Minnesota’s federal prosecutor’s office has been depleted by resignations and retirements, and the ripple effects have reached individual criminal cases, including one in which a convicted defendant was freed after his meth trafficking prosecution was dropped. The Associated Press reported that the office has struggled to keep cases moving as it absorbed a churn in staffing and caseload priorities, with some prosecutors leaving after objections to what they viewed as political directives from the Justice Department.
The AP story centers on Cory Allen McKay, described by prosecutors as a long-time repeat offender whose criminal record includes violent assaults. McKay, 47, was scheduled for trial next month on federal methamphetamine trafficking charges that could have resulted in a sentence of up to 25 years. Instead, the case was dropped after the prosecutor on the matter retired, and a judge ordered McKay released.
According to the AP, McKay’s lawyer, Jean Brandl, said she did not learn the office had dropped the case until after McKay was released, describing it as “completely surprising.” Brandl told AP she was unable to reach McKay after the release but said she was confident he was happy about the outcome. The AP also reported that the prosecutor who had handled the case, Thomas Hollenhorst, retired after 40 years with the Justice Department and did not respond to a request for comment.
The timeline described by AP shows the case moving through a late-stage adjustment, with the office asking for a delay to find someone to take over after Hollenhorst’s retirement and a judge moving the trial date. The AP reported that even after the judge shifted the date from Feb. 12 to March 2, prosecutors later dropped the case days afterward in a filing that offered no explanation, prompting an order for McKay’s immediate release. McKay left the Sherburne County Jail in Elk River, about 30 miles outside Minneapolis, on Jan. 31, AP reported.
The AP attributed the wider strain on federal prosecutions in Minnesota to a broader exodus of career prosecutors, with departures driven by objections to directives and a shift in priorities toward immigration enforcement. The AP reported that the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota is led by Trump appointee Daniel Rosen and said the office’s dwindling ranks left remaining prosecutors trying to maintain momentum across serious cases while handling what it described as crisis-level operations. Local officials and defense lawyers said the office’s reduced staffing forced dismissals, delays, and adjustments to how cases were prepared and argued.
AP reported that over the past year the number of assistant U.S. attorneys in Minnesota fell from more than 40 before Trump retook office to fewer than two dozen. The article said that figure came from a former federal prosecutor who was not authorized to discuss personnel matters and spoke anonymously to AP. The AP said the exodus began last year when several prosecutors believed their jobs and the government’s definition of justice would change under the new administration, and it accelerated after Justice Department officials intervened to block a joint state-federal investigation into the Jan. 7 fatal shooting of Renee Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, Jonathan Ross.
The AP also said that judges had issued orders related to the handling of immigration detainees and that career prosecutors objected to directions to divert resources to immigration cases and to what they viewed as violations of court orders by ICE that angered judges. AP reported that in a letter released last week, eight former permanent or acting U.S. attorneys in Minnesota said prosecutors “could not in good conscience participate” in what they described as directives they had seen from within the department.
Beyond McKay, AP reported that other drug trafficking cases were dropped. The article said prosecutors last month dismissed a case after investigators found 7,600 fentanyl pills and 15 pounds of cocaine in a stash set for trafficking in the Twin Cities area. AP also reported a third dismissed case involving a conspiracy charge tied to methamphetamine discovered during a search of a vehicle in Rochester.
Local officials and defense-side advocates described the practical consequences of the staffing shortfall as harder to manage statewide. Clay County Sheriff Mark Empting told AP that the office was presenting challenges “for everyone around the state” and said McKay would raise “a big public safety concern” if he returned to Moorhead. AP reported that defense lawyers were seeking to capitalize by demanding speedy trials for clients and filing motions that require responses from prosecutors, while the Justice Department and the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment.
AP said the office’s staffing crisis also affected how its cases were handled in court, including bringing in prosecutors from other states, asking judges to delay hearings, and filing motions that could reduce the number of cases reaching trial. The AP report described the case dismissals and quick procedural shifts as part of an overall effort to cope as prosecutors left and remaining staff assessed what could realistically be reassigned or dropped due to diminished resources.