Opinion – Six prosecutors quit over push to investigate Renee Good’s widow

Six career federal prosecutors don’t just walk away from their jobs lightly. Especially not people who’ve spent decades inside the Justice Department, handling some of the most complex fraud cases in the country. So when six prosecutors in Minnesota resign in a single day, there’s a problem.

At the center of this is the killing of Renee Nicole Good, a Minneapolis woman shot by an ICE agent. In moments like this, the expectation is straightforward: you investigate the use of deadly force, transparently, independently and with the goal of determining whether the law was followed. That’s how trust is built. Instead, the Justice Department chose to forgo a civil rights investigation into the shooting — a decision so alarming that several career prosecutors in the Civil Rights Division in Washington resigned in protest.

What replaced that investigation is where things get even more troubling.

Rather than fully examining whether the ICE agent’s actions were lawful, senior Justice Department officials pushed to investigate Good’s widow, Becca Good, probing her supposed ties to activist groups that monitor immigration enforcement. This is the move that Joseph H. Thompson, the acting U.S. attorney for Minnesota last year and a career prosecutor, objected to strenuously before resigning. He also opposed the department’s refusal to partner with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the state agency that routinely investigates police shootings — a decision that senior officials overruled.

Becca Good, in a statement released last week, captured the imbalance of that moment in plain language, saying she and her wife had “stopped to support our neighbors. We had whistles. They had guns.” No matter what you think about her statement, a fair investigation is necessary in this matter.

Drew Evans, the superintendent of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, didn’t mince words about what Thompson’s departure means, saying, “We’re losing a true public servant.” He went on to say, “We really need professional prosecutors,” and warned that the absence of a credible investigation into Renee Good’s killing stands to “undermine trust in our public safety agencies.”

All of this is unfolding as political rhetoric around Minnesota is being deliberately inflamed from the top.

President Trump posted on Truth Social, “FEAR NOT, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA, THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!” That message came as protests spread, as state and city leaders urged federal agents to leave Minneapolis, and as the administration continued to insist the ICE officer acted in self-defense, even as questions remain and facts are still contested.

Yes, Minnesota has faced serious fraud cases, with many of the defendants charged in the cases being of Somali origin. More than 90 people have been charged in schemes involving social service programs. Yes, that is the reason the administration decided to send in ICE. But fraud investigations don’t cancel out civil rights. And they don’t justify redirecting the machinery of justice toward a grieving widow while sidestepping scrutiny of an officer who used lethal force.

When seasoned prosecutors resign en masse, when civil rights lawyers walk away in protest, and when accountability is replaced with intimidation, the message isn’t subtle. When justice is real, it doesn’t pick sides, shield power or shift scrutiny away from the hardest questions. It serves everyone equally, or it fails the very purpose it claims to uphold.

Lindsey Granger is a NewsNation contributor and co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising.” This column is an edited transcription of her on-air commentary.

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