Federal investigators are examining whether Minnesota's top Democrat and Minneapolis' mayor crossed a legal line in publicly criticizing immigration enforcement. The Justice Department has opened a probe into Gov. Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey on a rarely used statute dating to the Civil War era, two sources tell NBC News. Investigators are said to be exploring whether their statements about federal immigration raids and the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, a US citizen and mother of three, amounted to a conspiracy to obstruct federal agents, per NBC News.
ICE and other federal officers have surged into Minneapolis since Good was killed by ICE officer Jonathan Ross, whose actions federal officials have defended as justified. Both Walz and Frey say the probe amounts to little more than bullying from the federal government, per the AP. Walz called the probe a political one, accusing the administration of "weaponizing the justice system" against critics while sparing the officer who shot Good, per NBC. Frey, who has also blasted federal authorities for excluding local law enforcement from the shooting inquiry, said of the DOJ probe that he "will not be intimidated" and described the investigation as an effort to silence him for opposing "the chaos and danger this administration has brought to our streets."
The Justice Department wouldn't comment. Attorney General Pam Bondi, whose recent memo urged prosecutors to expand use of certain federal laws against so-called domestic terrorists, posted on X: "No one is above the law." Ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon, meanwhile, says the two men "should listen when the president says, 'No games,'" per the Washington Post. The investigation immediately raised alarms among free-speech advocates, per NBC.
Aaron Terr of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression warned that if criticism of immigration enforcement is the basis for the case, it would be "blatantly unconstitutional and intolerable in a free society," arguing that the ability to condemn government action without fear of punishment is at the core of the First Amendment. Normally, such a politically sensitive probe targeting elected officials' speech would be vetted by the DOJ's Public Integrity Section, a unit that sources say has been gutted and marginalized in President Trump's second term. Meanwhile, tensions in Minneapolis remain elevated. In a separate incident on Thursday night, a federal officer shot a man in the leg after he allegedly ran from a traffic stop and assaulted the officer, authorities said.
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