The Standing

A daily, non-partisan record of US democratic norms — and the events that erode them.

    DOJ shut down criminal Clean Water Act probe of Sen. Jim Justice's coal companies

    ProPublica reported that the Justice Department's Office of the Deputy Attorney General, then headed by now–Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, shut down a career-initiated federal criminal investigation into potential Clean Water Act violations by the coal empire of Sen. Jim Justice (R-WV), a close Trump ally. Prosecutors with the EPA, DOJ's Environmental Crimes Section, and the Western District of Virginia believed they had a strong case and were litigating subpoenas when they were told "pencils down." DOJ said the case was not consistent with the administration's priorities and should be resolved civilly; former prosecutors called top-level intervention to quash an early-stage criminal case highly unusual.

    Jurisdiction
    federal
    Location
    Washington, D.C.

    Abuses documented

    Actors

    • Todd Blanche
    • U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Deputy Attorney General

    Why we recorded this

    A founding premise of equal justice is that criminal law applies the same to the powerful as to everyone else, and that career prosecutors decide whom to charge based on evidence rather than the target's political ties. When the Justice Department's senior political leadership reaches down to kill a career-initiated criminal investigation of a sitting senator and presidential ally, it substitutes loyalty for law and signals that allies of those in power can expect protection from accountability. We record this because shielding a political ally from a criminal probe — the mirror image of pursuing adversaries — is exactly the kind of selective, politicized use of prosecutorial power that erodes the rule of law.

    Sources

    1. Trump Administration Killed Criminal Investigation of GOP Senator's Coal Companies — ProPublica primary accessed June 8, 2026
    2. Trump Administration Steps in to Help Ally Violate Environmental Laws — The New Republic secondary accessed June 8, 2026
    3. Trump administration killed criminal investigation of GOP Senator's coal companies — Raw Story secondary accessed June 8, 2026

    See also