The current Federal regime deployed several thousand heavily armed and masked Federal agents to the Twin Cities region in Minnesota starting in December 2025, and those agents murdered peaceful legal observers in broad daylight soon after. Rather than investigate the murderers of United States citizens exercising their constitutional rights, according to a recent New York Times expose, the Federal administration opened a secret, invasive, and wide-ranging investigation into Minnesota’s faith-based organizations, unions, and other community groups that supported Minnesotans during the brutal and costly Federal occupation. The unprecedented investigation yielded the indictment of no group but instead the indictment of 15 individual Minnesotans – including a special education teacher and a Buddhist religious studies professor – who simply worked with their neighbors to keep the community safe. The United States Attorney’s Office in Minnesota now pursues the indictments in Federal court.
In a recent court filing to compel the Federal regime to stop withholding essential information and documents about the domestic spying on Minnesotans after the murder of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by Federal agents, the attorney for one of the 15 indicted Minnesotans summarized the situation in vivid terms:
“[U]undercover agents posing as protesters surveilled community meetings at churches, parks, libraries, schools and union halls. These agents surreptitiously recorded dozens of conversations with ordinary people who were simply exercising their First Amendment right to protest ICE’s lawless rampage in our state. The agents gathered information about Minnesotans from law enforcement databases and internet searches, and created dossiers that are apparently now available agency-wide. HSI’s abuses did not stop there. HSI secretly obtained financial records for several national labor unions, including SEIU and the Communications Workers of America, and social justice non-profits including the Sunrise Movement and Voices for Racial Justice, all with zero criminal predicate to do so. The government’s presentation to the grand jury reflected this broad and irrational investigation. With no evidence, the government alleged to the grand jury that the conspiracy in this case extends far beyond the defendants to include the AFL-CIO, the Minneapolis Federation of Educators, the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, Monarca, Veterans for Peace, and the Grease Pit bicycle repair shop, among others. These wild conspiracy allegations are born from the fantasies of political retribution that animate the Trump Administration. *** The administration has crystallized these sentiments into policies that encourage and authorize political prosecutions like this one. Most notably, in September 2025, President Trump issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (“NSPM-7”), which directs DOJ to prosecute ICE protesters and opponents of the administration. HSI cited NSPM-7 as its authority to open this case.”
According to reporting by the New York Times, the former Chief of the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney’s Office in Minnesota warned that “[a]n investigation should begin with a legitimate basis to suspect criminal conduct, not with a chosen institution or group. *** Prosecutors must follow the facts and the law wherever they lead, rather than select a target and work backwards to build a case.” In other words, the sweeping investigation of Minnesotans and their organizations deviates dramatically from proper prosecutorial procedure and severely threatens fundamental civil rights and civil liberties.
On the same day that the New York Times reported the Federal administration’s secret investigation of Minnesotans and their organizations, dozens of community groups jointly responded to emphasize their continuing commitment to protect everyone’s freedom of association, freedom of assembly, freedom of expression and, relatedly, the rule of law:
“We know the truth, and we will not be intimidated. When self-serving politicians are losing, they lie and attempt political repression, trying to silence the voices of those who bravely stand up to them. Minnesotans will not be intimidated or divided by sham accusations or investigations of some of the countless groups and community members who organized, acted, and stood up together to protect their neighbors during Operation Metro Surge. *** Trump’s ICE and Border Patrol agents broke countless laws while kidnapping Minnesotans based on racial profiling, violating our constitutional rights, and murdering our neighbors. In response, Minnesotans organized at an extraordinary scale. Across the state, Minnesotans joined with community, faith, labor, and neighborhood organizations to build networks that protected our neighbors and defended our constitutional rights. Hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans took action together, including constitutional observation, sharing food, filing legal briefs, protecting kids on their way to school, and marching in subzero weather to protect our neighbors and restore the rule of law. Minnesotans’ organized, peaceful response protected our neighbors, defended constitutional rights, and constrained abuses of federal power, showing what Minnesotans can accomplish when we act together. Around the country, the Trump regime’s weaponized DOJ is lashing out desperately in hopes of intimidating people and organizations that have shown the power of communities acting together to challenge abuses of government power and defend democracy. They are doubling down on their lies. In cases ranging from the Reflecting Pool in DC to the false accusations against a Minnesota man shot by ICE through a doorway, their charges have often crumbled or been withdrawn when evidence proved them false. *** We know the power we have when we organize and act together, and we’ll continue using that power to defend our neighbors and our freedoms. That’s what we do.”
