An FBI agent who had initially partnered with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in the United States, to probe the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Good has resigned, according to two sources familiar with the matter who spoke to CNN.
The agent had opened a civil rights investigation into the shooting but was soon instructed to reclassify it as an inquiry into an assault on the officer. The FBI subsequently prevented the BCA from participating in the investigation.
The New York Times was the first to report the resignation.
Sources told CNN that the departure coincides with a broader purge of experienced FBI agents across multiple states.
Some of those removed were confronted after an internal review of the FBI’s messaging system revealed comments critical of former President Donald Trump, dating as far back as a decade.
The effort, led by Director Kash Patel, is aimed at removing personnel involved in previous investigations related to Trump and extends to senior FBI officials in locations including New Orleans and Miami, the sources said.
The current wave of removals follows a lawsuit filed against Patel by three former senior FBI officials, among them a former acting FBI director during the start of Trump’s second term, who claim Patel was instructed to terminate agents involved in Trump-related cases or face dismissal himself.
During his confirmation hearing last January, Patel assured Congress, “No one in the FBI will be terminated for case assignments” and added, “I will not … go backwards. There will be no politicization at the FBI. There will be no retributive actions taken.”
The FBI Agents Association, a non-profit supporting current and former agents, cautioned lawmakers in a letter this summer that Patel was “making personnel decisions without providing the due process protections promised to the recently terminated law enforcement officers under federal law.”
The letter added, “None of the affected Agents were previously accused of misconduct or given notice and an opportunity to defend themselves, even though well-established FBI policy … required that these Agents be provided with both.”
