The Justice Department under President Trump has shifted focus from complex white-collar investigations to immigration and violent crime.
President Trump's first year back in office turned the world of white-collar enforcement upside down.
The Justice Department, focused on White House priorities such as immigration enforcement and violent crime, has stepped back from the kinds of complicated investigations into foreign bribery, money laundering and public corruption that former department leaders often cited among their greatest successes.
Along with that shift, administration officials have undone a number of notable Biden-era white-collar prosecutions. In some, the department dropped charges against executives that were pending. In others, Trump has used the pardon power to forgive a string of top company officials charged with or convicted of crimes related to their businesses.
"What we've seen so far in the first year of Trump's second term is a more aggressive retreat across all spectrums of white-collar crime" than during his first term, said Will Thomas, a professor of business law at the University of Michigan. That will put stress on corporate governance and compliance practices, he said.
A Justice Department spokeswoman said the department continues to thoroughly investigate and prosecute frauds that cause harm.
"This Department of Justice is committed to protecting American citizens, whether that be safeguarding them from waste and fraud, protecting markets and investors, or holding accountable those that use fraudulent schemes to prey on innocent victims," the spokeswoman said.
One of the most notable shifts has been in foreign bribery cases. Enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act fell off a cliff this year. The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission, which share authority to investigate violations, brought about 33 cases a year against companies or individuals between 2015 and 2024, according to data maintained by law firm Gibson Dunn. This year, the Justice Department brought six new FCPA cases. The SEC brought none.
Trump said the law hurt U.S. companies operating abroad and ordered a six-month freeze on new cases. Justice Department officials responded by closing nearly half of open foreign-bribery investigations and saying future cases should be connected to U.S. strategic interests, including the fight against transnational drug cartels.
The Justice Department also has backed away from the Biden administration's enforcement of anti-money-laundering laws against big cryptocurrency exchanges that were accused of allowing users in sanctioned countries such as Iran to trade with Americans.
In another shift, prosecutors have scaled back efforts to pursue cases of fraud and corruption against public officials amid criticism from Trump and others in the administration who say such prosecutions weaponize the justice system for political ends.
Trump appointees ordered Manhattan federal prosecutors to drop their bribery case against outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams, triggering a series of internal resignations. The section responsible for policing public corruption is down from 30 prosecutors in January to just two full-time.
At the FBI, Director Kash Patel in May disbanded a corruption squad that had run investigations into members of Congress and fraud by federal employees and assigned members to other duties.
Patel "absolutely disbanded it due to evidence of unethical conduct and blatant political targeting," a spokesman said. The Federal Bureau of Investigation "had a historic year coordinating with law enforcement across the country and making over 50,000 arrests -- double the number from the previous year," he said. "This includes violent crime, white-collar crime, espionage, counter terrorism and more."
Some current and former Justice Department officials say one reason white-collar work has slowed is because prosecutors and investigators are being reassigned to other parts of the government's law-enforcement portfolio.
In one open probe, investigators have been examining whether employees of financial-services firm StoneX stole valuable trade secrets from a competitor. They had statements from cooperating witnesses and what they thought was strong evidence, people familiar with the matter said.
But after more than a year investigating, the Justice Department hasn't presented the case to a grand jury, in part because government investigators working the probe have been pulled into immigration matters and violent crime, the people said.
In prior administrations, prosecutors would have been eager to pursue such a case, they said.
StoneX and employees have disputed the allegations, which are also at the center of a civil lawsuit. The company didn't respond to requests for comment.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the probe.
The Justice Department this year said that overbroad white-collar enforcement burdens U.S. businesses and global competitiveness. It said it would focus on high-impact offenses that victimize the public welfare.
One emphasis has been the prosecution of crimes involving the theft of public funds, including healthcare fraud. Prosecutors in December indicted, for instance, a healthcare startup that provided easy access to stimulants such as Adderall without a legitimate medical purpose. The department has disrupted health fraud schemes that sought to steal almost $15 billion from Medicare or Medicaid, according to officials.
"Under Attorney General Bondi's leadership, we have executed the largest healthcare fraud take down of all time,"
the department spokeswoman said.
Prosecutors are also building out new areas of enforcement, including against businesses accused of dodging or underpaying tariffs or making protection payments to drug gangs that have been designated as terrorist organizations. The department this year also targeted overseas traders whose elaborate frauds manipulate the price of small Chinese companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
The department was prone in the past to carrying out prolonged investigations of American companies that hurt their performance and shareholder returns, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told a conference of white-collar attorneys in December.
Boeing was a beneficiary of the administration's new approach. The company had agreed during the Biden administration to plead guilty over admissions that former employees deceived air-safety regulators before two deadly crashes of 737 MAX jets. But the company backed away from its plea agreement after the Trump administration took over, and prosecutors said they could lose at trial if they took the aerospace giant to court.
Temple University law professor Lauren Ouziel, a former federal prosecutor, said so many different kinds of cases fall under the umbrella of white-collar enforcement that it remains early to draw definitive conclusions about the administration's approach.
"It's hard to lump everything we're seeing into a narrative that the department is backing away from white-collar crime,"
Ouziel said.
Trump-appointed U.S. attorneys who oversee regional prosecutions have scrambled to realign their programs with the president's priorities. Pursuing wealthy defendants didn't fit that approach, according to some of them; a view that at times has created internal tensions.
In July, the acting U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, Bill Essayli, dropped a fraud and tax-evasion indictment against Andrew Wiederhorn, chief executive of a company that owns the Fatburger chain. Essayli told a court the case didn't fit the department's priorities, citing a policy memo written by a top Justice official, Matthew Galeotti.
Behind the scenes, though, Galeotti told Essayli that his memo didn't support dropping the case against Wiederhorn and demanded it not be cited. "I never would have agreed to dismiss this case," Galeotti wrote in an email reviewed by The Wall Street Journal , which hasn't been previously reported.
"This Department of Justice is proud of Bill, and he continues to have our complete support,"
the department spokeswoman said.
Prosecutors were inundated this year with appeals from defense attorneys to drop cases because, the lawyers argued, their clients had been punished for their conservative views or past support of Trump's campaigns. Some defendants appealed to Trump directly.
In April, Trump's handpicked U.S. attorney in New Jersey, Alina Habba, praised the work of local federal agents when former nursing home operator Joseph Schwartz was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in a $38 million employment tax fraud scheme involving facilities he owned across the country. Seven months later, Trump granted Schwartz a full pardon.
Clemency granted to other prominent defendants, including Nikola founder Trevor Milton , Ozy Media co-founder Carlos Watson and investor Devon Archer have contributed to a feeling among prosecutors that white-collar cases are dicey work.
The president's actions had collateral consequences for investors who lost money due to alleged frauds. Milton and Watson avoided paying tens of millions of dollars in restitution after jurors found they deceived investors.
The SEC then dropped its civil fraud lawsuits against Milton , Watson and other defendants who received clemency from Trump . Those lawsuits could have recouped funds for investors if the commission had won at trial.
The SEC's lawyers dismissed the cases because they didn't want to be seen as contradicting Trump's view of justice , according to attorneys involved in the negotiations .
The commission is typically the most active white-collar enforcer in the federal government . But its ranks have been significantly depleted by attrition , and its new leadership is less interested in bringing high-dollar enforcement actions against big public companies .
The SEC under the Trump administration brought four enforcement actions in nine months against public companies , according to data from Cornerstone Research . The agency brought 52 enforcement actions against public companies during the prior three months , when it was under the Biden administration .
SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said in October that regulators should be measured in how they use their enforcement power . "If we reward the staff only for bringing enforcement actions , then we have discouraged the staff from determining not to recommend an enforcement action ," he said .