Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has said he will “not be intimidated” amid reports the Trump administration has launched an investigation over comments he made while trying to curb violent immigration raids in the city.
Multiple media outlets reported on Friday that the United States Justice Department had opened a criminal investigation into Frey, as well as Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who was also the Democratic candidate for vice president in 2024, for impeding federal law enforcement through public statements.
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The investigation was first reported by CBS News, although it was not immediately publicly confirmed by the Justice Department.
“This is an obvious attempt to intimidate me for standing up for Minneapolis, local law enforcement, and residents against the chaos and danger this Administration has brought to our city,” Frey said in a post on X, responding to the reports of an investigation.
“I will not be intimidated. My focus remains where it’s always been: keeping our city safe,” Frey wrote.
Walz responded indirectly to the reports that he was also being investigated, saying in a statement: “Weaponising the justice system and threatening political opponents is a dangerous, authoritarian tactic.
“Two days ago it was Elissa Slotkin. Last week it was Jerome Powell. Before that, Mark Kelly,” Walz added.
US senators Kelly, from Arizona, and Slotkin, from Michigan, are under investigation by the Trump administration after appearing with other Democratic lawmakers in a video urging members of the military to resist “illegal orders” given by their superiors.
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The administration has also launched a criminal investigation of Powell, a first for a sitting Federal Reserve chair.
The reported investigation of Frey and Walz came as further details were revealed on Friday of the shooting death of Minneapolis resident Renee Nicole Good by Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer Jonathan Ross last week.
Fire department records showed that paramedics found the victim unresponsive in her car, with four apparent gunshot wounds, including one to her head and two to her chest.
Emergency responders tried to revive her, both at the scene and in the ambulance en route to the hospital. She was pronounced dead less than an hour after being shot.
The Trump administration has claimed that the ICE agent who shot Good, and has not been charged over the killing, was acting in self-defence.
Top Trump officials, including US Vice President JD Vance and White House adviser Stephen Miller, have said that ICE officers have “absolute immunity” for their actions.
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