Klobuchar Delivers Remarks to National District Attorneys Association

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) delivered remarks to the National District Attorneys Association's 2026 Prosecutor Advocacy Conference this morning, highlighting the essential work of district attorneys across the country.

In her remarks, Klobuchar, who served as Hennepin County Attorney before serving in the U.S. Senate, emphasized the importance of local, state and federal law enforcement coordination in upholding the rule of law and advancing public safety in Minnesota and across the country.

"I think you've all seen what's going on in Minnesota….one of the things that has given us strength is just the law enforcement across the country who've stood up.

We are at the center of America's heartbreak but also at the center of America's hope and courage - and strength in standing up for the rule of law. That's not just the 50,000 protestors….it's also about our local prosecutors. It's about our judges.

I would note, and maybe you've read, the opinion of the chief federal judge who is a conservative. He clerked for [Justice] Scalia. He was a Bush appointee and he wrote this very moving order about the need to follow the orders that the individual judges in our district have issued. Another one who's a Trump appointee, who I supported, named Eric Tostrud, wrote an order about preserving evidence. So I've been proud of our judges as well. Of course, our local county's attorneys.

And I think that when that coordination [between local, state, and federal law enforcement] breaks down, as we've seen happen with what was a gem of a U.S. Attorney's office [in Minnesota]…it's always been a very apolitical U.S. Attorney's Office that worked with local officials on the abduction of Jacob Wetterling. I did the second biggest white collar case to the Madoff case…the Petters case. And of course recently have been leading the way on taking on fraud in our state taxpayer money. [The Office has] done just some unbelievable work.

One of the U.S. attorneys won the Justice Department's Attorney General's Office award two years in a row for what they did. A lot of that, through the Annunciation Church shooting - through stained glass windows in August - through the assassination of our beloved political leader, Melissa Hortman and her husband. This was airtight coordination during the Trump Administration between the U.S. Attorney's Office and the local [officials] with Chief O'Hara.

And that's why this has, for our just civic world, been such a breakdown, and that's why we're calling for objective and impartial investigations. That's why Senator Smith and I have made very clear we want the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in Minnesota, a very professional group, to be able to be involved in any of these investigations."

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