Prosecutors hardly ever walk away from their sought-after DOJ jobs in protest — but that’s changing in a hurry.
It used to be quite rare to see federal prosecutors resign in large numbers, exiting the Justice Department in protest.
But as Trump-era abuses become common, it’s clearly not rare anymore. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-01-14T18:18:19.248Z
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/resignations-justice-department-minneapolis-more-common
Predictably, problems emerged shortly thereafter. The Justice Department division that typically handles investigations of police shootings, for example, was reportedly excluded from the probe, The Washington Post reported. Around the same time, there was related reporting to suggest the Trump administration’s investigatory focus was on the victim, rather than the shooter.
It’s against this backdrop that The New York Times reported:
Six federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned on Tuesday over the Justice Department’s push to investigate the widow of a woman killed by an ICE agent and the department’s reluctance to investigate the shooter, according to people with knowledge of their decision.
Joseph H. Thompson, who was second in command at the U.S. attorney’s office and oversaw a sprawling fraud investigation that has roiled Minnesota’s political landscape, was among those who quit on Tuesday, according to three people with knowledge of the decision.
The departure of Thompson and several of his colleagues will ironically undermine the Minnesota fraud investigation that the White House claims to care so much about.
These highly sought-after positions are career highlights for those who reach such prosecutorial heights. It’s not at all common for attorneys to walk away from these jobs in protest.....
The more common these resignations become, the clearer it becomes that the DOJ is an institution in crisis and apparently coming apart at the seams
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