In 2020, Trump DoJ investigated police killing of Floyd in Minneapolis, leading to four officers\u2019 convictions<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Six years after the US justice department launched an immediate criminal investigation of the video-recorded killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis<\/a> police officer, deputy attorney general Todd Blanche confirmed on Sunday that the department is \u201cnot investigating\u201d the fatal 7 January shooting<\/a> of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE<\/a>) agent in the same city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The killing of Good, less than a mile from where Floyd was murdered in May 2020, was recorded<\/a> on at least five phones, including one held by the ICE agent who shot her, Jonathan Ross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blanche, a former personal lawyer for Donald Trump<\/a> before he won his second presidency, dismissed the need for any criminal investigation of Ross during an interview<\/a> with Fox News. He suggested that the officer was cleared by the publicly available video evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIs the FBI conducting an investigation into that agent, into the shooting?\u201d Blanche was asked, in response to criticism from Minnesota\u2019s governor, Tim Walz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLook, what happened that day has been reviewed by millions and millions of Americans because it was recorded on phones,\u201d Blanche said. \u201cThe department of justice, our civil rights unit, we don\u2019t just go out and investigate every time an officer is forced to defend himself against somebody putting his life in danger. We never do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe department of justice doesn\u2019t just stand up and investigate because some congressman thinks we should, because some governor thinks that we should,\u201d Blanche said. \u201cWe investigate when it\u2019s appropriate to investigate and that is not the case here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are not going to bow to pressure from the media, bow to pressure from politicians, and do something that we never do \u2013 not under this administration, not under the last administration. So no, we are not investigating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blanche was not asked what made this case different from that of Floyd, which the previous Trump justice department investigated. Nor was he challenged on his suggestion that video of the incident left no doubt that the officer had acted in self-defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Forensic analysis of the video from the New York Times<\/a>, Bellingcat<\/a> and other outlets has demonstrated that Trump\u2019s claim<\/a> that Good \u201cran over\u201d the ICE agent who shot her at point-blank range as she drove past him is false.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier on Sunday, Kristi Noem<\/a>, who oversees ICE as Trump\u2019s head of homeland security, insisted to CBS<\/a> that there was no ned for an investigation, since \u201ceverybody can watch the videos and see that\u201d Ross \u201cgot attacked with a car that was trying to take his life\u201d. Noem said that a standard, internal review by the agency would suffice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The deputy attorney general\u2019s claim that the justice department\u2019s civil rights division \u201cnever\u201d responds to public outrage over killings by law enforcement officers is contradicted by the fact that, during the first Trump administration, the US attorney in Minnesota and the FBI announced<\/a> three days after George Floyd was killed that it was \u201cconducting a robust criminal investigation\u201d with the department\u2019s civil rights division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next day, 29 May 2020, then attorney general William Barr called<\/a> \u201cvideo images of the incident that ended with the death of Mr Floyd, while in custody of Minneapolis police officers \u2026 harrowing to watch and deeply disturbing\u201d. The department of justice and the FBI, he added \u201care conducting an independent investigation to determine whether any federal civil rights laws were violated\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That investigation led<\/a> to<\/a> convictions<\/a>, in 2022, of four Minneapolis police officers for federal civil rights offenses. The officer who choked Floyd, Derek Chauvin, pleaded guilty<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three of the other officers were also convicted of \u201cdeliberate indifference to\u201d Floyd\u2019s \u201cserious medical needs when they saw him restrained in police custody in clear need of medical care and willfully failed to aid him, resulting in bodily injury to and the death of Mr Floyd\u201d. Witnesses to the shooting of Good this month, including one who recorded video, said<\/a> federal officers prevented a man who identified himself as a physician from treating her and blocked ambulances when they arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since Trump returned to office last year, he<\/a> has<\/a> run<\/a> roughshod over the traditional independence of the justice department, appointing partisan leaders, directing prosecutors to open criminal investigations against his enemies and drop charges against his allies, and even issuing pardons and commutations to political supporters charged or convicted by prosecutors appointed by him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The day that Good was killed, Harmeet Dhillon, the Republican activist who now leads the justice department\u2019s civil rights division, shared<\/a> Trump\u2019s false claim that Good \u201cviolently, willfully and viciously ran over the ICE officer\u201d on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A day later, Trump\u2019s attorney general, Pam Bondi, posted a statement<\/a> that made no mention of Good\u2019s death but warned Minnesota protesters that \u201cobstructing, impeding, or attacking federal law enforcement is a federal crime\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a wave of federal prosecutors in Minnesota and Washington DC resigned in protest<\/a> over the justice department\u2019s decision not to hold a civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting of Good, Blanche and the FBI director, Kash Patel, visited Minneapolis to meet with prosecutors and federal immigration officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amid reports that the justice department is investigating Renee Good\u2019s widow<\/a>, Becca, for allegedly impeding the ICE agent, Ross, by taunting him moments before he opened fire, Blanche promised<\/a> to \u201cprosecute anyone attacking or obstructing\u201d ICE officers. Patel posted<\/a> that the FBI was \u201ccracking down on violent rioters\u201d in the city, a term Trump administration officials routinely apply to peaceful protesters in Minneapolis who object to their neighbors being detained or shot by federal officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n