Mass resignation at Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office stems from Renee Good shooting, investigation

A majority of the leadership team at the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office resigned on Jan. 13 over the direction of the Justice Department under the Trump administration. Among those who resigned was Joe Thompson, the lead federal prosecutor and public voice on uncovering rampant fraud in Minnesota.

The departures of several prosecutors stemmed from directives from top federal officials to staff members after the killing of Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, according to sources familiar with the decision. That included blocking the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) from the investigation into the shooting and a request from the Justice Department to investigate Good’s widow for possible federal charges. A source also said Thompson’s resignation resulted from a general frustration that a surge of immigration enforcement in Minnesota ordered by the Trump administration has “eclipsed” fraud investigations by the office.

President Donald Trump has said fraud in Minnesota’s social programs was the reason for the surge in immigration officers to the state. Thompson, who was No. 2 in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, was the lead federal prosecutor of white-collar crime in the state.

“It has been an honor and a privilege to represent the United States and this office,” Thompson, who joined the office in 2014, wrote in an email obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune. His email did not give any reason for his resignation or indication of where he is going next. He did not respond to requests for comment.

His resignation was followed by at least five other senior members of the office, including Assistant U.S. Attorney Harry Jacobs, chief of the criminal division and the lead attorney prosecuting Vance Boelter in the assassination of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and attempted killing of Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. Jacobs was also instrumental in prosecuting the Feeding Our Future trial. Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Calhoun-Lopez also resigned; he was the lead investigator for a series of federal racketeering trials targeting members of Minneapolis street gangs.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Melinda Williams, who led the prosecution of sex trafficker Anton Lazzaro, is also among the resignations. Thompson, Jacobs and Williams are the three top-ranking prosecutors in the office.

The departures come after an internal email was recently sent by U.S. Attorney of Minnesota Daniel Rosen. He directed prosecutors to “say nothing” about the FBI’s investigation into the killing of Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, specifically to law enforcement and media. He wrote that only assistant U.S. attorneys designated by him may speak to investigators about the federal probe.

Morale at the state U.S. Attorney’s Office has been low for years, according to several sources, an erosion that has continued since Rosen took over. A source said there has been little confidence in his leadership by many current attorneys, and several former attorneys from the office were planning to publish a letter criticizing the decision to cut the BCA out of the investigation.

The resignations in Minnesota come on the same day that several media outlets reported a wave of resignations by career prosecutors in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. That office recently learned there would not be a civil rights investigation into Good’s killing.

The division saw another mass exodus of attorneys last year after the Trump administration changed the department’s longstanding mission of protecting the constitutional rights of marginalized communities. In May 2025, DOJ attorneys moved to dismiss the long-awaited federal consent decree over Minneapolis police, mandating sweeping reforms after the murder of George Floyd.

Gov. Tim Walz said in a statement that Thompson’s departure was a direct result of President Trump pushing out career professionals and “replacing them with sycophants.”

“Joe is a principled public servant who spent more than a decade achieving justice for Minnesotans,” Walz wrote. “This is a huge loss for our state.”

“The legitimacy of the justice system depends on institutions — not rhetoric," O’Hara said in a statement. “Joe Thompson is an institution within law enforcement.”

O’Hara said the fact that Thompson is leaving at the same time that the federal government is using fraud investigations to justify a surge of ICE agents is notable.

“When you lose the leader responsible for making the fraud cases, it tells you this [immigration enforcement] isn’t really about prosecuting fraud,” O’Hara said.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., weighed in, saying that she helped make Thompson acting U.S. Attorney and praising his work uncovering fraud and investigating political assassinations and the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School.

“We cannot allow prosecutions to be driven by politics,” she said. “The family and loved ones of Renee Good deserve justice, not political attacks.”

Thompson covered several other high-profile cases during his brief tenure, including filing federal charges against Boelter.

But Thompson has been most notable for uncovering fraud throughout the state. “Our state is far and away the leader in fraud now, and everyone sees it,” Thompson told the Minnesota Star Tribune Editorial Board last year. He has claimed that the fraud is in the billions — a number that has been contested by Walz.