As the Trump administration continues its federal operations to crackdown on illegal immigration in the state of Minnesota, a group of veteran federal prosecutors has decided to resign. One of the major concerns that led to this course of action was pressure from the Justice Department to conduct an investigation of Renee Nicole Good, the woman who attempted to run over an ICE agent and was fatally shot as a result.
Joe Thompson is the most senior of the group of prosecutors to step down, with the others involved asking the media not to release their names because they are not authorized to speak to the press. Thompson began his career 17 years ago, serving as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Democrat-run city of Chicago. He moved back to his home state of Minnesota in 2014.
National Public Radio reporter Matt Sepic provided more details in an on-air report, saying, “His main focus lately has been fraud. Thompson was the lead prosecutor in what’s known as the Feeding Our Future case. He charged 78 people with stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayer-funded child nutrition programs. Fifty-eight have been convicted.”
“The Feeding Our Future case morphed into a major investigation of Medicaid fraud. Just last month, Thompson made waves when he said that the scammers fleeced taxpayers out of an estimated $9 billion,” Sepic continued. Thompson told the press at the time that what was happening in Minnesota was not the work of a “handful of bad actors,” but was “staggering industrial-scale fraud.”
“The convicted ringleader in the food fraud case is white, but most of the other defendants are Somali American, and even though all are – nearly all are U.S. citizens, the Trump administration is using the fraud cases as a pretext for increased immigration enforcement here in Minnesota,” Sepic went on to say in his report.
Another fraud prosecutor, Harry Jacobs, is also resigning, along with Melinda Williams, who is the head of the criminal division. When those individuals were asked why they would be resigning at this point in their careers, Thompson declined to provide an explanation. But according to Sepic, one of his sources stated there were several reasons.
“As we mentioned, top Justice Department officials have been pushing the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office to investigate Becca Good. She is the widow of Renee Macklin Good, the woman killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross last week. The investigation allegedly centers around any possible ties to activist groups she may have,” Sepic told NPR anchor Rob Schmitz.
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“That, of course, is protected First Amendment activity. The Trump administration maintains that the agent was acting in self-defense when he shot and killed Macklin Good, but video evidence contradicts claims that she presented a threat,” Sepic continued. Schmitz asked Sepic what kind of reactions he was hearing following the mass resignations and the alleged push to investigate Good.
“In a social media post this afternoon, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was blunt. He calls the prosecutors heroes and, quote, ‘the people pushing to prosecute Renee’s widow are monsters.’ The Democratic mayor also said that the Trump administration set back the work of fighting fraud by pushing out the prosecutors,” he said.
“U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, also a Democrat and a former prosecutor herself, praised Thompson’s work on fraud and other cases. She says, quote, ‘the family and loved ones of Renee Good deserve justice, not political attacks.’ Klobuchar accused DOJ of politicizing the investigation into the killing,” Sepic went on to say.
Sepic then revealed that Attorney General Todd Blanche responded to the mass resignations in a statement, saying, “There is currently no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation.” The Justice Department then stated that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has its “own internal investigation underway that runs parallel to any FBI investigation.” Sepic then said that his source claims this is untrue and that ICE has no internal investigation of the shooting.