Trump’s Justice Department Drops 23,000 Criminal Probes as Pam Bondi Declines in February 2025

(UNITED STATES) — The U.S. Department of Justice closed more than 23,000 criminal cases in the first six months of President Donald Trump’s second administration, redirecting resources under Attorney General Pam Bondi toward immigration enforcement.

That total of declinations included hundreds of investigations into terrorism, white-collar crime, drugs and other offenses referred by agencies including the FBI and DEA under prior administrations. At the same time, the department prosecuted 32,000 new immigration cases during the period.

February 2025 marked the sharpest monthly jump. In Bondi’s first month in office, prosecutors declined nearly 11,000 cases, the highest monthly total since at least 2004 and well above the previous record of 6,500 in September 2019 during Trump’s first term.

The increase followed a Justice Department memo ordering prosecutors to review all open cases launched before October 2022 and decide within 10 days whether to close them. A department spokesperson tied the move to a review of pending matters opened before fiscal year 2023 and said the agency was working to “clean, remediate, and validate data” in the U.S. Attorneys’ case management system.

The spokesperson described that work as part of an effort to run the department more efficiently while continuing to prosecute all crime types. The figures, however, show a clear shift in emphasis during the opening months of Trump’s new term.

Immigration cases moved in the opposite direction. The 32,000 new prosecutions were nearly triple the Biden administration’s rate and a 15% increase from Trump’s first term.

Other categories fell back. The department pursued fewer prosecutions for drug offenses, corruption and other crimes than new administrations had since 2009.

Trump cast the change as a break from his predecessor’s policies. In a March 2025 address, he said the administration was correcting a “surrender to violent criminals” and restoring “fair, equal and impartial justice.”

The Justice Department has also described its priorities in broader terms. It said it is focusing on drug cartels, illegal immigrants and institutions promoting “divisive DEI policies,” while “turning a new page on white-collar and corporate enforcement.”

That shift reached across a wide range of referrals. Cases dropped in the six-month period included an investigation into patient abuse at a Virginia nursing home, a New Jersey labor union fraud case, and a cryptocurrency firm suspected of investor fraud.

One of the New Jersey matters involved an accusation that a national union official had embezzled money. The cryptocurrency case centered on suspected investor fraud. In another area, the department declined more than 900 federal program or procurement fraud cases even as DOGE focused on waste.

Counterterrorism work also saw a pullback in the data. The department shut down 25 terrorism-related cases in the first six months, more than the prior three administrations combined over the same period.

The declinations data captures matters prosecutors decided not to pursue, even after agencies had referred them for possible criminal charges. In this period, those decisions came alongside an immigration push that quickly reshaped the department’s caseload.

Bondi took office as the administration pressed federal agencies to align with Trump’s enforcement agenda. The nearly 11,000 declinations in February 2025 came immediately after that change in leadership and after the order to review older cases.

The 10-day deadline gave prosecutors little time to assess open matters that had been pending since before October 2022. The memo applied across the department’s nationwide network of U.S. attorneys’ offices.

The spokesperson’s explanation pointed to administrative work inside the department’s case system rather than a retreat from prosecuting entire categories of crime. Yet the same six-month period produced a record decline count and a large increase in immigration filings.

That combination has sharpened attention on what the department is choosing not to pursue. Hundreds of investigations tied to terrorism, white-collar crime, drugs and other offenses were abandoned while immigration prosecutions accelerated.

The results also suggest a change in how new administrations allocate early prosecutorial resources. Compared with incoming administrations since 2009, this one brought fewer prosecutions for drug offenses, corruption and other non-immigration crimes.

Drug enforcement remained part of the department’s public message. Justice officials said they were emphasizing drug cartels, but the broader prosecutions data showed fewer drug offense cases than under recent new administrations.

Corporate enforcement moved lower in the department’s priorities as well. Its own language about “turning a new page on white-collar and corporate enforcement” matched the closure of cases involving investor fraud and labor union fraud.

The abandoned Virginia nursing home investigation illustrated how the declinations reached into sectors beyond border enforcement and narcotics. So did the New Jersey union fraud matter and the cryptocurrency probe.

The federal program and procurement fraud figures added another layer. More than 900 such cases were declined during a period when DOGE was focused on waste, leaving a contrast between public messaging and prosecutorial choices.

Inside courtrooms, the immigration drive has also generated friction between prosecutors and judges. Federal judges have dismissed criminal indictments against undocumented defendants who were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement while their criminal cases were pending.

One of those rulings came from U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee. She dismissed charges against Zambrano with prejudice after pretrial release violations became an issue in the case.

Another involved TikTok streamer Carlitos Ricardo Parias, who faced an assault on a federal officer charge. That case also fell into the broader clash between criminal proceedings and immigration detention.

Prosecutors argued that ongoing criminal cases do not require ICE to release defendants. Judges in some cases reached a different result, showing how the administration’s immigration posture can collide with criminal procedure once defendants enter federal court.

Those conflicts matter because they can erase prosecutions even after the department has chosen to file charges. The administration’s push for more immigration cases, and the simultaneous detention of undocumented defendants by ICE, creates a path for dismissals that would not arise in the same way in other types of federal cases.

The department’s early numbers therefore tell two stories at once. One is the rapid expansion of immigration prosecutions. The other is the broad reduction of investigations and cases outside that lane.

The first story is straightforward in the data: 32,000 new immigration cases in six months, nearly triple the Biden administration’s rate and 15% above Trump’s first term. The second story sits in the declinations count: more than 23,000 closed criminal cases, with February 2025 alone reaching nearly 11,000.

That February figure stands out not only for its size but for its place in the department’s records. It was the highest monthly total since at least 2004, breaking the prior high of 6,500 set in September 2019.

The timing makes the month a focal point in assessing Bondi’s first weeks as attorney general. The review memo, the 10-day deadline, and the opening surge in immigration prosecutions all landed at the same moment.

Trump has framed that redirection in public safety terms, saying in March 2025 that his administration was reversing a “surrender to violent criminals.” He paired that with a pledge to restore “fair, equal and impartial justice.”

The department’s own description has been more bureaucratic at times and more ideological at others. On one hand, it pointed to efforts to “clean, remediate, and validate data” in its case management system. On the other, it said prosecutors were prioritizing drug cartels, illegal immigrants and institutions promoting “divisive DEI policies.”

Those statements do not erase the tradeoffs visible in the numbers. When prosecutors closed more than 23,000 matters and immigration filings rose to 32,000, other categories necessarily occupied less of the department’s attention.

The terrorism figures may prove among the most closely watched. Shutting down 25 terrorism-related cases in six months, more than the prior three administrations combined over the same stretch, showed how widely the declinations reached.

Fraud cases also drew notice because they touched federal spending, labor organizations and digital assets. The closed matters ranged from patient abuse allegations in a nursing home to union fraud and suspected investor fraud tied to a cryptocurrency firm.

For prosecutors in the field, the shift meant balancing a mandatory review of older cases with a large new immigration caseload. For judges, it meant handling criminal dockets that increasingly overlapped with ICE detention decisions.

For the administration, the figures offered proof that it had redirected the department quickly. For critics inside the system, the same numbers raised questions about what was being set aside.

What remains unmistakable is the scale of the change under Bondi. In six months, the Justice Department paired a record wave of declinations with a surge in immigration prosecutions, leaving February 2025 as the month when that strategy came into full view.