Hours after federal agents fatally shot Alex Pretti, Attorney General Pam Bondi suggested that the Trump administration could withdraw officers from Minnesota - if officials there agreed to hand over reams of voter data.
In her letter to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Bondi suggested he could “restore the rule of law” by complying with a list of demands including turning over sensitive voter registration information to the Department of Justice.
State elections officials, attorneys and voting rights advocates called the letter “extortion” and the makings of a “hostage” crisis, marking the latest attempt by the Trump administration to extract voter information before crucial midterm elections this fall.
“It’s a shakedown,” Joanna Lydgate, chief executive officer of States United Democracy Center, a nonpartisan free elections advocacy group, said Monday.
“They’re trying now to use the power of the federal government to scare Minnesota officials into handing over voter rolls and backing down on their protective policies. Trump wants that state voter data so that he has the ability to interfere with the upcoming midterm elections.”
The Independent has asked the Justice Department for comment.
Since May, the DOJ has tried to vacuum up unredacted voter information from virtually every state, sparking legal battles with Democratic-led states that have largely resisted demands.
That information includes names, addresses, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers, though it remains unclear how the Trump administration intends to use or protect it.
Democrats have accused the Trump administration of radical overreach, fueled by the president’s bogus claims of “stolen” and “rigged” elections. Critics argue the claims are designed to cast doubt on outcomes he doesn’t like, setting the stage to overturn them.
The balance of power in Congress — and the fate of Trump’s agenda – are at stake in midterm elections this fall.
Bondi’s letter, echoing the administration’s allegations that Minnesota is embroiled in widespread fraud against the federal government, also called on Walz to repeal “sanctuary” policies and turn over Medicaid and food assistance records.
She wrote that turning over voter data will “better guarantee free and fair elections and boost confidence in the rule of law.”
Lawyers for the state of Minnesota pointed to Bondi’s letter during a federal court hearing Monday after suing the Trump administration to withdraw more than 2,000 federal officers from what they called an “unlawful and unchecked invasion.”
Bondi’s letter is “what you’d expect from someone extorting you,” Minnesota assistant attorney general Brian Carter told Judge Katherine Menendez.
Bondi’s request follows Homeland Security’s largest immigration enforcement operation yet in Minnesota, with officers violently facing off against protesters.
“Is the executive trying to achieve a goal through force that it cannot achieve through the courts?” Judge Menendez asked DOJ lawyers in court Monday.
“We’re here, as I’ve said, to enforce federal immigration law,” DOJ attorney Brantley Mayers replied. “There is nothing to back up this claim that we are here for another reason.”
Moments later, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to admit the terms of the federal government’s withdrawal.
If Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey implement “common-sense cooperative measures” laid out in Bondi’s letter, then border patrol officers “will no longer be needed to support ICE on the ground in Minnesota,” Leavitt told reporters at a White House briefing Monday afternoon.
The judge repeatedly asked whether the Minnesota surge would end if the state implemented all the policies outlined in Bondi’s letter.
“Doesn’t that say, ‘We’ll take the officers off the street if you change your policies?’” she asked.
That would be the “likely effect,” Mayers replied.
Last week, Minnesota rejected the Justice Department’s demand for same-day voter registration data. Secretary of State Steve Simon stressed that Bondi’s letter would not change the state’s mind.
“To tie this somehow to the tragedy around us — the bloodshed, the violence, the anguish that Minnesotans are going through — is something I just can’t explain,” he told Minnesota Public Radio.
Secretaries of state across the country joined Simon to condemn the letter.
“This isn’t leadership. This is blackmail,” said Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes.
“This is the way organized crime works,” he said in a statement. “They move into your neighborhood, they start beating everybody up, and then they extort what they want. This is not how America is supposed to work, and I’m embarrassed that the administration is pushing in this direction.”
Democrats in Congress want Bondi to testify about the administration’s “pretextual use of federal law enforcement to shake down” the state.
“The Trump administration has used its immigration and law enforcement powers as a pretext to unleash violence against the American public,” top Democrats on the House Administration and Homeland Security committees wrote Monday.
Bondi’s “ransom note” shows that the federal surge “has nothing to do with domestic security or executing the law and everything to do with the president’s political interests,” wrote Reps. Joe Morelle and Bennie Thompson.
The Trump administration acts as though it is a criminal syndicate: Minnesotans are literally held at gunpoint as hostages that [the] Attorney General would barter for voter information,” they wrote.
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