Daniel Rosen, U.S. Attorney for Minnesota (Government photo)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Daniel Rosen, who was confirmed in October as the U.S. attorney for Minnesota, is increasingly finding himself in the hot seat as his office faces a wave of internal protests and resignations over the Justice Department\u2019s handling of investigations into the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Over the last weeks the department has also opened controversial investigations into several Democratic officials in the state, as well as journalists and protesters who disrupted a church service, leading to criticism that the department is weaponizing its resources against political opponents.<\/p>\n
Late Friday, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced that the Justice Department would open a civil rights investigation into Pretti\u2019s death at the hands of Homeland Security agents. Rosen\u2019s office had at first taken a similar step after Good\u2019s death, before shifting its investigative focus to Good\u2019s family instead \u2014 prompting internal blowback from within his office.<\/p>\n
His office is currently at half its full staffing level, according to the Washington Post, which reported that staffers confronted him personally about Justice\u2019s response to the Good and Pretti killings.<\/p>\n
Rosen\u2019s personal attitudes about what\u2019s happening in Minnesota are not known. But prior to the ICE surge, he told Jewish Insider that \u201cprosecution of violent hate crimes is certainly at the highest level of priority for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJewish history tells us that Jews fare poorly in societies that turn polarized, and where that polarization evolves into factional hatreds in the non-Jewish societies within which we live,\u201d Rosen said after being confirmed in October. \u201cThose factional hatreds virtually always evolve into violent expressions of hate against the Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the time Rosen said his broader concern about antisemitism was one of his central motivators for taking on the role. He added that he studies Talmud daily and that he became Shabbat-observant 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
Rosen, a University of Minnesota law school alum, came to his office from the world of civil litigation and eminent domain law with a near-total lack of prosecutorial experience. His supporters cited, instead, his experience with Jewish groups.<\/p>\n
Upon recommending Rosen\u2019s nomination to Trump last year, a group of GOP legislators including Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, the House minority whip, wrote that he \u201chas used his expertise to advocate for community and charitable issues, especially matters of particular interest to the American Jewish community.\u201d<\/p>\n
That involvement includes having worked as the go-to attorney for Minneapolis\u2019 Orthodox community, where he once worked pro-bono to block autopsies on two Jewish men who had been murdered, according to the local news site MinnPost. (Jewish custom discourages altering the bodies of the dead.)<\/p>\n
MinnPost also reported that Rosen had cited his comments on issues of Jewish concern when asked by the Judiciary Committee about interviews he had given in the past. He noted a 2006 Jewish Telegraphic Agency story in which he argued that Keith Ellison, then running for Congress, was being \u201ceither insulting the intelligence of the Jews or owning up to a distinct lack of intelligence\u201d himself by saying he had not understood that the Nation of Islam was antisemitic when he briefly associated with the group a decade earlier. <\/p>\n
Ellison is now Minnesota\u2019s attorney general \u2014 and the subject of a federal subpoena as part of the Justice Department\u2019s claims that the state\u2019s Democratic leaders are obstructing their immigration enforcement. (Jacob Frey, Minneapolis\u2019s Jewish mayor, is also being investigated.)<\/p>\n
Rosen\u2019s formal involvement in Jewish groups has been extensive. He is a former Minnesota chair of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group. In addition, he is a former board member of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas.<\/p>\n
Today, the local JCRC is one of the Minnesota Jewish groups vocally opposing ICE\u2019s presence. The JCRC co-signed an open letter taking on ICE, has just submitted an op-ed to a local paper praising the ICE protests in starkly Jewish terms, and has hosted webinars and other activities to marshal Jewish opposition.<\/p>\n
Steve Hunegs, the JCRC\u2019s executive director, declined to comment about Rosen to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Upon Rosen\u2019s initial nomination last May, Hunegs told TC Jewfolk, a local Jewish outlet, \u201cDaniel will make an effective and articulate United States Attorney based on his vast experience in many different realms of the law and the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rosen himself has proven introspective on the subject of Jewish history, the role of government officials and the ways that societies can be transformed when leadership fails.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the 2,000-year odyssey of the Jews, through the diaspora, we have had other countries that have played host to us, and where the lives of the Jews were comparable to what they are here in America,\u201d Rosen told Jewish Insider last fall. \u201cSo, we all have to ask ourselves, how\u2019s it going to proceed here in the United States?\u201d <\/p>\n
Referring to the goodwill of \u201celected and appointed officials all over the country,\u201d he added, \u201cIf they lose their courage, it would not bode well for the Jews in the country. So it\u2019s my view that, if nothing else, as an example to fellow Americans, sometimes we\u2019re just called to do our part to contribute to the rebuilding of the society that we so desperately need.\u201d<\/p>\n
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