{"id":202399,"date":"2026-03-04T22:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T22:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/federal-judge-demands-answers-from-top-minnesota-prosecutor-in-extraordinary-contempt-hearing-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T22:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T22:43:10","slug":"federal-judge-demands-answers-from-top-minnesota-prosecutor-in-extraordinary-contempt-hearing-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/federal-judge-demands-answers-from-top-minnesota-prosecutor-in-extraordinary-contempt-hearing-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal judge demands answers from top Minnesota prosecutor in 'extraordinary' contempt hearing – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A federal judge clashed with Minnesota\u2019s top federal prosecutor<\/a> at a contempt hearing in a series of what the judge called \u201ctesty and frosty\u201d exchanges Tuesday after he accused the federal government of violating multiple court orders to return property to immigrants who had been unlawfully detained.
In an unusual move, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan demanded that Daniel Rosen, the U.S. attorney for Minnesota; David Fuller, the acting chief of the U.S. attorney’s office; and an ICE official appear in court in St. Paul on Tuesday for \u201cnumerous unlawful violations of court orders,\u201d combining 28 different federal immigration cases. The order says the rights of the 28 people have been repeatedly violated through the government\u2019s failure to return personal property taken from the immigrants, who were illegally detained during Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota.
Last week, Bryan ordered the officials to come in and \u201cshow cause why they should not be held in civil or criminal contempt.\u201d
Bryan started the hearing Tuesday by calling it \u201can extraordinary measure\u201d and said it would be a \u201chistoric low point\u201d for the U.S. attorney\u2019s office if he held anyone in contempt.
Later, as Bryan called a break, he acknowledged he and Rosen had \u201cbeen a little testy and frosty with each other.\u201d
Bryan did not immediately rule Tuesday on whether Rosen or others could be held in contempt and did not give a timeline for a decision.
Things were calmer in the afternoon, with Rosen saying there \u201cwas no defiance, no disobedience,\u201d over judicial orders. He said compensation would be paid in cases where immigrants\u2019 property was lost, problems he said would \u201cfall into the realm of human error,\u201d and that the government believes property was returned in other cases.
The belongings included identification and immigration documents, passports, driver\u2019s licenses and work permits, as well as cash, cellphones, clothing and jewelry.
\u201cThe government believes contempt is far beyond anything that ought to be considered here today,\u201d Rosen said.
Rosen\u2019s office is facing a serious staff shortage. A series of prosecutors have left<\/a> the office over the past year, including a recent group who left amid growing frustration with the administration\u2019s immigration enforcement and the Justice Department\u2019s response to two fatal shootings<\/a> by federal officers in Minneapolis.<\/a>
A spokesman for the Department of Justice said in a statement to NBC News Wednesday that \u201cdistrict court judges in Minnesota have abandoned any pretense of being impartial arbiters of the law and have sprinted past mere activism to straight partisanship and embarrassing theater.\u201d
\u201cDespite several good faith attempts by the Department to address the deluge of often non-meritorious habeas claims, the judges in Minnesota continue to employ intimidation and humiliation tactics to win the favor of political commentators in Washington, DC,\u201d the spokesperson said.
\u201cThis Department will continue to enforce the laws passed by Congress to advance President Trump\u2019s mandate to increase public safety for all Americans,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cWe will not be deterred or intimidated in that mission by these shortsighted and immature tactics.\u201d
In the federal immigration cases, Bryan previously ordered the release of the 28 immigrants, \u201call of whom had been unlawfully detained,\u201d as well as the immediate return of their belongings. The court had also ordered the federal government to provide documentation of the return of the property.
In Bryan\u2019s order Thursday calling for the hearing, he wrote that the court had notified the federal government that if it did not comply by 11 a.m. Feb. 25, it would face contempt proceedings.
\u201cAs of the date of this Order, Respondents have not complied,\u201d Bryan wrote. \u201cThe Court cannot ignore Respondents\u2019 unlawful conduct.\u201d
Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to a request for comment.
More than 1,000 habeas corpus petitions have challenged the legality of arrests in Minnesota and called for the release of immigrants detained since the operation began in December.
The volume of petitions has overwhelmed the court system<\/a> and led to strong rebukes<\/a> and criticism from multiple federal judges, who have warned the government it will face contempt proceedings if it continues to refuse to comply with court orders.
\u201cThis Court will continue to do whatever is required to protect the rule of law, including, if necessary, moving to the use of criminal contempt,\u201d Patrick Schiltz, the chief federal judge in Minnesota, wrote in an order last week. \u201cOne way or another, ICE will comply with this Court\u2019s orders.\u201d
In a late January order, Schiltz included a list of 96 court orders he said ICE had violated in 74 cases since Jan. 1.
\u201cThe extent of ICE\u2019s noncompliance is almost certainly substantially understated,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThis list should give pause to anyone\u2014no matter his or her political beliefs\u2014who cares about the rule of law. ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.\u201d
The administration has blamed judges for the crisis, accusing them of failing to follow the law and rushing cases.
The showdown in Minnesota court Tuesday is a part of a growing wave of confrontations across the U.S. between increasingly frustrated judges and Justice Department officials.
Late last month, a judge in West Virginia chastised U.S. and state officials for jailing noncitizens indefinitely, saying it violated their constitutional right to due process.
\u201cContinued detention without individualized custody determinations, after this court\u2019s repeated holdings that such detention violates the Fifth Amendment, will result in legal consequences,\u201d U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin said in his order.
A recent New York Times review<\/a> found at least 35 instances since August, spanning multiple states, in which federal judges issued \u201cshow cause\u201d orders calling on the government to explain why it should not be held in contempt.
The orders came from judges in California, Texas, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York and other states, according to the Times.
Daniella Silva is a national reporter for NBC News, focusing on immigration and education.
Gary Grumbach is an NBC News legal affairs reporter, based in Washington, D.C.
The Associated Press
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeA federal judge clashed with Minnesota\u2019s top federal prosecutor at a contempt hearing in a series of what the judge called \u201ctesty and frosty\u201d exchanges Tuesday after he accused the federal government of violating multiple court orders to return property to immigrants who had been unlawfully detained.In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":202400,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-202399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}