The Justice Department investigation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross opened briefly as a civil rights probe of an officer-involved shooting, but it reportedly moved quickly to investigate the facts of a car-ramming assault on Ross.
The investigation is now centered on the actions of the Renee Good and other anti-ICE "professional agitators and insurrectionists," as President Donald Trump called them, at the scene, including her partner, rather than the agent, sources told CNN.
Additionally, anti-policing and anti-ICE rhetoric by Democrats in Minnesota have left them subject to investigation, too, in lieu of the shooter.
The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, run by Harmeet Dhillon, typically reviews law enforcement shootings to assess potential rights violations, but the facts of the ICE-involved shooting led to a quick change of policy in this case, according to the Trump administration officials.
The state and city's radical leftist, anti-policing leaders – Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Gov. Tim Walz, and Attorney General Keith Ellison – threatened the Trump administration right after the car-ramming shooting, which the Department of Homeland Security and DOJ referred to as a "self-defense" case.
The rhetoric could have forced the federal officials' hand and might be the reason for a lack of coordination under the reality of biased local and state officials.
Some officials viewed the handling of the investigation as politically motivated, according to CNN.
At least six federal prosecutors in Minnesota reportedly resigned after being instructed to alter the investigation's focus.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a televised interview the department investigates officer-involved shootings only when warranted, saying that was not the case here.
Now the DOJ is investigating whether Walz and Frey obstructed federal law enforcement through public statements.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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