Tracee Mergen, the acting supervisor of the FBI's Public Corruption Squad in the Minneapolis field office, resigned last week amid an ongoing investigation into the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a U.S. citizen, by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer earlier this month, according to multiple sources.
Renee Good was shot after allegedly injuring an ICE officer photo capture video
Mergen left the FBI “in part because of pressure on her to reclassify/close the investigation,” a source with knowledge of the resignation told CBS News.
Another FBI source said Mergen “will not bow to pressure” from management.
The task force, which also handles civil rights cases, has been involved in both the investigation into Good's death and the ongoing investigations into public benefits fraud in the state of Minnesota. Mergen's departure was first reported by The New York Times.
The fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE officer was initially treated as a civil rights investigation, but Justice Department leadership later ordered the FBI and prosecutors to treat the incident as an assault on a federal officer and asked them to investigate Good's wife, CBS News previously reported.
Mergen left the FBI “in part because of pressure on her to reframe/close the (Good) investigation,” a source with knowledge of her departure told CBS News.
Another FBI source said Mergen “will not bow to pressure” from management.
FBI spokesman Ben Williamson told CBS News that the FBI does not comment on personnel matters. In a statement regarding the bureau's investigation into the incident in which Good was shot in a confrontation during an ICE operation, he said: “The facts at the scene do not support a civil rights investigation. The FBI continues to investigate the incident, as well as violent criminal actors and those engaged in illegal activity.”
According to a source with direct knowledge of the matter, the FBI's anti-corruption task force is also under pressure from Assistant Attorney General Todd Blanche's office to investigate campaign finance contributions related to Feeding Our Future, the Minnesota nonprofit at the center of what prosecutors have called the nation's largest COVID-era fraud.
FBI officials told Blanche's office that they looked into the campaign contributions but found no evidence linking the welfare fraud and illegal campaign contributions, the source added.
