In the volatile world of Minnesota politics, a week is a lifetime. Just seven days ago, Governor Tim Walz stood before reporters and suggested U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson should be fired for “defamation.” On Tuesday, he took to social media to mourn Thompson’s resignation as a “huge loss for our state.”
The sudden 180-degree turn has ignited a firestorm of criticism from conservatives and watchdogs, who accuse the outgoing governor of political opportunism as he attempts to navigate the widening fraud scandal that has come to define the end of his administration.
The “Principled Public Servant” vs. The “Defamer”
The controversy began Tuesday when news broke that Joe Thompson, the First Assistant U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, had resigned alongside other prosecutors amid reported disagreements with the Trump Department of Justice. Walz seized the moment to attack the administration.
“Joe is a principled public servant who spent more than a decade achieving justice for Minnesotans,” Walz posted on X. “It’s also the latest sign Trump is pushing nonpartisan career professionals out of the justice department.”
Social media users were quick to pull the receipts. Only last week, Walz had a very different assessment of Thompson after the prosecutor estimated the state’s fraud crisis could total nearly $9 billion.
At a tense press conference, Walz lashed out: “You saw a U.S. attorney stand up… [who] would have been let go by any other administration, speculating about things with no factual information. That’s defamation… We are under assault.”
The Internet Never Forgets
The cognitive dissonance was immediate fodder for critics. Bill Glahn, a policy fellow at the Center of the American Experiment, noted the stark contradiction: “Last week you said in a press conference that Joe Thompson should be fired. Don’t pretend you didn’t.”
Republican state representatives piled on, calling the pivot “fascinating” and questioning why a “principled public servant” was worthy of a defamation suit just days prior.
Why Thompson Matters
Joe Thompson is not just another bureaucrat; he is the architect of the investigations that have crippled the Walz administration. He was the lead prosecutor on the Feeding Our Future case, which uncovered a massive $250 million scheme to steal pandemic food aid—a scandal deeply tied to the state’s oversight failures.
Thompson also recently filed federal charges against Vance Boelter for the tragic shooting spree that killed State Rep. Melissa Hortman and wounded State Sen. John Hoffman. His exit leaves a vacuum at the top of the federal prosecutor’s office just as the Department of Justice is intensifying its scrutiny of Minnesota’s voter registration and welfare systems.
A Governor on the Defense
For Walz, who recently announced he would not seek a third term, the reversal highlights the precarious position of his final days in office. By attacking Thompson last week, he was trying to discredit the fraud numbers that damaged his legacy. By praising him this week, he is trying to pivot to a national Democratic talking point about the “politicization” of the DOJ under Trump.
The result, however, is a muddled message that has left both allies and enemies confused about where the Governor actually stands on the man who exposed the “fraud crisis” in his state.