Power Grab/Fire anyone who can stop him
Trump’s DOJ strips its anti-corruption unit of the power to bring cases and cuts it from more than 30 lawyers to 5
— Trump's DOJ strips its anti-corruption unit of the power to bring cases and cuts it from more than 30 lawyers to 5.
The Public Integrity Section was created after Watergate to prosecute corrupt officials and to check politically driven cases. By June 2025 it could no longer file new cases. A bribery investigation involving members of Congress later went dark.
What happened
By June 2025, the Justice Department had stripped its Public Integrity Section of its authority to file new cases, Reuters reported on June 9, 2025. Its staff had fallen from more than 30 attorneys to five, and its review of potential cases against members of Congress and other public officials had been suspended. The section was created in 1976, after Watergate.
The cuts came weeks after the section’s leaders resigned in February 2025 rather than drop the corruption case against New York Mayor Eric Adams. In March, AP reported, prosecutors were told the unit would be sharply reduced and its cases sent to U.S. attorney’s offices. NOTUS reported in September 2025 that two lawyers were left.
Where it stands
On October 20, 2026, ProPublica reported that an FBI bribery investigation involving members of Congress went dark after the agents working it were pushed out and the assisting prosecutor quit. ProPublica reported that no one is now examining the allegations. The lawmakers named in its story were never designated subjects, and their offices deny wrongdoing.
Who benefited
Officials who would have faced the section’s prosecutors. With no authority to bring cases and almost no staff, the unit that once handled corruption cases against politicians and police no longer brings them.
Who wanted something
The administration said it was ending political prosecutions. A Justice Department spokesperson told ProPublica the department is “rooting out the weaponization, corruption, and institutional rot that ran rampant under Joe Biden’s two-tiered system of justice.”
Who lost out
The public, whose protection against officials selling their offices now rests with 94 U.S. attorney’s offices run by the president’s appointees. The section’s review of cases against members of Congress was meant to keep those prosecutions free of politics, in both directions.
Why it matters
Bribery of public officials is a federal crime, and this was the unit that specialized in it. Cutting it from more than 30 lawyers to two leaves corruption cases to prosecutors who answer to the president’s appointees. NOTUS found the section had rejected or narrowed cases against politicians of both parties; that check is gone too.
Sources ReutersNOTUSProPublicaAssociated Press
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