Thompson, colleague resignations cast scrutiny on Justice Department’s probe into Renee Good’s death

WASHINGTON – The resignation of a top federal prosecutor in Minnesota has added to the skepticism about the Justice Department’s investigation into the killing of Renee Good by federal agent Jonathan Ross last week.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson and five other members of Minnesota’s U.S. Attorney’s Office have resigned, according to The New York Times, which cited three unnamed sources with knowledge of the decision.

The attorneys did not comment and The Times’ report did not say why they resigned, but it noted that Thompson and others in the office objected to the Justice Department’s probe into ties between Good, her wife Becca and Minnesotans who have been monitoring and responding to ICE actions in the state.

All six were all career Justice Department officials, with Thompson having served 20 years – the minimum for a full government pension. Most recently, Thompson was the lead federal prosecutor of fraud in state social service programs.

The resignations follow reports by The Washington Post and MS Now that a key unit in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division had been locked out of the federal investigation of Good’s death. That division is responsible for investigations of shootings by law enforcement officers and the killing of George Floyd was prosecuted by the division.

In a statement emailed to MinnPost, Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “There is currently no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation.”

The statement also included a comment from an unnamed Justice Department official, who said “as with any other officer-involved shooting, each law enforcement agency has an internal investigation protocol, including the Department of Homeland Security.”

That means ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility has its own investigation underway, running parallel to the FBI probe, the official said.

And doubts about the impartiality of the Trump administration’s investigation into Good’s shooting grew as President Donald Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Vice President JD Vance all said Ross was justified in shooting Good, a 37-year-old mother of three whose car was partially blocking a road near an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation when she drove forward and was shot.

Skepticism deepened after the FBI said it would not share evidence it collected with Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

That led to a decision by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty to announce they were conducting their own probe and ask Minnesotans to submit any information they might have regarding Good’s shooting through a newly established portal.

“The U.S. Attorney’s Office is filled with career prosecutors. When they are resigning, it raises questions about the political independence of these offices,” Moriarty said in an emailed statement.

Gov. Tim Walz said he regretted Thompson’s resignation.

“Joe is a principled public servant who spent more than a decade achieving justice for Minnesotans,” the governor said in a post on social media. “This is a huge loss for our state. It’s also the latest sign Trump is pushing nonpartisan career professionals out of the justice department, replacing them with his sycophants.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., lauded Thompson’s investigations into the assassinations of state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark and the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting. She also decried the resignations of other prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office. 

“This is a loss for our state and for public safety,” the senator said in a statement. “These career public servants have served our state through multiple tragedies and critical investigations. We cannot allow prosecutions to be driven by politics. The family and loved ones of Renee Good deserve justice, not political attacks.”

Klobuchar also said the Justice Department’s “politicization of the investigation into Renee Good’s killing is doing lasting damage to our justice system.”

“It needs to stop,” she said.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey also weighed in, writing on social media: “These prosecutors are heroes, and the people pushing to prosecute Renee’s widow are monsters.”

He added: “In their pursuit of cruelty, the administration also just set back the work of fighting fraud by pushing out the prosecutors who were working on those cases.”

The Justice Department’s investigation of Good’s shooting has also come under scrutiny by Democrats in Congress.

Sen. Edward Markey and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, both Democrats from Massachusetts, on Tuesday introduced a bill that would broaden the right of victims to sue federal law enforcement officers — not just state and local officials — for civil rights violations and abolish the defense that such individuals were shielded by “qualified immunity” or immunity from lawsuits when they harmed or killed someone in the course of their job.

Vance has said Ross has “absolute immunity” from prosecution and civil actions. Legal experts told MinnPost that federal agents have some protections but that they can be prosecuted for state and local crimes.

A Quinnipiac poll released Tuesday showed that a majority of voters (53%) think Good’s shooting was not justified while 35% think it was justified and 12% did not offer an opinion.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to add comments from the Justice Department and Sen. Klobuchar.

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