A Minnesota state employee avoided criminal charges after vandalizing at least six Tesla vehicles, the local district attorney announced this week, prompting outrage from local leaders who spoke to Fox News Digital.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office (HCAO) said it would seek “diversion” over charges against Minnesota Department of Human Services data analyst Dylan Bryan Adams after causing $20,000 in damages. The diversion approach “helps to ensure the individual keeps their job and can pay restitution,” according HCAO.
When reached for comment by Fox News Digital, the Minnesota Department of Human Services did not clarify Adams’ employment status, but said: “We are reviewing the matter at this time. State employees are expected to follow our code of conduct and hold themselves to the highest ethical standards through their words and actions.”
Republicans across the North Star State have condemned County Attorney Mary Moriarty’s decision, as President Donald Trump’s administration has identified Tesla vandalism as “domestic terrorism” and led a nationwide effort alongside the Justice Department to hold vandals accountable.
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Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., did not respond to Fox News Digital request for clarity on Dylan Bryan Adams’ employment status at the Minnesota Department of Human Services. (Getty Images | Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)
“In Tim Walz’s Minnesota, there is a two-tiered justice system that does everything possible to protect Democrats. As the victim of a domestic terrorism attack in Minnesota myself, I know first-hand that Minnesota’s justice system does not work for me nor Conservatives in our state. If Dylan Adams was a police officer and not part of Walz’s Minnesota state government, Mary Moriarty would have tried to charge him with a felony,” Kendall Qualls, Founder of TakeCharge and former Minnesota gubernatorial candidate, told Fox News Digital in a statement.
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Qualls was targeted in a suspected arson case that left three conservative group offices heavily damaged in Minnesota in 2024. Qualls said on Wednesday that authorities never found the arsonist.
“Minnesota is again bucking the national trend: While the Justice Department and FBI are investigating the nationwide vandalism and attacks against Tesla as acts of domestic terrorism, Minnesota Progressives are giving them a free pass,” Matthew RJ Brodsky, President of Red Ax Strategies and Board Chair of the American Center for Counter Extremism, told Fox News Digital.
Adam Schwarze, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota, told Fox News Digital that Minnesota vandals “get a free pass if they have the approved political philosophy.”
“This would have been an obvious opportunity for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office to make clear that the right to political protest doesn’t include the right to destroy personal property. We must reaffirm that our commitment to justice means ensuring all individuals, regardless of their political affiliations or employment status, are held to the same legal standards,” Adam Schwarze said.
A Washington Tesla supercharging station was damaged earlier this month, according to authorities. The Trump administration has called Tesla vandalism “domestic terrorism.” (Lacey Police Department)
Republicans told Fox News Digital that Moriarty refusing to criminally charge a Minnesota state employee, following a string of targeted violence, could invoke domestic terrorism.
“This is a dangerous precedent that tells every Minnesotan that political violence is acceptable here. After Gov. Tim Walz cheered on the loss of Tesla’s stock to the detriment of his own pension. Now we have one of his employees damaging a Tesla and a Democrat country attorney letting him get away with it. It’s a Democrat double-whammy: They insult the professional law enforcement officers of our state by ignoring their work, and then let their political allies and supporters off the hook for breaking the law,” Minnesota Sen. Mark Koran said.
John Nagel, a retired police lieutenant in Minnesota and former candidate for the Minnesota state legislature, said diversion can be a “great tool for someone who is younger and dumber, but this individual had a responsible job and was old enough to know better.”
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“This sends a bad message to an already hostile group of politically charged individuals,” Nagel said. “As a police officer, I have had several people tell me that if they had spent even a few nights in jail, they wouldn’t have committed a crime the second and third time.
Brodsky added that Moriarty’s latest legal blunder is consistent with her legacy in Walz’s home state. Moriarty, who handed Adams a “pre-charge diversion” on Monday, has been backed by groups tied to money from megadonor George Soros, one of the most prominent backers of progressive issues in the United States.
“It would be an understatement to say that Progressive County Attorney Mary Moriarty has been soft on crime since she took office in 2023. She has consistently shown undue leniency for violent criminal suspects charged with sexual assault and even murder. It is one of the many reasons the Minneapolis Police Department has been at loggerheads with the county attorney’s office, to say nothing of the outrage among the victims’ families,” Brodsky said.
Five Tesla vehicles were set on fire and shot at in what police investigated as a “targeted attack” at a local repair center in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 18, 2025. This is one of several Tesla vandalism cases across the United States. (Hal Sparks via Storyful)
Nagel questioned how many tax dollars were invested in finding Adams “only to have their efforts wiped out by a progressive prosecutor” and leaving Minnesota dealerships on alert “knowing someone can come into their lot and damage cars.”
As Republicans ripped the state’s “soft on crime” practices, they tied Walz’s own anti-Telsa rhetoric to the string of violence against Elon Musk’s multi-billionaire electric vehicle business. Amid the string of attacks on Tesla as its stock was taking a tumble, Walz told a Wisconsin town hall that he checks Tesla’s stock when he wants to feel better.
“Gov. Walz’s rhetoric on Tesla stock, Democrats all over the country spewing,’We need to rise up and take it to the streets’ is all fueling the fire. Angry elected Democrats are encouraging this kind of behavior. Refusing to hold adults accountable for attacks based on their political hatred is bound to end badly for regular folks,” Nagel added.
Hungarian-born US investor and philanthropist George Soros smiles after delivering a speech on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on May 24, 2022. (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)
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Brodsky said each Tesla vandalized is a felony, adding: “These crimes didn’t take place in a vacuum either, with progressives focusing their anger at Elon Musk and DOGE’s effort to shrink the bloated federal workforce.”
“It’s likely not a coincidence that the suspect in this case is a State of Minnesota employee with the Department of Human Services. Moreover, these attacks began the same day that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz made controversial remarks where he cheered the decline of Tesla stocks and disparaged Elon Musk at a Wisconsin event on March 18. The double-standards here speak for themselves. Political violence appears to be acceptable if carried out by progressives. Needless to say, this will undoubtedly embolden pProgressive activists to engage in further attacks,” Brodsky said.
Gov. Walz, Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Minneapolis Police Department and Hennepin County Attorney’s Office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Deirdre Heavey is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.
