Minneapolis — The federal prosecutor’s office in Minnesota was destroyed by a wave of flooding Career officials resign or retire Due to objections to the Trump administration’s directives. Because of the turmoil, 12-time convicted felon Corey Allen McKay got a break.
With a three-decade record of violent crimes that included strangling a pregnant woman and shooting a gun under someone’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 was released after the prosecutor in his case retired.
The Trump administration says it is aggressive Immigration enforcement in Minnesota Public safety has improved. However, what remained in the aftermath was a largely weakened US Attorney’s Office, with many prosecutors dismayed by the way Trump’s political appointees had run the Justice Department.
Offices in other states, from New York to Virginia, have also faced resignations, as prosecutors object to what they see as the politicization of decision-making under Trump. But Minnesota was particularly hard hit.
A growing number of defendants like McKay are beginning to evade accountability, as remaining prosecutors are forced to dismiss some cases, kill others before charges can be brought, and seek plea agreements and delays.
Local officials are concerned that the office will not be able, at least temporarily, to bring charges against some of the state’s most dangerous criminals.
“The result will be a diminished ability to target dangerous fraudsters, sexual predators, violent gangs, and drug dealers,” said John Marty, a Minneapolis attorney who was the office’s longtime fraud prosecutor until 2015.
After requesting a delay to find someone to take over MacKay’s case, the office headed by Trump appointee Daniel Rosen dropped it, so suddenly MacKay’s lawyer did not learn of the move until after her client was released.
“This was completely surprising to me,” said MacKay’s lawyer, Jan Brandl. Although she couldn’t reach him, “I can assure you he’s happy about it.”
Over the past year, the number of assistant U.S. attorneys in Minnesota has dropped from more than 40 prosecutors before Trump regained office to fewer than two dozen. That’s according to a former federal prosecutor who was not authorized to discuss personnel matters and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The exodus began last year when many prosecutors saw “the writing on the wall” that their jobs — and the government’s definition of justice — would be different under the new administration, the former federal prosecutor said.
The matter accelerated after the intervention of Trump’s appointees in the Department of Justice Preventing a joint state-level federal investigation In the January 7 fatal shooting of Renee Judd by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officer Jonathan Ross. While Trump officials called Judd a “domestic terrorist” and argued that Ross fired in self-defense, some in the office considered the killing a potential homicide.
Career prosecutors have also objected to the directive to divert significant amounts of their resources to immigration cases, and have expressed anger at repeated violations of court orders by ICE, which has angered judges.
“They could not in good conscience share what they saw,” according to a letter posted last week by eight former permanent or acting U.S. attorneys in Minnesota.
Among the many who left last month was the former acting head of the office. Joe ThompsonAnd the head of its criminal department, Harry Jacobs. Thompson was a Justice Department veteran known for high-profile fraud investigations. He and Jacobs helped uncover the $300 million Feeding the blueprint for our future More than 75 defendants have been charged with defrauding the child nutrition program in the era of the Coronavirus (COVID-19).
Each time an experienced attorney leaves, leaders evaluate the number of cases before the prosecutor and make decisions about how many of their cases can be reassigned to the remaining staff and which will be dropped due to diminishing resources.
Court records show the office has been operating in crisis mode, bringing in prosecutors from other states, asking judges to postpone hearings and trying to end some cases through dismissals and plea agreements. Defense lawyers seek to take advantage of this by demanding speedy trials for clients and submitting other requests that require responses from the Public Prosecution.
The Department of Justice and the US Attorney’s Office did not respond to requests for comment. The office’s former spokeswoman, Attorney General Melinda Williams, was among those who left.
McKay, 47, isn’t the only drug trafficking defendant to benefit from the case.
The office also last month dropped a case against a man who was arrested in September after investigators said they found him in possession of a stash of drugs slated to be smuggled in the Twin Cities that included 7,600 fentanyl pills and 15 pounds of cocaine.
The third case dismissed involved a man who was charged with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine after police in Rochester found three pounds of the drug during a search of his car in January 2025.
“With everyone leaving there, it presents some challenges for everyone across the state,” said Clay County Sheriff Mark Empting, who said McKay would pose a “major public safety concern” if he returned to Moorhead. “We hope they rebuild the office and deal with these issues again.”
The case against McKay dates back to 2024, when FedEx employees in Fargo, North Dakota, discovered a package containing nearly 10 pounds of high-purity methamphetamine coming from California and addressed to McKay. Police estimated the street value at $80,000.
A detective, posing as a FedEx employee, delivered the package to McKay, who was arrested. Investigators say they searched cellphones and found text messages linking McKay to other suspected drug dealers in Minnesota, California, Chicago and Mexico.
McKay was jailed for nearly a year awaiting trial on the state charges, before a federal grand jury returned an indictment in May 2025 charging him with two counts of distributing methamphetamine. The indictment included an increased sentence because he had more than two prior violent crimes.
These include aggravated assault in 2013, domestic assault by strangulation in 2017, and assault occasioning great bodily harm in 2021. Prosecutors said he had at least a dozen felony convictions, dating back to when he was 16, and fired a short-barreled shotgun under the victim’s chin.
Longtime Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Hollenhurst said last summer that McKay was too dangerous to be released before trial, even to a substance abuse program, saying his history of violence would “put countless people at risk.”
The judge agreed, noting that McKay repeatedly failed to show up for court proceedings, gave police false names and had his probation revoked for the violations.
But last month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office noted that Hollinghurst was “unexpectedly retiring” and requested a postponement. A judge postponed the trial date from February 12 to March 2. But the office dropped the case days later in a file that provided no explanation. The judge ordered McKay’s immediate release. Hollinghurst declined to comment.
On January 31, McKay walked out of the Sherburne County Jail in Elk River, 30 miles outside of Minneapolis. Associated Press attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.
Brandel, McKay’s attorney, said that although the outcome was a victory for her client, Hollinghurst’s retirement after 40 years at the Justice Department was a “terrible loss.”
“He was a very good prosecutor,” she said. “He was logical and looked at our customers as people, not just numbers.”
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Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa.