In late December 2025, the Trump Administration deployed thousands of ICE and CBP agents to Minnesota in what DHS called the largest immigration enforcement operation ever carried out. DOJ’s response to the chaos and violence that ensued has been disgraceful.
On January 7, 2026, an ICE agent shot and killed Minneapolis resident Renee Good; several weeks later, CBP agents fatally shot Veterans Affairs nurse Alex Pretti. In both instances, the Justice Department initially prohibited the Civil Rights Division from investigating the shootings according to protocol, and refused to share evidence with state and local authorities. In Good’s case, DOJ opened an investigation into Good’s widow and her supposed ties to activist groups. And after a protest at church in St. Paul, the department filed charges against Don Lemon and others under a constitutionally dubious statutory provision that DOJ had never previously enforced.
DOJ’s actions led to a mass exodus of prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota, leaving it with as few as 17 Assistant U.S. Attorneys in the first week of February — down from 70 during the Biden Administration. Six attorneys at the Civil Rights Division likewise announced that they would leave the department after DOJ leadership refused to allow civil rights investigations to go forward. A supervisory FBI agent who tried to investigate Good’s shooting also resigned after being forced to close her civil rights investigation.
Justice Connection has provided direct support to the Justice Department employees affected by the administration’s actions. We’ve also worked closely with former federal prosecutors in our DOJ alumni network from Minnesota and the Civil Rights Division to draw public attention to DOJ’s abdication of its vital role in holding federal law enforcement accountable. Below are some examples of how we’ve sounded the alarm.
January 11, CBS News: As protests build in Minneapolis and Portland, Justice Department has scrapped its “Peacemakers” office
“The Community Relations Service was designed to help de-escalate tensions like those we see in Minneapolis and Portland, and for decades it succeeded in that mission,” said Stacey Young. . . . “For no logical reason, the administration discarded the experts who were best positioned to keep budding conflicts from turning violent. We’re seeing the consequences of that fateful decision.”
January 13, MS NOW: ‘Stunning’: Trump’s DOJ won’t investigate ICE shooting, prompting outrage and resignations
Stacey Young talked with Jen Psaki about why the Justice Department refusing to do its job is extremely uncommon, and also an abdication of the department’s role in American governance.
January 14, CBC’s As It Happens: A sudden resignation leaves many questions in Quebec
“The video seems to indicate . . . misconduct—serious, potentially unconstitutional misconduct – by the agent who shot Rene Good. Under any other administration, the obvious thing to do would be to send prosecutors to the scene,” said Stacey Young. “Instead, this administration is slamming the victim [and] focusing on the victim’s widow. That is alarming and nonsensical.”
January 14, Star Tribune: 33 ex-federal prosecutors ask Trump to reconsider excluding state from Renee Good investigation
Justice Connection provided behind-the-scenes support to former prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota to secure and publicize a letter asking the Trump Administration to reconsider its decision to exclude the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension from the investigation into the fatal shooting of Renee Good. The ex-prosecutors said recent departures from the U.S. Attorney’s office will hamper future fraud investigations.
January 20, The Contrarian: DOJ officials are resigning over ICE’s actions
In this podcast, Stacey Young and Jen Rubin talked about what’s happening in Minnesota, the consequences of an impartial Justice Department, and the possibilities for state or local prosecution for crimes that are federally pardoned.
January 22, Justice Connection Substack: Domestic Terrorism Is a Real Threat, Not a Convenient Political Label (written by DOJ alum who served as the main point of contact for domestic terrorism matters)
When DOJ leaders and political appointees treat “domestic terrorism” as a political label, two things happen at once. Civil liberties suffer. National security suffers. The public sees the term as propaganda. Agents and prosecutors get pulled toward a narrative instead of a fact pattern. Data becomes unreliable. Resources are misallocated. Policy drifts and prevention becomes harder.
January 23, Rolling Stone: ‘Clicks and PR’: The Perversion of the DOJ Civil Rights Division Under Trump
Earlier this month, half a dozen Minnesota federal prosecutors resigned over the DOJ’s handling of Good’s case. The departures included Joseph H. Thompson, who had spearheaded the state’s case against a widespread network of social services fraud that has become a flashpoint in the administration’s anti-immigrant messaging.
“When you lose top leaders in offices like that, not only do you lose their own institutional knowledge and expertise, but it’s extremely destabilizing to the rest of the office,” [Stacey] Young explains of the mass exodus taking place throughout the Justice Department. “Some of the top folks in that U.S. Attorney’s Office, and in the Civil Rights Division — you lost almost the entire leadership structure [and] that’s going to crush morale among those who stay, and degrade the work that office will do going forward.”
January 25, Justice Connection Press Release: Justice Connection Statement on Minneapolis Fatal Shootings
A community can only trust law enforcement when they know agents will be held accountable for acting outside their authority. That trust is built on unbiased investigations into suspected illegal conduct. But instead of pursuing those investigations, the Justice Department has publicized spurious conclusions contradicted by evidence; perverted the term “domestic terrorist” by applying it to victims and protesters; boxed out state and local law enforcement; and launched investigations into conduct by victims and surviving family members instead of the agents who fired the guns.
January 25, ABC’s Good Morning America: Former Justice Dept. officials blast DOJ’s handling of fatal Minneapolis shootings
“The Justice Department has abdicated its role in seeking accountability for these fatal shootings by refusing to investigate allegations of unlawful, excessive force by federal agents in Minneapolis,” Stacey Young said.
January 26, CBS News: In wake of another shooting in Minneapolis, senators continue to press for answers over death of Renee Good
“Good policing requires public trust and accountability,” said Stacey Young. . . . “Rather than investigating allegations of unlawful, excessive force by federal agents in Minneapolis, the Justice Department has launched investigations into conduct by victims and surviving family members instead of the agents who fired the guns.”
January 27, MS NOW: No civil rights violation probe into latest MN shooting, sources tell MS NOW
“You see individuals are protesting but didn’t appear to incite any violence and were killed for doing so,” Stacey Young said. “It doesn’t matter what your politics are. Anyone who believes in democracy and the rule of law should understand that exercising your first amendment rights should not result in your death.”
“When the federal government failed to respond to seemingly excessive use of force, that sends a clear signal to agents that they can use that force with impunity. The public needs to scream bloody murder until DOJ begins carrying out its duties.”
January 28, Justice Connection Substack: The Preventable Tragedy of Not Investigating Federal Agents in Minneapolis (written by DOJ alum who prosecuted cases involving law endorsement using excessive force)
[W]hen the Justice Department so brazenly tips the scales in favor of the federal government without any investigation, it erodes any semblance of legitimacy, and with it, the rule of law. That’s what makes the government’s actions in pre-emptively shutting down and prejudicing these investigations indefensible.
January 29, Washington Post: Handling of Pretti investigation has some prosecutors on verge of quitting
Federal prosecutors in Minneapolis, frustrated by the response to the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, have suggested they could resign en masse. . . .
In 2024, roughly 100,000 attorneys worked across the Justice Department and its components, including the FBI. In 2025, Justice Connection. . . estimates that at least 5,500 people — not all of them attorneys — had quit the department, been fired or taken a buyout offered by the Trump administration. The department has struggled to find qualified candidates to fill these vacancies.
January 31, Los Angeles Times: Trump officials’ loss of credibility in ICE cases seen in court defeats
“When top federal law enforcement leaders in the country push false narratives like this, it leads the public to question everything the government says going forward,” said Peter Carr, a former Justice Department spokesman in Washington who served in Democratic and Republican administrations. . . . “That trust that has been built up over generations is gone.”
February 1, CBS’s 60 Minutes: Is the state being shut out of the Pretti shooting investigation?
Justice Connection worked with 60 Minutes to secure an interview with Sam Trepel, a former prosecutor in the Civil Rights Division who led the federal prosecution in the death of George Floyd in 2020.
Trepel: “The federal government appears to be shutting the state investigators out completely. And that’s very unusual and, in fact, unprecedented, in my experience. Typically, the federal investigative team and the state investigative team work very closely together. And they coordinate, and they collect evidence in close coordination with one another, and then they share that evidence. But, in Minneapolis, state investigators tell us that federal agents are not sharing the evidence.”
February 3, Justice Matters with Glenn Kirschner
On Glenn Kirschner’s podcast, Stacey Young discussed how federal government officials “made public statements immediately after the Renee Good killing demonizing Renee Good and her spouse, saying there’s no reason to open a civil rights investigation into what happened. That’s preposterous. You don’t need to be a civil rights lawyer to know that what happened may have been a serious civil rights violation. DOJ should’ve been on the ground the next day.”
February 4, Justice Connection Substack: Charging Don Lemon with Violating the FACE Act Carries Significant Legal Risks (written by DOJ alum who prosecuted cases under the FACE Act)
[F]ormer CNN anchor Don Lemon and several others were arrested by federal agents in connection with a January 18, 2026, incident that disrupted services at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. The arrests instantly became national news.
The Department of Justice charged Lemon and his co-defendants — much to the surprise of many — with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act, a statute that until now has been used exclusively to prosecute interference with access to reproductive health services. Before this case, I am not aware of any instance in which federal prosecutors invoked the FACE Act to address misconduct at a house of worship. . . .
For decades, career prosecutors at the Department of Justice intentionally left the religious-worship provision on the shelf, fully aware of its glaring constitutional and legal risks.
February 4, Axios: 300+ ex-DOJ lawyers demand transparent Minnesota shooting probes
Justice Connection helped the Prosecutors Alliance and the Vera Institute of Justice gather the signatures of more than 300 former federal prosecutors and civil rights attorneys for an open letter urging DOJ “to allow state and local investigations into the killings of two Minnesota residents by federal officers, according to a new letter obtained exclusively by Axios.”
February 4, CBS News: With latest Minnesota fraud case looming, the lead prosecutors have quit
“We should all pay attention to why some of the state’s top federal prosecutors chose to leave – it had nothing to do with political disagreement; rather, this administration asked them to violate their legal and ethical responsibilities, and they believed the exit was their only option,” [Stacey] Young said. “The loss of institutional knowledge and expertise will destabilize the U.S. Attorney’s office, leaving Minnesotans’ safety and rights less protected.”
