U.S. Department of Justice
agency
The U.S. Department of Justice is the federal executive department responsible for enforcing federal law and administering the justice system. Led by the Attorney General, it oversees the FBI, federal prosecutors, immigration courts, and civil rights enforcement. In 2025-26 it became a central actor in immigration enforcement, investigations of political figures, and legal challenges to administration actions.
Entries involving this actor (47)
FBI raids Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a voter-registration group
On June 11, 2026, FBI agents raided the Cleveland offices of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a nonprofit that runs statewide voter-registration programs, and fanned out across Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati to question current and former staff, serve subpoenas, and seize electronic devices. A board member estimated that more than 100 agents were involved and said investigators alleged voter fraud while presenting no evidence of wrongdoing. The raids came roughly five months before the 2026 midterm elections and drew condemnation from Ohio Democrats and democracy advocates as an attempt to intimidate voter-registration work.
DOJ charges eight U-Michigan divestment activists with up-to-20-year federal felonies over a vandalism-and-threats campaign, a year after state charges against the movement were dropped
On June 10, 2026, federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Michigan unsealed a 63-page indictment charging eight pro-Palestinian activists tied to the University of Michigan divestment movement with conspiracy to transmit a threat, conspiracy to tamper with a witness, and destruction of property to prevent seizure — felonies carrying five to twenty years. The charges, announced alongside FBI raids in Ypsilanti, describe a 2024–2025 intimidation campaign: vandalism and graffiti at the homes of the U-M provost and regents, the placement of fake bloody corpses on a board member's lawn, and the defacing of the Jewish Federation of Detroit. The case followed the collapse of an earlier, separate state prosecution: charges Attorney General Dana Nessel brought against U-M encampment protesters in 2024 were all dropped by May 2025. Civil-rights groups say the federal charges treat political advocacy as terrorism and blur protected speech with criminal conduct.
DOJ dismantles federal election-integrity safeguards ahead of 2026 midterms
Reporting published June 8, 2026 details that the Justice Department has not taken its customary steps to protect the 2026 election: it fired most lawyers in its Public Integrity Section, left the Election Crimes Branch director post unfilled, canceled election-integrity training for prosecutors and FBI agents, deleted a 281-page guide to prosecuting election offenses, and has not stood up the usual Election Day "command center" to monitor voter intimidation and disinformation. Enforcement now falls to the 93 local U.S. attorney offices, which former prosecutors warn lack the specialized expertise the dismantled units provided.
DOJ sends a federal prosecutor to observe the Los Angeles ballot count amid Trump's baseless fraud claims
On June 5, 2026, the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles, led by Trump appointee Bill Essayli, said it had opened "multiple election fraud investigations" into California's elections and dispatched an assistant U.S. attorney to Los Angeles County's vote-counting center. The move followed days of evidence-free claims by President Trump that Democrats were "rigging" the slow primary count for governor, Los Angeles mayor, and Congress, and inserted federal pressure into a routine state-run tabulation that local officials said was proceeding normally.
DOJ opens criminal perjury investigation into Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll
In late May 2026, CNN, CBS and NBC reported that the Justice Department had opened a criminal investigation into whether writer E. Jean Carroll — who won a $5 million sexual-abuse/defamation verdict and a separate $83.3 million defamation judgment against Donald Trump — committed perjury in a 2022 deposition when she said no one else was funding her lawsuit, after it emerged that a nonprofit tied to Democratic donor Reid Hoffman had covered some of her legal costs. The probe is reportedly run out of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois and tied to a broader criminal inquiry into the Hoffman trust spanning money laundering, obstruction and conspiracy, with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche — a former Trump lawyer — recused. The Chicago U.S. Attorney, Andrew Boutros, publicly denied opening any investigation into Carroll; CNN reported that its sources reaffirmed the probe after the denial.
Trump publicly backs Kalshi and Polymarket, where son Donald Trump Jr. is a paid adviser, as his administration sues states to block their regulation
On May 27, 2026, President Trump declared on Truth Social that prediction-market firms Kalshi and Polymarket "will thrive" under his leadership and that the federal government is "setting the rules of the road" as the "gold standard for the States," while his administration actively backs the companies against state regulators. The CFTC and Department of Justice have sued Connecticut, Arizona and Illinois — and contested Minnesota's first-in-the-nation ban — to block states from regulating the operators as gambling. Donald Trump Jr. is a paid strategic adviser to both firms and his venture firm 1789 Capital is a major Polymarket investor, so the favorable federal posture directly benefits the president's family.
Southern Poverty Law Center moves to dismiss DOJ fraud indictment as vindictive prosecution
On May 26, 2026, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama asking a federal judge to dismiss as vindictive prosecution the 11-count indictment the Justice Department obtained against it in April 2026 on wire-fraud, false-statement, and money-laundering charges. The motion documents a sustained pattern of public hostility from President Trump and senior officials toward the civil-rights group — including Trump branding it "one of the greatest political scams in American History" — and notes the FBI and IRS reviewed the same conduct in 2019-2020 without seeking charges, only for the case to be reopened after SPLC became a frequent target of the administration. The court has not yet ruled on the motion.
DOJ files its second 2026 antisemitism lawsuit against UCLA
On May 26, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the University of California for the second time in 2026, alleging UCLA was "deliberately indifferent" to Jewish and Israeli students during pro-Palestinian encampment protests in spring 2024, in violation of Title VI. The administration had earlier sought more than $1 billion in fines against the university before a federal judge intervened, and several DOJ attorneys have resigned from the underlying investigation, telling reporters the case was "fraudulent," a "sham," and driven by pressure to "find" evidence against UCLA.
Trump DOJ moves to release Biden's private ghostwriter recordings to Heritage Foundation
The Trump Justice Department reversed the prior administration's position and gave notice it will release audio recordings and transcripts of former President Joe Biden's interviews with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer — material gathered during special counsel Robert Hur's classified-documents investigation — to the conservative Heritage Foundation and the House Judiciary Committee on June 15, 2026 unless a court intervenes. Biden sued the Department on May 26, 2026 to block the release, arguing the recordings contain private conversations, including about his late son Beau's death.
DOJ scrubs Jan. 6 prosecution releases, erasing records of pleas and convictions
In late May 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice mass-deleted news releases from its website detailing federal prosecutions of Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol-attack defendants — including guilty pleas, jury verdicts, and prison-sentence announcements covering portions of the roughly 1,600 cases, with assaults on Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan Police officers and seditious-conspiracy convictions of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders among the purged set. The DOJ's rapid-response social-media account defended the takedown as removing "partisan propaganda" from the prior administration. The formerly accessible URLs now return "Page not found" errors.
Judge dismisses DOJ human-smuggling case against Abrego Garcia as vindictive prosecution
On May 22, 2026, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw of the Middle District of Tennessee dismissed the federal human-smuggling indictment against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, granting his motion to dismiss for selective or vindictive prosecution. The judge found the Justice Department failed to rebut the "presumption of vindictiveness," writing that the evidence "sadly reflects an abuse of prosecuting power" and that, absent Abrego Garcia's successful court challenge to his wrongful deportation to El Salvador, the government would not have brought the case. The Justice Department said the ruling was "wrong and dangerous" and that it will appeal.
Federal prosecutors drop all charges against Chicago 'Broadview Six' over grand jury misconduct
On May 21, 2026, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois moved in open court to dismiss with prejudice all remaining charges against the "Broadview Six" — protesters criminally charged over a September 2025 demonstration outside the Broadview ICE facility — after his office acknowledged misconduct in the grand jury proceedings that produced the indictment. Defense counsel said the transcripts showed prosecutors improperly vouched for evidence, concealed that an initial grand jury had refused to indict, re-presented the case after excluding grand jurors who disagreed, and redacted transcript pages without telling the court. U.S. District Judge April Perry, who reviewed the transcripts, said she had never in her career seen prosecutorial conduct as bad, and signaled a possible separate hearing on sanctions.
DOJ order bars IRS from auditing Trump, his family, and their businesses for prior tax returns
On May 19, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a one-page order, signed by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and not co-signed by the IRS, declaring the federal government "forever barred and precluded" from pursuing tax examinations of President Donald Trump, his relatives, trusts, and businesses for returns filed before the underlying settlement's effective date. The order expanded the previously announced $1.776 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund" settlement — under which Trump and his adult sons dropped a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS — and effectively forecloses a long-running audit that, per earlier reporting, could have produced an IRS bill exceeding $100 million. The DOJ later said the bar applies only to existing audits, not to returns Trump files in the future.
VP Vance says the DOJ is investigating Rep. Ilhan Omar, a prominent administration critic
At a White House press briefing on May 19, 2026, Vice President JD Vance said the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) over immigration-fraud allegations and questions about her family's finances, saying that "if we think that there's a crime, we're going to prosecute that crime." Vance, who leads the administration's anti-fraud task force, had already asserted publicly that Omar "definitely committed immigration fraud" months earlier. There is no public evidence that Omar committed immigration fraud, and the DOJ has not confirmed an active case; Omar called the probe a "racist, creepy, and weird conspiracy theory."
DOJ creates $1.776 billion 'Anti-Weaponization Fund' as part of settlement of President Trump's $10 billion lawsuit and related claims against the federal government
On May 18, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the creation of a $1.776 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund," financed through the federal Judgment Fund, to compensate individuals who allege they were unfairly targeted by the federal government on "political, personal, or ideological grounds." The fund was established as part of an agreement under which President Trump, his two adult sons, and the Trump Organization dropped a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the 2019 leak of Trump's tax returns, along with related damages claims arising from the 2022 Mar-a-Lago search and the Russia- collusion investigation. The president and co-plaintiffs receive a formal apology and no direct monetary damages; the $1.776 billion instead flows to a class of beneficiaries — Trump's broadly stated "allies" — selected by the DOJ.
Federal judge quashes DOJ subpoena for trans youth medical records at Rhode Island Hospital, finding it issued in 'bad faith' for an 'improper purpose'
On May 13, 2026, U.S. District Judge Mary S. McElroy of the District of Rhode Island quashed a July 2025 Justice Department subpoena that had demanded roughly six years of records — identities, addresses, diagnoses, treatments, and parents' names — of every minor treated for gender dysphoria at Rhode Island Hospital, holding it was "a drastic overreach," "lacks a congressionally authorized purpose," and was "issued in bad faith for an improper purpose." McElroy tied the subpoena to a broader White House policy direction, writing that the administration "has publicly characterized gender-affirming care for minors as abuse, directed the DOJ to bring its practice to an end, and celebrated when hospitals curtailed such programs as a result of this subpoena campaign." The DOJ has appealed to the First Circuit; the Rhode Island subpoena is one strand of a nationwide DOJ campaign targeting more than 20 providers, with at least seven other federal courts having previously quashed or limited similar subpoenas.
BIA fast-tracked Mahmoud Khalil's deportation case in 9-day 'unprecedented' turnaround
Internal Department of Justice case-tracking documents obtained by The New York Times and reported publicly on May 11, 2026 reveal that the Board of Immigration Appeals — an appellate body housed within the DOJ — fast-tracked the deportation case of Palestinian Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil along a procedural track that a former BIA member called "unprecedented." Per the internal documents, the case was flagged high-priority before the board officially received it; a staff note instructed handling Khalil's case as if he were still in detention even though he had been released several days earlier; the BIA's April 9, 2026 decision authorizing Khalil's deportation came just nine days after paperwork was submitted; and at least three judges recused themselves from the proceedings.
DOJ subpoenas Wall Street Journal reporters' records over Iran-war leaks after Trump hands acting AG Blanche stack of articles marked 'Treason'
On May 11, 2026, The Wall Street Journal publicly disclosed that the Justice Department had issued grand jury subpoenas for its reporters' records, tied to a February 23, 2026 WSJ article — five days before the Iran war began — that reported on Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine and other Pentagon officials warning President Trump about the risks of an extended military campaign against Iran. CNN reported the same day that Trump personally pushed the DOJ to issue the subpoenas, delivering the directive to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche at a White House meeting in the form of a stack of printed articles topped by a sticky note reading "Treason" in Sharpie. CNN further reported that other news outlets have also received DOJ subpoenas in recent months.
CNN reveals DOJ shakeup of Brennan probe: career prosecutors warned case was too weak, told 'that's not good enough'
On May 8, 2026, CNN published an investigation detailing how the Justice Department restructured the criminal probe of former CIA Director John Brennan after career prosecutors told leadership the evidence did not support charges. At a Washington meeting earlier in 2026 attended by Southern District of Florida U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones, lead prosecutor Maria Medetis Long told acting Deputy Attorney General Colin McDonald and his top deputy Trent McCotter the case against Brennan was too weak to bring; the reply, per two people briefed on the meeting, was "that's not good enough." Medetis Long was removed days later. CNN reports that with Trump ally Joe diGenova installed in Fort Pierce, Florida, the investigation has been "essentially reset" into a broader conspiracy probe, more than 150 subpoenas have been issued, and another round of subpoenas targeting officials close to Brennan is expected. CBS News corroborates that DOJ veterans fear the probe is being staffed with Trump loyalists.
FBI opens criminal leak probe targeting the sources behind The Atlantic's reporting on Kash Patel
In early May 2026, MS NOW reported — with corroboration from PBS NewsHour, TheWrap, Poynter and Democracy Now — that the FBI had opened a criminal "insider threat" investigation into the sourcing behind Atlantic reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick's story documenting FBI Director Kash Patel's excessive drinking and erratic conduct. The probe is highly unusual: it does not stem from any disclosure of classified information and instead targets leaks to a journalist, a posture in which reporters have historically been treated only as witnesses. FBI agents assigned to the matter reportedly objected that they were not supposed to pursue it, and the bureau publicly denied the investigation.
DOJ in Puerto Rico halted drugs-for-votes election-fraud probe after Trump win
On May 5, 2026, ProPublica disclosed that in November 2024 — days after Donald Trump won the presidency and Jenniffer González-Colón clinched Puerto Rico's governorship — supervisors at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Puerto Rico ordered line prosecutors to drop voting-fraud counts and all charges against prison staff from a built-out drugs-for-votes indictment, and after Trump took office told them to abandon the probe of any campaign ties entirely. The pulled charges arose from evidence that the Los Tiburones prison gang traded drugs for inmate votes for González-Colón in 2024 and that the candidate had communicated with a gang leader on WhatsApp during the primary. In the weeks that followed, Puerto Rico's resident commissioner and four U.S. House Democrats publicly called for a DOJ Inspector General and congressional investigation; González-Colón has denied wrongdoing and has not been charged.
ICE returns agent who killed Renée Good to duty with no discipline as FBI probe stalls
By late April 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had quietly returned agent Jonathan Ross — who fatally shot unarmed Minneapolis mother Renée Good on January 7, 2026 — to active administrative and investigative duty in another state with no disciplinary consequence. ICE's internal-affairs review remains frozen pending a stalled FBI probe, after the DOJ Civil Rights Division under Harmeet Dhillon declined to open a civil-rights investigation into the shooting.
Federal grand jury indicts ex-FBI Director James Comey a second time over '86 47' post
A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of North Carolina indicted former FBI Director James Comey on April 28, 2026, on two counts arising from a May 2025 Instagram post of seashells arranged to read "86 47," which the Justice Department casts as a death threat against President Trump. The charges follow the 2025 collapse of an earlier DOJ case against Comey and the dismissal weeks earlier of Attorney General Pam Bondi, whom Trump faulted for not pursuing his agenda aggressively enough.
DOJ refers 384 naturalized Americans for denaturalization in record-volume push
On April 23, 2026, The New York Times first reported that the U.S. Department of Justice had identified 384 foreign-born, naturalized U.S. citizens as a "first wave" of denaturalization targets, with cases being distributed to federal prosecutors in 39 U.S. Attorney's offices across the country. A DOJ spokesperson, citing the leadership of President Trump and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, called it "the highest volume of denaturalization referrals in history." The push follows a June 2025 directive from Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate ordering the Civil Division to "prioritize and maximally pursue" denaturalization, with an internal cadence of roughly 100–200 referrals per month — against a 1990–2017 baseline of about 11 cases per year and a total of 120 cases attempted between 2017 and the end of 2025.
DOJ indicts Southern Poverty Law Center on 11 counts of fraud over $3M informant payments
On April 21, 2026, a federal grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama returned an 11-count indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center, charging the 55-year-old civil-rights organization with wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering over a covert program in which the SPLC says it paid confidential sources to infiltrate violent extremist groups. The indictment came after the FBI under Director Kash Patel had severed its long-running relationship with the SPLC, and amid publicly expressed presidential pressure on the Justice Department to pursue prosecutions of political opponents. SPLC interim CEO Bryan Fair said the organization was "targeted" by the administration and that its informant work "saved lives."
DOJ installs Trump legal ally Joe diGenova as Counselor to the Attorney General assigned to the Brennan probe in Fort Pierce
On April 18, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice installed Joseph diGenova — a longtime Washington attorney, former U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, and a Trump legal-team adviser during the Mueller investigation who has publicly backed efforts to overturn the 2020 election — as Counselor to the Attorney General in the Southern District of Florida, assigned to the federal criminal investigation of former CIA Director John Brennan. The appointment came one day after the Justice Department removed career national-security prosecutor Maria Medetis Long from the Brennan probe after she resisted bringing charges career prosecutors judged unsupported by the evidence. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, seeking to retain the job after President Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier in April over dissatisfaction at the pace of cases against Trump's political adversaries, drove the appointment.
DOJ removes career federal prosecutor leading the Brennan investigation after she resisted bringing charges career staff judged unsupported
On April 17, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice removed Maria Medetis Long — the career federal prosecutor heading the national-security section at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami and leading the federal criminal investigation of former CIA Director John Brennan — after she resisted pressure from senior DOJ leadership to file charges career prosecutors had told the Department the evidence did not support. U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones had earlier told DOJ leadership that charges could still be months away. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, seeking to retain the job after President Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier in April over dissatisfaction at the slow pace of cases against Trump's political adversaries, has been pressing to deliver indictments on the president's priority targets.
Ex-Attorney General Pam Bondi defies bipartisan House subpoena, skipping Epstein-files deposition
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi failed to appear on April 14, 2026 for her subpoenaed closed-door deposition before the House Oversight Committee in its Jeffrey Epstein files investigation. The Justice Department had announced on April 8 that she would not appear, asserting the subpoena — issued after a bipartisan committee vote and naming "the Honorable Pamela Jo Bondi" personally — lapsed when President Trump removed her as Attorney General on April 2. Oversight Democrats introduced a civil-contempt resolution in response.
DOJ fires six immigration judges, including two who blocked deportations of Öztürk and Mahdawi
The Justice Department on April 10, 2026 fired six immigration judges, among them Boston judge Roopal Patel, who ruled in January that the government had no grounds to deport Tufts doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk, and Chelmsford, Massachusetts judge Nina Froes, who in February dismissed deportation proceedings against Columbia activist Mohsen Mahdawi. Both judges were dismissed by email mid-hearing near the end of their probationary periods, in a purge in which the National Association of Immigration Judges says at least 113 of roughly 750 immigration judges have been fired since January 2025.
DOJ sues Minnesota to force transgender athletes out of girls' sports
The Justice Department filed a federal lawsuit against the Minnesota Department of Education and the Minnesota State High School League, alleging that the state's trans-inclusive athletics policies violate Title IX by allowing transgender girls to compete in girls' sports and use girls' locker rooms and bathrooms. The suit seeks a permanent injunction barring transgender girls from female-designated sports, sex-separated locker rooms and bathrooms, compensation for female athletes, and "correction" of past athletic records — with roughly $2.98 billion in annual federal education funding at stake.
Trump signs EO 14398 exposing federal contractors' DEI programs to False Claims Act liability
On March 26, 2026, President Trump signed Executive Order 14398, "Addressing DEI Discrimination by Federal Contractors," directing agencies to insert a mandatory clause — flowing down to subcontractors at every tier — that bars "racially discriminatory" diversity, equity, and inclusion practices and makes compliance material to government payment decisions, exposing contractors to False Claims Act liability and to cancellation, suspension, or debarment. The order directs the Attorney General to prioritize False Claims Act enforcement against violators and defines covered "program participation" expansively to include training, mentoring, leadership-development programs, clubs, and associations. A legal challenge was filed within days, and the new clause was set to take effect April 24, 2026.
Deputy AG Blanche boasts every DOJ and FBI employee who investigated Trump is gone
At a CPAC fireside chat on March 26, 2026, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche declared that every Justice Department and FBI employee who worked on the criminal investigations into President Trump had been fired, resigned, or taken early retirement — "not a single man or woman" remained — putting the DOJ figure at "over 200." His public confirmation marked the completion of a systematic purge of the career personnel who had investigated the president, with termination letters citing employees' prosecution work as the reason they could not be "trusted."
DOJ agrees to pay Trump ally Michael Flynn $1.25M to settle malicious-prosecution suit
On March 25, 2026, the U.S. Justice Department agreed to pay $1.25 million to retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, President Trump's former national security adviser, to settle his lawsuit alleging malicious prosecution over his 2017 criminal case. Flynn had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and was later pardoned by Trump; he originally sued for $50 million in 2023 and revived the case after Trump returned to office. The settlement was reached under DOJ leadership Flynn publicly thanked by name.
FBI obtains Arizona Senate's 2020 Maricopa election audit records via grand-jury subpoena
In early March 2026 the FBI served the Arizona Senate a federal grand-jury subpoena for digital records from the chamber's discredited 2021 "audit" of Maricopa County's 2020 presidential election; Senate President Warren Petersen, a Republican, disclosed on March 9 that he had received and complied with it. The 2021 review — run by the Trump-allied firm Cyber Ninjas — had itself confirmed that Joe Biden won the county. State election officials condemned the subpoena as part of a federal campaign to relitigate an election that President Trump lost.
DOJ stands up working group to fast-track indictments of Cuban Communist Party leaders
In early March 2026, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason A. Reding Quiñones stood up a multi-agency working group, including the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, directed to pursue rapid criminal indictments of Cuban Communist Party and military leadership on drug, economic, immigration, and violent-crime charges. Reporting framed the initiative as a politically driven effort deliberately modeled on the DOJ's earlier narco-terrorism case against Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro, whose indictment was used to justify his removal. The working group produced an April 23, 2026 grand-jury indictment of 94-year-old former Cuban president Raúl Castro and other senior figures, announced May 20, 2026.
DOJ proposes rule letting the Attorney General halt state bar discipline of its attorneys
On March 5, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice published a proposed rule (RIN 1105-AB82; 28 CFR Part 77) granting the Attorney General authority to review any state, territorial, or D.C. bar disciplinary complaint against a current or former DOJ attorney for conduct in their federal duties, and to demand that the bar suspend its investigation pending that review. The rule states that if a bar refuses, "the Department shall take appropriate action to prevent the bar disciplinary authorities from interfering." It followed bar inquiries into DOJ lawyers such as Lindsey Halligan, whose prosecutions of James Comey and Letitia James were dismissed after a judge found her appointment unlawful.
DOJ rescinds 2021 no-knock entry limits, broadening when agents can enter homes unannounced
On March 2, 2026, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a Justice Department memo rescinding the 2021 policy that restricted federal agents' use of "no-knock" entries to situations where they feared imminent physical danger. Under the new memo, no-knock entries are also permissible whenever there is a risk that evidence could be destroyed — a condition former prosecutors warned can be asserted in nearly any search. The change was made by internal memo without public rulemaking and was reported on the eve of the sixth anniversary of Breonna Taylor's death in a botched no-knock raid.
DOJ charges 30 more over anti-ICE Minnesota church protest, bringing total to 39 defendants
On February 27, 2026, the U.S. Justice Department unsealed a superseding indictment in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota charging 30 additional people — bringing the total to 39 — over the January 18 anti-ICE protest at Cities Church in St. Paul. All 39 are charged under place-of-worship civil-rights statutes, including the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, with conspiring to interfere with and interfering with the free exercise of religion; the defendants include independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, who say they were covering the protest as reporters. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that 25 of the 30 newly charged had been arrested, even though a magistrate judge had earlier found no probable cause to arrest several defendants, including the journalists.
Miami prosecutor expands 'grand conspiracy' probe of Trump's investigators to 2016 Russia inquiry
On February 26, 2026, The New York Times reported that Jason A. Reding Quiñones, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, had expanded a criminal "grand conspiracy" inquiry into former law-enforcement and intelligence officials who investigated Donald Trump, with subpoenas issued in recent weeks now reaching the FBI's 2016 investigation of ties between the Trump campaign and Russia and FBI interviews probing the 2020 false-electors case. The expansion built on subpoenas the Miami office issued in November 2025 — which went to figures including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page — and a broadened late-January 2026 round seeking documents about the January 2017 intelligence-community assessment on Russian election interference. The Times noted there is no evidence the separate inquiries were a single plot, and that tying the Washington-based Russia and false-electors matters to the Florida classified-documents case lets prosecutors use a Miami grand jury drawn from a less Democratic jury pool.
DOJ withheld and removed Epstein-file records tied to a Trump sexual-abuse allegation
An NPR investigation published February 24, 2026 found that the Justice Department's public Epstein-files database was missing dozens of pages of FBI records connected to a woman's allegation that Donald Trump sexually abused her as a minor in the early 1980s. NPR reported that roughly 53 pages of interview notes were withheld or removed — some briefly taken offline and not fully restored — while other Epstein materials remained public. The DOJ said unpublished records were privileged, duplicative, or under review, and House Democrats and the Republican committee chair each announced investigations into the omissions.
DOJ logged members of Congress's search histories as they reviewed unredacted Epstein files
It emerged that the Department of Justice had logged and tracked the searches members of Congress ran while reviewing unredacted Epstein files on DOJ systems, and a printout titled "Jayapal Pramila Search History" was photographed in Attorney General Pam Bondi's materials at a House Judiciary Committee hearing. Rep. Pramila Jayapal confirmed the listed searches were hers; the DOJ said it "logs all searches made on its systems," framing the practice as protecting victim information. Speaker Mike Johnson called the tracking not "appropriate," and Democratic lawmakers demanded the department end what they described as surveillance of the legislative branch.
Federal grand jury indicts independent journalist Georgia Fort and former CNN anchor Don Lemon under FACE Act for covering anti-ICE church protest
On January 30, 2026, federal agents arrested independent journalist Georgia Fort and former CNN anchor Don Lemon following an anti-ICE protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, where a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official serves as pastor. A federal grand jury in Minnesota indicted both on charges of "conspiracy against right of religious freedom at place of worship" under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act of 1994. Both journalists have maintained they were reporting on the protest, not participating in it. As of mid-May 2026, Fort reports that the legal constraints of the pending prosecution have functionally silenced significant portions of her newsgathering.
FBI raids Fulton County, Georgia election office to seize 2020 ballots; DNI Gabbard joins
On January 28, 2026, FBI agents executed a federal search warrant at the Fulton County, Georgia election office in Union City, seizing the physical 2020 presidential-election ballots, ballot images, tabulator tapes, and voter rolls of the county Donald Trump falsely blames for his narrow Georgia loss. The warrant followed a December 2025 Justice Department lawsuit demanding the records; Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard — who has no domestic law-enforcement authority — joined the raid, ran a parallel election-fraud inquiry, and arranged a call for Trump to thank the agents. County officials said the seizure left them unable to vouch for the chain of custody of the 2020 records.
DOJ and FBI arrest anti-ICE church-protest organizers under FACE Act and conspiracy statute
On January 22, 2026, Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel announced federal charges against Minneapolis civil-rights organizer Nekima Levy Armstrong, St. Paul school-board member Chauntyll Allen, and others over a January 18 anti-ICE demonstration inside Cities Church in St. Paul, where one pastor also directs the local ICE field office. The activists were charged under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and 18 U.S.C. § 241 (conspiracy against rights); Levy Armstrong was processed and released the same day after a federal magistrate found insufficient evidence to detain her. These were the first arrests in a prosecution that a February 27 superseding indictment would expand to 39 defendants.
DOJ opens criminal investigation into Gov. Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey over their anti-ICE statements
On January 16, 2026, the U.S. Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey over an alleged conspiracy to impede federal immigration agents during Operation Metro Surge, the roughly 3,000-agent ICE and Border Patrol deployment to the Twin Cities. Sources told CBS News the inquiry rests on 18 U.S.C. Section 372 and stems from the officials' public criticism of the operation, which had intensified after an ICE agent killed Minnesota resident Renee Good on January 7. Subpoenas to Walz, Frey, Attorney General Keith Ellison, the St. Paul mayor's office, and two counties followed the next week.
U.S. Coast Guard seizes Panama-flagged oil tanker Centuries off Venezuela as Trump's oil 'blockade' escalates
In a pre-dawn operation on Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, the U.S. Coast Guard seized a Panama-flagged oil tanker named Centuries off Venezuela, the second sanctioned tanker the United States took within roughly ten days, as part of President Trump's declared "total and complete blockade" of sanctioned oil vessels entering or leaving Venezuela. The White House called Centuries a "falsely flagged vessel operating as part of the Venezuelan shadow fleet," while Venezuela condemned the seizure as "a serious act of piracy" and said it would complain to the U.N. Security Council.
Trump directed U.S. forces to seize oil tanker Skipper off Venezuela, opening blockade campaign without congressional authorization
On December 10, 2025, U.S. forces seized the crude-oil tanker Skipper off the coast of Venezuela in a pre-dawn operation launched from the USS Gerald R. Ford, boarding the vessel with Coast Guard and Marine personnel under a DOJ civil-forfeiture warrant. President Trump announced the seizure at a White House event, declaring the U.S. would keep the roughly 1–2 million barrels of Venezuelan crude on board. The action — the first vessel seizure of a broader oil-blockade campaign — was carried out without congressional authorization; Venezuela condemned it as "an act of international piracy."