How Trump’s Justice Department has gutted the government’s ability to chase public corruption

The Trump administration has gutted the federal government’s ability to fight public corruption in a matter of weeks.

The Trump administration has gutted the federal government’s ability to fight public corruption in a matter of weeks. Since Inauguration Day, the Justice Department has paused all investigations into corporate foreign bribery, curtailed enforcement of a foreign agent registration law and deemphasized the criminal prosecutions of Russian oligarchs. And senior administration officials have considered eliminating the Department’s Public Integrity Section, which investigates and prosecutes alleged misconduct by federal, state and local public officials. At the same time, President Donald Trump has fired inspectors general from more than a dozen federal agencies. Trump has long decried the criminal cases brought against him by special counsel Jack Smith, as well as by state prosecutors in New York and Georgia. “Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents – something I know something about,” Trump said in his inaugural address. Current and former DOJ and FBI officials told CNN that the ongoing effort to purge prosecutors and agents involved in Trump-related cases, along with the other personnel cuts, sends that message that the era of pursuing politically sensitive or corruption cases is over. “If you’re a prosecutor or an agent and someone brings you a public corruption case, you’d be crazy to even consider taking any action,” one former senior FBI official told CNN. “Maybe that’s the point of all this.”