Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.

Wanna Be an Assistant U.S. Attorney?

Now’s your chance… if you’re willing to pledge blind loyalty to the Trump regime. Chad Mizelle, former chief of staff for the DOJ, invited attorneys who “support President Trump and anti-crime agenda” (looks like there’s a word missing there) to DM him, which is not usually the way some of the most sought-after legal jobs in the federal government are staffed.

But hey, these are desperate times. As the Star Tribune reports, eight more prosecutors are stepping down from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Minnesota, bringing the total resignations to 14 this year. According to the Strib, more than 40 assistant U.S. attorneys (AUSAs) have left since 2022; the staff is down from 50 to below 20. 

As you might guess with stats like that, it sounds like a real “living envying the dead” sitch in that office. For instance, civil division chief Anna Voss, who had been handling the many, many, many wrongful detention petitions generated by ICE and CBP indiscriminately snatching people off the street, wrote in a brief: “It has become apparent to me that I am not able to effectively triage and review every order which is not an acceptable practice for me or the United States.” Voss is among the latest wave of departures.

And today, Julie Le, an outside attorney doing contract work with the feds, melted down in court when Judge Jerry Blackwell demanded to know why his orders weren’t being complied with, according to KSTP’s Paul Blume. "I wish you would just hold me in contempt of court so I can get 24 hours of sleep," Blume quotes Le as saying. "The system sucks, this job sucks, I am trying with every breath I have to get you what I need."

In short: Barely trained goons and their inept bosses are creating mountains of paperwork for exhausted attorneys who now spend much of the day being yelled at by judges. 

This would be funny, except that every judge’s order dangling in administrative limbo means another person wrongfully detained that much longer. And also, the attorneys who’ve gone were the folks who were prosecuting the fraud cases that the Trump administration and its toadies in Congress claim to care so much about. No AUSA’s, no fraud prosecutions. Recent New York Times profile subject Nick Shirley must be outraged. 

The government’s priority instead? Prosecuting “alleged assaults or obstruction of law enforcement.” To that end, it is creating “emergency jump teams” to send lawyers to districts like Minnesota that are understaffed, Bloomberg Law reports. They will lose so many of these cases.

As for U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen, sources tell the Strib that in a recent meeting (just before everyone quit) he encouraged staffers “to keep an open mind” and “not be afraid to do unpopular things,” while assuring them he didn’t want them “to do anything illegal.” 

Help me out here: Is it a good sign when your boss says, “Hey, it’s not like I’m asking you to break the law or anything"?

MN GOP Reps Aiding Trump Election Takeover

U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN)—a notorious hockey cheater—now wants to help the Trump administration cheat at elections, too. On Tuesday, Stauber introduced something called the “Minnesota Voter Integrity Act of 2026," and you know any legislation with “integrity” or “freedom” or “children” or anything else wholesome in its name is gonna be horseshit. The rest of Minnesota’s GOP delegation to Congress—Reps. Tom Emmer, Brad Finstad, and Michelle Fischbach—also toed the party line and co-sponsored like the good little soldiers they are. 

The bill would withhold Help America Vote Act funding to Minnesota until the state turns over the election records demanded by corrupt U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon has denied Bondi's improper-as-fuck request (my words, not his), and the attorney general has responded by saying, essentially, that DHS thugs will continue to terrorize the state until her conditions are met.  

Why do Bondi and Trump want these records so bad? Well, we've got a president who insists that he won Minnesota three times (he did not), that the 2020 elections were "rigged," and who wants to nationalize elections (he should not). Goin' out on a limb here and saying that he and Bondi are up to no good. 

But Stauber? As long he can increase mining up north, he doesn’t mind much what else goes on. 

J6 Conspirator Running for State Senate 

Sorry to be a “gatekeeper” here, but I don’t think anyone convicted for storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, should be running to office. Then again, the guy who goaded ’em on is president now, so show’s how much my opinion matters.

Brian Mock, who was convicted of assaulting police officers at the J6 riot and was later pardoned by the man he rioted on behalf of, is running for Minnesota State Senate. In an interview with MPR News, Mock insists his actions have been misconstrued and misunderstood. “None of what was said about me was accurate in the media ever,” he tells MPR, calling himself a victim of a "false narrative."

Oh, and about that time he was convicted of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon in Anoka County?

According to a federal sentencing memo: Mock allegedly pointed a gun at the heads of three children during his oldest son’s birthday party. He believed the three children, ages 11 to 14, were trying to start a fire in his backyard. He grabbed a gun from his home and pointed it at their heads, threatening to shoot them. A woman who witnessed the scene called 911 and a local SWAT team arrived, setting up a perimeter. Mock refused to leave his house, barricaded himself inside and told police they’d need a warrant. He was later coaxed out of the house by the SWAT team. The FBI later interviewed one of the parents of the children who said the incident psychologically traumatized both him and the child.

"Mock said that case was also blown out of proportion," MPR reports.

This guy just can’t catch a break!

How You Can Help: Mercado Central

As we all know, DHS forces are not in Minnesota to “enforce immigration law,” except incidentally. They’re here to ruin lives and destroy our local economy. And so they have focused so much of their rage on two Minneapolis thoroughfares—Lake Street and Central Avenue—that have been the home to thriving immigrant-owned businesses.

All of those businesses need our support right now, but there’s one 26-year-old south Minneapolis cooperative that’s in dire need. Mercado Central is the home of 35 family businesses, all of which are struggling to pay rent as their customers have been sent into hiding. According to a GoFundMe created last week, this now only endangers the individual businesses, but Mercado Central is in danger of losing its building as well. 

"Most of these businesses have experienced sales reductions of more than 90%, and in many cases 100%," the crowdfunding campaign reads. "This trend is likely to continue for an indefinite period as customers, despite of immigration status, fear harassment when circulating in public spaces."

They’ve raised nearly half of the $500,000 they need, but that leaves over $250,000 to go.