer was injured.
Tensions rose again this week when an ICE officer shot a man in the leg.
Soon after an investigation into Good’s shooting began, state officials said they were reluctantly withdrawing from it because the FBI was not sharing information with them. Separately, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sued federal officials this week to try to force ICE agents out of the state.
Walz, the Democrats’ 2024 vice-presidential nominee, has been fiercely critical of ICE, as has Frey, who drew nationwide attention when he told ICE to “get the f— out of Minneapolis” following the shooting.
Walz and Frey are being investigated under a law similar to one used against protesters whom federal officials have accused of impeding their work.
“The administration is taking us back to the days of seditious libel, where people are prosecuted simply because they criticize the acts of government,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland), a former constitutional law professor who served on a congressional panel that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. “The Department of Justice has now been reduced to a completely political and partisan instrument of vendetta.”
In a statement, Walz noted that Trump has gone after many others who have not done what he wants and said, “The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renée Good is the federal agent who shot her.”
Justice Department prosecutors pursued cases against former FBI director James B. Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, but judges dismissed the charges. The department has also conducted investigations of Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California), who led Trump’s first impeachment as a member of the House, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell, and several Democrats who told military members they could defy unlawful orders. He has also tussled with Democratic state officials such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, and tried to withhold funds from them when they have fought his agenda.
Frey wrote on the social media platform X that the investigation against him was “an obvious attempt to intimidate me for standing up for Minneapolis, local law enforcement, and residents against the chaos and danger this Administration has brought to our city.” He said he “will not be intimidated.”
The administration’s pressure on Minneapolis ramped up further Friday when the Department of Housing and Urban Development said it was investigating the city over fair housing initiatives, probing for alleged violations of the Fair Housing Act and the Civil Rights Act.
A Minneapolis spokesperson said the investigation “appears to be about politics, not affordable housing.”
Natalie Allison, Derek Hawkins, Rachel Siegel, Dylan Wells, Perry Stein, Maeve Reston and Colby Itkowitz contributed to this report.
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