Former U.S. Attorneys: Trump administration ‘destroyed the professional culture’ of office

Eight former U.S. Attorneys in Minnesota released a letter Friday condemning what they call the “ongoing damage” to local law enforcement efforts by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Trump administration.

“We are heartbroken about the damage being done to the Office that we ran and still love,” reads the letter, signed by two Republican appointees, two Democrat appointees and four lawyers who oversaw the office on a temporary basis.

The letter comes as federal judges have repeatedly blasted the U.S. Attorney’s Office for violating court orders related to the flood of wrongful detention cases filed in connection with Operation Metro Surge. The federal influx of thousands of extra agents resulted in the detention of more than 4,000 Minnesotans, according to the Trump administration.

The Minnesota Star Tribune has also documented how Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen, appointed to lead the office by President Donald Trump last year, has been forced to dismiss some criminal cases and seek quick pleas on others because the office is so short-handed.

Since mid-January, 14 assistant U.S. Attorneys have either quit or taken steps to leave the office to protest directives from Bondi and, in some cases, because attorneys were not allowed to proceed with an investigation into the killing of Renee Good by a federal agent.

The Star Tribune interviewed several attorneys who left this year. They said they resigned because they were no longer allowed to pursue criminal and civil cases that were prioritized by predecessors and instead have been directed to take on immigration-related cases.

The Minnesota office gained national prominence following the indictment of more than 70 people connected to the fraud case involving the nonprofit Feeding Our Future. The leaders of that scheme were convicted last year, but anti-fraud efforts have stalled after all of the prosecutors involved in that case quit.

“In the space of a year, the Attorney General has destroyed the professional culture of our former office,” the letter reads. “Many lawyers have resigned. Many left, and more will leave, without another job in sight. But they could not in good conscience participate in what they have seen.”

Rosen did not respond to a request for comment.

In a written response to questions, Justice Department spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre didn’t directly answer the concerns raised in the letter but instead said, “These former U.S. Attorneys stayed silent as violent agitators burned Minneapolis to the ground in 2020, allowed massive amounts of fraud to run rampant in Minnesota, and sat quietly by as DOJ was weaponized against President Trump and his allies. They have zero credibility and this pathetic letter belongs in the trash right next to their selective outrage.”

The letter was not signed by Erica MacDonald, a Trump appointee who served from 2018 to 2021. MacDonald did not respond to a request for comment.

Among the signees: Democratic appointee Andy Luger, who served two terms as U.S. Attorney, most recently from 2022 to 2025; former Supreme Court Associate Justice David Lillehaug, a Democratic appointee who served as U.S. Attorney from 1994 to 1998; Republican appointee Tom Heffelfinger, who also served two terms, most recently from 2001 to 2006; and Republican appointee James Rosenbaum, who served from 1981 to 1985.

In their letter, the former U.S. Attorneys complain that the Justice Department has diverted most of the local office’s resources to immigration, “enabling the wildly ill-conceived Operation Metro Surge.”