Judge blocks subpoenas of Minnesota officials

What happened

U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, in a ruling unsealed Monday, threw out six federal subpoenas targeting Minnesota Democratic officials, including Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison. There’s “overwhelming evidence” that the “dominant purpose” of the subpoenas was to “coerce Minnesota officials into assisting” the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis and “to harass and retaliate against them for failing to do so,” Schlitz, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote in his June 17 ruling. That’s a “blatantly unlawful and unethical use of the grand jury process.”

Who said what

The subpoenas were issued in January “amid a bitter political battle between the Trump administration and state officials” following the shooting death of Renee Good, The Washington Post said. The Justice Department has “struggled — without success — to identify a single plausible investigatory justification for the subpoenas,” Schiltz wrote. But they fit President Donald Trump’s “well-established history of using criminal investigations to retaliate against” his “political and personal adversaries.”

What next?

Schlitz’s ruling is the “latest rebuke by the federal judiciary of Justice Department efforts to aggressively implement” Trump’s agenda and improperly “target” his opponents, The Associated Press said. It also “raises questions about similar immigration-related investigations elsewhere,” Axios said.

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