A Trump Administration Official Says It Won’t Investigate the Killing of Renee Good

It’s hard to be shocked by anything the Trump administration does. But when Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News on Sunday that the Justice Department would not investigate the actions of Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who killed Renee Good on January 7, I admit I was shocked.

“What happened that day was rewatched by millions of Americans because it was recorded at the time it happened,” Blanche told anchor Shannon Bream. “We not only investigate every time a police officer is forced to defend themselves against someone or put their life in danger, we never do…

“We investigate when it’s appropriate to investigate. That’s not the case here… We’re not going to give in to pressure from the media, from politicians. So no, we’re not investigating.”

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, however, was not surprised. “No, I wasn’t shocked, because that’s what we’ve been hearing on the ground for days,” he told me Monday morning. “I was happy to hear him say it, because we can take it to court.”

Ellison and Hennepin County Prosecutor Mary Moriarty promised to investigate Good’s murder, but the Justice Department refused to share the evidence it collected. “But if they don’t investigate? How do they justify not giving us the shell casings, the cars? [Good’s and Ross’s]the photos?

Blanche actually understood a fact on Sunday: “Millions of Americans” did indeed see the footage of Ross shooting Good at point-blank range — and most of them think the ICE agent was wrong. An astonishing 82 percent of those surveyed by Quinnipiac said they had seen video of the incident, and a majority said Ross was at fault; his life was never “in danger”. Several minute New York Times Analyzes reviewed numerous cellphone videos of the incident, including those of Ross, and concluded there was no evidence that Good’s vehicle ever struck the officer. He shot her at least twice – once directly in her left ear – after she clearly turned the SUV away from him. There is at least a foot of daylight between the vehicle and the ICE agent as he fires his final shots.

“I think this is the purest sign that we have moved away from procedural justice and are fully committed to a results-driven system,” Ellison said. “Blue lives matter, until they uphold the democratic transfer of power [on January 6]. This is clearly a characteristic of fascism.

Blanche said this the same weekend we learned Good was still alive when paramedics reached her — not breathing, and with an irregular pulse, but a pulse nonetheless. At least 15 minutes earlier, moments after the shooting, a local doctor approached ICE agents and asked if he could check his pulse, and he was turned away. “I am a doctor!” he told them. “I don’t care,” the agent replied. I would like to know the name and position of this agent. His actions also deserve investigation.

Not only is the DOJ refusing to investigate Ross, but Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has asked CBS’s Margaret Brennan not to even say his name on air. “Don’t say his name! I mean, for heaven’s sake, we shouldn’t let people continue to harass law enforcement.”

“His name is public,” Brennan replied. “I know, but that doesn’t mean it has to continue to be said,” our puppy-killer cabinet secretary insisted.

In contrast, the Justice Department is investigating Good’s widow, Becca, for her ties to local activist groups, as well as Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for obstructing ICE’s work. On Wednesday, Blanche called both men terrorists on X.

“The Minnesota insurrection is a direct result of a FAILED governor and a TERRIBLE mayor encouraging violence against law enforcement. It’s disgusting,” he wrote Wednesday on

On Sunday, Blanche told Bream, “You saw the governor and the mayor actively encouraging criminals to go out on the streets and obstruct ICE. That’s not allowed under our law…That’s what we’re looking at.”

Last week, at least 10 Justice Department lawyers resigned over the department’s failure to investigate Ross and pressure to investigate Becca Good. Six came from the local U.S. attorney’s office, which also opposed blocking local law enforcement and prosecutors from investigating the shooting.

Nonetheless, Ellison says his office and Moriarty’s are already investigating the shooting, interviewing witnesses and gathering evidence through an online portal. While some analyzes say it is difficult for state officials to pursue a federal agent, Ellison insists otherwise. “No, it’s not,” he told me. “No, it’s not. Any case where law enforcement is prosecuted is difficult,” he acknowledged, but “to say that states have to give up their power to police their state? We have the legal right to prosecute and the legal right to investigate.”

Although Ellison said he wasn’t “shocked” by Blanche’s brazen assertion that the Justice Department wasn’t investigating Ross, he admitted it was proof that “we’re in a different kind of moment.” Before Trump, he said, the Justice Department “would have at least conducted some sort of investigation, convened a grand jury,” while likely exonerating the agent. The idea that the administration no longer needs to even pretend to follow the law — Trump said last week that only his own “morality” constrains him — is in “dangerous” territory, he said.

“The big danger is to think that there is going to be a ‘turn back’ moment,” he added. “There won’t be any that we don’t create ourselves.”