The Trump administration has opened a criminal investigation into elected Democrats in Minnesota, according to a senior law enforcement official.
It marks a major escalation in the fight between the federal government and local officials over the aggressive immigration crackdown under way in the state.
The investigation would focus on allegations that Minnesota governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey had conspired to impede thousands of federal agents who have been sent to the city since last month. Last week, one of those agents killed Renee Good (37).
It remained unclear what investigative steps have been taken. The senior law enforcement official said subpoenas had yet to be issued, but could be in the days to come.
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Both Mr Walz and Mr Frey responded with combative statements Friday night, denouncing what they said was a weaponised use of law enforcement power and promising to stand firm in the face of the administration’s efforts.
“Weaponising the justice system and threatening political opponents is a dangerous, authoritarian tactic,” Mr Walz said in a statement released by his office, which said it had not yet received notice of an investigation.
“The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her.”
Mr Frey described the investigation as an “obvious attempt to intimidate” him, but vowed it would not work.
“America depends on leaders that use integrity and the rule of the law as the guideposts for governance,” he said. “Neither our city nor our country will succumb to this fear. We stand rock solid.”
The shooting of Ms Good, an unarmed mother of three, has led to sustained protests against the agents in Minneapolis. Mr Frey, in the immediate wake of her death, used an expletive to demand that the agents leave the city. Mr Walz has also sharply criticised the agents’ conduct.
Justice department leaders, in turn, have vowed to arrest anyone impeding federal agents, and the new investigation seeks to determine if senior Democrats in the state conspired to impede law enforcement.
News of the investigation, which was reported earlier by CBS News, came only two days after Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, posted an incendiary message on social media, accusing Mr Walz and Mr Frey of “encouraging violence against law enforcement” and referring to their actions as “terrorism”.
While both the governor and the mayor have criticised agents involved in the immigration crackdown and have at times urged local residents to document their actions, there is no public evidence that either man has explicitly encouraged violence – let alone engaged in acts of terrorism. Both have urged protesters to remain peaceful.
Still, the growing public protests in Minneapolis have angered president Donald Trump, who has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act and send the military into the city.
In a social media post Thursday, Mr Trump called the protesters in Minnesota “professional agitators,” but offered no evidence to support his claims against what by most accounts are ordinary citizens.
On Friday, however, Mr Trump appeared to back away from his threat. “I don’t think I need it right now,” he told reporters, referring to the Insurrection Act.
That same day, a federal judge in Minneapolis issued an order putting several restrictions on how federal agents can handle people protesting the crackdown.
Federal officials have signalled they are unlikely to bring criminal charges against Jonathan Ross, the agent who killed Ms Good. At the same time, the officials have said that law enforcement would most likely investigate Ms Good’s partner, Becca Good, and any possible connections the women might have had to local activists.
That decision prompted at least six federal prosecutors to resign this week from the US attorney’s office in Minneapolis.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
