(AURN News) — U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee, unsealed a 29-page opinion today quashing six grand jury subpoenas the Trump Justice Department issued to some of Minnesota’s top elected officials, including Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
The judge was unsparing in his language, writing that there was “no doubt the subpoenas were issued to harass political opponents of President Trump” and calling them a “blatantly unlawful and unethical use of the grand jury process.”
Those subpoenas were served in January during Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown.
After a Minnesota woman, Renee Good, was killed by an ICE agent, officials publicly pushed back. Within days, those officials were served with subpoenas.
The judge found the Justice Department could not identify “a single plausible investigatory justification” for issuing the subpoenas.
Click play to listen to the report from AURN White House Correspondent Ebony McMorris. For more news, follow @E_N_McMorris & @aurnonline.
