Justice Department 'staff revolt' brewing over Trump’s targeting of critics and protesters

A "potential staff revolt" is reportedly brewing in Donald Trump's Department of Justice, according to the New York Times, as staffers bristle against pushes from leadership to pursue cases against protesters and critics of the administration's deportation agenda.

The Times reported on Thursday that the DOJ has, throughout the last year, adopted Trump's "strong-arm approach to the law," and deployed its resources to pursue an agenda of "punishing his enemies, protecting his friends and attacking the credibility of judges, prosecutors and even the victims of law-enforcement violence." This approach has already led many career prosecutors to resign, as things come to a head in Minnesota, sources indicated to the Times that even more could be on their way out.

In the wake of the federal agents shooting and killing U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis this month, DOJ officials, led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, have resisted calls to follow the traditional route and open investigations into the officers responsible for the incidents. Instead, they "have tried to refocus public attention on the aggressive tactics of demonstrators... [and] pushed prosecutors and the F.B.I. to turn up the heat on critics of the immigration crackdown: politicians, protesters, even relatives of the victims."

According to the Times, this approach "has left the U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis, one of the most respected in the nation, in crisis."

"On Tuesday, prosecutors in the office’s criminal division confronted the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney, Daniel Rosen, and an aide to Mr. Blanche, over concerns that they were being asked to execute orders that went against the department’s mission and best practices, according to four people briefed on the exchange," the Times' report explained. "Some of the prosecutors suggested they were considering resigning in protest, those people said, days after six others had quit over similar concerns. Their departures would exacerbate a staffing shortfall that has already forced the department to shift prosecutors from other jurisdictions to bolster the depleted ranks in Minnesota."

Staffers in the office were particularly taken aback when DOJ leadership halted plans to launch a civil rights investigation against Jonathan Ross, the officer who shot Good earlier in January. Instead, they were pushed to investigate Good's background and connection to local activists, as well as her widowed partner, Becca Good.

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