Yesterday I wrote about Gov. Tim Walz sudden change of tone. After weeks of verbally escalating the conflict with ICE and the Trump administration, even saying on several occasions that the state was at war with the federal government, Walz suddenly pleaded for calm. At the time, it wasn't clear to me what had motivated his sudden change of heart. 

This afternoon, we're learning that both Walz and Frey are under investigation and subpoenas have been or are about to be issued to both men by the Department of Justice.

The Justice Department has issued subpoenas for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey as part of an investigation alleging that the two Democratic leaders are impeding federal law enforcement officers’ abilities to do their jobs in the state, two people familiar with the matter confirmed Friday...

One of the people familiar with the case confirmed that the plan was to serve the subpoenas Friday. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an open investigation...

The subpoenas suggest that the Justice Department is examining whether Walz’s and Frey’s public statements disparaging the surge of officers and federal actions have amounted to criminal interference in law enforcement work.

CBS News is reporting basically the same thing using their own sources.

The Justice Department is investigating Minnesota officials, including Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, over an alleged conspiracy to impede federal immigration agents, an extraordinary escalation in the Trump administration's clash with Democratic leaders there, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.

One of the sources, a U.S. official, said the investigation stems from statements that Walz and Frey have made about the thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents deployed to the Minneapolis region in recent weeks...

The federal inquiry is focused on a federal statute, 18 U.S.C. § 372, one U.S. official told CBS News, which makes it a crime for two or more people to conspire to prevent federal officers from carrying out their official duties through "force, intimidation or threats."

CBS credits Gov. Walz for calling for calm yesterday without mentioning all his comments about being at war with the feds in the days prior to that.

Walz and Frey have called for protests to remain peaceful. The governor urged Minnesotans not to "fan the flames of chaos" in a message on X Thursday.

I think both Frey and Walz (and many others on the left) have been extremely irresponsible with their language in the past few weeks, but does it cross the line from speech to incitement? Based on what I've seen thus far, I'd say no. Walz and Frey have encouraged protests but that's not illegal.

However, the specific statute this case is apparently being built around doesn't require that the people involved commit violence. Here's what it says:

If two or more persons in any State, Territory, Possession, or District conspire 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, or to induce by like means any officer of the United States to leave the place, where his duties as an officer are required to be performed, or to injure him in his person or property on account of his lawful discharge of the duties of his office, or while engaged in the lawful discharge thereof, or to injure his property so as to molest, interrupt, hinder, or impede him in the discharge of his official duties, each of such persons shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six years, or both.

Have Frey and Walz tried to intimidate ICE agents from doing their job or tried to make them leave the place where they are working? That seems like a closer call than an incitement to violence (which again, I don't see). They have been demanding that ICE leave the city. Frey famously said, "To ICE, get the f**k out of Minneapolis." Is that message, coming from the city's mayor, meant to intimidate the agents? Arguably, yes.

I'm sure by tomorrow we'll have 100 experts weighting in on how there's no case here. Maybe they'll be right. We'll have to wait and see where this goes.

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