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It was only about five months ago that all eyes were on Minnesota, where horrific images revealed federal agents arresting a 5-year-old with an active asylum case, ripping a disabled woman out of her car as she tried to make her way to a doctor’s appointment, and killing Renee Good and Alex Pretti in broad daylight. The Trump administration shamelessly tried to use Minnesota to set an example for other Democrat-led states: This is what you will face, too, should you choose not to cooperate with the president’s mass-deportation agenda. The barrage of federal agents also came with criminal investigations, with the Justice Department issuing subpoenas to Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and other top Minnesota officials, accusing them of impeding federal agents’ immigration enforcement duties. Now, however, as the dust has settled and the administration’s legal challenges are making their way through the judiciary, the public is getting a closer look at just how feckless the Trump administration was in Minneapolis.

Think back to when federal agents first touched down in Minnesota back in January and began wreaking havoc on local communities. Walz urged the public to “speak out loudly, urgently, but also peacefully.” Frey, speaking at a press conference, was less subtle. “To ICE: Get the fuck out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here.”

That immediately pissed off the White House. President Donald Trump publicly threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act if the “corrupt politicians of Minnesota” did not comply with this immigration enforcement, and then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche accused Walz and Frey of “encouraging violence against law enforcement” and vowed to stop their “terrorism by whatever means necessary.” By late January, just days after Walz and Frey filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department served subpoenas to Walz, Frey, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners, and the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners. The grand jury subpoenas were in pursuit of information related to federal immigration enforcement, including any policies, guidance, or suggestions issued that related to cooperating, or not, with federal authorities.

The Minnesota officials banded together to challenge the subpoenas, and on Monday, U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz decisively ruled against the Trump administration. Schiltz is no liberal; he’s a protégé of conservative legend Justice Antonin Scalia and was appointed to his post by Republican former President George W. Bush. Yet in no uncertain terms, he concluded there was “no doubt” that the Trump administration had taken a “blatantly unlawful and unethical use of the grand jury process” in order to harass its political opponents and coerce them into taking official action.

And when it was asked to defend itself, Schiltz said the Justice Department struggled to identify a single plausible explanation that would have justified its subpoenas. It cited violations of federal statutes by members of the........

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