U.S. Attorney Who Led Prosecution Of Sprawling Minnesota Fraud Ring Abruptly Resigns

The federal prosecutor at the center of Minnesota’s massive welfare fraud investigation resigned on Tuesday as the Trump administration ramps up its broader push to uncover additional fraud in the state.

Joseph Thompson announced his resignation in an email without providing a reason for his abrupt departure, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported. Thompson was the second-in-command at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota and made a name for himself as the lead prosecutor in the Feeding Our Future fraud case, which resulted in more than 50 guilty pleas and seven convictions. He was appointed by President Donald Trump last May to serve as acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota until Daniel Rosen assumed the top position in October.

“It has been an honor and a privilege to represent the United States and this office,” Thompson wrote in his email.

Two other prosecutors from the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office also announced their resignations on Tuesday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Harry Jacobs, who also prosecuted the Feeding Our Future case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Melinda Williams will also be leaving their posts.

Thompson’s resignation comes as he is being floated as a candidate for the Justice Department’s new assistant attorney general position, which will focus on combating fraud. The new role was announced by Vice President JD Vance last week, and Vance said that the position’s “efforts will start and focus primarily in Minnesota.”

It’s unclear if Thompson’s resignation is related to his potential candidacy for the new DOJ position. The New York Times reported that “people with knowledge” of the situation said Thompson’s resignation is over disagreements with the Justice Department’s push to investigate the wife of Renee Good, the Minneapolis woman fatally shot by a federal agent last week. Thompson opposed the Justice Department’s strategy as well as its decision to shut out state authorities from the shooting investigation, according to the Times.

The Daily Wire reached out to the Justice Department seeking more information on Thompson’s resignation.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara argued that the timing of Thompson’s resignation raises questions about the Trump administration’s justification for surging federal law enforcement and immigration agents in Minnesota.

“When you lose the leader responsible for making the fraud cases, it tells you this [immigration enforcement] isn’t really about prosecuting fraud,” O’Hara said.

Thompson’s work uncovering the massive Feeding Our Future fraud scheme threw Minnesota into the spotlight before more allegations of fraud involving Minneapolis’s large Somali population got the attention of the White House. Most of those implicated in the Feeding Our Future fraud case were of Somali descent, and now, the Trump administration is looking into claims of fraud being committed at Somali-run businesses and daycares, while swaths of immigration enforcement agents have been deployed to the Twin Cities.