A federal judge in Minnesota voided six Department of Justice grand jury subpoenas against Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and four other Democratic officials on Monday, ruling that the Trump administration had turned the criminal investigation process into an instrument of political punishment.
US District Court Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz — appointed by President George W. Bush, a former clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia, and a mentor to Justice Amy Coney Barrett — described the subpoenas as a “blatantly unlawful and unethical use of the grand-jury process” in a 29-page ruling.
He determined that the DOJ was not conducting a legitimate criminal investigation but was instead using grand jury powers to compel Minnesota officials to assist with federal immigration enforcement — something the Constitution expressly permits them to refuse.
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He called the DOJ’s attempts to justify the subpoenas “risible” and said the government had failed to produce a single plausible investigatory rationale despite multiple attempts.
The ruling was dated June 17 and filed under seal, as is standard for matters involving secret grand jury proceedings. Schiltz chose to unseal it on Monday, writing that the public holds a “very strong interest” in knowing about the abuse — and noting the grand jury’s existence had already become public, most likely through a DOJ leak.
Minnesota AG Keith Ellison filed suit challenging Operation Metro Surge on January 12, 2026. Eight days later, the DOJ issued the subpoenas. In the days before they arrived, Trump had posted on Truth Social, warning of a “DAY OF RECKONING AND RETRIBUTION” for Minnesota.
Schiltz said that the sequence established “beyond reasonable dispute” that the subpoenas were part of a broader effort to coerce state officials into enforcing federal immigration law.
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He also tied the Minnesota case to what he described as “the Trump administration’s well-established history of using criminal investigations to retaliate against and pressure the President’s political and personal adversaries,” citing a March 2026 ruling in which Chief Judge James Boasberg of the DC District Court quashed DOJ subpoenas against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on nearly identical grounds, finding the probe was designed to pressure Powell into cutting interest rates rather than investigate any crime.
Operation Metro Surge — a 12-week ICE enforcement surge in the Twin Cities that the administration launched after Trump publicly targeted Somali communities — ended in mid-February after two protesters were killed and a third was shot.
The subpoenas had also targeted Ellison, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, and the boards of commissioners of both Hennepin and Ramsey counties. All six are now voided. The decision marks an extremely rare instance of a federal judge intervening to quash grand jury subpoenas — a process courts normally treat with substantial deference.
Walz called the ruling “a victory for the rule of law and our democracy” and said the DOJ was pursuing criminal investigations against the president’s political opponents. Frey said the probe was “never about justice, law, and order, but the absence of it.” The DOJ said it would “continue to act in full compliance with the law.”
No appeal had been filed as of Monday.
