Federal prosecutors and leaders within the Justice Department said Tuesday they do not believe there is currently a basis for the Civil Rights Division to open a criminal civil rights investigation into the killing of Renee Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis.
In a statement, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “there is currently no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation.” The announcement came as the Justice Department said an FBI probe into the shooting is ongoing.
The Justice Department’s decision to keep the Civil Rights Division out of the investigation marks a departure from past administrations that moved quickly to probe shootings of civilians by law enforcement officers for potential civil rights offenses, according to the report. Lawyers in the Civil Rights Division were told last week they would not play a role, two people familiar with the matter said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
The report said federal officials have stated the officer acted in self-defense. It also said federal officials described the Honda driver as engaging in “an act of domestic terrorism” when she pulled forward toward the officer.
The Justice Department’s swift public conclusion, the report said, raised concerns among officials in Minnesota about whether the federal government was conducting a thorough review of the sequence of events leading up to the shooting. Minnesota officials also said federal officials blocked state investigators from accessing evidence and told Minnesota it has no jurisdiction to investigate the killing.
Meanwhile, protests related to the broader confrontation with immigration enforcement have continued in Minnesota. The report described protesters facing off against ICE agents one block from where Good was fatally shot last week.
In the midst of the turmoil, the report said federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned and supervisors in the criminal section of the Civil Rights Division in Washington gave notice of their departures. It said roughly half a dozen federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned and that several supervisors in the criminal section gave notice.
Among those resigning in Minnesota, the report said, was First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson, who had been leading the investigation and prosecution of fraud schemes in the state. The report said at least four other prosecutors in the Minnesota U.S. attorney’s office joined Thompson in resigning, and that the people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
The Justice Department said the prosecutors had requested an early retirement program “well before the events in Minnesota” and added that “any suggestion to the contrary is false,” according to the report. The resignations in the Civil Rights Division’s criminal section, including its chief, were announced to staff on Monday, the report said, days after lawyers were told the section would not be involved in the probe.
Kristen Clarke, who led the Civil Rights Division under the Biden administration, criticized the outcome, saying, “The level of grief, tension and anxiety on the ground in Minnesota is not surprising,” and that historically “the federal government has played an important role by being a neutral and impartial agency committing its resources to conducting a full and fair investigation, and the public loses out when that doesn’t happen.”
The report also cited past precedent under different administrations. It said that during the first Trump administration, the Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation into the 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of city police officers in Minneapolis, which resulted in criminal charges. It added that the Biden administration scrutinized the Minneapolis Police Department for potential systemic civil rights violations through a “pattern or practice” investigation, a type of police reform inquiry that is out of favor in the current Trump administration Justice Department.