Multiple top federal prosecutors resigned from the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office Tuesday morning, following a week of upheaval in the Twin Cities in the wake of Renee Good’s killing and a month and a half of increased federal immigration activities around the state.
Among those who resigned are Joe Thompson, the No. 2 prosecutor in the Minnesota office and former acting U.S. attorney; Melinda Williams, who previously served as chief of the office of criminal prosecution; Harry Jacobs, who served as acting chief of white collar criminal office. In addition, longtime prosecutor Tom Hollenhorst, who most recently prosecuted large-scale drug cases, also announced his retirement.
All four announced their departures Tuesday morning in staff-wide emails obtained by Sahan Journal.
“I am resigning from the Department of Justice,” Thompson wrote in his email. “It has been an honor and a privilege to represent the United States and this office.”
U.S. Attorney Dan Rosen did not return requests for comment.
Thompson led several high-profile fraud prosecutions in Minnesota in recent years, most notably the sweeping Feeding Our Future fraud case that has led to 78 indictments and more than 50 convictions. He’s also led similar fraud prosecutions into autism services and the state’s Housing Stabilization Services program.
Gov. Tim Walz, who abandoned his reelection campaign, in part because of the fraud investigations led by Thompson, nevertheless praised him in a statement.
“Joe Thompson is a principled public servant who spent more than a decade achieving justice for Minnesotans. This is a huge loss for our state,” Walz said. “This is the latest sign that President Trump is pushing nonpartisan career professionals out of the Department of Justice and replacing them with his sycophants.”
Former Minnesota U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger, who served in the role under both Bush administrations, called the departures “a real loss for Minnesota.”
“It’s extraordinarily unusual for multiple people to leave the U.S. Attorney’s Office on one day,” Heffelfinger told Sahan Journal. “More often than not, people see it as a career job.”
When he started the Feeding Our Future fraud prosecution, Thompson served as white collar crimes chief. He was elevated last summer to acting U.S. attorney after the resignation of former U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger. Shortly afterwards, Jacobs took over as acting white collar criminal chief.
Jacobs, who also worked as part of the Feeding Our Future prosecution team, wrote a similar staff-wide email Tuesday morning.
“I will always carry with me the honor of representing the United States,” Jacobs wrote. “It has been the utmost privilege to work in this Office.”
Williams, who was part of the prosecution team against Anton “Tony” Lazzaro, the local Republican Party donor who was convicted in 2023 of sex trafficking, also offered a similar staff-wide email.
“It has been an honor and a privilege to represent the United States and this office,” she wrote.
Hollenhorst in his staffwide email, announced that he would leave the office by the end of the month. His departure comes “after 40 years of service with the [Department of Justice],” according to his email.
None of the emails announcing their departure stated a reason. They came one day after four officials in the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division resigned in protest over the investigation of Renee Good’s killing, according to MS NOW. The New York Times reported that Thompson resigned after senior Justice Department officials pressed for a criminal investigation into the actions of Good’s widow. It said that Thompson also objected to the Justice Department’s refusal to include state officials in the investigation of Good’s killing by a federal agent.
The resignations follow the departures of other prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota. Matthew Ebert, a key player in the Feeding Our Future prosecution who also briefly served as acting white collar criminal chief in 2025, left the office last summer for private practice. Chelsea Walcker, who also played a key role in the first Feeding Our Future trial in 2024, left the office later that year.
