33 Comments

  1. In case anyone is hitting a paywall:

    > At least four leaders of a Justice Department unit that investigates police killings have resigned in protest over the administration’s handling of the fatal shooting of a motorist in Minneapolis by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, according to three people briefed on the departures.
    >
    > Top leaders of the criminal section of the Civil Rights Division have left their jobs to register their frustration with the department after the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon decided not to investigate the ICE officer’s fatal shooting of Renee Good last week. The criminal section of the division would normally investigate any fatal shooting by a law enforcement officer and specializes in probing potential or alleged abuse or improper use of force by law enforcement.
    >
    > The departures – including that of the chief of the section, as well as the principal deputy chief, deputy chief and acting deputy chief – represent the most significant mass resignation at the Justice Department since February. At that time, five leaders and supervisors of the department’s Public Integrity Section, which investigates public officials for possible corruption, resigned rather than comply with an appointee of President Donald Trump’s orders to dismiss the bribery case against then-New York mayor Eric Adams.
    >
    > One source briefed on the reasoning for the resignations said the handling of the ICE shooting was not the only concern for the unit leaders and that some were concerned about other decisions by division leadership.
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    > “Investigating officials to determine if they broke the law, defied policy, failed to deescalate, and resorted to deadly force without basis is one of the Civil Rights Division’s most solemn duties,” said Kristen Clarke, who led the division in the Biden administration.
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    > “Prosecutors of the Civil Rights Division have, for decades, been the nation’s leading experts in this work.”
    >
    > The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
    >
    > Good’s shooting on Jan. 7 has galvanized Democrats and civil libertarians but also frustrated Minnesota politicians and state police investigators. On Jan. 10, the FBI announced it would be handling the investigation of Good’s shooting on its own and blocked Minnesota authorities from their typical role in reviewing evidence and investigating the shooting themselves. On Tuesday night, the state of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul filed a lawsuit attempting to block the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement actions there, which Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced would grow following Good’s death.
    >
    > Vice President JD Vance has defended the ICE officer, saying one day after Good’s death and with no investigation, that the shooting was justified. Trump himself made inaccurate claims that Good had “run over” the ICE officer, which video evidence contradicts.
    >
    > Democrats accused the Trump administration of trying to seize the evidence in the shooting as part of what they called a coverup.
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    > Late last week, according to a source briefed on the matter, a deputy for Dhillon relayed to the criminal section that Dillon had decided the office would not conduct a separate DOJ investigation of the ICE officer and whether he improperly used deadly force. Dhillon’s decision not to have her criminal section investigate the ICE officer’s shooting of Good was first reported by CBS News.
    >
    > In the days after the ICE officer shot Good, Dhillon retweeted a post on X in which a prosecutor warned people not to ram ICE officers because they will use deadly force. While federal officials claim Good was driving into the officer, video evidence shows her wheels were turned away from him when the officer opened fire and killed her.
    >
    > The department’s Civil Rights Division was created in the wake of the 1957 Civil Rights Act to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans. The division had about 380 attorneys when Trump took office in January but quickly saw a large exodus after Dhillon took the helm, as she insisted the division would align itself with the president’s priorities. She said in April that she welcomed the departures of civil rights lawyers.
    >
    > “I think that’s fine,” Dhillon said. “We don’t want people in the federal government who feel like it’s their pet project to go persecute police department based on statistical evidence or persecute people praying outside abortion facilities instead of doing violence.”
    >
    > “The job here is to enforce the federal civil rights laws — not woke ideology.”

  2. Every aspect of the government has been infected with trumps fascist agenda. Soon there will be no way to fight back through traditional means. Because those whose job it was to check power looked the other way instead.

  3. Unlikely_Dream_3419 on

    Republicans have won, they destroyed the USA. There is nothing left.
    There is no fixing this and rebuilding the USA until all republicans no longer exist.

  4. doesn’t resigning in protest usually end up with a net worse outcome? now 4 shitheads that are fine with a cover up can be in those positions

  5. Efficient-Laugh on

    Just more of what everyone was warning would happen before the election, and as a result got called doomers for it.

  6. Resignation only works when there is someone to shame. Now it only creates vacancies that can be filled with more MAGA members.

  7. HallucinogenicFish on

    Harmeet Dhillon was installed in this position specifically to discredit and dismantle the civil rights division.

  8. Quitting isn’t the answer, silent resistance is. Don’t do ur job well and obstruct/delay/drag feet. Quitting alows Trump bootlickers to fill void.

  9. This is bad. The resignations of the few people in the DOJ with integrity is only going to make things worse.

  10. OlorinRidesAgain on

    Do not fucking quit. Make them force you out because quitting means they fill the spot with another lackey.

  11. The head of the division is an immigrant herself. Of course she’s a trump nominee and a total POS.

  12. middlechildanonymous on

    DOJ Cronies: Child sex offenders I’m all for and I can help cover up… but add this murderous rampage caught on video from 5 different angles, and it’s just a little out of my comfort zone. I miss that time when America was great.

  13. Consistent_Pitch782 on

    This is asinine. Trump couldn’t give a shit less if they quit. Those people would serve the public interest better staying on the inside and leaking info as often as is safe to do. Working from within to sabotage this administration is possibly the only way to deal with the crimes these goons are committing

  14. When bolsheviks were seizing power in Russia following revolution, they were doing the same thing what ICE is doing. They didn’t let real revolutionaures and communists take power. Lenin and his gang were shooting oppositions, shooting lawyers, scientists, teachers, doctors — anyone who could organize against the criminal force of bolsheviks taking power and brining lawlessness. 

  15. Useful_Fee_2875 on

    We are living in terrible times. They won’t investigate the shooting. The investigation? Whatever Trump Vance Noam and all the other cronies want you to hear. This is the beginning of no accountability for the deaths that are going to follow when they ramp up activities on dissenters.

    It’s going to happen and I hope our friends in Europe will help us.

    God speed America

  16. immortalfrieza2 on

    And now those positions are going to be filled with Trump sycophants who will do whatever he and his minion Pam Bondi say. Great job cowards.

    It’s sickening how many keep doing this. If these cowards actually cared they’d go directly against Trump and force him to drag them out kicking and screaming and likely suing, that would have a real impact.

  17. The good ones leave… the others stay, and the organization settles ever-further into the mire.

  18. Great strategy. Eventually there will be nobody in any agency who would even think about putting up any resistance.

    After thinking about it for a few seconds, it turns out that’s actually a terrible strategy.

  19. Oh cool, so the only stupid motherfuckers that care are moving out of the way for the yes-men.

    ThAt WiLl ShOw ThEm!!!!

  20. Why do the people in government jobs who try to do the right thing and face any resistance ALL give up? Was nothing learned early on in Trump’s first admin? Resigning in protest only helps them, it accomplishes nothing.

  21. Alligator-bites on

    We need another whistle blower! This current administration is going to have history books dedicated once shit hits the fan. We only know the tip of the iceberg.

  22. PoopingDogEyeContact on

    I don’t agree with quitting as protest. They just fill in those positions with ppl evil and stupid enough to do fascism.