Press Release

Yesterday evening, Heartland Signal broke the news that three Minnesota Republican candidates for Attorney General pledged to use the office to defend insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. 

Almost 40 minutes into a January 25th forum, Republican Attorney General candidates were asked the following question: 

“Currently there are 8 Minnesotans being persecuted and prosecuted for exercising their constitutional rights by attending the January 6th rally in Washington D.C. in 2021…. As the top lawyer for the state, whose residents are having their rights violated by the federal government, if elected, what can you do for them? 

Wardlow responded, in part:

“As your attorney general, I will stand up for your Constitutional rights. I will go to bat for people that were improperly prosecuted, with respect to Jan. 6 incident, and we will push back against the federal government. I am the only candidate by the way who knows how to do this because I’ve been doing it for years.”

Wardlow’s pledge to defend the insurrectionists from Minnesota is all the more disturbing due to the severity of the crimes they stand accused of. Those arrested from Minnesota were part of a mob working to stop the peaceful transfer of power, and several stand accused of assaulting law enforcement to do so, including:

• Daniel and Daryl Johnson of Austin, who admitted that they “climbed through a broken window and then rushed a line of law enforcement officers to let other rioters inside.” 
• Brian Mock of Minneapolis, who was caught on camera “shoving two Capitol police officers to the ground, kicking one of them while he was down and stealing riot shields.”
• Isaac Westbury and Aaron James of Lindstrom, who stole a police riot shield and used it to assault an officer.

“Doug Wardlow’s pledge to use the Attorney General’s office to defend cop-beating rioters and insurrectionists is completely disqualifying,” said DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin. “We need an Attorney General like Keith Ellison who stands up for our democracy and fights violent crime, not one like Doug Wardlow who would go to bat for violent criminals.”

ICYMI: Minnesota GOP attorney general candidates: Staffers were at Jan. 6, rioters were ‘improperly prosecuted’

By Austin Linfante – 2/10/22

Three Minnesota GOP attorney general candidates, including 2018 party nominee Doug Wardlow, expressed support for the Jan. 6 rioters at a January forum.

The candidates gave both sentimental and explicit support for the rioters while responding to a question about how they would defend them in federal court. Wardlow, currently general counsel for MyPillow, cited previous cases he worked on as a lawyer as examples of how he would defend the rioters.

“As your attorney general, I will stand up for your Constitutional rights. I will go to bat for people that were improperly prosecuted, with respect to Jan. 6 incident, and we will push back against the federal government,” Wardlow said. “I am the only candidate by the way who knows how to do this because I’ve been doing it for years.”

Lynne Torgerson, a former criminal defense attorney in Minneapolis, said the rioters were “heroes” and that she had two staff members that attended the Jan. 6 riot. She then falsely claimed that President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory was illegitimate.

“It seemed … that the election of Joe Biden was somewhat of a coup and that the person who won was President [Donald] Trump,” Torgerson said.

[click here to read the full story]