Six lawyers from the US attorney's office in Minnesota have resigned in protest over the justice department's decision not to investigate the fatal shooting of an unarmed US citizen by a federal immigration agent. The resignations, reported by the New York Times, include Joseph H Thompson, the second-in-command at the office, who led a large-scale fraud inquiry last year that led to a surge of immigration agents in the state.
Separately, four leaders of the justice department's civil rights division have also resigned. The division's criminal investigations unit typically probes police use of force. The resignations follow a decision by Harmeet Dhillon, the Trump administration-aligned assistant attorney general for civil rights, not to investigate the killing of Renee Nicole Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on 7 January in Minneapolis.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche stated on Tuesday that there was 'no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation', without elaborating. The FBI, which has taken control of the investigation, is looking into Good's 'possible connections to activist groups'. Multiple career prosecutors had offered to lead an inquiry but were told not to, according to CBS News.
The resignations are part of a broader exodus from the civil rights division since Donald Trump began his second term. In May, the Guardian reported that over 250 attorneys had left, been reassigned, or accepted deferred resignation offers, a roughly 70% reduction. Dhillon, a former Republican official and election denier, has realigned the division's priorities towards Trump's political goals, including exposing voter fraud and focusing on anti-transgender issues.
