Democrats probe Trump administration's retreat from public corruption cases
Source: NBC News
Aug. 28, 2025, 12:31 PM EDT
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have given a “green light to would-be lawbreakers” by gutting the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section and folding one of the FBI’s public corruption squads, a group of congressional Democrats wrote in a letter Thursday. “DOJ’s refusal to enforce anti-corruption laws betrays the public trust and will create lasting harm to Americans’ faith in the integrity of government officials,” Democrats wrote in their letter to Bondi and Patel, which was first obtained by NBC News.
The lawmakers said that the changes made by Bondi and Patel are coming in the “midst of an unprecedented wave of corruption in the Trump Administration,” citing, among other issues, President Donald Trump’s involvement with cryptocurrency, his acceptance of a luxury jet from a foreign government to use as a new Air Force One and pardons he issued to donors.
“This is just part of the Trump Administration’s creation of a two-tiered system of justice—one for large corporations and President Trump’s wealthy friends, and another for everyone else,” the letter states.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., are leading the probe into the changes at the Justice Department and FBI. Eight other senators and more than 50 members of the House signed the letter.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/democrats-probe-trump-administrations-retreat-public-corruption-cases-rcna227629
Link to LETTER (which has REQUESTS for information like all of their "letters" ) (PDF viewer) - https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26078119-letter-to-dojfbi-re-public-corruption/#document/p1
Link to LETTER (PDF viewer) - https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/26078119/letter-to-dojfbi-re-public-corruption.pdf
Here is an example excerpt of what is in there -
1. How many Public Integrity Section cases remain active as of the date of your response?
2. How many FBI investigations into public corruption remain active as of the date of yourresponse?
3. What factors contributed to the decision to downsize DOJ’s Public Integrity Section anddisband or reassign the agents working for the FBI team focused on investigating publiccorruption?
a. How many attorneys resigned, were fired, or were reassigned from the PublicIntegrity Section for refusing to sign court filings in the Eric Adams publiccorruption case?27
4. Has the DOJ adopted any internal policy, formal or informal, of not enforcing orprioritizing federal domestic anti-corruption laws (beyond policies related to enforcementof the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and Foreign Agents Registration Act)28?
a. Do you understand any executive order issued by President Trump to require non-enforcement or reduced prioritization of federal domestic anti-corruption laws?
5. Has the DOJ adopted any internal policy, formal or informal, regarding partisanenforcement of federal domestic anti-corruption laws, such as avoiding actions againstRepublican officials or prioritizing actions directed at Democratic officials?
6. Has the FBI adopted any internal policy, formal or informal, of not investigating potentialviolations of federal domestic anti-corruption laws?a. Do you understand any executive order issued by President Trump to requirehalting investigations of federal domestic anti-corruption laws?
(snip)
= new reply since forum marked as read
