Corruption tracker · 11 entries
The watchdogs, ethics rules, and enforcement units that would have checked all of the above.
11 entries, most significant first.
His businesses sit in a trust managed by his children, not an independent trustee. Unlike in his first term, the company's ethics plan allows new deals with private foreign companies; it bars only deals made directly with foreign governments.
Their response: Eric Trump: the company is “dedicated to not just meeting but vastly exceeding its legal and ethical obligations.”
Sources: AP (via U.S. News) · Bloomberg
17 watchdogs
On his fifth day in office Trump fired the independent watchdogs at 17 agencies without the 30 days' notice to Congress the law requires. A federal judge ruled the firings unlawful but did not reinstate anyone.
Sources: Federal News Network · Neutral chart: watchdogs removed
Trump fired the director of the Office of Government Ethics, the agency that polices officials' conflicts of interest, weeks into a five-year term. The office was then run by acting heads who held other administration jobs, and has had no director of any kind since December 2025.
Trump fired the head of the Office of Special Counsel, which protects federal whistleblowers and enforces the ban on politicking by officials. A court ordered him reinstated; an appeals court allowed the removal.
Sources: Roll Call
36 lawyers to 2
The Public Integrity Section, which prosecutes corruption by public officials, was cut from 36 lawyers to 2 and lost its role reviewing such cases. The FBI also disbanded a Washington squad that investigated public corruption.
Their response: The department says it “continues to investigate and prosecute these cases rigorously.”
Sources: NOTUS · AP (via Yahoo)
An executive order halted new cases under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the law against bribing foreign officials, for 180 days and ordered a review of existing ones.
Their response: The order cites “American economic and national security.”
Sources: Holland & Knight summary
The Justice Department dissolved its National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team while the president's family was building a crypto business.
Their response: The memo says the department “is not a digital assets regulator.”
Sources: Justice Department memo
The Office of Special Counsel withdrew guidance on the Hatch Act: violations by senior White House officials now go to the president instead of an independent board, and the ban on campaign gear in federal workplaces was dropped.
Sources: Office of Special Counsel
In Trump v. United States, the Supreme Court held that presidents have absolute or presumptive immunity from prosecution for official acts, which limits what any future prosecutor could do about conduct in office.
Sources: Supreme Court opinion
456 enforcement actions, down from 583 (SEC)
The SEC reported on April 7, 2026 that it filed 456 enforcement actions in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2025, including 303 standalone cases, against 583 actions and 431 standalone cases the year before, a drop of 22% and 30%. It reported $17.9 billion in monetary relief, but after excluding amounts “deemed satisfied” and one old Ponzi case the figure was $1.4 billion in disgorgement and $1.3 billion in penalties, compared with $8.2 billion ordered in fiscal 2024. The fiscal year includes the last three and a half months of the Biden administration, when the SEC says there was a rush of filings, so the decline under Trump’s appointees is likely steeper than the annual totals show.
Their response: Chairman Paul Atkins: “Over the past year, the Commission has put a stop to regulation by enforcement and recentered its enforcement program on the Commission’s core mission by prioritizing cases that provide meaningful investor protection and strengthen market integrity.” The release says the year saw “an unprecedented rush to bring a significant number of cases in advance of the presidential inauguration” and faults the prior commission for 95 record-keeping cases without direct investor harm.
Sources: SEC press release 2026-34 (Apr. 7, 2026) · SEC press release 2024-186 (Nov. 22, 2024)
3,862 projected prosecutions, down from 4,332 (TRAC)
The research group TRAC, which obtains case-by-case Justice Department records through public-records litigation, reported on May 23, 2025 that white-collar prosecutions in the first half of fiscal 2025 were running more than 10% below the prior year, on pace for 3,862 against 4,332 in fiscal 2024; that would be below the 4,180 it called an all-time low in fiscal 2022. The trend long predates Trump: the 2024 total was already less than half the 10,269 filed in 1994, and TRAC said rises and falls “haven’t followed strictly partisan lines.” TRAC expected the drop to deepen because FBI agents were being told to spend about a third of their time on immigration enforcement.
Their response: No Justice Department response was included in the TRAC report. TRAC quoted news coverage that “white-collar cases...will be deprioritized for at least the remaining of 2025.”
Sources: TRAC Reports (May 23, 2025) · TRAC summary notice (May 23, 2025) · TRAC list of past reports