Did 24 Minneapolis resign?
Executive summary
There is no credible reporting that "24 Minneapolis" resigned; contemporary coverage documents a far smaller, but still notable, wave of departures tied to the Justice Department’s handling of the January ICE shooting in Minneapolis — most outlets report between four and six senior Civil Rights Division leaders or U.S. attorney’s office prosecutors resigning or taking early retirement, with some regional variation in the count (MS NOW, CBC, PBS, Reuters) [1] [2] [3] [4]. Multiple outlets explicitly describe resignations as “half a dozen,” “at least four,” or “six,” and some name six individual Minnesota prosecutors, but none of the provided sources state that 24 people resigned [2] [3] [5] [4].
1. What the reporting actually documents
News organizations describe a cluster of departures across the Justice Department and its Civil Rights Division in the days after the Renee Good shooting: MS NOW and The Guardian report that at least six leaders in the Civil Rights Division and six federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned or stepped away in protest over decisions not to pursue a criminal civil‑rights probe [1] [6], CBC and Reuters characterize the number as “roughly half a dozen” or six federal prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis [2] [4], and PBS and The Washington Post describe “at least four” senior Civil Rights Division resignations and several prosecutors leaving the Minnesota office [3] [7].
2. Reported names and counts vary across outlets
Some reporting gives named lists and specific tallies: NBC News published the names of six Minneapolis prosecutors said to have resigned or announced departures (Joe Thompson and five others) [5], Reuters and CBS News emphasize six resignations in Minnesota and multiple senior departures inside the Civil Rights Division [4] [8], while The Washington Post and PBS offer slightly different phrasing — “at least five” or “at least four” — underscoring that outlets had overlapping but not identical sourcing [7] [3]. No authoritative outlet in the provided corpus reports the figure “24.”
3. Why counts differ: definitions, timing and attribution
Discrepancies stem from differences in what counts as a resignation (immediate quits vs. early retirement notices), which organizational units are included (Washington Civil Rights Division leaders vs. Minneapolis U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecutors), and rolling reporting as more names emerged; some officials reportedly had planned retirements and accepted early‑retirement offers that sources link to the same personnel moves but interpret differently [8] [4]. News outlets rely on sources “familiar with the matter” or internal emails, which produces variation in headline numbers even as the underlying story — an exodus of experienced DOJ officials tied in part to the handling of the Minneapolis shooting — is consistent [1] [9].
4. The political and institutional context reporters emphasize
Coverage ties the departures to the Civil Rights Division leadership of Harmeet Dhillon and to broader personnel shifts in the DOJ under the Trump administration, noting a larger exodus since January 2025 and management changes that shifted the division’s priorities, which sources say helped precipitate the resignations [1] [9]. Several outlets frame the Minneapolis resignations as part of broader unrest over decisions not to pursue a civil‑rights investigation into the ICE shooting and over internal pressure to investigate the victim’s widow — a specific directive that some prosecutors found objectionable [4] [8].
5. Limits of the record and alternative explanations
Some DOJ statements dispute the timing or motives behind individual departures, saying some officials had planned retirements or had submitted paperwork before the Minneapolis shooting; outlets note these official denials alongside reporting from sources who said the shooting was a proximate cause for accelerating resignations [10] [8]. The sources do not provide evidence to support a total of 24 resignations; the most rigorous accounts in the set place the count in the single digits and emphasize ambiguity about whether moves were forced, planned retirements, or protest resignations [5] [4].
6. Bottom line
The claim that “24 Minneapolis resigned” is not supported by the reporting provided; contemporary mainstream reporting documents several departures — commonly cited as four to six senior Civil Rights Division leaders and roughly half a dozen prosecutors in the Minneapolis U.S. Attorney’s Office depending on the outlet — but not a figure of 24, and outlets explicitly note both named resignations and competing explanations from DOJ spokespeople [1] [2] [3] [4].