DOJ Abandons Probe of Fatal ICE Shooting of Renee Good

Posted on by David Kurtz

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Feds Investigate Everyone Except ICE

The only people the Justice Department is investigating for the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Good are her widow, the governor of Minnesota, and the mayor of Minneapolis.

In a staggering admission over the weekend, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the former personal criminal defense lawyer for President Trump, confirmed that the Justice Department is no longer investigating the shooting:

BREAM: Is the FBI investigating the ICE agent who shot Renee Good?BLANCHE: What happened has been reviewed by millions of Americans bc it was recorded. We investigate when it's appropriate. That is not the case here. We are not going to bow to pressure. So no, we are not investigating.

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-01-18T16:24:27.784Z

It’s not clear when the federal investigation into the Jan. 7 shooting was suspended. It came sometime after Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen reportedly squeezed state investigators out of the federal probe, a move announced by state officials on Jan. 8.

The best evidence suggests that the suspension of the federal probe may have been the same week as the shooting, around the time that Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, decided the DOJ Civil Rights Division would not investigate the Good shooting. That prompted half a dozen career lawyers in that division to resign, a move that was first reported by MSNow on Jan. 12.

The FBI did conduct an “initial review” of the shooting and “determined that sufficient grounds existed to open a civil rights probe,” the WaPo reports. That was presumably before Dhillon shut it all down.

Instead of probing the shooting, higher-ups at DOJ ordered an investigation into the political activities of Good’s wife, which prompted another half dozen resignations in the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office last week, including several senior career officials in the office.

Then on Friday, news came that the Trump DOJ had launched a criminal investigation into Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for allegedly conspiring to impede federal immigration agents. “[A] U.S. official … said the investigation stems from statements that Walz and Frey have made about the thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents deployed to the Minneapolis region in recent weeks. CBS News reported. For its part, the WaPo originally reported that subpoenas had already been issued to the two Minnesota elected officials, before backing away from that reporting and saying that subpoenas were only planned.

News of the federal criminal investigation into the constitutionally protected political activities of Walz and Frey came two days after Blanche accused them of “terrorism” on social media: “Walz and Frey – I’m focused on stopping YOU from your terrorism by whatever means necessary. This is not a threat. It’s a promise.”

It was clear from the outset that the Trump DOJ was already too corrupted and compromised by the erosion of its independence from the White House to credibly investigate the shooting of Good. It was obvious that cutting state investigators out was part of a larger cover-up of the shooting to avoid accountability. But the larger cover-up apparently meant trying to shut down the state investigation because it was the only investigation that was going to be conducted. The highest officials at the Justice Department have simply walked away from scrutinizing the shooting.

Troops Prepped For Minnesota

With President Trump threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota, the Pentagon has issued prepare-to-deploy orders to 1,500 troops in two infantry battalions of the Army’s 11th Airborne Division, which is based in Alaska and specially trained for cold-weather operations.

Trump did appear to pull back on Friday from an immediate Insurrection Act invocation: “I don’t think I need it right now,” he said.

Judge Blocks DHS From Arresting Peaceful Protestors

In a ruling Friday, U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez of Minneapolis barred federal agents from arresting peaceful protesters and retaliating against them with nonlethal munitions and crowd control tools them. While the judge basically ordered DHS to follow existing law, she catalogued in great detail from the case record some of the DHS abuses recorded in Minnesota.

Meanwhile, DHS admitted in a social media post that speaking Spanish and having a Mexican accent is a sufficient basis for federal agents to demand proof of U.S. citizenship.

Quote of the Day

“One ICE agent said if we let you see your clients, we would have to let all the attorneys see their clients, and imagine the chaos. And I said to that person, yeah, you do have to let all the attorneys see their clients. You do have to accommodate that. That’s the Constitution. You chose to put them here. I didn’t bring this guy here, you did.”—an unnamed attorney in an ABC News report on DHS denying legal counsel to ICE detainees in Minnesota

60 Minutes Finally Airs CECOT Segment

The core of the original 60 Minutes segment on the Alien Enemies Act detainees unlawfully shipped off to CECOT remained when it was finally broadcast last evening, but the report was lengthened and padded on either side with softening additions after CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss held up the piece for nearly a month beyond its advertised air date.

One irony of this mess: Weiss had insisted on adding to the segment an on-camera interview with a Trump official even though the administration initially refused to participate, so Weiss reportedly took it upon herself to arrange such an interview, but failed.

In related news, after President Trump completed a 13-minute taped interview Tuesday with CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil, he conveyed a threat through his press secretary about what would happen if the interview wasn’t run in it entirety without any edits: “If it’s not out in full, we’ll sue your ass off.”

Some witnesses took it as a joking reference to CBS’ absurd $16 million settlement last year with Trump for running an edited video of Kamala Harris during the 2024 campaign. However the remark may have been intended, the Trump interview did run in full, which CBS said was its plan all along.

NEWSFLASH: Greenland is NATO

The absurdity of President Trump’s Greenland threats should not obscure that he is mounting a direct U.S. attack on the NATO alliance, an outcome that would positively thrill Russia’s Vladimir Putin. The current eruption of U.S. expansionism comes after years of Trump threats to withdraw from NATO and his numerous overt efforts, rhetorically and otherwise, to weaken, undermine, and disdain the trans-Atlantic alliance that has been a stalwart of the post-World War II geo-strategic configuration of which the United States has been the primary beneficiary.

Among the latest developments:

  • Trump bluntly threatened new tariffs over Greenland unless the U.S. could buy the territory, and the Europeans weighed whether to negotiate or retaliate.
  • In a letter to Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store of Norway — that was forwarded to European ambassadors in Washington – President Trump connected his threats against Greenland (which is Danish) on Norway’s failure to award him the Nobel Peace Prize (which is not awarded by the Norwiegan government).
  • The threat the United States poses to Denmark prompted a small European military exercise in Greenland as a show of support.

What the Europeans Are Saying …

  • “When I took my post as secretary general of the Council of Europe just over a year ago, I did not think that I would ever have to write about the possibility of the United States taking military action against a member state. Yet here we are.”—Alain Berset
  • “There is extreme consternation that your president appears completely immune to data, facts, arguments and common knowledge. He continues to state what is obviously, factually wrong. This seems unbelievable to many people in this country. We cannot understand what is happening. We wonder what is next.”—Danish journalist and Arctic expert Martin Breum

U.S. Poised To Resume Unlawful Boat Attacks

The FAA issued seven alerts Friday warning civilian aviation of the potential for increased military activity in the Eastern Pacific off Latin America.

The Corruption: Pardon Edition

President Trump granted clemency for the second time to a convicted fraudster who re-frauded after he released her from prison at the end of his first term. Adriana Camberos was convicted for a new and different fraud in 2024, but Trump pardoned her again last week, freeing her from prison, where she was serving 12 months on the new conviction plus additional months for violating probation on her earlier conviction, the NYT reports.

2026 Ephemera

In a rare move against an incumbent senator of the same party, President Trump publicly endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA) to challenge Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA). Letlow, who has yet to formally declare her candidacy, has served in the House since a 2021 special election called after her husband was elected to the seat but died of COVID before he was sworn into office.

The Promised Land

In a surprise performance Saturday in New Jersey, Bruce Springsteen dedicated his anthem “The Promised Land” to Renee Good as he implored ICE to “get the fuck out of Minneapolis”:

Hot tips? Juicy scuttlebutt? Keen insights? Let me know. For sensitive information, use the encrypted methods here.

How the Supreme Court’s Work to ‘Bolster Executive Power at Congress’s Expense’ is Coming Back to Bite

Posted on by Layla A. Jones

President Donald Trump launched his second term by seeking to usurp Congress’ authority and challenge a nearly century-old legal precedent that shields independent executive branch agencies and the congressionally-confirmed officers who lead them from presidential overreach. In late January, Trump removed Gwynne Wilcox from the National Labor Relations Board and fired two commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In February, he dismissed a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board. And in March, he axed two commissioners from the Federal Trade Commission. 

Continue reading “How the Supreme Court’s Work to ‘Bolster Executive Power at Congress’s Expense’ is Coming Back to Bite” →

Probes Into Racism in Schools Stall Under Trump

Posted on by Allegra Kirkland

The Hechinger Report covers one topic: education. Sign up for our newsletters to have stories delivered to your inbox. Consider becoming a member to support our nonprofit journalism.

LUBBOCK, Texas — The meeting of the local NAACP chapter began with a prayer — and then the litany of injustices came pouring out.

A Black high school football player was called a “b—h-ass” n-word during a game by white players in September with no consequence, his mom said. A Black 12-year-old boy, falsely accused last December of touching a white girl’s breast, was threatened and interrogated by a police officer at school without his parents and sentenced to a disciplinary alternative school for a month, his grandfather recounted. A Black honors student was wrongly accused by a white teacher of having a vape (it was a pencil sharpener) and sentenced to the alternative school for a month this fall, her mom said.  

“They’re breaking people,” said Phyllis Gant, a longtime leader of the NAACP chapter in this northwest Texas city, referring to local schools’ treatment of Black children. “It’s just open season on our students.”

Continue reading “Probes Into Racism in Schools Stall Under Trump” →

Very Important Moment

Posted on by Josh Marshall

Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) went on CNN this morning and among other things said, “I think ICE needs to be totally torn down… People want immigration enforcement that goes after criminals, not the goon squad that has come from Stephen Miller and Trump.” This is where every Democrat should be. Shut down ICE and replace it with a new immigration enforcement agency built on the rule of law and actually enforcing the country’s immigration laws in a humane and lawful way, as opposed to ICE, which has turned into a presidential paramilitary focused on cleansing violence and treating Blue cities like conquered territories.

But these comments are more important as a signal. Gallego came out of the progressive wing of the House Democratic caucus and a pretty blue urban House district in Pheonix. But he made some significant shifts to run and win statewide. Among those was running significantly if not dramatically to the right of most Democrats on immigration issues. The fact that he’s now saying ICE should be “totally torn down” speaks volumes. He sees where the public is on ICE. He certainly knows where Arizonans are on ICE.

Continue reading “Very Important Moment” →

Watch What They’re Doing: Trump Threatens to Make War on the States

Posted on by Josh Marshall

We have late word this evening that the Department of Justice has launched a “criminal investigation” of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minnesota Mayor Jacob Frey over a purported “criminal conspiracy” to impeded ICE’s work in the state. Let’s start with the obvious and important fact that the bar that has to be cleared to launch such an investigation is essentially nil. All you need is a couple toadyish and corrupt DOJ appointees and they are currently in oversupply. Getting a criminal indictment let alone a conviction is in a different universe of possibility. The main point of this is simply to generate the headlines you’re seeing this evening (“criminal investigation!”) and perhaps load state and local government with subpoenas or perhaps raids.

Continue reading “Watch What They’re Doing: Trump Threatens to Make War on the States” →

White House: Turns Out People Think ICE Kinda Sucks

Posted on by Josh Marshall

There’s a fascinating and kind of hilarious item in Axios today. The headline is: Trump’s immigration erosion worries his team. Reading the piece, it all appears to be a reaction to the fairly obvious point that the highly visible and increasingly brutal ICE raids are not popular. And the American public is beginning to see these “surges” into Blue cities, rightly, not as aggressive immigration enforcement but as something more like punitive expeditions into what Trump views as enemy cities or something like occupied territory.

What I’ve noticed is how top administration leaders and especially the ICE agents on the ground are increasingly leaning into the visions of these “surges” and raids as a kind of cleansing violence, even much more than they were in the early period of this effort back in the summer. They increasingly look less like efforts to rack up deportation numbers ( that may be happening in a more piecemeal fashion across the country ) and more like hyper-violent expeditions targeting all the people who — in the MAGA vision — are getting in the way of Making America Great Again.

Continue reading “White House: Turns Out People Think ICE Kinda Sucks” →

What the ‘Federal Invasion’ of Minneapolis Looks Like on the Ground: Photos

Posted on by Allegra Kirkland

Minneapolis is in the midst of what local leaders are calling a “federal invasion.” In the days since an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot 37-year-old resident Renee Good, reports have surfaced of a woman being dragged from her car while on her way to a routine appointment at the Traumatic Brain Injury Center. A Venezuelan man was shot in the leg by an ICE agent. A family of eight reported being teargassed on their way home from their son’s basketball game, causing a 6 month old to fall unconscious.  

In the Trump administration’s telling, these incidents are all the fault of protesters, who are getting in ICE’s way. His supporters are generally in lockstep with the administration, echoing claims that Good was a “domestic terrorist” and that the images coming out of Minneapolis show protesters impeding law enforcement. 

But many Americans are disturbed by what they’re seeing: seemingly indiscriminate violence being enacted by ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents against immigrants and U.S. citizens alike. The flood of photos and footage out of Minneapolis is having a real impact on public perceptions of the agency and what’s happening in the city.

Continue reading “What the ‘Federal Invasion’ of Minneapolis Looks Like on the Ground: Photos” →

There’s More at Stake Than Just Interest Rates. Here’s What Trump Could Do With the Whole Federal Reserve Toolkit

Posted on by Layla A. Jones

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on whether President Trump can continue his rampage through the federal government by removing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook without due process, giving the executive unprecedented power over the nation’s premier financial institution. 

Trump has since his first term openly tried to manipulate Federal Reserve governors into cutting interest rates, seemingly to benefit his own political and business interests and those of his allies. He’s taken unprecedented steps to apply pressure, including trying to remove Cook on a manufactured allegation of mortgage fraud and arguing with Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell in-person over the cost of renovations to two Fed buildings. Late last week, Trump’s administration launched a sham criminal investigation of Powell, accusing the Chair of lying about the cost of the renovations in a move decried by a bipartisan panel of experts and elected officials.

At its core, the Federal Reserve is America’s central bank. It consists of the Board of Governors in Washington D.C. and 12 regional banks, each responsible for its own multi-state district.

The Fed’s two main mandates are to maintain maximum employment and to control price inflation. For those aims, it wields just one tool: controlling interest rates that affect the cost of borrowing money and doing business. Using economic data, members of the Fed vote eight times a year on whether to raise, lower, or hold interest rates.

If the Supreme Court decides Trump can remove Cook, it will swing wide open the door that would give the president full power to pluck out Fed governors and replace them with his own loyalists. 

A Trump takeover of the Fed could mean the president, through his chosen governors, would be able to slash rates at will, risking skyrocketing inflation and driving up unemployment, as has happened in countries like Argentina and Turkey. 

But the Fed has many more tools the president could seize if SCOTUS kills Federal Reserve independence, a panel of experts said on a Thursday morning press call organized by Groundwork Collective, a left-leaning economic policy organization.

Beyond a protracted affordability crisis, here’s what else is at stake.

Trump Could “Reward His Billionaire Friends.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) highlighted the Federal Reserve levers Trump could pull to enrich himself and the billionaires who have adhered themselves to him in his second term, openly courting the president in exchange for preferential policy.

“Once Trump controls a majority of the Fed, he can use the Fed’s vast powers to enrich himself personally, to reward his billionaire friends, and to punish his enemies,” Warren said.

Trump could help himself and business owner friends by cutting interest rates and making it cheaper to do business.

He could also abuse the Fed’s role as the “bankers’ bank,” in which Federal Reserve Banks provide banks with commercial services the way banks serve their individual customers. Those responsibilities expanded during the 2008 global financial crisis, when the Federal Reserve bailed out Wall Street by purchasing tens of billions of dollars worth of “toxic” securities from the world’s largest financial institutions to bolster companies’ balance sheets. 

Trump could further leverage that authority to lend money to financial institutions run by business people who have allied themselves with the president.

On the Flip Side, He Could Punish His Enemies.

A Trump-controlled Federal Reserve Board could withhold funds and services from banks whose leaders draw the president’s ire. 

Trump has shown little to no restraint in weaponizing the federal government against his political opponents. He’s tried to yank funds from blue states, weaponized the Department of Justice against officials who have challenged him, and removed congressionally approved agency officials at-will, regardless of the law.

Exerting unprecedented influence over the central bank would give the president free rein to regulate and supervise financial institutions. The Fed helps write regulations for financial institutions, investigates banks for rules violations and enforces the law. The Fed has even more jurisdiction over the tens of state banks, those chartered by states rather than the federal government, including the power to force out-of-compliance state banks to “forfeit all rights and privileges of membership” in the Fed banking system. From there, it’s not hard to envision a megalomaniac president using the power of the Fed to bully blue states by manipulating their financial institutions.

“What if a bank doesn’t lend to a key ally of the White House?,” queried Rohit Chopra, former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director, on Thursday. “Will they face losing access to the Fed’s primary credit programs? Or what if they don’t cooperate with a key item on the president’s agenda? Do they have to worry about getting debanked?”

A Backdoor Power of the Purse

The U.S. Treasury holds its checking accounts at the Fed, where the government receives revenues and issues payments. The Fed also facilitates Treasury auctions of securities, including Treasury notes, bonds and bills, to investors to raise money.

A Fed controlled by the president could help facilitate Treasury auctions not when the department’s spending exceeds its income, but at the president’s whim to raise revenue for whatever reason. Trump could also abuse the Fed’s Treasury account by exerting more unilateral influence over the department withholding or issuing payments outside of congressional approval.

“The central bank controls the monetary levers, is the backbone of the payment system,” said Columbia Law professor Lev Manand on Thursday. “And the monetary levers can be abused to lend money, to buy assets in ways that further the administration’s priorities and allow the administration to evade the legislature that is supposed to under our constitutional system have the power of the purse.

“A president that could control the Federal Reserve would be even more capable of evading Congress,” Manand said, “which is, I think, the reason why this is so high stakes.”

Hive Maintenance Scheduled for January 16, 2:15 pm ET

Posted on by Jackie Wilhelm

As part of a larger effort to find long-term solutions to make sure our members are having a good user experience in The Hive, the forums will be undergoing some much-needed maintenance today, January 16, at 2:15 p.m. ET. During this time, the Hive will be read-only with most features, including the ability to comment, unavailable for about an hour. The updates and maintenance will increase the speed and reliability of The Hive server going forward. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at siteissues@talkingpointsmemo.com.