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Judge says Trump DOJ subpoenas of Tim Walz and other Democrats are unconstitutional

A federal judge on Monday blocked the Justice Department from forcing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and other officials to turn over records in its probe of Democratic resistance to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, calling the move a retaliatory effort to “harass political opponents.”

In a 30-page ruling, district Judge Patrick Schiltz found that subpoenas were “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 order is yet another rebuke of the Justice Department by a federal judge over the agency’s efforts to investigate or prosecute President Donald Trump’s personal and political enemies.

“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 sent to the offices of Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, and officials in Ramsey and Hennepin counties. The subpoenas had sought records and information on whether Democratic officials obstructed immigration enforcement through their public resistance to the administration’s deployment of thousands of agents to detain migrants accused of living in the US illegally.