How President Trump is dismantling our democracy, one piece at a time

WEAPONIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND U.S. MILITARY

Trump grants clemency to every person charged or convicted of participating in the January 6th insurrection, including commuting the sentences of 14 individuals, 13 of whom were members of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, several of whom had been convicted of seditious conspiracy and assaulting law enforcement offices. Trump also issues pardons to approximately 1,500 individuals including Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys chairman who had been sentenced to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy. According to a CREW analysis, several insurrectionists pardoned by Trump have been rearrested, charged, or sentenced with other crimes.

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Trump signs an Executive Order establishing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) without specifying who the DOGE Commissioner is but effectively placing Elon Musk in charge of its sweeping mandate. CREW sued to compel transparency from DOGE and according to a CREW analysis DOGE’s work has been anything but efficient.

WEAPONIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND U.S. MILITARY

Trump revokes the security detail for his former adviser, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, despite ongoing threats from Iran because of official actions he took during Trump’s first term. This comes two days after Trump revoked the security detail of another former adviser, former National Security Adviser John Bolton. Both Bolton and Pompeo had been critical of Trump after serving in his first administration.

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Trump fires at least 17 inspectors general at agencies throughout the government whose mission it is to ferret out waste, fraud and abuse. CREW testified before Congress about the importance of inspectors general.

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The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issues a memo pausing all federal funding, putting as much as $3 trillion of federal financial assistance in limbo, including money that pays for essential services like Medicaid, Head Start and unemployment insurance. After multiple lawsuits are filed, OMB rescinds the memo. CREW sent a letter requesting congressional investigations into unilateral spending cuts and freezes and represented former OMB officials in an amicus brief urging compliance with the law.

WEAPONIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND U.S. MILITARY

Attorney General Bondi establishes the DOJ Weaponization Working Group to examine, among other things, federal and state investigations into Donald Trump and his businesses and alleged unethical prosecutions of January 6th participants despite an ethical bar and oath of office, according to a CREW analysis, prohibiting DOJ from undertaking politically-motivated investigations or prosecutions.

CORRUPTION

Attorney General Bondi issues two memos that limit the government’s ability to fight corruption and foreign influence in our democracy: in one memo the DOJ’s Kleptocracy Team, which investigated embezzlement by corruption foreign politicians, is disbanded; in a separate memo the Foreign Influence Task Force, which investigated foreign meddling in U.S. elections, is disbanded, as was the National Security Division’s Corporate Enforcement Unit, which investigated corporate actions for national security related economic crimes.

CORRUPTION

In one week Trump fires Hampton Dellinger, the head of the Office of Special Counsel, which protects whistleblowers and enforces the Hatch Act, on February 7th, and fires David Huitema, the head of the Office of Government Ethics, which is responsible for directing federal government policies related to ethics and conflicts of interest, on February 10th. According to a CREW tracker, Trump has fired at least 50 appointees, most of whom are Senate-confirmed since returning to office.

WEAPONIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND U.S. MILITARY

In a seeming “quid pro quo” designed to force New York City to comply with President Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda, Acting DOJ Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove orders criminal charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who was indicted on five counts of bribery, conspiracy, and campaign finance violations, to be dropped. Three days later, on February 13th, Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, Danielle Sassoon, resigns in protest rather than carry out Bove’s order, as do several other prosecutors.

WEAPONIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND U.S. MILITARY

Trump pardons former Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted in 2011 of trying to sell a Senate seat for $1.5 million and trying to rescind $8 million in state funds to reimburse pediatric doctors because the children’s hospital’s CEO refused to donate to his campaign. Trump had previously commuted Blagojevich’s sentence in 2020 and supposedly considered appointing him to be U.S. Ambassador to Serbia. According to a CREW analysis, Trump has pardoned at least 17 corrupt politicians.

CORRUPTION

Treasury Secretary Bessent announces that the government will stop enforcing the Corporate Transparency Act, which is designed to stop illicit corporate financial activities. According to CREW testimony, the Corporate Transparency Act is America’s “most important step towards cracking down on corporate secrecy and corruption in decades.”

WEAPONIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND U.S. MILITARY

Trump signs an Executive Order targeting Perkins Coie, citing the law firm’s past representation of Hillary Clinton as a reason to impose a series of restrictions that, together, effectively would prohibit it from working with the federal government. The Perkins Coie EO, which was  enjoined by the courts on May 2nd, was the first in a series of Executive Orders targeting law firms for perceived disloyalty.

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The Office of Management and Budget removes the Public Apportionments Database, which is a statutorily required database that shows how the federal government is spending congressionally appropriated funds. CREW sued to get the database restored and won.

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The Atlantic reveals that the Trump administration is using a Signal chat to share war plans for bombing Yemen, in seeming violation of federal law. CREW sent a letter to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) requesting an investigation into potential violations of the Federal Records Act.

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Department of Health and Human Services closes several FOIA offices, including the Center for Disease Control’s FOIA office, as part of the Trump administration’s mass layoffs. CREW sued to challenge the destruction of the CDC FOIA office.

WEAPONIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND U.S. MILITARY

President Trump issues two presidential memoranda targeting individual citizens for perceived retribution. The first presidential memo targets Miles Taylor, who in 2018 wrote a New York Times op-ed entitled “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration,” suggesting he might have violated the Espionage Act and directing the attorney general to investigate. The second presidential memo targets former head of CISA Christopher Krebs for denying that the 2020 election was rigged and directs the attorney general to terminate his security clearance and investigate him for any misconduct.

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Trump says he is exploring whether he can legally deport U.S. citizens to foreign prisons.

REGULATORY RETALIATION

The Trump administration asks the Internal Revenue Service’s top attorney to revoke Harvard University’s tax-exempt status. This follows the federal government freezing over $2.2 billion in funding to Harvard University after refusing to comply with demands to end DEI programs and modify admissions and hiring practices. Harvard sued the government, claiming the freeze is an unlawful attempt to control Harvard’s decision making.

WEAPONIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND U.S. MILITARY

A judge finds probable cause to hold Trump administration officials in contempt of court for violating his order last month to pause all deportations under the Alien Enemies Act. On August 8th an appeals court blocks the contempt proceedings from continuing despite a CREW analysis finding that the Trump administration is laying the groundwork for further court order defiance.

WEAPONIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND U.S. MILITARY

Trump pardons Paul Walczak, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison, two years of supervised release and over $4.3 million in restitution to the United States, for willfully failing to pay employment taxes and willfully failing to file individual income tax returns. Walczak’s pardon application highlighted the role of his mother, Elizabeth Fago, a Trump donor who Trump appointed to the National Cancer Advisory Board and who attended a $1 million fundraising dinner with Trump shortly before her son was pardoned. This follows Trump’s March 27th pardon of Trevor Milton who, with his wife, donated more than $1.8 million to a Trump fundraising committee in October 2024.

WEAPONIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND U.S. MILITARY

The Department of Justice opens a criminal investigation into New York Attorney General Letitia James—James’ office brought a successful civil lawsuit against Trump, which required him to pay more than $450 million in penalties. Since returning to the White House, Trump himself has pressured the Department of Justice to investigate and indict James.

CORRUPTION

Trump announces that the Department of Defense will accept a plane from Qatar to be the new Air Force One which will be donated to the Trump presidential library at the end of his term. Experts say the estimated value of the aircraft Trump will inherit from Qatar is about $400 million. CREW sent a letter demanding congressional hearings on the consequences of accepting this gift and filed a FOIA request to obtain the memo that AG Bondi supposedly signed endorsing the gift’s legality.

CORRUPTION

The FBI Washington Field Office closes its federal public corruption squad amid an effort at the FBI to deprioritize white collar crime.

WEAPONIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND U.S. MILITARY

Department of Justice files a criminal complaint against Congresswoman McIver for allegedly assaulting a law enforcement officer during a congressional visit to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in New Jersey. After being officially indicted in June and pleading not guilty, Rep. McIver called the indictment “baseless” and “political intimidation.” McIver’s indictment followed the May 9th arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka after the same visit. The charges against Baraka were dismissed after the judge reprimanded the prosecutors for their conduct.

CORRUPTION

Donald Trump hosts the memecoin dinner, a black tie gala at his Virginia golf club for the biggest buyers of his $TRUMP memecoin, who combined spent over $148 million to attend the event. Although the identities of the memecoin dinner invitees remains largely unknown, CREW filed a FOIA request with the Secret Service to identify them, at least 50 of whom, according to a CREW analysis, seem to hold tokens associated with alt-right symbols and racist language.

WEAPONIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND U.S. MILITARY

President Trump issues a presidential memorandum that allowed him to deploy the national guard to Los Angeles, in response to alleged violence related to immigration and ICE detentions and in defiance of California Governor Newsom, who did not request the aid of the National Guard. Governor Newsom has sued the Trump administration over the deployment, including by claiming that the deployment violated the Posse Comitatus Act which prohibits the military from engaging in domestic law enforcement unless a statutory exemption like the Insurrection Act is invoked. CREW filed an amicus brief on behalf of a historian supporting California’s effort to block the National Guard deployment in Los Angeles.

CORRUPTION

The Trump Administration sidelines the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section, which is charged with prosecuting political corruption, by withdrawing its ability to file new cases, slashing its staff from more than 30 attorneys to five, and suspending its gatekeeping role in reviewing potential cases against members of Congress and other public officials before charges are filed to prevent politically motivated prosecutions.

WEAPONIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND U.S. MILITARY

Senator Alex Padilla is detained and forcibly removed from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s press conference by federal agents after trying to ask the secretary questions about the administration’s immigration policies.

WEAPONIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND U.S. MILITARY

Former DOJ attorney and whistleblower Erez Reuveni discloses in the leadup to  Emil Bove’s judicial confirmation hearing that Bove, as Trump’s Principal Assistant Deputy Attorney General, suggested ignoring court orders. Based on these disclosures, CREW filed FOIA requests to obtain records on high-level officials alleged to have intentionally defied court orders.

WEAPONIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND U.S. MILITARY

In response to a Maryland district court issuing a standing order temporarily halting deportations for two business days if the litigant files a habeas corpus claim, the Department of Justice sues the entire Maryland federal district court. All 15 judges responded to the lawsuit, calling it “unprecedented and uniquely disruptive.” In an August 13 hearing, the judge presiding over the case expressed deep skepticism over the DOJ’s decision to sue the entire Maryland federal district court.

REGULATORY RETALIATION

Paramount, which needed the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) approval to merge with Skydance, agrees to pay the Trump presidential library $16 million to settle a lawsuit against 60 Minutes that the media called an attempt to “intimidate” American media. The settlement was described by members of Congress as a quid pro quo. A few weeks later, on July 17th, Paramount cancels Stephen Colbert’s show. Colbert has been a consistent and major critic of Trump. A week later, on July 24th, the FCC approves the merger.

HIDING OR DISTORTING LEGALLY REQUIRED INFORMATION

Legally mandated national climate assessment reports are removed from the various websites that house them. According to experts, since January the Trump administration has scrubbed climate related information from more than 8,000 government web pages and purged 3,000 datasets raising concerns about potential tampering with climate related facts.

CORRUPTION

Trump issues an Executive Order creating Schedule G, which builds on Project 2025’s suggestion to prioritize loyalty over expertise by exempting certain policy making positions from the competitive civil service and requiring White House approval for all Schedule G hires. Schedule G is similar to another proposal that CREW has sued to stop.

WEAPONIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND U.S. MILITARY

After the courts, acting pursuant to explicit congressional authority, named a new U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Attorney General Pam Bondi responds by firing the court-appointed U.S. Attorney and attacks the courts as a corrupt body of “rogue judges”.

WEAPONIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND U.S. MILITARY

For what appears to be only the second known time in American history, the DOJ files an ethics complaint against a sitting federal judge, alleging that Judge James Boasberg purportedly engaged in ethical misconduct when, during a private Judicial Conference Committee meeting, he questioned whether the Trump administration was fully complying with court orders. The ethics complaint follows suggestions from Trump and others that Judge Boasberg be impeached for his rulings in a high-profile immigration case instead, a suggestion which caused Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to issue a rare public statement defending the independence of the judiciary.

HIDING OR DISTORTING LEGALLY REQUIRED INFORMATION

Trump fires veteran economist and Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfe following the release of weak jobs numbers. On August 11, Trump nominates a new commissioner, E.J. Antoni, who was photographed in the January 6th insurrection crowd at the Capitol and endorses suspending monthly job reports.

WEAPONIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND U.S. MILITARY

Following a presidential memorandum directing the DOJ to sanction private attorneys who engage in so-called “frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious litigation”, the DOJ seeks sanctions against a pro bono immigration attorney who tried to prevent his client’s deportation.

WEAPONIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND U.S. MILITARY

Under the pretext of fighting crime, despite Washington D.C. having declining crime statistics, Trump issues a presidential memorandum putting the D.C. police under federal control and deploying the National Guard to D.C. CREW joined a coalition of organizations opposing Trump’s takeover of D.C. and filed FOIA requests to obtain relevant records on the National Guard deployment.

HIDING OR DISTORTING LEGALLY REQUIRED INFORMATION

The Department of Energy issues a public notice announcing that unless the requester proactively expresses continued interest to the agency, it will throw out all FOIA requests filed before October 2024 in a move that experts say will result in the improper closure of thousands of requests.

WEAPONIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND U.S. MILITARY

The day after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Defense Secretary Hegseth orders staff to monitor social media for any service members celebrating or mocking Kirk’s assassination, suggesting they could be subject to discipline. At least five Army officers and an Air Force senior master sergeant, a Marine officer and an Army reserve major are either suspended or being investigated for their speech.

WEAPONIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND U.S. MILITARY

Trump signs an Executive Order to set up a task force to send National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee in an effort to replicate the deployment in Washington D.C. despite the mayor of Memphis’ opposition. Less than two weeks later, on September 27, President Trump announces that he is sending National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon to handle so-called “domestic terrorists” and protect ICE facilities despite the mayor of Portland and governor and attorney general of Oregon being opposed to the deployment. The following day, September 28, Oregon sued Trump over the deployment arguing that Trump lacks the legal authority to deploy the National Guard in the state.

REGULATORY RETALIATION

Jimmy Kimmel’s late night comedy show is indefinitely suspended by ABC following pressure from FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatening punitive regulatory actions against ABC and its affiliates. Carr claimed that Kimmel “misled” the American public about the facts surrounding Kirk’s assassination. Following intense public backlash and financial pressure, ABC lifted Kimmel’s suspension on September 23 but two of the country’s largest local TV owners, Sinclair and Nexstar, initially refused to air Kimmel’s show only to later reverse course after additional public pressure.

HIDING OR DISTORTING LEGALLY REQUIRED INFORMATION

Secretary of Defense Hegseth reveals new restrictions on Pentagon press access, prohibiting journalists from reporting any information that is not authorized for release, including unclassified information.

CORRUPTION

News reports reveal that after Trump took office, the Department of Justice closed an investigation into Trump’s border czar, Tom Holman, for accepting a bag with $50,000 in cash in an undercover FBI investigation.

WEAPONIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND U.S. MILITARY

Former FBI Director James Comey is indicted in the Eastern District for Virginia for allegedly lying to Congress in 2020. The two-page indictment comes days after Trump publicly called for Comey to be prosecuted. The indictment was only issued after acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Erik S. Siebert was forced out for allegedly refusing to bring charges against another Trump critic, Letitia James.  The indictment was  signed only by Lindsey Halligan, Trump’s former defense attorney who was put in charge of the office 3 days before the indictment on September 22nd.  Prior to bringing the indictment, career prosecutors presented Halligan with a memo which argued that the case lacked evidence to establish probable cause that Comey committed a crime.