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Trump bought $500,000 in Abbott Laboratories stock before his DOJ dropped its criminal probe of the baby-formula maker

During 2025, President Donald Trump purchased roughly $500,000 in Abbott Laboratories stock, beginning in late September, while the Justice Department's years-long criminal investigation into the company's contaminated Sturgis, Michigan infant-formula plant remained open. On June 28, 2026, the Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported that DOJ leadership had closed the criminal probe, which was tied to at least two infant deaths, in favor of civil clawbacks; Abbott had donated $500,000 to Trump's inauguration. Trump's stock purchases were disclosed in his annual financial disclosure released days later.

Part of: Trump Self-Dealing: Personal Financial Holdings Benefiting from Administration Decisions

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Washington, D.C.

Abuses documented

Actors

On June 28, 2026, the Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported that the U.S. Department of Justice had closed its multi-year criminal investigation into Abbott Laboratories over the mishandling of its Sturgis, Michigan, infant-formula plant, where regulators found cronobacter bacteria in February 2022 and which was linked to at least two infant deaths. Some department prosecutors believed they had assembled enough evidence to bring criminal charges, but senior DOJ officials elected instead to close the probe and pursue civil clawbacks of formula sold through federally funded nutrition programs. Abbott had contributed $500,000 to President Donald Trump's inauguration committee, one of several companies under federal scrutiny that together gave roughly $50 million to the inaugural fund.

Trump's annual financial disclosure, released by the Office of Government Ethics on June 30, 2026, showed that he had personally purchased approximately $500,000 of Abbott stock during 2025, with his first purchase in late September while the criminal investigation remained open. The disclosure, which ran to 927 pages and listed thousands of securities trades, made the sequence of the President's personal investment and his administration's enforcement decision a matter of public record. The White House and Abbott did not respond to reporters' requests for comment.

Updates

2026-07-08 — Schiff opened a congressional inquiry into the DOJ's closure of the probe [4]

On July 8, 2026, Senator Adam Schiff sent a letter to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche opening a congressional inquiry into the Justice Department's decision to close the Abbott criminal investigation. Schiff wrote that senior department officials had declined prosecutors' recommendation to pursue felony charges against the company and its executives, and questioned the department's enforcement priorities in a case involving deadly risks to infants. A Justice Department spokesperson confirmed receiving the letter and said a civil False Claims Act settlement was the best mechanism to achieve accountability.

Why we recorded this

Public officials are expected to wield government power in the public interest, not to advance their personal financial holdings. Here the President bought roughly $500,000 of a company's stock while his Justice Department held an open criminal investigation into that company, and the department then closed the probe in favor of lesser civil penalties after the company had given $500,000 to his inauguration. This archive records when the line between public duty and private gain is blurred, because self-dealing and pay-to-play arrangements corrode public confidence that law-enforcement decisions are made on the merits.

Sources

  1. Trump Loaded Up on Abbott Laboratories Stock Before His DOJ Dropped Criminal Probe — Common Dreams primary accessed July 4, 2026
  2. DOJ ends investigation into infant formula company linked to deadly cronobacter outbreak — Food Safety News investigative accessed July 4, 2026
  3. US DOJ closes criminal probe into Abbott over baby formula plant, WSJ reports — Reuters (via WTVB) primary accessed July 4, 2026
  4. Schiff launches inquiry into DOJ's closure of probe into Abbott Labs over bacterial contamination at baby formula plant — CBS News primary accessed July 10, 2026

See also