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DOJ sought to probe Renee Good for criminal liability, even after her death: Sources
A judge refused an FBI warrant that proposed investigating dead Minnesota mom for suspected assault on an officer.
MS NOW EXCLUSIVE: DOJ sought to probe Renee Good for criminal liability, even after her death: Sources
— MS NOW (@ms.now) 2026-01-24T00:11:10.166Z
www.ms.now/news/doj-sou...
https://www.ms.now/news/doj-sought-to-probe-renee-good-for-criminal-liability-even-after-her-death-sources
Aides to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche directed the U.S. Attorney’s office and FBI agents based in Minnesota to shut down a civil rights investigation into an officer’s fatal shooting of Renee Good and instead alter it to probe Good for possible criminal liability, according to three people briefed on the discussions.
After Good was killed on Jan. 7, FBI agents drafted a search warrant to obtain her car to reconstruct the path of bullets that an ICE officer shot into the vehicle. But they were instructed to redraft their warrant and change the subject of the investigation from a civil rights probe to an investigation into a suspected assault on an officer, the people said. A federal magistrate judge rejected that warrant, noting that Good was already dead and could not be considered a suspect for a warrant.
It was widely reported that the Justice Department chose not to investigate the ICE officer who shot and killed Good, but the details about how top Justice officials directed the altering of the investigation and search warrant — and how it was rejected as weak by a federal judge — have not been previously reported.
It’s extremely rare for judges to reject federal prosecutors’ requests for search warrants, as the standard for evidence needed to grant one is low. Prosecutors and investigators need to only show probable cause that they will find evidence of a crime in the location they wish to search. .....
The U.S. Attorney’s office in Minneapolis has suffered a string of embarrassing blows from the federal bench, where magistrate judges have rejected arrest warrants and criminal complaints the office has submitted against protesters. That is also exceptionally rare, because the standard for an arrest warrant is also probable cause to believe the suspect committed a crime. As MSNOW reported Friday morning, magistrate judges have ruled in several cases that the the federal prosecutors and officers who provide accounts of their interactions with protesters have not provided sufficient evidence to meet that low bar.
After Good was killed on Jan. 7, FBI agents drafted a search warrant to obtain her car to reconstruct the path of bullets that an ICE officer shot into the vehicle. But they were instructed to redraft their warrant and change the subject of the investigation from a civil rights probe to an investigation into a suspected assault on an officer, the people said. A federal magistrate judge rejected that warrant, noting that Good was already dead and could not be considered a suspect for a warrant.
It was widely reported that the Justice Department chose not to investigate the ICE officer who shot and killed Good, but the details about how top Justice officials directed the altering of the investigation and search warrant — and how it was rejected as weak by a federal judge — have not been previously reported.
It’s extremely rare for judges to reject federal prosecutors’ requests for search warrants, as the standard for evidence needed to grant one is low. Prosecutors and investigators need to only show probable cause that they will find evidence of a crime in the location they wish to search. .....
The U.S. Attorney’s office in Minneapolis has suffered a string of embarrassing blows from the federal bench, where magistrate judges have rejected arrest warrants and criminal complaints the office has submitted against protesters. That is also exceptionally rare, because the standard for an arrest warrant is also probable cause to believe the suspect committed a crime. As MSNOW reported Friday morning, magistrate judges have ruled in several cases that the the federal prosecutors and officers who provide accounts of their interactions with protesters have not provided sufficient evidence to meet that low bar.
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