Department of Justice announced investigations into Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey

The Move of a nakedly political act of intimidation — not law enforcement, but retaliation.

By SDC News One, IFS News Writers

WASHINGTON [IFS] -- On Friday, the Department of Justice announced investigations into Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, accusing them of obstructing federal law enforcement. Both officials immediately pushed back, calling the move a nakedly political act of intimidation — not law enforcement, but retaliation.

The timing and targets are not occurring in isolation. They are the latest entries in a growing list of investigations, firings, and punitive actions carried out by the Trump administration against perceived critics and obstacles to its agenda. That list now stretches across the media, academia, state and local governments, and deep into the federal bureaucracy itself. What was once considered unthinkable — the Justice Department openly wielded as a political weapon — is now being defended as routine.

Supporters of the administration frame these actions as accountability. Critics warn they represent something far more dangerous: the systematic erosion of prosecutorial independence and the conversion of federal law enforcement into an instrument of political discipline.

Joining Hari to discuss what’s happening inside the Justice Department is former Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Gordon. Gordon spent years as a federal prosecutor and served as a senior member of the DOJ’s January 6th insurrection team — before being abruptly fired last year. He is now suing the Trump administration, alleging his dismissal was politically motivated.

Gordon argues that the Justice Department he once served no longer functions as a neutral guardian of the law, but as a tool of executive power. In this conversation, he explains what that transformation looks like from the inside, why it matters far beyond Minnesota, and what it means for the survival of the rule of law in the United States.