Justice Department investigates Hennepin County Attorney’s Office over new race policy

The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, according to a social media post shared Saturday by U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon.

The announcement comes less than a week after a new policy was instituted by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty that asks prosecutors to consider racial identity in plea deals and charging decisions.

Dhillon, who leads the Justice Department’s of the Civil Rights Division, posted a letter addressed to Moriarty on the social media platform X.

It says the investigation will seek to determine if the county attorney‘s office “is engaged in a pattern or practice of depriving persons of rights, privileges, or immunities” that are protected by the Constitution.

Daniel Borgertpoepping, a spokesman for the county attorney’s office, said in a statement that the office know the letter was posted but has not received it.

“Our office will cooperate with any resulting investigation and we’re fully confident our policy complies with the law,” Borgertpoepping said.

The letter was attributed to Attorney General Pam Bondi, acting Associate Attorney General Chad Mizelle and Dhillon.

Employees within the office leaked the “Negotiations Policy for Cases Involving Adult Defendants” to Twin Cities media more than a week ago.

The policy is a comprehensive guide for prosecutorial decision-making and asked that attorneys consider racial identity as part of the “overall analysis” of a defendant.

Language about race appears in a section discussing Minnesota sentencing guidelines and when attorneys should seek upward or downward departures. It says departures should be “based on the unique analysis of the case” including criminal history, racial identity, age and public safety.

“Racial disparities harm our community, lead to distrust, and have a negative impact on public safety,” the policy says. “Prosecutors should be identifying and addressing racial disparities at decision points, as appropriate.”

Moriarty told the Minnesota Star Tribune last week the policy is constitutional and a necessary corrective to historical racism in the criminal justice system. She said asking prosecutors to consider potential unconscious racial bias at key moments was different than asking prosecutors to treat defendants differently based on race.

Michael Collins, a senior director at Color of Change, a nonprofit that advocates for civil rights, said the policy leaves plenty of room for healthy debate, but that is not what a Justice Department investigation will set out to do.

“We are in unprecedented territories here,” said Collins, who has worked with Moriarty in the past. “Department of Justice does not regularly do pattern and practice investigations on the basis of one word in a policy. It is nonsense.

He added: “What’s it going to lead to? A consent decree? Mary Moriarty being ousted from office? We don’t know.”

David Zimmer, a policy fellow at the Center of the American Experiment, said the speed with which the investigation was launched shows the policy was an affront to the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, which says that every citizen must be treated the same under the law.

”It looks like we didn’t need to wait too long to find out who would challenge Moriarty’s policy change,” said Zimmer, who worked in law enforcement for three decades and retired as a captain with the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office.

Collins disputed that argument. He said pattern and practice investigations of racial bias are typically launched in the wake of high-profile killings of people of color by police.

For instance, they were initiated after the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Freddie Gray in Baltimore.

“This administration has purposefully set about reversing and destroying those types of agreements,” Collins said. “Whatever you want to say about [Moriarty’s] policy, the policy is supposed to end racial biases or reduce racial biases.”

He said the Justice Department investigation is a case of “the tail wagging the dog” stemming from conservative media outrage over Moriarty’s decision last month to divert criminal charges against a man who keyed several Teslas around Minneapolis.

“We know already the DOJ is weaponizing its power to target people it believes are its enemies,” Collins said. “Mary Moriarty is a reform prosecutor and reform prosecutors are on the list.”

“Please be assured that we have not reached any conclusions about the subject matter of the investigation,” the letter says. “We will consider all relevant information, and we welcome your assistance in helping to identify what that might be.”