Prosecutors quit after DOJ pushed for investigation into Renee Good’s widow
Six federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned Tuesday after the Department of Justice asked for an investigation into the widow of a woman killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, according to The New York Times. A federal agent killed the woman, Renee Good, during an incident last Wednesday, and officials including President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed the agent acted in self-defense.
Among those who resigned was Joseph H. Thompson, the second-in-command at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota. Thompson served as acting U.S. attorney last year and oversaw an extensive fraud investigation involving federally subsidized social services programs in the state. Prosecutors Harry Jacobs, Melinda Williams and Thomas Calhoun-Lopez, along with two others who have not been identified, also resigned, according to the Times.
The publication cited sources familiar with Thompson’s decision, who said he resigned over the DOJ’s request for an investigation. He also expressed disapproval regarding federal investigators pushing out state investigators in the probe of Good’s shooting.
Who is resigning?
All three who resigned Tuesday were career prosecutors. Thompson and Jacobs were leading the Minnesota fraud investigation, which started in 2022, according to the Times.
The investigation stemmed from schemes to defraud state programs funded by federal money. Nearly 100 people have been charged, many of them Somali Americans. Trump had used the wide-ranging fraud allegations as the basis for sending thousands of federal immigration agents to the state.
Williams had overseen the office’s criminal division, according to MPR News. In the past, she has helped secure a sex trafficking conviction of former Minnesota Republican Party operative Tony Lazzaro and prosecuted drug dealer Aaron Broussard. A jury found Broussard guilty of 11 fentanyl overdose deaths.
Calhoun-Lopez was the chief of the office’s violent and major crimes unit.
Why are they quitting?
The Times reported that the three quit after the DOJ pushed for an investigation into Good’s wife, Becca. Department officials had wanted the state’s U.S. attorney’s office to examine the woman’s alleged ties to activist groups that have protested Trump’s mass deportation effort. Hours after Renee Good was killed, Noem described her actions as “domestic terrorism.”
The resignations in Minnesota came a day after MS NOW reported that at least four top officials in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division had also resigned after agency leaders decided not to open a civil rights investigation into the shooting. The unit is tasked with investigating police shootings, among other responsibilities.
A DOJ spokesperson said the officials left after requesting early retirement. “Any suggestion to the contrary is false,” the spokesperson said.
The FBI asserted exclusive jurisdiction over the investigation of Good’s death. Minnesota state investigators had previously said they and the FBI were conducting a joint investigation, but a day later, they announced that the FBI had blocked them from examining evidence. Because of this, they said they couldn’t conduct a fair investigation and had to abandon the case.
Since the shooting, the FBI has not released any statement on the investigation. Good’s shooting led to large protests nationwide over the weekend and into this week. Several reports stated that federal agents were spraying crowds of protesters in Minneapolis with pepper spray to get them to disperse.
The post Prosecutors quit after DOJ pushed for investigation into Renee Good’s widow appeared first on Straight Arrow News.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
