At least four senior officials have resigned from the Department of Justice in protest over the Trump administration's response to the fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
Three sources briefed on the departures told MS NOW that top leaders in the criminal section of the Civil Rights Division left their jobs to indicate their frustration that Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, decided not to investigate the ICE officer's killing of 37-year-old Renee Good.
“Investigating officials to determine if they broke the law, defied policy, failed to de-escalate, and resorted to deadly force without basis is one of the Civil Rights Division’s most solemn duties,” said Kristen Clarke, who led the division during the Biden administration.
“Prosecutors of the Civil Rights Division have, for decades, been the nation’s leading experts in this work," she added.
The departures are the most significant mass resignation at the Justice Department since February, shortly after President Donald Trump returned to the White House, and include the civil rights section's chief, as well as the principal deputy chief, deputy chief and acting deputy chief.
Five leaders and supervisors of the department’s Public Integrity Section had resigned in February rather than comply with a Trump appointee's orders to dismiss a bribery case against then-New York City mayor Eric Adams.
"One source briefed on the reasoning for the resignations said the handling of the ICE shooting was not the only concern for the unit leaders and that some were concerned about other decisions by division leadership," MS NOW reported.
A source briefed on the matter told the network that one of Dhillon's deputies notified her office's criminal section last week that it would not investigate whether the ICE officer or whether he improperly used deadly force, and she also retweeted an X post by a prosecutor warning protesters not to ram immigration officers with their vehicles, which Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other administration officials say Good had attempted to do.
However, video evidence show the Minnesota woman's wheels were turned away from the officer when he opened fire and shot three times into her vehicle.