Judge quashes 6 grand jury subpoenas against Minnesota officials

A federal judge has quashed six grand jury subpoenas the Trump administration served against Minnesota state and local government offices — including Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey — ruling the subpoenas were retaliatory and unlawful. U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz found that the Justice Department issued the subpoenas to coerce Minnesota officials into cooperating with immigration enforcement after those officials sued to block Operation Metro Surge , a federal immigration operation. The subpoenas had been served against the Minnesota governor's office, the Minnesota attorney general, two Minnesota mayors' offices, Ramsey County's Board of Commissioners and Hennepin County's Board of Commissioners. In his ruling, Schiltz wrote that using grand jury proceedings to pressure political opponents into taking official action — particularly action the federal government cannot directly require — is "a blatantly unlawful and unethical use of the grand-jury process." "The only question, then, is whether the challenged subpoenas were issued for one of these forbidden purposes," Schiltz wrote. …