Derek Chauvin Seeks Dismissal of All Charges in Bombshell Petition Alleging ‘Entire Trial Was a Fraud’

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charges against Chauvin, alleging that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D.), Attorney General Keith Ellison (D.), and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office engaged in “unlawful” and “fraudulent” conduct by bypassing proper legal procedures.

The violations were so basic and fundamental, they were overlooked, Chauvin’s attorney, Greg Joseph, told Alpha News’ Liz Collin.

“What was done here is shocking. It’s inexcusable,” Joseph said.

In April 2021, a Minnesota jury found the former police officer guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison for the second-degree murder charge.

In December 2021, Chauvin pleaded guilty to two federal counts of depriving career criminal George Floyd and a 14-year-old male of their constitutional rights because he had knelt on their neck and back, respectively, to restrain them. (Maximal restraint training (MRT) was something all police officers in the Minneapolis Police Department were trained in, according to the documentary film “The Fall of Minneapolis,” produced by Collin). He was sentenced to 21 years in federal prison, which runs concurrently with his state sentence.

The 19-page petition, filed Tuesday morning, asserts that Judge Peter Cahill lacked jurisdiction because a grand jury was never convened to review the evidence, violating Chauvin’s due process rights.

“Hennepin County District Court Judge Peter Cahill presided over a year-long due process violation by failing to convene a grand jury to consider the State’s evidence at any point between the moment he was assigned to the case, and the verdict. He lacked jurisdiction over the charges, as this Court does, because they were never lawfully brought,” the filing states.

“The grand jury is essential, it’s fundamental, and this case was never submitted to a grand jury,” Joseph said. “This is a state constitutional violation and it’s a federal constitutional violation,” he added.

Joseph argued that Walz’s decision to transfer the case to Ellison was itself unlawful, and that Ellison improperly added second-degree murder charges to satisfy public pressure rather than following statutory boundaries.

The attorney told Collin that these violations should upend the entire case.

“If the charges themselves are illegal—as they were in this case—everything that follows from those charges is also illegal, including the trial—which was a fraud!” he said.

According to the filing, a Hennepin County prosecutor withdrew from the egregious case against the officers and “she (Amy Sweasy) also disagreed with a decision to add additional charges against Chauvin.”

“Because Hennepin County’s unlawful charges against Mr. Chauvin were not severe enough for the mob, Walz referred the case to Keith Ellison, who signed and e-filed a second unfounded complaint against Derek Chauvin that included the murder charge,” the petition states. “It is impossible to assess the trial errors in State v. Chauvin because the entire trial was a fraud; it was based on unfounded charges that were never properly before the Court.”

Asked why this argument was never made before by Chauvin’s lawyers, Joseph explained that violations this basic are not usually an issue.

“In a very short period of time there were very fundamental and basic violations of due process. And those aren’t necessarily things that defense attorneys normally look for in preparing a case like this,” he told Collin. “You take for granted that the charges are going to be brought lawfully and that the process will be adhered to—and this didn’t happen.”

“This is so basic, it’s easy to miss how basic this is, and unfortunately everyone did,” Joseph added.

The key allegations in the petition include:

• Procedural Violation: The state failed to secure an indictment via a grand jury, rendering the charges never “lawfully brought” in the first place.

• Illegitimate Authority: Walz’s appointment of Ellison to lead the prosecution was an overreach of executive authority.

• Political Pressure: The escalation to murder charges was driven by the left-wing “mob” and political fallout rather than legal merit.

This is the third petition for post-conviction relief filed by Chauvin’s counsel, following previous District Court dismissals in late 2025 and May 2026. The November 2025 petition is currently in the Court of Appeals.