Legal heavyweight with lengthy Justice Department ties enters Hennepin County Attorney race

Anders Folk, the former acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota and now a civil and criminal litigator, officially entered the race for Hennepin County Attorney on Thursday.

“We’ve burned the boats,” Folk said in an interview with the Star Tribune, joking that there’s no turning back now.

He is the fourth candidate to enter what figures to become a crowded field to lead the largest prosecutorial office in the state after Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced in August that she would not run for a second term. Folk’s unique résumé is peppered with legal experience in the military, federal government and private practice. The self-confessed news junkie said at a time where it’s easy to yell at your TV over the state of public safety, he felt an obligation to find solutions.

“I’ve got a pretty unique set of skills and lived experiences, personal and professional, and I feel like I can make a difference at a time when we need a difference to be made,” Folk said.

His candidacy comes with the endorsement of Andrew Luger, the former U.S. Attorney for Minnesota.

Folk, 48, said he is running for Hennepin County Attorney to restore public trust in the office at a time when he thinks it has plummeted. He said his “north star” for the office would be the rule of law and trusting the judgment of “incredible career prosecutors.” While community members from police chiefs to educators and spiritual leaders need to have a seat at the table to discuss policy and charging decisions, Folk said the County Attorney’s Office “is not a classroom where we’re going to go and test theories and see what happens.”

“Just to be clear,” Folk said. “Day one, for me, the Mary Moriarty era ends and we’re going in a new direction.”

Folk studied law at the University of Minnesota and joined the Marines as a student. After a summer “getting his teeth kicked in by the Marines” in Quantico, Va., he finished law school in the reserves. He went to work at the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office when it was led by current U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Folk reported for Marine training and then went to the Naval Justice School in Rhode Island. He spent several years as first a defender and then a prosecutor in military tribunals, including trials for war crimes, unique military offenses, murder and rape.

He then started a lengthy legal career with the federal government, including as an assistant U.S. Attorney in Minneapolis where he prosecuted the al-Shabaab terrorist organization that had recruited several Minnesotans to fight in Somalia. Folk was elevated to acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota for several months in 2021 under President Joe Biden. He filed federal civil rights violation charges against Derek Chauvin for the killing of George Floyd and initiated the pattern and practice investigation for civil rights violations against the Minneapolis Police Department.

After that, a cold call led Folk to Washington, D.C., where he served as legal counsel to United States Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco when Merrick Garland was Attorney General. He helped on cases involving an armed man threatening to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and managed the civil rights portfolio for the office, helping prepare for the federal trials into the killings of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.

Looking back at those experiences, Folk said he has had an “incredibly lucky” career. In the moment, however, there was endless travel, sleepless nights and a general feeling of “did that really just happen?”

His love of criminal law has focused on both sides of the equation. He said some of the most intense experiences of his career have been standing alongside criminal defendants who are being sentenced to prison. “You can hear their heart beat,” Folk said.

“Follow the facts, apply the law,” Folk said.

The race to replace Moriarty now includes Folk, three-term state Rep. Cedrick Frazier from New Hope, Senior Ramsey County Attorney Hao Nguyen and Minneapolis attorney and former DFL nominee for state Attorney General Matthew Pelikan.