DOJ Resignations Over the Renee Good Shooting Confirm Our Worst Fears

The resigning officials, then, were not merely objecting to a particular judgment call. In effect, they were saying that if the Criminal Section does not have jurisdiction over a case like this, its role has been reduced to near irrelevance.

DOJ instead assigned the investigation to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota. But that office lacks the expertise, experience, and institutional stature to undertake an inquiry that goes to ICE’s core mission and legitimacy. Moreover, on Tuesday, three federal prosecutors from that office quit over the DOJ’s apparent disinterest in investigating Ross and its push to investigate Good’s widow.

Nor is the broader context hard to discern. A serious civil rights investigation—or worse, a criminal prosecution—would cut directly against the administration’s signature priority: an aggressive, high-visibility immigration enforcement campaign, in which forceful tactics are treated as proof of resolve rather than excess. Calling this shooting into question would not merely implicate one agent; it would threaten the legitimacy of a brute-force enforcement regime that is Trump’s pride and joy. And it would come at a moment when the president is reportedly already furious with Attorney General Pam Bondi and senior immigration officials over perceived softness and setbacks.