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With latest Minnesota fraud case looming, the lead prosecutors have quit

February 4, 2026 / 4:25 PM EST / CBS News

The four prosecutors who spearheaded a $250 million Minnesota fraud case will not be in court at the next trial because they’ve all left the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota in recent days, along with more than a dozen others in a growing wave of resignations.

The departures have left the already-diminished office with as few as 17 assistant U.S. attorneys, according to sources inside the office — down from 70 during the Biden administration.

Former prosecutors Joe Thompson, Harry Jacobs, Daniel Bobier and Matthew Ebert — the four attorneys who had been leading the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud case, which was the first shoe to drop in the massive Minnesota fraud scandal — have handed off the prosecution to relative newcomers to the office.

Harry Jacobs, who was recently named head of the office’s criminal division, was also involved in the prosecution of Vance Boelter, the man accused of assassinating former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark.

Sources close to the attorneys who left have cited a variety of factors for the staff shakeup, including caseload management, structural issues within the office, the Trump administration’s influence on the office, and concerns related to Operation Metro Surge — the ongoing immigration enforcement operation in the Twin Cities that has led to thousands of arrests as well as repeated clashes with protesters, two of whom were killed by federal agents.

“The mass exodus we’re seeing in Minnesota is alarming,” said Stacey Young, founder of Justice Connection, a Washington, D.C.-based organization of former Justice Department employees.

“We should all pay attention to why some of the state’s top federal prosecutors chose to leave — it had nothing to do with political disagreement; rather, this administration asked them to violate their legal and ethical responsibilities, and they believed the exit was their only option,” Young said. “The loss of institutional knowledge and expertise will destabilize the U.S. Attorney’s office, leaving Minnesotans’ safety and rights less protected.”

Prosecutor Joe Thompson speaks at a press conference in Minneapolis regarding Medicaid fraud in the state of Minnesota, on Dec. 18, 2025. Christopher Juhn/Anadolu via Getty Images

The office’s ranks were depleted even before Operation Metro Surge. By the time Daniel Rosen was sworn in as U.S. attorney in October 2025, the number of prosecutors had already dropped to less than 40, former and current officials tell CBS News. They cited retirements and changes made by the Trump administration, including cuts related to the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE.

The Justice Department has sought to buttress Minnesota’s prosecutorial ranks with prosecutors from neighboring districts, including from Michigan, as well as the Department of Homeland Security and military attorneys. But that has not always worked out well. A DHS attorney working in Minnesota on Tuesday told a judge “this job sucks” and asked to be held in contempt “so that I can have a full 24 hours of sleep.” She was removed from the Minnesota assignment on Wednesday.

The Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit declined to comment when asked how many attorneys had been dispatched from the Eastern District of Michigan.

So far, federal prosecutors in Minnesota have convicted 62 people in connection to the scandal, which tops the list of the nation’s most costly COVID-era fraud sprees. Federal prosecutors estimate taxpayer losses exceed $1 billion.

Feeding Our Future was the initial scheme: a nonprofit organization that tricked state and federal officials into paying them to serve food to thousands of hungry children but never provided the meals. That group allegedly raked in $250 million.

The final trial of those charged in the scheme is scheduled for April. Ikram Yusuf Mohamed, Suleman Yusuf Mohamed, Aisha Hassan Hussein, Sahra Sharif Osman, Shakur Abdinur Abdisalam, Fadumo Mohamed Yusuf and Gandi Yusuf Mohamed face charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and bribery.

The two prosecutors now leading the case are Rebecca Kline and Matthew Murphy. Both prosecutors joined the office in January 2024, after working in private practice, according to their LinkedIn pages.

Additional fraud cases have since come into focus. In August, state officials shut down a housing program designed to help seniors and people with disabilities, citing “large-scale fraud.” In September, prosecutors charged eight people with defrauding the program by enrolling as providers and submitting millions in “fake and inflated bills.”

Joe Thompson, the former first Assistant U.S. Attorney who became the public face announcing the indictments, made news before his departure when he said in December that federal prosecutors were investigating roughly $18 billion spent on social programs in Minnesota since 2018. CBS News asked how much they believe was fraud, and they said they’ve “seen more red flags than legitimate providers.” Thompson suggested half of the $18 billion or more could be fraudulent.