Former U.S. Attorney Andy Luger warns of a "Washington takeover" in Minnesota's Department of Justice Office.
Luger, who stepped away from the office last January, says that Minnesota's federal prosecutor's office has shifted toward total control by the Trump administration.
He says that type of control from Washington has "never happened before," and has been leading to an alarming rate of staff departures. It has also come with a singular focus on national mandates, like immigration enforcement, over local concerns. He specifically mentioned reducing local gang crime, and the state's issues with fraud.
Speaking to WCCO's Chad Hartman, Luger says that as federal resources pivot away from traditional priorities, those things may slip through the cracks.
"You're not doing the big gang cases," Luger said. "And the gangs didn't disappear, you know? They're still out there, and my fear is they're sort of rebuilding during this time period. You're not doing the fraud cases that we desperately need done."
Another issue Luger mentions is overloading the courts, saying he's not sure how the local court system will manage the backlog of unaddressed criminal cases on top of the influx of new federal cases moving forward.
Using the word "abhorrent," Luger added the office is now prioritizing politically-aligned lawyers over veteran candidates, a sharp reversal of the office's history, and his own history of nonpartisan hiring.
"I want people who have good judgment. I want people who can look at a case and determine if it's something we can really prosecute or not," he says. Is it worth our time?"
Luger says he's worried all this could lead to a long-term erosion of the office's professional standards.
After Luger stepped away just over a year ago, Joseph Thompson became the Interim U.S. Attorney and continued the work began by Luger, bringing more fraud cases forward. New U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen, who Luger describes as "smart," was appointed by the Trump administration late last year.
Since then, Thompson and a number of other U.S. Attorneys have stepped away from the office leading to disarray, something Rosen admits to in court documents.
"This flood of new litigation imposes an enormous burden on this U.S. Attorney's Office. The pace of such cases is expected to continue," Rosen said recently.
Luger said he knows at leat 14 attorneys have suddenly departed the office, and added that number could be a little higher. During some of Luger's tenure, he said up to 70 U.S. Attorneys worked in the office with plans to hire even more due to the state's fraud investigations including Feeding Our Future.
Those numbers are now reported to be around 17 with multiple District Court judges in Minnesota hammering federal agencies because they have been ignoring dozens and dozens of court orders, adding to the crushing caseloads facing the DOJ attorneys.