President Donald Trump's Justice Department is launching a criminal probe into Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) and issued subpoenas for both Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
The DOJ claimed that Frey and Walz are "impeding federal law enforcement officers’ abilities to do their jobs in the state."
Walz responded to the allegations on X, saying: "Two days ago it was Elissa Slotkin. Last week it was Jerome Powell. Before that, Mark Kelly. Weaponizing the justice system against your opponents is an authoritarian tactic. The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her."
Reacting to the news, legal experts were both furious and disgusted.
"A confession of weakness by the Regime. This tactic will instantly backfire," lawyer and writer David Lurie wrote on BlueSky.
"DOJ is out of control. The crime of impeding federal agents requires physical force. Speaking out against the way ICE is being deployed is not a crime," said former federal prosecutor Barbara McQuade, who now teaches at the University of Michigan School of Law.
"This is a transparent attempt to create a pretext for invoking the Insurrection Act," said Georgetown University law Professor Steve Vladeck. "One provision applies when a group of people 'opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.' And when it's (allegedly) the state itself..."
"This is like a satanic parody of the best moments of Reconstruction, which saw the DOJ using federal power to break up white supremacist conspiracies against civil rights. Here, white supremacists in the DOJ are using conspiracy law to attack civil rights," said Constitutional law Associate Professor Evan Bernick, from Northern Illinois University College of Law.
Speaking to MS NOW's Ari Melber on Friday, former Barack Obama strategist Chai Komanduri called the decision "ppart ofthe authoritarian playbook."
"Trump wants his opponents to beafraid. He wants to silenceopposition and dissent towardshim. Tim Walz and Jacob Freyhave shown dissent. They havecriticized his actions, whichis their right to do, which is what a healthy democracy would occurs in a healthy democracy," he said. "We criticize the actions of those in power, we critique them."
He added that at times it's done in forceful or colorful language but it's the right of the American people to do it.
"And Trump is saying, you cannot do that," continued Komanduri. "To me, this is actually sort of a piece of what you saw back with Jimmy Kimmel. You know, that was where, you know, Jimmy Kimmel was making jokes about him and Trump wanted him silenced ... He's trying to sow fear and he's trying to sow division in the country as a way of proving his strength."
Litigator and former federal prosecutor John P. Flannery told Melber called Trump's move a "march toward monarchy."
"You know, it's hard to read the tea leaves since he ignores the law to begin with," Flannery quipped. "But I sense that what he's trying to do is to get around the Insurrection Act."
Trump has two options, he can either go to the governor of the state and request consent using Section 251 of the Insurrection Act. By attacking Walz and the mayor he is eliminating "this prong of the Insurrection Act. And then he can go to Section 253." which has its own parts. It talks about "hinderingthe execution of the laws, andneither the governor nor themayor has hindered theexecution of the laws. Unless aforce that dresses up as lawenforcement officers, whenthey're nothing more than thugs,can go and kill people, kidnapthem, pull them out of cars,beat them up. And if that is the law, then there's something wrong with the law."
Watch the segment below: