Top DOJ Officials Resign After Being Cut Off From Renee Good Killing Probe
“The Civil Rights Division exists to enforce civil rights laws that protect all Americans,” one former DOJ attorney said recently. “It doesn’t exist to enact the president’s own agenda.”
Harmeet Dhillon speaks at the National Conservative Convention in Washington DC on September 2, 2025.
(Photo by Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
Julia Conley
Jan 13, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice is seeing its latest mass resignation over its handling of the case of Renee Good, who was fatally shot by a federal immigration agent last week in Minneapolis.
Days after Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights, announced that the agency’s Civil Rights Division would not be investigating the shooting—despite the fact that the office’s criminal unit would ordinarily probe any abuse or improper use of force by law enforcement—four top officials in the section have resigned.
As MS NOW reported Monday night, the chief of the criminal unit—listed on the DOJ website as Jim Felte—has resigned, as well as the principal deputy chief, deputy chief, and acting deputy chief. The outlet reported that other decisions by administration officials also contributed to their decision to leave.
The FBI announced late last week that it would be probing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross’ shooting of Good, who was killed while sitting in her car on a street in Minneapolis where ICE was operating—part of a surge of federal immigration agents who have been sent to the area in recent weeks, with the Trump administration largely targeting Somali people.
Despite video evidence showing that Good’s wheels were turned away from Ross, who was one of a number of officers who had approached her car and reportedly given her conflicting orders, the Trump administration is continuing to claim that she purposely tried to drive into the ICE agent and that Ross fired “defensive shots”—something law enforcement agents including ICE officers are trained not to do in situations involving a moving vehicle.
“It is highly unusual for the Civil Rights Division not to be involved from the outset with the FBI and US attorney’s office.”
As administration officials have aggressively pushed a narrative painting Good as a “domestic terrorist”—a designation that ordinarily would never be used by the government until a full investigation had been carried out—the FBI has blocked Minnesota authorities from conducting a probe, leading the state and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul to file a lawsuit Monday.
As the Washington Post reported Monday, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division would typically work alongside the FBI “to guide investigatory strategy” on a case like Good’s. Prosecutors with the division were involved in trying the officers who killed George Floyd in MInneapolis and Tyre Nichols in Memphis.
“It is highly unusual for the Civil Rights Division not to be involved from the outset with the FBI and US attorney’s office,” Vanita Gupta, who led the division during the Obama administration, told the Post. “I cannot think of another high-profile federal agent shooting case like this when the Civil Rights Division was not involved—its prosecutors have the long-standing expertise in such cases.”
Hundreds of attorneys in the Civil Rights Division have resigned since President Donald Trump began his second term a year ago. Stacey Young, a former division attorney who left the DOJ soon after Trump was inaugurated, told NPR that the division is “not an arm of the White House.”
“The Civil Rights Division exists to enforce civil rights laws that protect all Americans,” Young said. “It doesn’t exist to enact the president’s own agenda. That’s a perversion of the separation of powers and the role of an independent Justice Department.”
Dhillon, who has said the division will work to carry out the president’s priorities, said last April that she was “fine” with the mass departure of civil rights attorneys.
“The job here is to enforce the federal civil rights laws—not woke ideology,” she said.
Dhillon’s announcement that the division would not investigate Good’s killing suggested that the DOJ views probing improper use of force cases as it has in the past as “woke ideology.”
The mass resignation at the Civil Rights Division comes a month after more than 200 former DOJ employees signed an open letter condemning “the near destruction of DOJ’s once-revered crown jewel.”
“The administration wants you to believe that career staff who fled the Division ‘were actively in resistance mode’ and ‘decided that they’d rather not do what their job requires them to do,’” said the former employeees. “That could not be further from the truth. We left because this administration turned the Division’s core mission upside down, largely abandoning its duty to protect civil rights.”
Now in the wake of Good’s killing, said one observer, the division under Dhillon’s leadership “refused to probe a murder. The people with consciences walked out.”
“The Civil Rights Division exists to enforce civil rights laws that protect all Americans,” one former DOJ attorney said recently. “It doesn’t exist to enact the president’s own agenda.”
Harmeet Dhillon speaks at the National Conservative Convention in Washington DC on September 2, 2025.
(Photo by Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
Julia Conley
Jan 13, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice is seeing its latest mass resignation over its handling of the case of Renee Good, who was fatally shot by a federal immigration agent last week in Minneapolis.
Days after Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights, announced that the agency’s Civil Rights Division would not be investigating the shooting—despite the fact that the office’s criminal unit would ordinarily probe any abuse or improper use of force by law enforcement—four top officials in the section have resigned.
As MS NOW reported Monday night, the chief of the criminal unit—listed on the DOJ website as Jim Felte—has resigned, as well as the principal deputy chief, deputy chief, and acting deputy chief. The outlet reported that other decisions by administration officials also contributed to their decision to leave.
The FBI announced late last week that it would be probing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross’ shooting of Good, who was killed while sitting in her car on a street in Minneapolis where ICE was operating—part of a surge of federal immigration agents who have been sent to the area in recent weeks, with the Trump administration largely targeting Somali people.
Despite video evidence showing that Good’s wheels were turned away from Ross, who was one of a number of officers who had approached her car and reportedly given her conflicting orders, the Trump administration is continuing to claim that she purposely tried to drive into the ICE agent and that Ross fired “defensive shots”—something law enforcement agents including ICE officers are trained not to do in situations involving a moving vehicle.
“It is highly unusual for the Civil Rights Division not to be involved from the outset with the FBI and US attorney’s office.”
As administration officials have aggressively pushed a narrative painting Good as a “domestic terrorist”—a designation that ordinarily would never be used by the government until a full investigation had been carried out—the FBI has blocked Minnesota authorities from conducting a probe, leading the state and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul to file a lawsuit Monday.
As the Washington Post reported Monday, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division would typically work alongside the FBI “to guide investigatory strategy” on a case like Good’s. Prosecutors with the division were involved in trying the officers who killed George Floyd in MInneapolis and Tyre Nichols in Memphis.
“It is highly unusual for the Civil Rights Division not to be involved from the outset with the FBI and US attorney’s office,” Vanita Gupta, who led the division during the Obama administration, told the Post. “I cannot think of another high-profile federal agent shooting case like this when the Civil Rights Division was not involved—its prosecutors have the long-standing expertise in such cases.”
Hundreds of attorneys in the Civil Rights Division have resigned since President Donald Trump began his second term a year ago. Stacey Young, a former division attorney who left the DOJ soon after Trump was inaugurated, told NPR that the division is “not an arm of the White House.”
“The Civil Rights Division exists to enforce civil rights laws that protect all Americans,” Young said. “It doesn’t exist to enact the president’s own agenda. That’s a perversion of the separation of powers and the role of an independent Justice Department.”
Dhillon, who has said the division will work to carry out the president’s priorities, said last April that she was “fine” with the mass departure of civil rights attorneys.
“The job here is to enforce the federal civil rights laws—not woke ideology,” she said.
Dhillon’s announcement that the division would not investigate Good’s killing suggested that the DOJ views probing improper use of force cases as it has in the past as “woke ideology.”
The mass resignation at the Civil Rights Division comes a month after more than 200 former DOJ employees signed an open letter condemning “the near destruction of DOJ’s once-revered crown jewel.”
“The administration wants you to believe that career staff who fled the Division ‘were actively in resistance mode’ and ‘decided that they’d rather not do what their job requires them to do,’” said the former employeees. “That could not be further from the truth. We left because this administration turned the Division’s core mission upside down, largely abandoning its duty to protect civil rights.”
Now in the wake of Good’s killing, said one observer, the division under Dhillon’s leadership “refused to probe a murder. The people with consciences walked out.”
Travis Gettys
January 13, 2026
ALTERNET
Leaked body cam video/X/screen grab
A half dozen federal prosecutors resigned over a Department of Justice push to investigate the widow of a woman killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
Six federal prosecutors in Minnesota who had been leading the sprawling fraud probe that prompted the recent immigration crackdown quit their posts Tuesday over DOJ's focus on investigating the wife of 37-year-old Renee Good rather than the ICE agent who shot and killed her, reported the New York Times.
"The stated reason for ICE agents being in Minnesota is because of the ongoing fraud claims around daycare and other services," noted British journalist James Ball, political editor for The New World. "The two prosecutors leading those investigations have now resigned in the wake of Renee Good’s shooting. Even the internal supposed logic of this deployment is falling apart."
Joseph H. Thompson, the second-ranking official at the U.S. attorney’s office who was overseeing the fraud probe that involved a number of Somali-run social service providers, was among the prosecutors who resigned in protest.
"Mr. Thompson, 47, a career prosecutor, objected to that approach, as well as to the Justice Department’s refusal to include state officials in investigating whether the shooting itself was lawful, the people familiar with his decision said," the Times reported. "The other senior career prosecutors who resigned include Harry Jacobs, Melinda Williams and Thomas Calhoun-Lopez. Mr. Jacobs had been Mr. Thompson’s deputy overseeing the fraud investigation, which began in 2022. Mr. Calhoun-Lopez was the chief of the violent and major crimes unit."
At least four other senior officials reportedly resigned from the Justice Department in protest after Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, decided not to investigate the ICE officer's killing of Good, who had been behind the wheel of a Honda SUV during an encounter with immigration agents last week in Minneapolis.
"Instead, the Justice Department launched an investigation to examine ties between Ms. Good and her wife, Becca, and several groups that have been monitoring and protesting the conduct of immigration agents in recent weeks," the Times reported. "Shortly after Wednesday’s fatal shooting, Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, referred to Ms. Good as a 'domestic terrorist.'"
Thompson strongly objected to the DOJ's decision not to open a civil rights investigation into the shooting and was outraged by the demand to investigate Becca Good, who said in a statement after her wife's killing that they had “stopped to support our neighbors” when they got into a tense confrontation with ICE agents.
The career prosecutor initially tried to investigate the shooting in partnership with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, a state agency that reviews police shootings, but senior DOJ officials overruled his decision.
Legal expert details 'next steps' after 'mass resignation' at DOJ over Minnesota demands
CNN legal analyst Elie Honig (Photo: Screen capture)
CNN legal analyst Elie Honig (Photo: Screen capture)
January 13, 2026
ALTERNET
Legal analyst Elie Honig told CNN that after the mass resignation from the Justice Department's U.S. Attorney's Office in the Minnesota District, there could be some challenges with upcoming cases.
The New York Times confirmed on Tuesday that six prosecutors resigned, three of whom worked in the Minnesota District, after being told to target the partner of Renee Nicole Good.
Honig explained that these kinds of resignations are an example of the prosecutors "trying to tell us something" and "waving a flag" with their resignations.
"You do not see that happen. It's very rare before this administration came in, for career prosecutors, nonpartisan career prosecutors to resign in protest over something," he said. "And let me be clear about what is and is not relevant to this fatal shooting investigation: The actions and movements movements of Renee Good on that day, on that street, what she did immediately before the shooting, the way she moved her car backwards, forwards, all of that is very relevant in minute detail."
What is not relevant, however, are any of "her activities before that day, who she may have associated with [and] what her views towards ICE were." He went on to call them inappropriate to the case.
"They have nothing whatsoever to do with whether that shooting was justified justified or not," said Honig. "And so if that's the reason why these career prosecutors have resigned, then they are well supported in doing that, and I applaud them if that's the reason why."
CNN host Boris Sanchez asked what the next step is and whether the Trump administration would simply find someone else willing to "do their bidding."
Honig reiterated how rare it is for career prosecutors to resign, particularly those who've been there for a decade or more.
"These are people who've served across Republican and Democratic administrations alike," Honig said. "Many of these folks, including Mr. Thompson, served throughout the entire first Trump administration. So, it's really telling us something unusual when you see a mass resignation like this. What happens next is, somebody else gets put on the case."
The challenge, he said, is that it remains to be seen if it will be someone who is overtly partisan or who has any experience.
"The whole beauty of DOJ is that you have this very large pool of people who've been there for a long time, who have experience, who are not politically motivated, who can handle sensitive investigations like this. And when they resign, you're going to get replacements, and you may well get people who are less experienced and less impartial. And the results may show that," he closed.
Legal analyst Elie Honig told CNN that after the mass resignation from the Justice Department's U.S. Attorney's Office in the Minnesota District, there could be some challenges with upcoming cases.
The New York Times confirmed on Tuesday that six prosecutors resigned, three of whom worked in the Minnesota District, after being told to target the partner of Renee Nicole Good.
Honig explained that these kinds of resignations are an example of the prosecutors "trying to tell us something" and "waving a flag" with their resignations.
"You do not see that happen. It's very rare before this administration came in, for career prosecutors, nonpartisan career prosecutors to resign in protest over something," he said. "And let me be clear about what is and is not relevant to this fatal shooting investigation: The actions and movements movements of Renee Good on that day, on that street, what she did immediately before the shooting, the way she moved her car backwards, forwards, all of that is very relevant in minute detail."
What is not relevant, however, are any of "her activities before that day, who she may have associated with [and] what her views towards ICE were." He went on to call them inappropriate to the case.
"They have nothing whatsoever to do with whether that shooting was justified justified or not," said Honig. "And so if that's the reason why these career prosecutors have resigned, then they are well supported in doing that, and I applaud them if that's the reason why."
CNN host Boris Sanchez asked what the next step is and whether the Trump administration would simply find someone else willing to "do their bidding."
Honig reiterated how rare it is for career prosecutors to resign, particularly those who've been there for a decade or more.
"These are people who've served across Republican and Democratic administrations alike," Honig said. "Many of these folks, including Mr. Thompson, served throughout the entire first Trump administration. So, it's really telling us something unusual when you see a mass resignation like this. What happens next is, somebody else gets put on the case."
The challenge, he said, is that it remains to be seen if it will be someone who is overtly partisan or who has any experience.
"The whole beauty of DOJ is that you have this very large pool of people who've been there for a long time, who have experience, who are not politically motivated, who can handle sensitive investigations like this. And when they resign, you're going to get replacements, and you may well get people who are less experienced and less impartial. And the results may show that," he closed.
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