MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The federal prosecutor’s office in Minnesota has been gutted by a wave ofcareer officials resigning or retiringover objections to Trump administration directives. Because of the turmoil, 12-time convicted felon Cory Allen McKay caught a break.
With a three-decade record of violent crime that includes strangling a pregnant woman and firing a shotgun under a person’s chin, McKay was scheduled to stand trial next month on methamphetamine trafficking charges that could have locked him up for 25 years. Instead, he walked free after the prosecutor on his case retired.
The Trump administration says its aggressiveimmigration enforcement in Minnesotahas improved public safety. Left in its wake, though, is a greatly weakened U.S. attorney’s office, where many prosecutors resented the way President Donald Trump’s political appointees at the Justice Department managed them.
Offices in other states, from New York to Virginia, have also been affected by resignations as prosecutors object to what they see as the politicization of decision-making under Trump. But Minnesota has been hit especially hard.
A growing number of defendants are beginning to escape accountability, as the remaining prosecutors are forced to dismiss some cases, kill others before charges are filed and seek plea agreements and delays.
Local officials worry the office will be unable, at least temporarily, to bring charges against some of the state’s most serious offenders.
“The result will be a diminished ability to target dangerous fraudsters, sexual predators, violent gangs and drug traffickers,” said John Marti, a Minneapolis lawyer who was a longtime fraud prosecutor in the office until 2015.
After asking for a delay to find someone to take McKay’s case, the office led by Trump appointee Daniel Rosen dropped it so abruptly McKay’s lawyer didn’t learn about the move until after her client had been released.
“This was completely surprising to me,” said McKay’s lawyer, Jean Brandl. While she hasn’t been able to reach him, “I can guarantee you he’s happy about it.”
Over the past year, the number of assistant U.S. attorneys in Minnesota has fallen from more than 40 prosecutors before Trump retook office to fewer than two dozen. That’s according to a former federal prosecutor who wasn’t authorized to discuss personnel matters and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Source: Drudge Report
