The Department of Justice is reportedly investigating Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis for obstruction, a local news outlet reported.
Two federal officials on Friday told WCCO, a Minneapolis-area TV station, that a federal investigation was looking into whether Walz and Frey tried to block United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from carrying out operations to enforce immigration law. Reports of the investigation come after increased tensions in the area after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good during a Jan. 7 immigration enforcement operation after being struck by her vehicle and receiving hospital treatment for internal bleeding.
NEW: US officials confirm to @CBSNews the Department of Justice is investigating both @GovTimWalzand @MayorFrey for conspiracy to obstruct law enforcement. Dep AG Todd Blanche has called both out for “encouraging violence against law enforcement.” @WCCO
— Jonah Kaplan (@JonahPKaplan) January 16, 2026
Both Walz and Frey denounced the shooting, claiming the agent murdered Good, despite cell phone video taken by the ICE agent who fired the fatal shots showing that Good appeared to ignore commands from other ICE agents before backing up her car, looking right at the agent and accelerating towards him after her girlfriend shouted, “Drive, baby, drive!”
ICE deployed hundreds of agents into the Minneapolis area following reports of welfare fraud in Minnesota prompted President Donald Trump to announce in November he would end “Temporary Protected Status” for Somalis in Minneapolis. Federal officials estimate at least $9 billion in funds have been stolen by Somali scammers from various welfare programs, and the Treasury Department launched a probe following a report that some of the money stolen in the fraud scheme went to the Somalia-based radical Islamic terrorist group Al-Shabaab.
The DOJ probe is focusing on whether Walz and Frey, among other Minnesota officials, violated 18 U.S.C. § 372, which prohibits conspiring “to prevent, by force, intimidation, or threat, any person from accepting or holding any office, trust, or place of confidence under the United States, or from discharging any duties thereof,” CBS News reported.
Frey said Minneapolis police would not cooperate with the federal immigration enforcement operation during an interview with WCCO that aired Dec. 7. Minneapolis police have been criticized for failing to respond when anti-ICE rioters attacked federal agents and independent journalists.
Walz, in a Wednesday livestream, urged Minnesota residents to film ICE agents and said Trump and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem were carrying out an “occupation” of the state and that ICE was “dragging pregnant women.”
“If you see these ICE agents in your neighborhood, take out that phone and hit record. Help us create a database of the atrocities against Minnesotans, not just to establish a record for posterity, but to bank evidence for future prosecution,” Walz said.
“This is an obvious attempt to intimidate me for standing up for Minneapolis, our local law enforcement, and our residents against the chaos and danger this Administration has brought to our streets. I will not be intimidated. My focus will remain where it’s always been: keeping our city safe,” Frey claimed in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “America depends on leaders that use integrity and the rule of law as the guideposts for governance. Neither our city nor our country will succumb to this fear. We stand rock solid.”
Walz and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the DCNF.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/MSNBC)
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