Judge throws out DOJ subpoenas for Minn. Gov. Walz and other state officials, calling probe ‘Politically Motivated’

 

A federal judge has thrown out subpoenas targeting Minnesota Democrat Governor Tim Walz and other Minnesota Democrats, claiming that the Department of Justice (DOJ) abused its investigatory powers by using them to retaliate against state officials after they failed to adhere with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) efforts.

The legal battle largely stems from a series of subpoenas served by the DOJ against the offices of Walz (D-Minn.), Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, 

 

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D-Minn.), 

 

St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her (D-Minn.),

 

 as well as officials in Hennepin and Ramsey counties, earlier this year.

In a ruling unsealed on Monday, U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz

 

argued that the “dominant purpose” of the subpoenas was 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.”

 

“Nothing in this order or in the materials submitted to the Court could possibly compromise a criminal investigation; as the Court has explained at length, the Department is not conducting a criminal investigation, but is instead using the grand jury process for other (unlawful) purposes,” Schiltz wrote in a 29-page ruling rebuking the subpoenas.

 

The federal requests asked for a year’s worth of internal communications, including text messages, emails and policy documents regarding the handling of state and local governments’ immigration enforcement efforts.

The DOJ’s legal moves are largely attributed to a lawsuit filed by Minnesota leadership to block Operation Metro Surge, the operation that was deployed to the state in December 2025.

Walz, Frey and other officials pushed back against federal efforts to encourage their cooperation on immigration enforcement. They argued that it was outside of their responsibilities to arrest illegal aliens, saying that work instead belongs to federal agencies like ICE and the Border Patrol.

 

“The Department takes the unlawful obstruction of federal law enforcement operations extremely seriously and will continue to act in full compliance with the law to investigate these matters,” A spokesperson for the DOJ responded to the decision in a statement for FOX 9.