‘All-out assault on our democracy:’ Bondi’s Minnesota ‘blackmail’ letter draws righteous fury from state election leaders

State election leaders and voting rights advocates across the country are blasting U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi for exploiting the killing of a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis by a federal immigration officer to “blackmail” Minnesota into handing over access to its unredacted voter rolls.

Hours after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and killed Alex Pretti — a 37-year-old VA ICU nurse who was protesting federal agents’ aggressive immigration tactics in Minneapolis — Saturday, Bondi sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz (D) suggesting that the Trump administration would withdraw ICE agents from Minnesota if Walz complied with a list of demands, including giving the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) unrestricted access to the state’s full voter registration records.

During a press conference Sunday, Walz refused to comply with Bondi’s offer. 

“The way to fix this is, is get these folks out of here,” Walz said, referring to ICE’s operations in Minneapolis. “I think everybody understands what the last request was — totally unrelated to anything on the voter files. This is, again, as the attorney general said, Donald Trump telling everybody that the election was rigged, who started all this nightmare for America… And I would just give a pro tip to the Attorney General: There’s 2 million documents in the Epstein files we’re still waiting on. Go ahead and work on those.”

Since May, the DOJ has been on a warpath to obtain unredacted voter roll data from every state, which includes private information like driver’s license and social security numbers for every voter. Many states have pushed back against the DOJ’s demands, sparking a legal battle with the department suing at least 23 states and the District of Columbia to get their hands on private voter data. 

Minnesota has long refused the DOJ access to its unredacted voter rolls — and last week rejected the department’s demand for data on its same-day voter registration and vouching system. After Bondi’s latest attempt to use the recent tragedies to blackmail Minnesota into handing over sensitive voter data, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon (D) reiterated that he would not comply with DOJ’s demands. 

“To tie this somehow to the tragedy around us — the bloodshed, the violence, the anguish that Minnesotans are going through — is something I just can’t explain,” Simon reportedly said.

Simon wasn’t the only secretary of state to put Bondi on blast. 

“Here’s the bottom line… they’re not entitled to that data,” said Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D). “This isn’t leadership. This is blackmail. This is the way organized crime works. They move into your neighborhood, they start beating everybody up, and then they extort what they want. This is not how America is supposed to work, and I’m embarrassed that the administration is pushing in this direction.”

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) said in a statement that Bondi’s letter “made explicit what has long been clear: ICE is invading our states and inflicting violence in order to create chaos and control our states and elections.” 

“Let me say this clearly for President Trump: Maine will never turn over our voter rolls as a ransom payment to get ICE to end its unconstitutional assault on our state,” Bellows added. “Our founders designed a system where states and local governments, not the federal government, oversee elections to safeguard us from exactly this — a tyrannical, power-hungry president trampling on our constitutional rights.”

In a statement, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) said that Bondi is “using the violence, pain, and chaos that ICE is inflicting as a pretext to double down on their unlawful demands for the state’s voter rolls.”

“I am horrified that this administration would inflict violence and chaos on American communities and continue to pressure the state into handing over its voter data,” Griswold added. “This is wrong, morally bankrupt, and a disgrace to the America that I know and love.”

In a statement to Fox News, the DOJ rejected the characterization of Bondi’s letter as “blackmail.”

“These politicians are shamelessly lying,” a DOJ spokesperson said. “This is what happens when you’re on the side of criminal illegal aliens.”

But it’s not just state election leaders who are admonishing Bondi’s attempt to blackmail Minnesota for access to sensitive voter data. 

“Pam Bondi drafted and sent a threatening letter to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz attempting to extort the state into handing over its voter rolls as part of an ongoing campaign to undermine local elections and build a national database for Trump’s political revenge and retribution,” DNC chair Ken Martin said in a statement. “The Trump administration thinks it can threaten and intimidate through violence and coercion, but they’re wrong. The DNC will stand with local elected officials and fight like hell, including in the courts, to protect our democracy and the rights of voters in Minnesota and across the country.”

On MS NOW Monday, Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, called Bondi’s letter an “extortion” to try and interfere with the upcoming midterm elections. 

“This extortion letter being sent to Minnesota, that was an extortion letter trying to say ‘you give us access to your voter rolls so we can try to potentially interfere with upcoming elections,’” Perryman said. “What we are seeing unfold in Minnesota is not about immigration or protests, it is about an autocratic power grab. It looks like they are heading for our elections. That is the work of the next year to resist that and protect our free and fair elections.”

In a press briefing with reporters, Joanna Lydgate, president and CEO of States United Democracy Center, also warned that Bondi’s letter could be the first step for the Trump administration to meddle in the 2026 midterm elections.

“If this sounds like an all-out assault on our democracy by the Trump administration, that’s because it is,” Lydgate said. “They are definitely laying the groundwork to try to interfere with the election, if they aren’t happy with the results — and they very well might not be. Because, as we’re watching continuously with the polling and the response in cities like Minneapolis, Americans are not happy with what they’re seeing right now.”