Joe Thompson, the career U.S. Justice Department attorney best known for prosecuting social services fraud in Minnesota, has resigned along with other experienced attorneys at the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The move comes after top Justice Department officials pushed the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office to investigate the widow of Renee Macklin Good, the person shot and killed last week by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, MPR News has learned.
Thompson, 47, also objected to the DOJ’s decision to exclude the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension from the investigation into the shooting and the department’s reluctance to investigate Ross, according to a person familiar with Thompson’s decision.
Veteran assistant U.S. attorneys Melinda Williams, Harry Jacobs, and Thomas Calhoun-Lopez also resigned. The prosecutors were also concerned that immigration enforcement is diverting resources away from prosecuting major fraud cases in the state.
I am thoroughly ashamed of my country and I have been doing what I can to help those around me. I have no control over what the federal government does and I don’t really have much influence to wield. In a few months, I’ll be a physician and I can use that title and the power and privilege that comes with it to speak louder, but right now, as a student in the middle of the Twin Cities, there’s not much I can do.