Lawsuit filed to release documents on Walz, civil unrest response

(ABC 6 News) – Public Record Media, a non-profit based in St. Paul, has filed a lawsuit related to a public data request submitted to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety focusing on data used in a report on the state’s civil unrest response from May 27 to June 7, 2020.

The data request was submitted in August of 2022. It sought information regarding interviews with top state officials, including Governor Tim Walz, who is now the Democratic Party nominee for Vice President.

PRM says the lawsuit comes as the state has failed to produce documents in the last two years that would detail how state officials, including Governor Walz, defended their roles in the response to the 2020 civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd.

PRM says it has been told DPS “does not have” some of the data requested.

According to the lawsuit, “there has been and is ongoing public interest” in data related to the state’s role in responding to the civil unrest and that data “should be accessible to the American public prior to the Presidential election in November 2024.”

As part of the lawsuit, PRM is asking a judge to force the state to disclose the data, award damages, grant injunctive relief and issue a declaratory judgment for the plaintiff.

The full civil complaint can be viewed here: