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 Sunday that the Department of Justice will not investigate the actions of Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who killed Renee Good on January 7, I’ll admit to a moment of shock.

“What happened that day has been reviewed by millions of Americans, because it was recorded when it happened,” Blanche told anchor Shannon Bream. “We don’t just go out and investigate every time an officer is forced to defend himself against somebody or putting his life in danger, we never do…

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

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

Ellison and Hennepin County District Attorney Mary Moriarty have promised to investigate Good’s killing, but the Justice Department has refused to share the evidence it has collected. “But if they’re not investigating? How do they justify not giving us shell casings, the cars [Good’s and Ross’s], the photos?”

Blanche did get one fact right on Sunday: “Millions of Americans” have indeed seen the footage of Ross shooting Good at close range—and most of them think the ICE agent was in the wrong. An astonishing 82 percent of people polled by Quinnipiac said they’d seen video of the incident, and a majority said Ross was at fault; his life was never “in danger.” Several painstaking New York Times analyses examined the many cell-phone videos of the incident—including Ross’s own—and concluded there is no evidence Good’s vehicle ever struck the agent. He shot her at least twice—one shot directly into her left ear—after she had clearly turned the SUV away from him. There’s at least a foot of daylight between the vehicle and the ICE agent as he fires his last shots.

“I think it’s the purest sign that we’ve abandoned procedural justice and are full-on in an outcomes-driven system,” Ellison said. “Blue lives matter, until they’re upholding the democratic transfer of power [on January 6]. This is a clear hallmark of fascism.”

Blanche said this the same weekend that we learned that Good was still alive when paramedics reached her—not breathing, and with an erratic pulse, but a pulse nonetheless. At least 15 minutes earlier, moments after the shooting, a neighborhood doctor approached ICE agents and asked if he could check her pulse, and he was turned away. “I’m a physician!” he told them. “I don’t care,” the agent replied. I’d like to know that agent’s name and position. His actions merit investigation, too.

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

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

By 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.

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

On Sunday, Blanche told Bream, “You saw the Governor and the Mayor actively encouraging criminals to go out on the street and impede ICE. That is not allowed under our law… That’s what we’re looking at.”

Last week, at least 10 Justice Department attorneys resigned because of the department’s failure to investigate Ross and the pressure to investigate Becca Good. Six came from the local US Attorney’s office, which also objected to shutting out local law enforcement and prosecutors from probing the shooting.

Nevertheless, Ellison says his office and Moriarty’s are already investigating the shooting, interviewing witnesses, and collecting evidence through an online portal. While some analyses hold that it’s tough for state officials to prosecute a federal agent, Ellison insists otherwise. “No, it isn’t,” he told me. “No, it isn’t. All cases prosecuting law enforcement are difficult,” he acknowledged, but “to say the states have to abandon their power to maintain order in their state? We have the legal right to prosecute and the legal right to investigate.”

Though Ellison said he wasn’t “shocked” by Blanche’s brazen assertion that the Justice Department isn’t investigating Ross, he did admit it was proof that “we are in another kind of moment.” Before Trump, he said, the Justice Department “would have at least done some kind of investigation, assembled a grand jury,” while in the end likely clearing the agent. The notion that the administration no longer has to even pretend to follow the law—Trump last week said only his own “morality” constrains him—puts is in “dangerous” territory, he said.

“The big danger is thinking there’s going to be some ‘snapback’ moment,” he added. “There will not be one that we don’t ourselves create.”