DOJ Abandons Probe of Fatal ICE Shooting of Renee Good
INSIDE: Todd Blanche ... Harmeet Dhillon ... Bari Weiss
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
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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:
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”:
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I wonder if Justice Brett "I love beer" Kavanaugh is having second thoughts over his written opinion that has led to the eponymous "Kavanaugh stops"...initially, the ICE/CBP goons were stopping any and all "look-and-sound" Hispanic residents for immigration violation, now they've extended that to demanding "proof of citizenship" from that very same demographic. No papers, no freedom to go about your business.
No 4th Amendment protection, and now it's guilty until proven innocent, all thanks to liberty-loving Scotus.
The world watched as Renee Good was gunned down in her own neighborhood by an angry, out-of-control control ICE goon, and we are supposed to just look the other way? I can’t!