Federal prosecutors and FBI officials in Minnesota were deeply distressed by the decision of the Trump administration’s Justice Department to block an investigation into the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a Minneapolis resident, by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent.
According to reports from MSNOW and the New York Times, aides to then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche directed the U.S. Attorney’s office and FBI agents in Minnesota to shut down a civil rights investigation into the officer’s use of deadly force against Good. Instead, they were instructed to alter the investigation to focus on the possibility of criminal liability for Good herself.
The incident occurred on January 7th, when Good was moving her car out of the way of federal agents. An ICE officer, Jonathan Ross, then opened fire, killing Good. FBI agents had initially drafted a search warrant to examine Good’s vehicle and reconstruct the trajectory of the bullets, but they were told to redraft the warrant and change the focus to a suspected assault on an officer. A federal magistrate judge rejected this warrant, noting that Good was already deceased and could not be considered a suspect.
Tracee Mergen, an FBI agent and supervisor in the Minneapolis field office, reportedly quit her job after the bureau’s leadership in Washington “pressured her to discontinue a civil rights inquiry into the immigration officer, Jonathan Ross.”
In an interview with Fox News, Blanche, a former personal lawyer for President Trump, stated that there was no need for the Justice Department to investigate the shooting, arguing that “we don’t just go out and investigate every time an officer is forced to defend himself against somebody putting his life in danger.”
However, Blanche’s comments have been challenged by forensic analysis of the incident, which has demonstrated that Trump’s claim that Good “ran over” the ICE agent who shot her is false. The video footage clearly shows that Good was simply moving her car out of the way of the federal agents when the fatal shots were fired.
The failure to investigate this incident has sparked outrage, with many questioning the impartiality and commitment to civil rights of the Trump administration’s Justice Department. The case has become a troubling example of the potential for political interference in the pursuit of justice, even in the most serious of circumstances.
