The Justice Department is bleeding senior leadership — and it’s not subtle. At least four top officials inside the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division have quit in protest after a Trump administration appointee flatly refused to investigate the fatal shooting of a Minnesota woman by an ICE officer.
According to multiple sources briefed on the resignations, the walkout came after Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon decided her office would not probe the killing of 37-year-old Renee Good, who was shot to death by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis.
The resignations hit the heart of the DOJ’s civil rights enforcement apparatus. Those leaving include the criminal section’s chief, the principal deputy chief, a deputy chief, and the acting deputy chief — effectively gutting the unit responsible for investigating law enforcement misconduct.
Kristen Clarke, who ran the Civil Rights Division during the Biden administration, didn’t mince words about what that decision represents.
“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,” Clarke said. “Prosecutors of the Civil Rights Division have, for decades, been the nation’s leading experts in this work.”
Sources told MS NOW that Dhillon’s office informed criminal section leaders last week that it would not investigate whether the ICE officer improperly used deadly force. That decision reportedly became the breaking point — though some officials were already alarmed by other moves coming from division leadership.
The resignations mark the most significant DOJ walkout since February, shortly after Donald Trump returned to the White House. That earlier exodus involved five leaders and supervisors from the department’s Public Integrity Section, who quit rather than comply with an order from a Trump appointee to dismiss a bribery case against then–New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
The ICE shooting itself has become politically radioactive. Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and other administration officials have publicly claimed that Good attempted to ram federal officers with her vehicle — a claim Dhillon appeared to amplify when she retweeted a post on X warning protesters not to use cars as weapons against immigration agents.
But video evidence undercuts that narrative. Footage shows Good’s wheels turned away from the officer when he opened fire, shooting three times into her vehicle.
Sources said the refusal to even examine whether deadly force was justified crossed a line for prosecutors whose job is supposed to be independent of political pressure.
Inside the DOJ, the message from leadership appears clear: cases that contradict the administration’s narrative won’t be touched.
