FBI Agent Resigns as DOJ Blocks Renee Good Shooting Probe

FBI supervisor Tracee Mergen resigned from the Minneapolis field office after Washington leadership pressured her to abandon a civil rights investigation into ICE officer Jonathan Ross, who fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good on January 7. Such inquiries are standard procedure following officer-involved shootings. The Trump administration weaponized the Justice Department by instead investigating Good and her partner for alleged ties to left-wing protest groups, prompting at least six senior prosecutors in the Minneapolis U.S. attorney’s office to resign in protest.

Senior Justice Department officials have stated there are no plans to investigate whether Ross used excessive force when he fired multiple shots at the unarmed mother sitting in her vehicle. Federal investigators refused to cooperate with state and local Minnesota prosecutors seeking to open their own inquiry into the shooting. The New York Times video analysis found no evidence supporting Trump administration officials’ claims that Good attempted to ram Ross with her Honda Pilot, yet they publicly labeled her a “domestic terrorist.”

The Justice Department simultaneously opened investigations into Minnesota Democratic elected officials, including Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, scrutinizing whether they conspired to obstruct Trump’s immigration enforcement through public statements. Subpoenas were issued this week to their offices and St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her’s office as part of this effort.

The department prosecuted three protesters—Nekima Levy-Armstrong, Chauntyll Louisa Allen, and William Kelly—charging them with conspiracy for interrupting a church service to protest a pastor’s apparent ICE work, alleging they “intimidated, harassed, oppressed and terrorized the parishioners.” Federal judges denied prosecutors’ requests to detain the three while awaiting trial.

These actions reflect a coordinated strategy by the Trump administration’s Justice Department to shield federal immigration enforcement from oversight, punish Democratic critics of ICE operations, and criminalize protest activity opposing deportation policies, while Trump falsely claimed protesters were paid agitators.

(Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/23/us/fbi-agent-ice-shooting-renee-good.html)