# Soto Jimenez v. Bondi **Status: stub — expand.** A habeas corpus case in the District of Minnesota that produced **the first civil contempt finding against a federal government attorney of the second Trump term**. - **9 February 2026** — release order requiring that the petitioner be released in Minnesota by 5 p.m. on 13 February, that his property be returned, and that the government file a compliance certification by 17 February. - **18 February 2026** — after a 90-minute hearing, the court found all three requirements violated and imposed a **conditional civil contempt fine of $500 per day** on a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney **personally**, to begin the next day unless the documents were returned. - **19 February 2026** — documents returned; the contempt was purged. - **20 February 2026** — written order lifting the fine. **No money was collected.** - **25 February 2026** — a notice of intent to appeal was filed on the attorney's behalf in his individual capacity; the theory was not stated. The court held expressly that **willfulness is not an element** of coercive civil contempt, and that the government's understaffing and caseload were "a problem of its own making" and did not excuse disobedience of court orders. The case is cited in both directions: as proof that civil contempt produces compliance quickly, and as proof that it costs the government nothing and reaches the line attorney rather than the official who set the policy. ## See also - [[How a Federal Court Order Is Enforced]] · [[Contempt of Court]] · [[Pam Bondi]]