Top DOJ officials resign in protest over Trump administration’s handling of fatal shooting

The fatal shooting of 37-year-old motorist Renee Nicole Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday, January 7 is drawing scathing condemnation on both the left and the right. Some prominent conservatives and libertarians — including The Bulwark's Bill Kristol, MS NOW's Joe Scarborough, former Judge Andrew Napolitano (a legal analyst for Newsmax), The New York Times' David French and The Lincoln Project's Rick Wilson — are joining liberals and progressives in condemning the shooting as excessive force.

Yet allies of President Donald Trump, from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to Vice President JD Vance, are vigorously defending the ICE agent and claiming that he acted in self-defense. Noem, without evidence, even attacked Good as a "domestic terrorist." And according to reporting from the Washington Post, several U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials were so appalled by Trump allies' response to Good's death that they resigned from the agency.

In an article published late Monday night, January 12, Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Ken Dilanian explain, "At least four leaders of a Justice Department unit that investigates police killings have resigned in protest over the (Trump) Administration's handling of the fatal shooting of a motorist in Minneapolis by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, according to three people briefed on the departures. Top leaders of the criminal section of the Civil Rights Division have left their jobs to register their frustration with the department after the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon decided not to investigate the ICE officer's fatal shooting of Renee Good last week."

Leonnig and Dilanian note that ordinarily, the criminal section of the DOJ Civil Rights Division would investigate a fatal shooting by a federal law enforcement officer.

Kristen Clarke, who led the Civil Rights Division under former President Joe Biden, told the Post, "Investigating officials to determine if they broke the law, defied policy, failed to deescalate, and resorted to deadly force without basis is one of the Civil Rights Division’s most solemn duties. Prosecutors of the Civil Rights Division have, for decades, been the nation's leading experts in this work."

These resignations, according to Leonnig and Dilanian "represent the most significant mass resignation" at DOJ since February 2025.

"Good's shooting on January 7 has galvanized Democrats and civil libertarians but also frustrated Minnesota politicians and state police investigators," the Post reporters observe. "On January 10, the FBI announced it would be handling the investigation of Good's shooting on its own and blocked Minnesota authorities from their typical role in reviewing evidence and investigating the shooting themselves."

Read Carol Leonnig and Ken Dilanian's full article for the Washington Post at this link (subscription required).