The District of Minnesota is where the federal government prosecuted what it has called the largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the nation — the $250 million Feeding Our Future case, which has now produced more than seventy-five defendants, a brazen attempt to bribe a sitting juror, and a 500-month sentence for the scheme’s founder. It is also a single statewide court covering all 87 counties, with a docket that runs heavily to drugs and firearms and a trial rate nearly double the national average. Anyone facing federal scrutiny in Minnesota is dealing with one of the most active and closely watched districts in the Eighth Circuit.
What follows is a working defense lawyer’s guide to this court: the four staffed courthouses from Minneapolis to Fergus Falls, the seven-judgeship bench, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and its signature prosecutions, the fiscal year 2024 sentencing data, and the appellate and post-conviction landscape beyond. Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. represents federal defendants nationwide — in the District of Minnesota through pro hac vice admission — in trial, appellate, and post-conviction matters. Among her current recognitions, Elizabeth Franklin-Best appears in Best Lawyers in America 2026 as a “Best Lawyer” in Appellate Practice and holds a Chambers USA 2026 ranking for Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations. This page is one of the district guides in our federal courts directory.
Whether the issue is a federal fraud investigation in the Twin Cities, an indictment in Duluth, or a sentence that needs appellate review, we offer a paid, one-hour initial consultation that examines your case the way we would litigate it.
Table of Contents
Quick Answer: District of Minnesota
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What court handles federal cases in Minnesota? | The U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota — one statewide district serving all 87 counties, with staffed divisional offices in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, and Fergus Falls. |
| Who leads the bench? | Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz, heading seven authorized district judgeships under 28 U.S.C. § 133, with senior judges and seven full-time magistrate judges alongside (as of mid-2026). |
| Who prosecutes federal cases here? | The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota under Daniel N. Rosen, Senate-confirmed after his May 2025 nomination to succeed Andrew M. Luger. |
| What is the Feeding Our Future case? | A $250 million child-nutrition fraud prosecution — the largest COVID-19 fraud scheme charged in the nation — with more than 75 defendants; founder Aimee Bock was sentenced to 500 months in May 2026. |
| What fills the docket? | FY2024 sentencings ran 42.1% drug trafficking, 27.4% firearms (double the national share), and 9.5% fraud — with a 5.0% trial rate, well above the 2.8% national figure. |
| Which circuit hears appeals? | The Eighth Circuit, whose courthouse in St. Paul sits inside this district even though the court is headquartered in St. Louis. |
| Where are post-conviction motions filed? | A § 2255 motion attacking a District of Minnesota conviction is filed back in this court, before the sentencing judge. |
| How would the firm handle my case? | Trial-level work through pro hac vice admission, appeals through our standing Eighth Circuit admission — starting, always, with a paid, one-hour initial consultation. |
Key Takeaways
- Minnesota is one federal district with six statutory divisions under 28 U.S.C. § 103; the court staffs offices in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, and Fergus Falls, while Winona, Mankato, and Bemidji remain statutory seats without staffed offices.
- Seven authorized district judgeships under § 133 anchor the bench, led as of mid-2026 by Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz, with an unusually deep corps of senior judges still hearing cases.
- The Feeding Our Future prosecution — over 75 defendants, a $250 million federal child-nutrition fraud — has defined this district’s white-collar docket since 2022, through trials, a juror-bribery scheme, and a 500-month sentence for founder Aimee Bock in May 2026.
- Daniel N. Rosen became the district’s Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney after his May 2025 nomination, succeeding Andrew M. Luger.
- FY2024 sentencings: drug trafficking 42.1%, firearms 27.4% — more than double the national share — fraud 9.5%, with 380 individuals sentenced in all.
- Five percent of cases here went to trial in FY2024, nearly twice the national rate — a meaningful fact when weighing whether to plead or fight.
- Appeals run to the Eighth Circuit, and Rule 4(b) allows just 14 days from entry of judgment to notice the appeal.
- The circuit’s compassionate-release numbers are the nation’s most demanding, which puts a premium on rigorously documented motions.
- We represent District of Minnesota clients at trial through pro hac vice admission and on appeal and post-conviction review through our Eighth Circuit admission.
The District of Minnesota at a Glance
Minnesota constitutes a single judicial district under 28 U.S.C. § 103, divided into six divisions that together take in all 87 counties. The statute names seven places of holding court — Winona, Mankato, Saint Paul, Minneapolis, Duluth, Fergus Falls, and (since 2008) Bemidji — but the court itself describes four staffed divisional offices as of mid-2026: Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, and Fergus Falls. A case arising in Rochester or Mankato, in other words, will almost certainly be litigated in one of those four courthouses, whatever the statute’s older map suggests.
Because the district is statewide, a single grand jury investigation can sweep from International Falls to Albert Lea without any venue complication — something the Feeding Our Future prosecution demonstrated at scale. Appeals go to the Eighth Circuit, which, while headquartered in St. Louis, maintains its second courthouse in St. Paul and regularly hears argument there.
Day-to-day procedure runs on the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure overlaid with the district’s local rules — attorney admission and practice are governed by Local Rule 83.5 — and with each judge’s published practice pointers, which this court maintains with unusual care. We read all of it before the first appearance, because in a court this organized, unfamiliarity is conspicuous.
The Bench: Seven Judgeships, One Statewide Court
Congress gives Minnesota seven district judgeships under 28 U.S.C. § 133, and all seven were filled as of mid-2026: Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz, joined by District Judges Eric C. Tostrud, Nancy E. Brasel, Kate M. Menendez, Jerry W. Blackwell, Jeffrey M. Bryan, and Laura M. Provinzino. Behind them stands one of the deeper senior benches in the circuit — the court describes senior district judges continuing to serve alongside seven full-time magistrate judges and one part-time magistrate judge. Judge Brasel’s courtroom, for example, has anchored the Feeding Our Future trials from the first jury in 2024 through the founder’s sentencing in 2026.
For most defendants the court’s first face is a magistrate judge: initial appearances, detention hearings, and the early pretrial motions all run through the magistrate calendar, in Minneapolis and St. Paul above all. Detention decisions made in that first week follow a case to its end, which is why we treat the bail hearing as a litigation event, not a formality.
This district also publishes judge-by-judge practice pointers — written expectations for motion practice, scheduling, and courtroom conduct. We study the assigned judge’s materials at the start of every engagement; not to guess outcomes, which no lawyer honestly can, but because a defense that ignores the court’s own instructions starts a step behind.
What Federal Prosecutors Pursue in Minnesota
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota is led by Daniel N. Rosen, nominated in May 2025 to succeed Andrew M. Luger and since confirmed by the Senate — a Minnesota Law graduate returning to lead the office (status as of mid-2026). The office made its national reputation in recent years on large-scale program fraud, and it announced the Feeding Our Future founder’s 500-month sentence as one of its signature results.
The fiscal year 2024 numbers frame the rest of the docket: 380 people were sentenced in the district, 42.1% for drug trafficking and a striking 27.4% for firearms offenses — more than double the 13.2% national share. Fraud, theft, and embezzlement accounted for 9.5%, above the national 8.6% and consistent with a metropolitan economy built on corporate headquarters, health care, and the medical-device industry. Robbery (3.7%) and tax (2.1%) rounded out the major categories. Two structural facts matter for defense strategy: guilty pleas resolved 95.0% of cases, lower than the 97.2% national rate, and 19 cases went to trial — meaning juries actually decide cases here at nearly twice the national frequency, and prosecutors know it.
Feeding Our Future: Anatomy of the Nation’s Largest COVID-Fraud Prosecution
In September 2022, federal prosecutors in Minneapolis announced charges against 47 defendants in what the Justice Department called the largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the nation. The allegations centered on Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit sponsor in the Federal Child Nutrition Program whose claimed meal sites multiplied during the pandemic: by the government’s account, the organization went from disbursing roughly $3.4 million in federal funds in 2019 to nearly $200 million in 2021, ultimately obtaining more than $240 million through over 250 sites that submitted fabricated meal counts and fake attendance rosters. The roster of defendants has since grown past 75.
The litigation has been extraordinary by any measure. The first seven defendants went to trial before Judge Nancy Brasel in April 2024 — and during deliberations, conspirators attempted to bribe a juror with $120,000 in cash for a not-guilty verdict, after conducting surveillance to identify her. Five people were indicted for the bribery scheme in June 2024, and guilty pleas followed. In March 2025, a federal jury convicted the organization’s founder, Aimee Bock, and co-defendant Salim Said on all counts; on May 21, 2026, Judge Brasel sentenced Bock to 500 months — over 41 years — telling her the scheme had been a “fraud vortex” with Bock at its epicenter. Dozens of other defendants have pleaded guilty as the remaining cases move forward.
For anyone facing a federal fraud investigation in Minnesota, the case carries practical lessons. Mega-prosecutions sweep broadly, and the distance between a 500-month ringleader sentence and a probationary outcome for a peripheral participant is measured by facts counsel must develop early: who controlled the money, who created the documents, who cooperated, and when. Wire-fraud and money-laundering counts stack quickly, forfeiture and restitution follow the loss figures, and once the government’s narrative hardens around a defendant, repositioning becomes vastly harder. The moment to define a client’s role in a sprawling fraud case is before the indictment names them — not after.
Federal Criminal Cases in the District
Feeding Our Future is the headline, but it is not the docket. Most defendants in this district face drug or firearms charges, and the Twin Cities’ corporate and health-care economy generates a constant stream of white-collar investigations and fraud prosecutions beneath the headlines. The procedural arc is the same for all of them.
Most cases begin with an investigation by a federal agency, sometimes signaled by a target letter or a grand jury subpoena. Formal charges follow, typically by indictment. After an initial appearance and arraignment, the case proceeds through pretrial litigation and discovery, and is then resolved either by a negotiated plea agreement or by trial. A conviction is followed by sentencing under the federal framework. The firm’s federal criminal process hub walks through each stage in detail.
In a district where one case in twenty actually reaches a jury, we prepare every matter as if it will be that one — because credible trial readiness is the strongest negotiating position a defendant can hold. That means disputing the loss calculations and quantity findings that drive the Guidelines, litigating suppression where the investigation cut corners, and treating the sentencing hearing itself as a contested proceeding rather than an epilogue.
Applied Insight: Minnesota fraud investigations rarely announce themselves with an arrest. They begin with grand jury subpoenas to banks, audits by program agencies, or agents interviewing former colleagues — months before any charging decision. A person who retains counsel at the subpoena stage can sometimes shape whether they are charged at all; the Feeding Our Future defendants who fared best were, almost uniformly, the ones who engaged earliest.
Appeals and Post-Conviction Matters
Convictions in this district are reviewed by the Eighth Circuit, which conveniently hears argument not only in St. Louis but at its own courthouse in St. Paul. Convenience ends with geography: Rule 4(b) allows just fourteen days from entry of judgment to file the criminal notice of appeal, and in fraud cases with complex loss findings — this district’s specialty — the issues that win appeals must be preserved at sentencing, objection by objection.
Collateral review returns to Minneapolis or St. Paul: a motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 attacking a District of Minnesota conviction is filed before the sentencing court. As for compassionate release, the Eighth Circuit’s fiscal year 2025 grant rate of 4.9% — last among the circuits, against 14.1% nationally — is the controlling strategic fact, and the doctrine reinforced it long before the Supreme Court did: this circuit’s United States v. Crandall rule against counting nonretroactive changes in law became the nationwide standard with Rutherford v. United States in May 2026. We file these motions in Minnesota anyway — selectively, on medical and family-circumstance grounds the statute still honors, and documented to a standard a skeptical court can adopt. That selectivity is what a genuine post-conviction practice looks like, and it is the heart of ours.
How the Firm Practices in This Court
Admission to practice in the District of Minnesota is governed by the court’s Local Rule 83.5, and like every federal district court it provides for pro hac vice admission — the case-specific mechanism through which we appear here. One admission covers the whole state: because Minnesota is a single district, the same case team follows a matter whether hearings happen in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, or Fergus Falls.
The defense itself is built from national materials — the federal criminal code, the Sentencing Guidelines, Eighth Circuit precedent — which is why federal defendants routinely retain counsel by federal experience rather than zip code. Our principal attorney, Elizabeth Franklin-Best, has handled more than 330 federal proceedings, including over 100 federal appeals, and is admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court and all twelve federal circuits; she represents federal defendants in the District of Minnesota through admission pro hac vice. Our particular depth is the back half of the case: sentencing advocacy in loss-driven fraud prosecutions, direct appeals, and § 2255 and compassionate-release litigation, all of it informed by the district-specific research reflected on this page.
Federal practice in the Upper Midwest crosses district lines constantly; our guides to the neighboring District of North Dakota and Western District of Wisconsin map the same terrain for those courts.
Frequently Asked Questions
What court handles federal criminal cases in Minnesota?
The United States District Court for the District of Minnesota — a single district covering all 87 counties. The court maintains staffed divisional offices in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, and Fergus Falls, and nearly all criminal proceedings take place in those four courthouses.
What is the Feeding Our Future case?
It is the federal prosecution of a roughly 250-million-dollar fraud on the Federal Child Nutrition Program, charged in Minneapolis beginning in 2022 and described by the Justice Department as the largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the nation. More than 75 people have been charged with billing for meals that were never served to children, and the case has produced trials, dozens of guilty pleas, and even a separate prosecution for attempting to bribe a juror.
Who is Aimee Bock and what happened in her case?
Aimee Bock founded and ran Feeding Our Future, the nonprofit at the center of the child-nutrition fraud. A federal jury in Minneapolis convicted her and co-defendant Salim Said on all counts in March 2025, and in May 2026 Judge Nancy Brasel sentenced her to 500 months — more than 41 years — in federal prison.
Who are the federal judges in Minnesota?
As of mid-2026 the district’s seven judgeships are held by Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz and Judges Eric C. Tostrud, Nancy E. Brasel, Kate M. Menendez, Jerry W. Blackwell, Jeffrey M. Bryan, and Laura M. Provinzino, supported by senior district judges and seven full-time magistrate judges plus one part-time magistrate judge.
Who prosecutes federal crimes in Minnesota?
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota, led by Daniel N. Rosen, who was nominated in May 2025 to succeed Andrew M. Luger and confirmed by the Senate. The office’s recent docket is best known for large program-fraud prosecutions alongside steady drug and firearms enforcement.
What are the most common federal charges in Minnesota?
Drug trafficking led fiscal year 2024 sentencings at 42.1 percent, followed by firearms offenses at 27.4 percent — more than double the national share — and fraud, theft, and embezzlement at 9.5 percent. The district also tries cases at nearly twice the national rate, with 19 trials that year.
How does a federal criminal case proceed in the District of Minnesota?
Cases typically open with an investigation — subpoenas, audits, or agent interviews — followed by indictment, an initial appearance before a magistrate judge, pretrial and suppression litigation, and either a negotiated plea or trial, then sentencing under the Guidelines. Because the district is statewide, the assigned courthouse and judge, not the county of arrest, define where everything happens.
Can an out-of-state lawyer handle my Minnesota federal case?
Yes. The court’s Local Rule 83.5 governs attorney admission and provides for pro hac vice admission, the routine procedure by which qualified counsel from outside the district appear in a specific case. Federal law, the Sentencing Guidelines, and Eighth Circuit precedent are identical everywhere; the lawyer’s federal experience is what differs.
Does the firm take federal cases in the District of Minnesota?
Yes. We defend trial-level matters in the district through pro hac vice admission and handle Eighth Circuit appeals and post-conviction litigation under our existing circuit admission. A paid, one-hour initial consultation — a genuine working session on your case — is how every representation here begins.
Talk With a District of Minnesota Federal Defense Lawyer
Feeding Our Future taught Minnesota two enduring lessons: federal prosecutors here will build cases of staggering scale, and the defendants who navigate them best are the ones whose lawyers engaged early and litigated deliberately. If you are under investigation anywhere in Minnesota, facing charges, or looking at an appeal or § 2255 motion after sentencing, our paid, one-hour initial consultation puts experienced federal eyes on your case while your options are still open.