The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the Minneapolis-area Hennepin County Attorney’s Office’s new guidance to consider the race of defendants when negotiating plea deals.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, Acting Associate Attorney General Chad Mizelle and Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon notified Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty of the investigation in a letter. The DOJ is working to determine whether the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office “engaged in a pattern of practice of depriving persons of rights, privileges or immunities secured or protect by the Constitution or laws of the United States.”

The letter, which was sent on May 2, citied Morty’s new “Negotiations Policy for Cases Involving Adult Defendants,” which instructs prosecutors to consider race when negotiating plea deals.

“While racial identity and age are not appropriate grounds for departures [from the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines], proposed resolutions should consider the person charged as a whole person, including their racial identity and age,” Moriarty’s directive reads.  “While these factors should not be controlling, they should be part of the overall analysis.”

“In particular, the investigation will focus on whether HCAO engages in illegal consideration of race in its prosecutorial decision-making,” reads the letter, which was posted to X by Dhillon.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty speaks at a press conference on June 3, 2024

“We will investigate whether this policy results in plea negotiations and practices that treat individuals differently based on race, in violation of the U.S. Constitution and federal law, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” Bondi, Mizelle and Dhillon continued.

“As you may be aware, the Department of Justice has previously conducted pattern-or-practice investigations to determine whether state or local prosecutor’s offices engage in a pattern or practice of depriving persons of rights secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States, with a focus on racial discrimination in the criminal justice system.”

The letter said the Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Sections will oversee the investigation and will be in contact with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office “shortly to set up a mutually agreeable date and time to discuss the parameters of this investigation, including the scope of information that we will be seeking from you.”

Moriarty is among the wave of progressive district attorneys elected in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter riots in 2020. Like similar progressive D.A.’s in Philadelphia, Los Angeles and St. Louis, she has received considerable funding from groups tied to Democrat mega donor George Soros.

After serving as the chief public defender for the county, Moriarty was elected as Hennepin County Attorney in 2023 after pledging to scrutinize the city’s police force while on the campaign trail.

Last month, Moriarty generated national headlines when she refused to prosecute a Minnesota State Employee who admitted to causing more than $10,000 dollars in damage across numerous vandalism incidents targeting Tesla vehicles.