FBI Agent Who Sought Probe of Renee Good’s Shooter Resigns After Pressure From Higher-Ups

Photo by Samuel Corum/Sipa USA (Sipa via AP Images

An FBI agent who sought to investigate the ICE officer who shot and killed Renee Good resigned after facing pressure from superiors to end her inquiry.

Tracee Mergen, a supervisor in the F.B.I.’s Minneapolis field office, was attempting to conduct a civil rights inquiry into Jonathan Ross, the immigration officer responsible for the shooting, sources told The New York Times.

Her resignation came after pressure from bureau superiors in Washington, who blocked her from working with the U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis to investigate Ross, the sources said.

Sources similarly told MS NOW that aides to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche directed Minnesota FBI agents to end the investigation into Ross, going so far as to tell both agents and the U.S. Attorney’s office to instead investigate Good.

Agents tasked with examining Good’s car to track the path of the four bullets that struck her were instructed to redraft their warrant and change the subject of their investigation to a suspected assault on an officer. A federal judge rejected the altered warrant because Good is deceased, rendering the matter moot.

“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,” MS NOW’s report noted.

Blanch has said previously that the FBI has no plans to investigate Ross, claiming his agency wouldn’t “bow to pressure from the media.” The government’s lack of scrutiny into the shooting prompted six federal prosecutors in Minnesota to resign last week, with some citing the Justice Department’s push for an investigation into Good’s widow as the reason for their departure.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension withdrew from the investigation after the FBI blocked its access to evidence, a decision President Donald Trump said that he supported because Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) is “a stupid person.”

Good’s death sparked weeks of protests in Minneapolis, which sued the Trump administration last week over the recent surge of immigration agents in the area, arguing that it amounted to “a federal invasion of the Twin Cities.”

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