US Attorney's Office Tells Judge Provinzino OPLA Lawyers Rotate Through Its Minnesota Office and Ten More Are Added to the Habeas Inbox

At a February 18, 2026 show-cause hearing in Rigoberto S.J. v. Bondi (D. Minn.), Judge Laura Provinzino asked the government who at the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA) was assigned to a habeas case. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Isihara said habeas inquiries had been going to a shared OPLA mailbox and named Courtney Campbell as the OPLA attorney then assigned to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, “a rotating cast” there “on a short-term basis.” Civil chief David Fuller told the court the colocation was “a fairly recent development” that “comes and goes,” that those lawyers were not the liaison, and that the shared inbox had gained ten attorneys in the prior two weeks to work Minnesota habeas cases remotely.

This is the only court-record description found of OPLA lawyers’ role in Minnesota habeas work, and it predates the Oct. 2026 Whipple re-arrests. It does not say OPLA advises on re-arrest candidates. That account, which names the same attorney, comes only from the lawyer for Yader Cortez Andino as relayed to MPR News (Oct. 13, 2026). The transcript shows only that OPLA staff were embedded in or assigned to the Minnesota habeas response and that the assignment rotated.