Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman Won’t Seek Re-election in 2022

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced Wednesday that he will not seek re-election. Freeman’s term expires next year.

Freeman, who turns 74 next year, wrote that “it’s time to move on.”

“It has been a marvelous privilege to serve the people of Hennepin County and to lead the State’s largest and most experienced public law office,” he posted in a statement on the Hennepin County Attorney’s website.

When his term wraps up, Freeman will have served 24 years as county attorney in Hennepin County, the longest to ever serve in that role. Freeman served from 1991 through 1999. He was then elected to the position again in 2006 when then-Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar ran for U.S. Senate.

Freeman’s upcoming retirement comes after a challenging year that included the May 2020 George Floyd killing by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. His office received nearly 4 million emails and 29,000 voicemails after Floyd’s death. The case was eventually turned over to Minnesota state Attorney General Keith Ellison for prosecution in which Chauvin was found guilty of murder.

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