type: timeline_event
At least twelve federal prosecutors resigned in protest over the DOJ's handling of the Renee Good shooting investigation. Six prosecutors resigned from the Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office, including the three top-ranking prosecutors: Joseph Thompson (lead federal prosecutor on Minnesota fraud cases), Thomas Calhoun-Lopez (Assistant U.S. Attorney and lead investigator on federal racketeering trials), and Melinda Williams (who led the prosecution of sex trafficker Anton Lazzaro).
Simultaneously, six prosecutors from DOJ's Civil Rights Division in Washington, D.C. announced their departures, including the criminal section's chief. The Civil Rights Division resignations were triggered by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon's decision not to investigate the ICE officer's fatal shooting of Renee Good. Sources told CBS News: "The lack of an investigation in Minneapolis was a breaking point for some of them."
The Minnesota resignations were triggered by DOJ pressure to investigate Renee Good's widow Becca and her ties to activist groups, combined with the department's refusal to open a civil rights investigation into the shooting itself. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche stated "there is currently no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation" into the ICE agent who killed Good. The FBI announced it would handle the investigation on its own and blocked Minnesota authorities from their typical role in reviewing evidence. The investigation was being treated as an assault on a federal officer—with ICE agent Jonathan Ross, rather than Good, as the victim.
The mass resignations represented an unprecedented break within the Justice Department over the politicization of law enforcement priorities. The Civil Rights Division had about 380 attorneys when Trump took office in January 2025 but saw a large exodus after Dhillon took the helm, as she aligned the division with the president's priorities.