WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a powerful newsletter published yesterday in American Freakshow, Courier spotlights Not Above the Law’s new report documenting how the Trump administration has systematically dismantled and weaponized the Department of Justice since the 2025 inauguration. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is now positioning himself to make this destruction permanent and use the DOJ as a weapon against his boss’s perceived enemies.
Under Trump’s leadership, the DOJ has shifted from the nation’s law enforcement agency into a political weapon. This transformation has triggered a mass exodus: more than 11,000 attorneys and staff have left, hollowing out entire divisions. Adding to that, Blanche recently announced a $1.8 billion, taxpayer-funded “Anti-Weaponization Fund” to compensate Trump allies and January 6 defendants, essentially rewarding Trump allies with tax-payer money. That move has already prompted more staff to leave their positions.
Not Above the Law’s report, cited throughout the piece, reveals exactly how the department reached this point and how far it has fallen.
Read more from American Freakshow:
“Trump’s personal attorney is running hard to make his temp job as the nation’s top law enforcement official permanent. He knows well that chief among the job qualifications will be his willingness to accuse – and perhaps even prosecute – Democrats who win House and Senate seats in the midterms for allegedly stealing their elections. This has been the standard Trump playbook since the near-coup of 2020, but the spectacle of a once-respected federal prosecutor debasing himself to carry it out is particularly revolting […]
“The nonprofit watchdog group Not Above the Law has assembled a damning amount of evidence showing just how much the Trump administration has not only weaponized, but utterly gutted the Department of Justice in the 18 months since the 2025 inauguration.
“More than 11,000 responsible, constitutionally-inclined attorneys and employees, unwilling to politicize the law by going after progressive organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center or prosecuting Trump’s enemies – like currently, James Comey – have left the agency in droves. Efforts to replace them are falling far short. The administration has been laying the groundwork for a fully lawless, weaponized and politicized federal law enforcement apparatus. Among the most alarming developments:
“Ignoring crimes: Trump’s DOJ dropped more than 23,000 criminal investigations and cases in the first six months of his second term. In February 2025 alone, the DOJ declined nearly 11,000 matters – the highest monthly total in DOJ records dating back to 2004.
“Putting criminals back on the streets: Trump has pardoned thousands of insurrectionists, health care fraudsters, and anti-choice extremists while the DOJ drops related cases. Among the J6 pardonees were violent criminals from the fascist Proud Boys and nine members of the white nationalist Oath Keepers. And a growing number of them have since been rearrested, many for sexual or violent crimes. […]
“This is the DOJ that Todd Blanche will inherit. And if his Fox News appearance over the weekend is any indication, it is a department he would further weaponize and dedicate to cheating the hell out of American voters this fall.”
Read the full newsletter here or watch a video breakdown on YouTube here.
Read the full Not Above the Law report here.