What we covered here
• Prosecutors quit: The first assistant US attorney in Minneapolis and at least five other lawyers resigned amid White House pressure to focus the probe into an ICE officer’s shooting of a mother on her actions and those of people around her, someone briefed on the matter said.
• More feds to Minneapolis: About 1,000 more Customs and Border Protection agents are deploying as tensions flare after Renee Good’s killing sparked protests nationwide.
• Court fights: Democratic-led Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul sued the Trump administration, calling its immigration operation “a federal invasion.” The suit doesn’t aim to kick out ICE but is “because of this escalation,” the state attorney general said.
• White House reaction: President Donald Trump defended ICE agents in Minnesota, saying online a “day of reckoning and retribution is coming.” Trump ramped up the enforcement push to target undocumented Somali immigrants, but like similar actions across the US, it has nabbed others and many without criminal records.
Our live coverage has ended. Get the latest here.
Father-in-law of woman killed by ICE speaks out
Renee Good’s former father-in-law, Timmy Macklin, talks to CNN’s Erin Burnett about President Donald Trump’s comments surrounding her death.
Renee Good's former father-in-law, Timmy Macklin, talks to CNN's Erin Burnett about Trump's comments surrounding her death.
Congress needs to rein in ICE through oversight, Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith says
Congress needs to “flex our power” to provide oversight and “rein in” Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
“I can’t see any way that I could provide more funding to an agency that is completely out of control,” she said when asked if she would support a government shutdown related to the agency’s funding.
Smith said she would like to see Democrats and Republicans establish standards for ICE agents such as basic training and not wearing masks.
“I think that this is the role in the responsibility of Congress to exercise some oversight and some discipline over what is happening here,” she said.
She also criticized the investigation by the federal government into the shooting of Renee Good, saying “there is no credibility to this investigation” if six career prosecutors resigned instead of participating in the case.
More federal agents are heading to Minneapolis as protests roil city. Catch up on the top headlines
Several federal prosecutors in Minnesota have quit after receiving pressure from the Trump administration on how to conduct an investigation into the deadly shooting of a woman by an ICE agent last week, a source said.
The moves come as protesters clash with federal agents in Minneapolis — and with more Customs and Border Protection personnel being deployed to the city.
Here are the key things to know today:
- Prosecutors resign: At least six prosecutors at the US attorney’s office in Minnesota have resigned amid White House to focus the probe into ICE-involved shooting of Renee Good on her actions and those of people around her, someone briefed on the matter said. Joseph Thompson, who frequently handled investigations with political implications including one into social services fraud in Minnesota, was among those who resigned. Read more about who some of the other prosecutors were here.
- No investigation: Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department does not believe there is evidence to back a criminal investigation into the actions of an ICE agent involved in the shooting. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty and Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara criticized the move.
- More federal agents: US Customs and Border Protection Commander Gregory Bovino said “hundreds and hundreds” of additional federal agents are being deployed to Minneapolis. The agents started deploying Friday and continued over the weekend, according to two federal law enforcement sources. This comes on top of the deployment of about 2,000 agents to the area that CNN reported early last week.
- Lawsuit: There will be a court hearing tomorrow in the Minnesota lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and its reporting agencies. The suit is seeking a court order halting the operations. The Pentagon is working to surge dozens of military lawyers to Minneapolis to assist in federal prosecutions, according to two officials familiar with the matter and a written request that has circulated inside the Defense Department.
- Federal funding: During a speech, President Donald Trump announced the federal government will not make “any payments” to sanctuary cities or states with sanctuary cities starting February 1. A judge blocked the administration from denying funding to over 30 cities last year for policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
- Protests: A few blocks away from where Renee Good was killed by an ICE agent, federal officers clashed with protesters. Agents smashed one woman’s car window and pulled her out of the vehicle, video showed. In the Powderhorn neighborhood in Minneapolis, federal agents clashed with protesters, dispersing pepper balls and flash bangs. A crowd was also outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal building.
CNN’s Sharif Paget, Taylor Romine, Evan Perez, Hannah Rabinowitz, Priscilla Alvarez, Emma Tucker, Natasha Bertrand, Haley Britzky and Andy Rose contributed reporting to this post.
Pentagon to dispatch dozens of military lawyers to Minneapolis amid immigration crackdown
The Pentagon is working to surge dozens of military lawyers to Minneapolis to assist in federal prosecutions amid an immigration enforcement crackdown there, according to two officials familiar with the matter and a written request that has circulated inside the Defense Department.
The emailed request, reviewed by CNN, says Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has directed the military services to identify 40 judge advocate general officers, from which 25 will be selected to serve as special assistant United States attorneys in Minneapolis.
The Pentagon in September also authorized up to 600 military lawyers to serve as temporary immigration judges around the country, in phases of 150 at a time as needed, CNN has reported.
The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.
Escalating protests a sign that increased immigration enforcement is not effective, Minnesota AG says
The escalating protests in Minneapolis are a sign the increase in immigration enforcement is not effective, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in an interview with Anderson Cooper.
The state and the Twin Cities filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration Monday calling the expanded immigration enforcement “a federal invasion of the Twin Cities.” Not only are agents going into the situation “guns blazing,” they are doing so without coordinating with local authorities, Ellison said today.
“There was ICE presence before we filed this lawsuit, but this dramatic escalation of poorly trained, poorly recruited people who have been instructed by the president that Somalis are garbage, right?” Ellison said, saying this “is a recipe for disaster.”
All of this emphasizes why the state and cities had to challenge the administration in court, he said.
“I do not believe that the president will stop, simply because there’s evidence, clear evidence that this surge is not doing what he said he wanted it to do, which is to deal with crime,” Ellison said. “It’s actually creating more disorder more harm, more risk of injury than anything going on in Minneapolis.”
Woman says she was hit by flash-bang during protest outside federal building near Minneapolis
A woman told CNN she was hit by a flash-bang while demonstrating outside of the Whipple Federal Building near Minneapolis Tuesday.
The woman, who identified herself only as Zoe, said she was standing toward the front of a protest when 10 to 12 officers came out and fired flash-bangs.
“It hit me truly like right in the knee,” she said, showing CNN’s Ryan Young her bloody leg.
She said she was not scared after being hit with a projectile.
“ICE does not scare me … there is power in the people,” Zoe said.
“If they’re throwing weapons at us, they’re afraid, they don’t want us here because they know we have power against them,” she said. “I can be hit by flash-bangs again and I’m not going anywhere, I am going to be out here for the coming weeks until ICE is off our streets and stops killing our neighbors and terrorizing our neighbors.”
Video shot by CNN shows the moments following a tense encounter between dozens of federal agents and a crowd of protestors.
Video shows agents and demonstrators standing opposite each other on the street, with protesters shouting at agents to take off their masks, and agents backing away slowly as protesters chant “shame” repeatedly. More than two dozen federal agents are visible in the video.
WATCH: Flash-bangs used on anti-ICE protesters outside Whipple Federal Building
Anti-ICE protesters and members of the press are seen running from law enforcement after the use of flash-bangs outside the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis on Tuesday.
Loud bangs and a series of sparks were captured on video by CNN affiliate WCCO.
Woman dragged out of her car in Minneapolis as federal officers clash with crowds
Chaos erupted in a Minneapolis neighborhood that saw federal officers clash with and detain several people, including a woman who was forcefully pulled out of a car just a couple of blocks from where Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed.
With the passenger side window smashed, agents surrounded a car on Tuesday and dragged the driver out who yelled that she’s “disabled,” video showed. Before they flung open the doors of the vehicle and used knives to cut the seatbelt off her, people could be heard telling the woman to drive away.
A young man is also seen in the video being detained by federal officers as people yell and curse at them. CNN has reached out to the US Department of Homeland Security to ask if he’s a minor and learn why he was detained. CNN has also inquired about the woman who was pulled out of the car.
Joe Rogan, right-leaning podcaster and Trump voter, says fatal ICE shooting of Good “looked horrific”
Right-leaning podcaster Joe Rogan, who endorsed President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, said on his podcast the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis “looked horrific” in video footage of the incident last week.
On his podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Rogan spoke about the Trump administration’s federal immigration actions in the Twin Cities, saying: “You don’t want militarized people in the streets just roaming around, snatching people up, many of which turn out to actually be US citizens. They just don’t have their papers on them.”
“Are we really going to be the Gestapo?” Rogan continued, referring to Nazi Germany. “Is that what we’ve come to?”
“I’m not that guy, I don’t know what he (the ICE agent) thought,” he said. “And again, this is a guy who had almost been run over. But it just looked horrific to me.”
The ICE agent who fatally shot Good was previously injured after being dragged about 100 yards six months prior by a driver during an immigration operation in a city suburb.
Rogan represents a base of Trump voters and “knows his audience really well,” according to CNN political commentator S.E. Cupp. Among the president’s base, Rogan is positioning himself among some who “are very concerned” about how the fatal shooting of Good is being handled.
“It’s bad politics. It’s very worrisome politically for Trump and Republicans,” Cupp continued.
Illinois governor denounces Trump's threat of revoking federal funding to sanctuary cities
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker denounced President Donald Trump’s statement that his administration would revoke funding to sanctuary cities, saying “American taxpayers shouldn’t be treated as pawns.”
“If Trump keeps threatening to illegally withhold funds from Illinois, then we’ll keep fighting for what our people deserve,” he said in a post on X. “We’ve beaten the administration in court before — and we’re not afraid to keep doing so.
Resignations of several federal prosecutors is "very concerning," Minneapolis police chief says
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the resignations of several federal prosecutors in Minnesota is “very concerning,” as the city continues to contend with protests and the deployment of more federal agents.
Earlier today, CNN reported at least six prosecutors quit their jobs after pressure from the Trump administration on how to conduct the probe of the deadly ICE officer shooting last week, according to a person briefed on the matter.
The police chief described the prosecutors as “incredibly dedicated” and said many of them were the most senior leadership in the US Attorney’s office.
O’Hara said his officers are continuing to try to de-escalate “some of the chaos that’s happening on the street” as people in the community protest the killing of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE agent.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department does not believe there is evidence to back a criminal investigation into the actions of the ICE agent involved in the deadly shooting.
The police chief said not investigating at all is “totally at odds with what typically happens” when there is a deadly force incident. Not only is an investigation needed to uncover all of the facts in the case, but it’s also to make sure there aren’t changes that need to be made to the agency’s policies, O’Hara said.
Renee Good's former father-in-law remembers her as outgoing and "full of laughter"
Timmy Macklin remembered his former daughter-in-law Renee Good as someone who was always laughing.
He said she was an “amazing person, real outgoing, full of laughter all the time” and it was “a shock” to learn that she was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis last week.
Good’s late husband and Macklin’s son died in 2023. They had one child together who is now 6 years old.
Macklin said he’s “not blaming anybody” for Good’s death and acknowledged “it’s a hard situation all the way around.” He also said Good’s widow is a “great person as well.”
But, “if we’re walking in the spirit of God, I don’t think she would have been there. That’s the way I look at it,” Macklin said referring to Good’s proximity to ongoing protests at the time.
Trump says Renee Good was likely “very solid, wonderful person” but “her actions were pretty tough” in CBS interview
President Donald Trump commented Renee Good was likely “a very solid, wonderful person, but her actions were pretty tough,” he said in an interview with CBS.
CBS anchor Tony Dokoupil told Trump that Good’s father is a Trump supporter but is deeply upset by his daughter’s death and the administration’s portrayal of her. In response, Trump said “Well, I want to say to the father that I love all of our people.”
“They can be on the other side. As you say, he might be on my side,” Trump said, with Dokoupil interjecting to say her father is a supporter. “And I think that’s great. And I do, I think it’s great. And I would bet you that she, under normal circumstances, was a very solid, wonderful person, but her actions were pretty tough.”
Trump went on to say his administration is trying to remove “hundreds of thousands of murderers in our country” and that the jobs of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are “being made very, very difficult.”
“And you know, when you look at that tape, it can be viewed two ways, I guess,” Trump said. “But when you look at the way that was, that car was pulled away, there are a couple of versions of that tape that are very, very bad.”
Mayor Frey calls Trump officials’ pressure to probe Renee Good’s wife “monstrous” and “un-American”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the pressure from the Trump administration to focus the probe of the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Good on her widow was “monstrous,” “gross” and “un-American.”
At least six federal prosecutors in the US attorney’s office in Minnesota resigned after pressure from the Trump administration to zero-in on the actions of Good, her widow and others around her who may have been involved in ICE protests, as part of the shooting probe, CNN has reported.
The resignations are a “major problem,” Frey says, as those prosecutors were leading fraud investigations state-wide. And they point to how the federal crackdown in the Twin Cities is politically motivated – not geared towards public safety, fighting crime, immigration or fraud, the mayor added, “if all of the people investigating the fraud suddenly decide we’ve had enough.”
When asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper whether he’s concerned tensions will escalate due to federal activity in communities, Frey said: “My concerns haven’t decreased, in fact, I’m more and more concerned each and every day because of the conduct that we’re seeing on the streets” as well as the “massive increase” in federal agents.
Who are some of the prosecutors who resigned from Minnesota’s US Attorney’s office?
At least six prosecutors in the US attorney’s office in Minnesota resigned Tuesday after pressure from the Trump administration to focus the probe of the ICE officer shooting of Renee Good on the actions of the Minneapolis mother, her widow and others around her who may have been involved in ICE protests, according to a person briefed on the matter.
Harry Jacobs and Melinda Williams, two senior prosecutors in the office, are part of the group of resignations, another source familiar with the matter told CNN.
Jacobs has worked in the Minnesota’s US Attorney’s office since November 2018, according to his LinkedIn profile.
One of his most prominent cases was against the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, which has come back to the public spotlight in recent weeks with allegations of fraud in Minnesota. He handled that case alongside prosecutor Joseph Thompson, who also resigned from the US Attorney’s office in Minnesota, according to a person briefed on the matter.
Jacobs was also working on the federal case against Vance Boelter, who is accused of killing a top Minnesota Democratic lawmaker and her husband last year.
Williams has served in the office since 2014, and previously worked as a prosecutor for the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia from 2005 to 2014, according to her LinkedIn profile.
News releases from the US Attorney’s office show she worked on a case accusing two people of participating in a sex trafficking conspiracy, with one defendant sentenced to 21 years in prison.
Williams was one of the top prosecutors the Minneapolis Police Department worked with to address violence and gang crime in the city, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said in a statement earlier in the day.
What we know so far about the federal prosecutors who resigned in Minnesota
At least six prosecutors at the US attorney’s office in Minnesota have resigned after pressure from the Trump administration on how to handle the investigation into an ICE agent that shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis, according to a source.
If you’re just reading in, here’s what we know so far:
- Top career prosecutor: Joseph Thompson, who was previously the acting US attorney for Minnesota and then served as the first assistant US attorney for Minnesota, was among those who resigned. Thompson frequently handled investigations with political implications, including as a member of the special counsel team that investigated classified documents found at former President Joe Biden’s home in Delaware.
- Who else stepped down: Harry Jacobs, who led the investigation into social services fraud in Minnesota with Thompson, and senior prosecutor Melinda Williams also left.
- More could be coming: This could be just the beginning, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. Others are weighing whether to resign instead of following unusual demands on how to handle the shooting probe, the person said.
- Federal pressure: The resignations come after the Trump administration has put pressure on prosecutors to focus the probe of the ICE officer shooting of Renee Good on the actions of Good, her widow, and others around her who may have been involved in ICE protests, according to a person briefed on the matter.
- Investigation into ICE agent: Also today, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department does not believe there is evidence to back a criminal investigation into the actions of the ICE agent involved in the deadly shooting. Federal investigators are also blocking local authorities from using their jurisdiction to investigate the shooting.
- Reaction: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called the resignation of Thompson a “huge loss for our state.” He said in a statement it is “the latest example of the Trump Administration overtaking traditionally nonpartisan positions” within the Justice Department. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said the resignations indicate the prosecutors are “not being allowed to do their job.”
“Hundreds and hundreds” more federal agents are being deployed to Minneapolis, CBP commander says
There are “hundreds and hundreds” of additional federal agents being deployed to Minneapolis as part of Operation Metro Surge, the immigration crackdown effort in the Twin Cities, US Customs and Border Protection Commander Gregory Bovino said.
Only people illegally in the US or undocumented immigrants with a criminal history – not US citizens or immigrants with legal status – “should probably be very scared” by the operations underway, said Bovino.
“We’re going to take care of the situation… We’re going to take those bad people and bad things off the streets,” Bovino told CNN affiliate WCCO.
“We’ll be here as long as it takes,” he added.
Bovino, who has also led targeted immigration enforcement operations in other Democratic-led cities, was already in Minneapolis last week with hundreds of agents, a federal law enforcement source told CNN.
When asked whether he feels the ICE agent was “justified” in fatally shooting Renee Good, Bovino said the agent was “in a very difficult, untenable situation and did what he had to do to ensure that his life was saved.”
State and local officials have repeatedly disputed claims that the shooting of the Minneapolis mother of three was done in self-defense.
Energized crowd protesting at Whipple federal building
An orderly protest is taking place outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal building near Minneapolis, where demonstrators are chanting and holding signs and flags.
“Quit your job,” protesters are yelling to federal agents parked at the gate.
The crowd, which is mostly lining the sidewalk across from the building, is holding their signs up to cars that are driving in and out.
CNN senior national correspondent Ryan Young, who is at the protest, said people there are “angry and energized.” If they see people they believe are ICE agents, some protesters have stepped into the street to try to block them, Young reported.
Braving the Minnesota cold, protesters are bundled up in winter coats and hats. Music is playing and at least one protester as a bullhorn, amplifying his voice through the crowd.
Earlier today: In the Powderhorn neighborhood in Minneapolis, federal agents clashed with protesters, dispersing pepper balls and flash bangs. Some protesters were seen throwing snowballs at the agents.
Court hearing set for Wednesday in Minnesota lawsuit against the federal government
A court hearing is set for Wednesday in the Minnesota lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and its reporting agencies for its immigration enforcement in the state.
The suit is seeking a court order halting the operations, arguing the federal government is unlawfully commandeering state resources and violating Minnesota law and city ordinances. Minnesota and the Twin Cities have also requested a temporary restraining order against the federal government to stop their enforcement while the case proceeds.
A status conference is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. local time before US District Judge Katherine M. Menendez.
