The Anti-Corruption Tracker: Mapping the Erosion of Oversight and Accountability

This tracker documents the erosion and dismantling of oversight and accountability systems within the U.S. Executive Branch. Some changes may reflect genuine reform goals but, cumulatively, they create a more permissive environment for corruption and abuse of power to take root. Key topics include: - Oversight: Firing inspectors general, defunding watchdog units, and dismantling internal oversight units. - Enforcement: Eliminating public corruption and anti-bribery units, pausing FCPA enforcement, and disbanding teams focused on foreign influence and illicit finance. - Transparency: Gutting public records staff, withdrawing from transparency commitments, suppressing whistleblowing, and evading FOIA obligations. - Workforce: Firing or sidelining career officials, and replacing merit-based hiring with ideological loyalty tests. - Independent Agencies: Undermining agency independence, asserting direct presidential control, retaliation against and more. This is a regularly updated document. If we’ve missed something, let us know at [email protected]. You can find more about our overall approach to the tracker and our corresponding series here. | Date Of Action | Topic | Action | Additional Context | Government Entity | |---|---|---|---|---| | 2026-08-20 | Transparency | DOJ named Katie Blankenberg to lead its Office of Information Policy (OIP), which oversees DOJ’s handling of Freedom of Information Act requests and provides government-wide guidance on FOIA compliance. Blankenberg previously worked for Judicial Watch, a conservative legal advocacy organization known for using Freedom of Information Act litigation to obtain government records and target alleged wrongdoing by Democratic administrations. | Blankenberg is the second political appointee to lead OIP since DOJ removed its longtime career director in March 2025 and converted the position from a career to a political post. OIP has historically been led by career FOIA officials and plays an important role in shaping federal transparency policy, including advising agencies on FOIA compliance and resolving disclosure questions within DOJ. Blankenberg has recused herself from matters involving Judicial Watch, and DOJ has said she will administer FOIA “faithfully and evenhandedly.” But former government FOIA lawyers and transparency advocates have raised concerns about both the appearance of conflicts and a broader shift away from OIP’s longstanding model of nonpartisan, career leadership, particularly because the office can influence decisions about disclosure of records concerning both the current and prior administrations. Others have noted that Blankenberg’s experience as a FOIA requester could help address longstanding backlogs and improve compliance if applied consistently across requesters. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2026-08-18 | Enforcement | DOJ issued a final rule formally establishing the National Fraud Enforcement Division (NFED) as a separate litigating division in the Justice Department, expanding the NFED’s mandate beyond the specific units and personnel previously transferred to it, including jurisdiction over criminal fraud generally, all criminal tax cases, trade and tariff fraud, federal-money cases, health care fraud, and certain controlled-substance cases, as well as authority to prosecute other federal crimes uncovered during its investigations. | The rule formalizes much of the reorganization of federal fraud enforcement that DOJ had previously announced, including the creation of NFED and the transfer of existing fraud and tax functions into the new division. But it also goes further, giving NFED a broad jurisdictional mandate over categories of criminal enforcement beyond the specific units and personnel previously identified for transfer, authority to prosecute other federal crimes uncovered during its investigations, and mechanisms allowing DOJ leadership to further expand its portfolio. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2026-08-11 | Enforcement | The Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a final rule permanently eliminating the Corporate Transparency Act beneficial ownership reporting requirements for U.S. companies and U.S. persons. | Under the new rule, FinCEN will delete previously-reported data for U.S. individuals from its beneficial ownership database and remove obligations for U.S. persons to update FinCEN ID details. While U.S. entities and individuals are fully exempt, foreign reporting companies must still disclose beneficial ownership information for non-U.S. individuals. | Department of Treasury | | 2026-08-10 | Transparency | The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel issued an advisory opinion concluding that executive privilege can protect certain presidential communications with private individuals outside the Executive Branch, potentially limiting congressional and other oversight of the President’s interactions with outside advisers. | In the new advisory opinion, OLC defines “private advisers” broadly to include members of the public, state officials, and employees of other branches of the federal government and says that communications may be protected when they relate to official presidential decisionmaking, involve or reflect communications with the President or his direct advisers, and were made and remain confidential. The opinion expressly states that the privilege does not extend to communications involving purely personal or non-official matters. The opinion could significantly expand the universe of communications that the White House may seek to shield from congressional investigations and other demands for information. How this expansion is applied may implicate instances where private individuals advise the President while simultaneously maintaining financial, business, political, or other interests outside the government. In the opinion, OLC reasons that the President’s need for candid advice does not depend on whether an adviser is a government employee and cites historical practice and prior executive-privilege precedent in support of that conclusion. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2026-08-10 | Enforcement | DOJ renames its Criminal Division Fraud Section the “White Collar and Corporate Enforcement Section.” | The renaming follows months of organizational changes that shifted personnel and responsibilities between the Criminal Division and the new National Fraud Enforcement Division (NFED), which DOJ established in April to focus on fraud involving taxpayer dollars and federally funded programs. The restructuring has raised concerns about DOJ’s traditional white-collar enforcement work and the independence of its enforcement priorities. DOJ initially placed several existing fraud units under NFED, but later returned approximately 40 prosecutors focused on market integrity and consumer fraud to the Criminal Division after internal disputes. Former DOJ attorneys expressed concern that the transfers could weaken securities and commodities enforcement in favor of investigations aligned with the administration’s political priorities. NFED grew out of a White House initiative, and DOJ leadership has said it will accept White House case referrals. Although the latest name change does not itself alter the Section’s legal authority, the evolving division of prosecutors, cases, and resources between the Criminal Division and NFED could shape the balance between longstanding corporate and financial-crime enforcement and fraud investigations generated or prioritized by the administration. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2026-08-03 | Workforce | The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) publishes four final rules that transfers appeals of reduction-in-force (RIF) actions, probationary and trial-period terminations, and suitability-based removals from the independent Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) to OPM itself, and restructures RIF retention rules to make recent performance ratings, rather than tenure and length of service, the primary factor in who is laid off in case of a RIF. | The rule is effective Sept. 2, 2026. The changes significantly alter the procedural protections available to federal employees. The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 established the MSPB as an independent adjudicator of personnel disputes, with judicial review available in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Under the new rules, however, OPM, who creates the rules, will also adjudicate challenges arising under those rules. Notably, OPM acknowledged that approximately 99 percent of the 1,250 public comments opposed the transfer of appeals from MSPB to OPM. OPM defended the move by citing the MSPB’s longstanding backlog and arguing that its new internal process will be faster, more efficient, and structurally independent. The rules build on the administration’s expansion of the suitability process (see entry for 2026-06-30) and its performance-appraisal overhaul (see entry for 2026-07-07). | Office of Personnel Management (OPM) | | 2026-07-23 | Transparency | The Office of Government Ethics (OGE) issued an interim final rule, effective immediately upon publication, providing that career employees reclassified into Schedule Policy/Career positions generally will not become subject to public financial disclosure requirements if they were not previously subject to such disclosures. | The exemption covers employees whose only basis for filing a public financial disclosure report would be their position’s reclassification under Executive Order 14410 (see entry for 2026-06-03) — roughly 6,400 of the approximately 7,600 positions converted to date. OGE stated that the exemption “would not affect adversely the integrity of the Government,” reasoning that the employees’ duties are unchanged, and estimated the rule avoids about $14.6 million in first-year administrative costs. Comments are due Aug. 24, 2026, after the rule is already in effect. | Office of Government Ethics (OGE) | | 2026-07-22 | Enforcement | DOJ is reportedly recruiting prosecutors for a new public corruption initiative within the National Fraud Enforcement Division. Reporting suggests that the team is exploring whether politicians and state officials can be investigated for facilitating the misuse of taxpayer funds not only by participating in fraud, but also by allegedly failing to prevent fraudulent schemes under their supervision. | Former and current DOJ attorneys warned that creating the unit after dismantling the Public Integrity Section could weaken longstanding institutional safeguards for politically sensitive investigations. They expressed concern that, without the Section’s traditional review process, the initiative could be used to pursue aggressive theories of liability against officials in jurisdictions disfavored by the administration, including based on alleged failures to prevent fraud rather than affirmative misconduct. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2026-07-14 | Legal Profession & Civil Society | The DOJ issues subpoenas to the nine law firms who previously entered agreements to stave off the administration’s executive orders targeting their firms. The subpoenas seek communications with Boris Epshteyn, President Trump’s outside adviser who negotiated agreements between the firms and the White House; as well as depositions from senior law firm leaders. | The subpoenas represent a new phase in the administration’s actions involving major law firms. After the White House issued executive orders targeting several firms [Link to 4/11/25 entry], the administration did not publicly escalate this issue further. The new DOJ subpoenas, issued in litigation brought by the American Bar Association, seek communications between the firms and Boris Epshteyn, who negotiated the agreements on the White House's behalf, along with deposition testimony from senior law firm leaders. The subpoenas reflect the administration's use of DOJ's subpoena authority to obtain communications concerning those agreements as part of the ongoing litigation. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2026-07-10 | Independent Agencies | President Trump forces out the remaining three members of the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) by terminating the commission’s two Democratic members, while the remaining Republican commissioner resigned at the same time. | The action leaves the independent, bipartisan agency without any sitting commissioners months before the 2026 midterm elections. The EAC was created by Congress in 2002 to assist state and local election officials, certify voting systems, administer federal election grants, and maintain the national mail voter registration form. Because the commission requires Senate-confirmed commissioners to carry out many of its statutory responsibilities, including certifying voting systems and issuing certain guidance, the departures create uncertainty about its ability to perform those functions until new commissioners are confirmed. The removals also follow the Supreme Court's decision in Trump v. Slaughter, which significantly expanded the President’s authority to remove officials from independent agencies, raising broader questions about the continued independence of congressionally established bipartisan commissions responsible for election administration. | Election Assistance Commission (EAC) | | 2026-07-07 | Workforce | OPM issues a final rule overhauling performance-appraisal regulations for most federal employees: it authorizes agencies to impose standardized rating distributions that cap the number of top ratings, eliminates the requirement of higher-level review before an employee receives an “Unacceptable” rating, and excludes performance ratings from negotiated grievance procedures. | The change concentrates significant consequences in supervisor-assigned ratings while reducing the checks on those ratings: under OPM’s companion RIF rules (see entry for 2026-08-03), the same ratings became the primary factor determining which employees are retained in a layoff, and under the proposed discipline rule (see entry for 2026-07-02), removal would become the default penalty for unacceptable performance. | Office of Personnel Management (OPM) | | 2026-07-02 | Workforce | OPM and the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) jointly publish a proposed rule, “Promoting Employee Accountability,” that would end mandatory application of the 12-factor Douglas test to ensure disciplinary penalties against federal employees are proportionate, cap performance-improvement periods at 30 days, and prohibit “clean record” settlement agreements. | In place of the Douglas factors, agencies and the Board would assess penalties under a case-by-case “totality of the circumstances” standard without any prescribed set of considerations. The proposal would also make removal the presumptive response to unacceptable performance, standardize shortened decision timelines, and restrict union official time in adverse-action appeals. In Douglas v. Veterans Administration, 5 M.S.P.R. 280 (1981), the MSPB established the twelve factors — including the employee’s past record, the consistency of the penalty with those imposed on others, and the adequacy of alternative sanctions — that agencies must weigh in setting penalties and that the Board uses to review them. The framework has served for more than four decades as the principal safeguard of consistency and proportionality in federal discipline, including protection against selectively harsh treatment of disfavored employees. | Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) | | 2026-06-30 | Workforce | The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issues a final rule expanding the government's “suitability” process so it can be used not only for applicants and new hires, but also for current federal employees based on certain post-hiring conduct. | The rule has prompted debate over its implications for the civil service. Supporters argue it closes a gap by allowing agencies and OPM to address serious post-appointment misconduct through the suitability process. Critics contend that expanding suitability authority to current employees creates an additional mechanism for removing career officials, potentially overlapping with existing adverse action procedures and raising concerns about procedural protections and the balance of authority between OPM and employing agencies. | Office of Personnel Management (OPM) | | 2026-06-03 | Workforce | President Trump signs an executive order, “Implementing Schedule Policy/Career in the Excepted Service,” that places certain career positions into “Schedule Policy,” removing adverse-action and appeal protections. | The order amends Civil Service Rules so that a covered employee may be separated for “unacceptable performance or misconduct” on the agency’s written notice. This represents the culmination of a multi-step effort to revive and implement Schedule F, which President Trump reinstated on his first day in office as “Schedule Policy/Career.” Previously, Trump published an executive order reestablishing the framework and OPM's subsequent final rule; this order provided the mechanism for agencies to begin reclassifying employees and removing them without the procedural protections that traditionally apply to career civil servants. By removing Chapter 75, covered employees are stripped of the statutory prohibited-personnel-practice and whistleblower-retaliation safeguards enforced by the independent Office of Special Counsel under 5 U.S.C. § 2302(b). | Executive Office of the President (EOP), Office of Personnel Management (OPM) | | 2026-06-02 | Independent Agencies | The Wall Street Journal reports that President Trump is personally involved in regulatory decisions usually left to independent agencies including merger reviews, antitrust enforcement, communications regulation, and FDA approval matters, while companies increasingly seek White House intervention in pending regulatory proceedings. | The report describes a significant shift in the relationship between the White House and agencies that Congress designed to operate with varying degrees of independence from presidential control. According to the Journal, agency heads at the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission regularly brief the White House on pending matters, while regulated entities increasingly direct lobbying efforts toward the president rather than career staff or agency leadership. The article also highlights structural changes that have increased presidential influence over agency decision-making, including an executive order requiring independent agencies to submit major regulations to the White House for review and the removal of Democratic commissioners from several agencies. Critics argue these developments blur longstanding distinctions between independent regulatory bodies and the White House, increasing the risk that enforcement, licensing, and merger-review decisions could be influenced by political considerations rather than agency expertise and established procedures. White House spokesman Kush Desai responded that the president has a democratic mandate to supervise federal agencies, including “so-called ‘independent’ agencies,” and that Trump had “repeatedly expressed his neutrality” on private business transactions. | Executive Office of the President (EOP) | | 2026-05-27 | Transparency | The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) proposed a government-wide “Confidential Government Information Nondisclosure Agreement (NDA)” that would require executive branch employees to acknowledge restrictions on disclosing a broad range of nonpublic government information. | The proposal has prompted debate over its potential institutional effects. While OPM characterizes the agreement as a restatement of existing legal obligations that preserves statutory whistleblower protections, critics of the rule have argued that the breadth of the covered information could discourage lawful disclosures by increasing uncertainty about what employees may disclose outside official channels. | Office of Personnel Management (OPM) | | 2026-05-18 | Enforcement | The DOJ announces the creation of a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” to compensate individuals who claim they were subjected to politically-motivated government actions as part of the settlement of President Donald J. Trump v. Internal Revenue Service. After a federal court halted the fund and amid bipartisan criticism, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told the House Appropriations Committee on June 2, 2026 that the Department is “not moving forward with the fund.” | The fund establishes a new DOJ-administered compensation mechanism overseen by a commission appointed by and serving at the pleasure of the Attorney General, giving executive branch officials substantial discretion to determine eligibility and distribute nearly $1.8 billion. The creation of a new adjudicative structure outside traditional judicial, inspector general, or statutory compensation processes raises questions about oversight, transparency, and accountability. The initial suit that led to the settlement was brought by President Trump, his two eldest sons, and the Trump Organization over the disclosure of their tax returns. Under the settlement, they received a formal apology but no monetary payment and agreed to dismiss the lawsuit and related administrative claims. The proposed $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund was to be financed through the Judgment Fund, a permanent, indefinite congressional appropriation established to pay certain court judgments and settlements against the federal government without requiring additional appropriations from Congress. On May 19, a tax provision was added to the settlement barring the IRS from auditing or bringing claims against President Trump, his family, and his businesses for past tax matters; Blanche later testified that “nothing has changed” as to that term even as the fund itself was abandoned. The fund quickly encountered legal and political challenges. Critics questioned whether the Judgment Fund could be used to create a discretionary compensation program administered by Attorney General appointees rather than to compensate the actual parties to the settlement. Treasury General Counsel Brian Morrissey resigned the day the fund was announced, and a federal judge later temporarily halted its operations following a lawsuit brought by Democracy Forward and others. Separately, the judge who oversaw the underlying litigation reopened the case because the federal government was effectively on both sides of the settlement. President Trump has disputed that the fund was dropped, saying instead that “a court ruled against it.” | Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Treasury | | 2026-04-07 | Enforcement | DOJ creates a new National Fraud Enforcement Division. | Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's April 7, 2026 memorandum places three Criminal Division components — the Tax Section, the Health Care Fraud Unit, and the Market, Government, and Consumer Fraud Unit — under the operational control of a single Senate-confirmed Assistant Attorney General, Colin McDonald on an interim basis and authorizes further consolidation of units with related missions after additional review. This memo formalizes the division Vice President Vance previewed on Jan. 8, 2026, though the memo's stated focus — fraud against taxpayer-funded programs like Medicare and Medicaid — is narrower than the White House's January framing, and the Division now reports to the Deputy Attorney General rather than being “run out of the White House,” although it will still reportedly take referrals from multiple sources, “including the White House.” | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2026-04-03 | Enforcement | The Trump administration scales back its plan to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), proposing to cut the bureau to roughly 550 employees — down from about 1,700 authorized under President Biden — rather than the roughly 200 it had initially sought. | The revised plan was laid out in a memo and in court filings in the litigation between the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) and acting CFPB Director Russell Vought, and would require court approval. The CFPB was created by Congress in the Dodd-Frank Act after the 2008 financial crisis to supervise consumer financial services and enforce consumer-protection law; in 2024 it expanded supervision to large digital-payment platforms. The administration moved early in 2025 to wind the bureau down, freezing its activity, dismissing enforcement actions, and proposing a reduction in force of roughly 90 percent before a federal court intervened. Under the scaled-back plan, the bureau’s supervision staff would shrink by roughly five-sixths and its enforcement staff by about four-fifths. The CFPB union president, Cat Farman, said the position that the bureau can meet its statutory obligations at one-third staffing is “laughable.” The cuts remain subject to approval by the court overseeing the NTEU’s suit against Vought. | Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) | | 2026-04-01 | Transparency | The DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel issues an opinion concluding that the Presidential Records Act of 1978 is unconstitutional in its entirety and that President Trump “need not further comply with its dictates.” The opinion concludes that the PRA “exceeds Congress's enumerated and implied powers” and “aggrandizes the Legislative Branch at the expense of the constitutional independence and autonomy of the Executive.” | The Presidential Records Act was enacted after Watergate to establish that presidential records are the property of the United States — not the personal property of the President — and must be transferred to the National Archives upon a President’s departure from office, with public disclosure generally required within 12 years. If the opinion governs, the White House could treat records of official decisions, deliberations, and communications as the President's personal property, destroy them at will, and keep them from ever becoming public. Critics argue the PRA is plainly constitutional. In 2022, Trump was accused of violating the PRA by refusing to turn over documents he kept after leaving office following his first term. Trump has long argued that he did nothing wrong. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2026-03-30 | Oversight | In a letter to Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, lawyers for a whistle-blower state that the DOJ’s Office of Inspector General has seemingly ignored 20 instances of possible wrongdoing by the Trump administration. | In their letter, the lawyers underlined that lawmakers had asked for investigations of 20 different areas of potential misconduct at the Justice Department in the last year, and there has been no indication that the inspector general is examining any of them. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2026-03-24 | Enforcement | The Senate approves Colin McDonald’s nomination 52-47 for the newly created DOJ role of Assistant Attorney General for Fraud Enforcement. | In January, Vice President J.D. Vance announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division that McDonald will run, pointing to widespread fraud in Minnesota. During his confirmation hearing, McDonald said that the goal of the fraud enforcement program would be to go after abuses of federal taxpayer programs like Medicaid, SNAP benefits, and other programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services. Jonathan Rusch, another former federal prosecutor, said that the DOJ has been effectively investigating all kinds of health care fraud for many years, suggesting that the new office is redundant. Prior to his appointment, McDonald supervised the DOJ’s Weaponization Working Group, which was established by AG Pam Bondi after Trump vowed to get vengeance against those DOJ lawyers who charged him under the Biden Administration. The creation of this new office comes as the DOJ has de-prioritized other anti-fraud efforts and cut down on federal investigations into alleged corporate wrongdoing. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2026-03-16 | Enforcement | President Trump signs an executive order establishing the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a new interagency body within the Executive Office of the President and chaired by the Vice President. | The Task Force is charged with coordinating anti-fraud efforts across federal benefit programs including Medicaid, SNAP, housing assistance, and cash assistance. The order directs member agencies — including DOJ, HHS, DHS, and OMB — to submit fraud vulnerability assessments within 30 days and implement anti-fraud controls within 60 days. The stated goal of the Task Force is “to coordinate a comprehensive national strategy to stop fraud, waste, and abuse across Federal benefit programs, including housing, food, medical care, and cash assistance administered with State and local partners.” The order places the Task Force under the “President's direct supervision and control” and requires it to provide “frequent updates to the President.” Inspectors general are listed as potential Task Force members, raising questions about whether independent watchdogs would operate in a subordinate role to a VP-chaired political body. The order also directs the Attorney General to promote private civil actions under the False Claims Act. | Executive Office of the President (EOP) | | 2026-03-04 | Oversight | The DOJ publishes a proposed rule that would authorize the attorney general to review state bar ethics complaints against current and former DOJ attorneys before state disciplinary proceedings could proceed. Under the proposal, the attorney general can request that a state bar suspend its investigation pending DOJ’s internal review. If a state bar refuses, the rule states that the DOJ “shall take appropriate action to prevent the bar disciplinary authorities from interfering.” | DOJ frames the proposal as a response to what it characterizes as the “weaponization of the State bar complaint process” by “political activists.” Several senior DOJ officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and former No. 3 official Emil Bove, have faced state bar complaints since January 2025 related to their official conduct. The chair of the D.C. Bar’s rules of professional conduct review committee called the proposal “inconsistent with all precedents.” | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2026-03-03 | Legal Profession & Civil Society | The Department of Justice withdraws its March 2 voluntary dismissal filings and announces it will continue defending the executive orders targeting several law firms in the D.C. Circuit. | The one-day reversal left the constitutional challenges to the law firm executive orders and the four permanent injunctions against them in an unresolved posture before the D.C. Circuit. No public explanation for the initial filing or the withdrawal has been identified. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2026-03-03 | Oversight | The DHS inspector general warns Congress that DHS has “systematically obstructed” his office’s work by withholding records across at least 10 investigations, including an active federal criminal investigation. | In a letter dated Mar. 2, 2026, Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, a Trump appointee, details that DHS conditioned OIG access to records needed for a criminal investigation on disclosure of investigative details to individuals “who may be related somehow to the allegation(s) or individual(s) under investigation.” Cuffari also discloses that Secretary Noem requested a list of all pending OIG matters, including criminal investigations, “so that she may consider whether any audits, inspections, or investigations should be terminated.” The letter further documents that ICE revoked the OIG’s decade-long access to its Enforcement Integrated Database, and that DHS revoked access to a security clearance tracking database and the TSA Secure Flight System. DHS denied the allegations, stating access would be provided once the IG “works with us on scope.” Section 6(a)(1) of the Inspector General Act of 1978 grants IGs access to all agency records necessary to their oversight functions. Noem's request for a list of pending OIG matters — including criminal investigations — to evaluate for termination represents direct pressure on that independence. This follows a pattern of executive branch IG obstruction documented in prior tracker entries on the mass IG firings (January 2025) and CIGIE defunding. | Department of Homeland Security (DHS) | | 2026-03-02 | Oversight | Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari writes to congressional oversight committees warning them that “over the last several months the Department of Homeland Security [] has systematically obstructed the work of the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG).” | Per IG Cuffari’s letter, DHS has revoked or denied OIG access to at least eight databases, including | Department of Homeland Security (DHS) | | 2026-03-02 | Legal Profession & Civil Society | The Department of Justice files notices in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit voluntarily dismissing its appeals of four district court orders that had permanently enjoined executive orders targeting law firms. The filings stated that the government would not continue defending the orders on appeal. Four separate federal district judges had previously entered permanent injunctions finding the executive orders unconstitutional. | The executive orders in question had suspended security clearances, restricted access to federal buildings, and directed reviews of government contracts for the named firms. Each of the four district courts found the orders unconstitutional and granted the firms' requests for permanent restraining orders. The voluntary dismissal notices, filed at the appellate level, would have ended the government's ability to challenge those rulings. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2026-02-13 | Enforcement | The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) granted exceptive relief from the 2016 Customer Due Diligence Rule's requirement that financial institutions identify and verify beneficial owners of legal entity customers at each new account opening, limiting the obligation to first-time account openings and risk-triggered reviews. | This order removes the automatic requirement under the FinCEN’s Customer Due Diligence Requirements for Financial Institutions rule to re-collect and re-verify beneficial ownership information (“BOI”) when an existing customer opens a new account. The automatic BOI check at account opening required BOI to be collected and verified before funds began flowing, thereby reducing the risk that unidentified or newly changed owners could move funds in the early life of an account without law enforcement having reliable ownership information on file. Removing the account-opening trigger means that there is greater possibility that concerns are identified only after activity has occurred, which can complicate mitigation and response. | U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) | | 2026-02-06 | Workforce | The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) publishes a final rule, “Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil Service,” as well as guidance implementing Schedule Policy/Career, a new excepted service category for career employees in policy-influencing positions. | The rule takes effect Mar. 9, 2026, and converts these employees into at-will positions, removing their ability to appeal disciplinary actions to the Merit Systems Protection Board, in order to “ to increase career employee accountability.” The final rule modifies protections established by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, including the right to appeal adverse personnel actions to an independent body. Employees converted to Schedule Policy/Career will also be exempt from statutory prohibited personnel practices coverage under 5 U.S.C. § 2302(b), which includes whistleblower retaliation protections enforced by the independent Office of Special Counsel (OSC). In place of statutory coverage, E.O. 13957 Section 6 directs agencies to establish and enforce their own internal policies barring prohibited personnel practices — meaning agencies would investigate retaliation claims against their own leadership, without independent enforcement or judicial review. The rule does not specify which positions will be reclassified, noting that this determination will be made by the President via a subsequent executive order. OPM states the rule explicitly prohibits political patronage, loyalty tests, and political discrimination. OPM received over 40,500 public comments during the 45-day comment period; approximately 5 percent were supportive, 1 percent neutral, and 94 percent opposed. This action builds on the April 2025 proposed rule (90 Fed. Reg. 17182) and Executive Order 14171 (Jan. 20, 2025), which reinstated and amended E.O. 13957 (Oct. 21, 2020), originally creating “Schedule F.” The Biden administration had issued regulations in April 2024 (89 Fed. Reg. 24982) specifically designed to prevent this type of reclassification; E.O. 14171 declared those amendments “inoperative and without effect.” AFGE, represented by Democracy Forward, announces an imminent legal challenge. | Office of Personnel Management (OPM) | | 2026-01-28 | Transparency | The Trump administration formally withdraws from the Open Government Partnership, a multilateral initiative founded in 2011 to promote government transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. | The U.S. was one of eight founding members of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), alongside Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Today, OGP includes more than 70 countries and 150 local governments. The withdrawal letter, signed by General Services Administration (GSA) Administrator Edward C. Forst and effective immediately, came the same month as a separate presidential memorandum directing withdrawal from 66 international organizations, though the Partnership was not listed in that directive. The letter states four rationales: (1) opposition to any international body that “seeks to erode U.S. national sovereignty,” (2) objection to the Partnership’s embrace of what the letter characterizes as “divisive ideological agendas” including racial identity politics, LGBTQ+ advocacy, feminism, and climate policy, (3) claims that the Partnership is “demonstrably ineffective” and allows governments to project reform without meaningful improvements, and (4) concern about waste of the $5.6 million in U.S. contributions through USAID and the State Department. OGP CEO, Aidan Eyakuze, responded to the withdrawal, saying “Anyone who has followed developments over the last year will not be surprised by this decision of the U.S. government. We recognize the impressive efforts of reformers in government and civil society who have advanced openness and accountability over the years. We remain hopeful that the United States will rejoin the Open Government Partnership at the right moment, bringing energy and commitment back to this shared endeavor of making government better through domestic and global collaboration.” The withdrawal comes after eleven U.S.-based civil society organizations urged OGP to place the U.S. under review for rolling back protections against systemic corruption. In July 2025, the request was renewed in the face of accelerating attacks on government transparency. | General Services Administration (GSA) | | 2026-01-08 | Enforcement | Vice President J.D. Vance announces the creation of a new Assistant Attorney General (AAG) position and DOJ division focused on investigating and prosecuting fraud nationwide. According to Vance, the position would be “run out of the White House,” and answer directly to himself and President Trump. | Per the accompanying White House Fact Sheet, the new DOJ division will “enforce the Federal criminal and civil laws against fraud targeting Federal government programs, Federally funded benefits, business nonprofits, and private citizens nationwide.” Later in the month, DOJ reportedly sends a letter to the Hill notifying lawmakers of its intent to reorganize and create a new “National Fraud Enforcement Division” overseen by the Deputy Attorney General. Like the White House Fact Sheet, the letter says that this new Division will “enforce the Federal criminal and civil laws against fraud targeting Federal government programs, Federally funded benefits, businesses, nonprofits, and private citizens nationwide.” The division will “oversee multi-district and multi-agency fraud investigations; provide advice, assistance, and direction to the United States Attorneys’ Offices on fraud-related issues, and work closely with Federal agencies and Department components to identify, disrupt, and dismantle organized and sophisticated fraud schemes across jurisdictions.” As we note elsewhere, the announced plan raises several significant legal and policy questions. On Jan. 28, 2026, President Trump nominates Colin McDonald, Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Justice Department, to the newly created role of fraud investigator. On Feb. 4, 2025, it was reported that a separate “anti-fraud task force” would be created out of the White House and run by the Vice President Vance, with Andrew Ferguson, FTC Chair, as the Vice Chairman. | Executive Office of the President (EOP), Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-12-16 | Oversight | Democratic members of Congress send an oversight letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi requesting information about what they characterize as an improper pattern of favorable Department of Justice actions on behalf of her brother, Brad Bondi, and his clients. | The letter alleges favorable DOJ interventions, dismissals, and other outcomes in matters involving clients of Brad Bondi. The letter asserts DOJ has repeatedly intervened in litigation or dismissed criminal cases involving clients represented by Brad Bondi. These outcomes, the lawmakers argue, “consistently favor” those clients and raise doubts about DOJ’s impartiality and compliance with federal ethics rules. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-12-10 | Enforcement | U.S. Customs and Immigration Services launches the previously-announced Trump Gold Card visa program, enabling foreigners to pay $1 million (or for a company to pay $2 million to sponsor a foreigner) for expedited permanent residency. | EB-5 visas were created in 1990 as a method for immigrants to obtain green cards if they invested at least $800,000 to $1 million in a company that employs at least 10 people. The administration’s new “Gold Card” program departs from this framework by eliminating the job-creation requirement and permitting individuals to obtain expedited permanent residency through a direct payment of $1 million (or $2 million if paid by a sponsoring company), rather than through an investment tied to employment outcomes. | U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) | | 2025-11-05 | Workforce | OPM and OMB publish guidance requiring agencies to create Strategic Hiring Committees led by, and composed of a majority of, non-career officials by November 17, 2025. | The guidance—which follows Executive Order 14356, “Ensuring Continued Accountability in Federal Hiring” —directs that any hiring plan be consistent with administration priorities, agency needs, and the Merit Hiring plan. | Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Office of Personnel Management (OPM) | | 2025-11-03 | Workforce | The FBI fires four agents who worked on former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team that investigated President Trump. Two of those agents were later informed that the terminations were being rescinded. Several other agents were also terminated, only to later have those firings reversed. | Since January, dozens of FBI agents, prosecutors, and support personnel who worked on Smith’s investigation or handled cases investigating individuals involved in the January 6 attack have been fired from the Justice Department. These firings are a part of a larger pattern of reprisals of Justice Department personnel who the Trump administration considers partisan. According to the FBI Agents Association, “Director Patel has disregarded the law and launched a campaign of erratic and arbitrary retribution.” | Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) | | 2025-11-03 | Oversight | U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) acting inspector general, Joe Allen, is removed from his role. | FHFA is an independent agency created in 2008 and charged with regulating Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Bank System. Joe Allen’s removal follows a series of controversial actions by FHFA Director Bill Pulte. Under Pulte’s leadership, the agency has issued public criminal referrals targeting several of the former president’s political opponents, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook, and California Senator Adam Schiff. Allen was notified of his termination shortly after attempting to share key information with federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia and while preparing to alert Congress that the FHFA was refusing to cooperate with its Inspector General’s Office. | Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) | | 2025-10-30 | Oversight | The Trump administration fires roughly a dozen officials within Fannie Mae’s ethics and internal investigations unit who were reportedly probing if Trump appointee Bill Pulte had improperly obtained mortgage records of key Democratic officials, including New York Attorney General Letitia James. | Fannie Mae is the government-backed mortgage giant under the control of FHFA. The Fannie Mae ethics team investigated complaints that come in through a tip line, including allegations of internal fraud or the illegal use of funds. The unit’s shrinking is part of a 62-person reduction in force, as the Trump administration considers an initial public offering of shares in the company, and follows the firing of Fannie Mae’s chief ethics officer. The general counsel also recently stepped down after reportedly being pressured by leadership. | Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) | | 2025-10-29 | Workforce | President Trump fires all six members of the Commission of Fine Arts, an independent federal agency that was expected to review some of President Trump’s construction projects, including the new ballroom and Arch. | The Commission, established by Congress in 1910, is charged with providing expert design advice and public-interest oversight of federal construction in the D.C. area. White House officials have traditionally sought the agency’s approval, although it is not clear whether their approval was necessary for the East Wing ballroom and the triumphal arch. President Trump reportedly plans to appoint a new slate of members to the commission that are “more aligned with President Trump’s ‘America First’ policies,” per an official. As of Jan. 27, 2026, the president appoints seven new members to the Commission. | Commission of Fine Arts | | 2025-10-21 | Enforcement | New reporting reveals that President Trump has submitted demands that the Justice Department pay him roughly $230 million in compensation for the federal investigations into him. | In late 2023 and summer 2024, President Trump submitted administrative claims to the Justice Department on a “Standard Form 95,” which is used to see if a settlement can be reached without a lawsuit in federal court. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-10-15 | Workforce | President Trump issues Executive Order 14356, “Ensuring Continued Accountability in Federal Hiring,” restricting agencies from filling vacant positions or creating new ones unless approved under the Order or required by law. The E.O. requires all hiring to comply with the administration’s Merit Hiring Plan and directs each agency to establish a Strategic Hiring Committee to approve any hiring actions. | The E.O. requires that agencies submit an Annual Staffing Plan to OPM and OMB, prioritizing positions aligned with administration priorities and reducing “low-value” contractor roles. It also imposes new reporting requirements and bars agencies from using contracting to circumvent hiring restrictions. The E.O. exempts certain political, national-security, and public-safety positions. | Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Office of Personnel Management (OPM) | | 2025-10-15 | Workforce | President Trump removes the Inspector General of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM). | Parisa Salehi, who had been the Inspector General of EXIM since 2022, had previously served in senior roles in IG offices within the State Department and USAID. She reportedly received a notice that her firing was effective immediately due to the administration’s “changing priorities.” On Oct. 17, Sen. Chuck Grassley, posted on X that the White House flouted a statutory requirement to inform Congress about the removal in advance and provide the “substantive rationale.” | Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) | | 2025-10-07 | Enforcement | FBI Director Kash Patel announces that the FBI’s public corruption squad, known as CR15, has been “dismantled.” | Thepublic corruption squad, which operated out of the Washington Field Office, was reportedly the unit that helped special counsel Jack Smith in his investigation into President Donald Trump. On May 1, 2025, FBI announced it was dismantling CR15, but the individual agents were not fired until Oct. 7. | Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) | | 2025-09-30 | Enforcement | The DOJ reportedly plans to split the tax division into the Civil and Criminal divisions, and likewise, split the Consumer Protection Branch (CPB) between the Civil and Criminal Divisions. | Tax Division Split The Tax Division oversaw federal criminal and civil tax enforcement. Previously, the Tax Division had to approve the opening of certain tax cases “to achieve uniform, broad, and balanced criminal tax enforcement.” Under the reorganization, tax cases are now split between the civil and criminal division, without a central authority overseeing such prosecutions. It is too early to tell the effects of this change, although some warn that the general loss of expertise through attorney departures and other potential changes could affect “the future of tax enforcement.” On November 30, the Tax Division was officially dissolved. CPB Dismantling Like with the Tax Division reorganization, it is too early to tell the effects of the splitting of CPB, as the Enforcement & Affirmative Litigation Branch will now handle most of the civil cases previously handled by CPB, such as consumer fraud, healthcare fraud, veterans fraud, deceptive practices, and violations of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. As of October 1, CPB was split. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-09-29 | Workforce | At least a third of senior career leaders have reportedly left the Justice Department since the start of President Trump’s second term. | These reportedly include at least 107 career Justice Department senior managers in the span of eight months, out of roughly 320 career leadership positions immediately below presidential appointees. The divisions hit the hardest include those enforcing civil rights, immigration, and environmental laws. Political appointees routinely change over when new presidents take office, but it is very rare for career members of the Senior Executive Service. Analysts warn this “brain drain” will take generations to rebuild, weakening DOJ’s institutional memory and capacity for independent enforcement. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-09-20 | Oversight | The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) moves to block funding to the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), forcing the government’s inspector general council to suspend its work. | CIGIE serves as the coordinating body for 72 inspectors general across the federal government. It provides training, conducts peer reviews, and facilitates cross-agency oversight, while also managing Oversight.gov, the portal for whistleblower disclosures and public access to inspector general reports. OMB justifies its decision to block funding to CIGIE on the grounds that inspectors general have become “corrupt, partisan, and in some cases, have lied to the public.” In response, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), send a letter to OMB Director Russ Vought calling on OMB to reverse its decision to withhold apportionments for CIGIE. As of Oct. 1, 2025, at least 15 government oversight websites run by CIGIE were down, although it is not clear if this is due to the government shutdown or a more long-term shutdown. CIGIE’s homepage was replaced with a single line of text: “Due to a lack of apportionment of funds, this website is currently unavailable.” With the websites gone, so is access to the reports of those offices as well as legally required hotlines for whistleblowers. On Nov. 18, 2025 the OMB apportioned $4,287,000 to CIGIE, ensuring that it can operate through January 30, in response to a request by the Chairs of the Senate Committees on the Judiciary and Appropriations. As of Dec. 2, 2025, the CIGIE website is restored. | Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) | | 2025-09-20 | Enforcement | Trump demands Attorney General Bondi prosecute political opponents, including former FBI Director James Comey, Rep. Adam Schiff, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, in Truth Social posts. Trump calls on Bondi to act immediately, writing that “[w]e can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!! President DJT.” | The post marks one of President Trump’s clearest attempts to override norms that have typically insulated federal prosecutorial decisions from direct presidential intervention. Legal experts warn that such directives undermine the Justice Department’s independence and erode longstanding guardrails against politicized prosecutions. Note: On Sept. 25, 2025, the DOJ indicted James Comey for making false statements and obstructing justice. In response, Acting U.S. Attorney Eric Siebert resigned. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-08-25 | Workforce | The DOJ reportedly dismantles apolitical career hiring practices within its Civil Rights Division. | According to six current and former Justice Department attorneys, the prior practice of entrusting civil rights hiring decisions to career officials was specifically intended to safeguard the process from political interference. Since 2008, DOJ’s Civil Rights Division has used a merit-based hiring committee to insulate career attorney recruitment from political influence, following findings that earlier politicization violated federal civil service law. According to Bloomberg Law, the Trump administration is unwinding this system and returning hiring authority to political appointees. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-08-25 | Independent Agencies | President Trump announces the removal of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, citing allegations of mortgage fraud. | Trump claims Cook provided conflicting information about her personal primary residence on separate mortgage applications, constituting “sufficient cause” for dismissal. Cook, who has not been charged with mortgage fraud and denies wrongdoing, responds that the president has “no authority” to fire her and that she will not resign. Experts question the legal basis for Cook’s removal, noting that the Federal Reserve Act only allows termination “for cause,” and no modern president has ever attempted to fire a sitting Fed governor. Analysts warn that the move could undermine confidence in the central bank’s independence. | Federal Reserve | | 2025-08-18 | Enforcement | Roger Alford, the former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in DOJ’s Antitrust Division, publicly accuses aides to Attorney General Pam Bondi of undermining the independence of antitrust enforcement. | Alford alleges that Attorney General Bondi’s Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle and senior aide Stanley Woodward intervened in the DOJ’s merger review of Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s acquisition of Juniper Networks. Alford said the aides favored lobbyists and “MAGA friends” during settlement negotiations, resulting in a weak enforcement outcome. Alford, who served in the first Trump administration, urged a federal court to scrutinize the settlement and block the merger, noting that he “experienced nothing remotely like this” when he served at the DOJ the last time.” He and another top DOJ antitrust official, William Rinner, were reportedly fired after objecting to the political interference. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-08-08 | Independent Agencies | FBI Director Kash Patel reportedly fires three senior career FBI officials, including former Acting Director Brian Driscoll, via summary letters delivered by subordinates. | The three officials later file a complaint alleging the removals violated their Due Process rights and statutory rights guaranteed by the FBI Senior Executive Service and were part of a campaign to enforce political loyalty. The complaint further describes a culture of politicization and dysfunction at the FBI since President Trump’s inauguration. | Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) | | 2025-08-01 | Transparency | Michael Seidel, longtime head of the FBI’s FOIA unit, is reportedly pushed out following internal disagreement over the process related to the Epstein files. | Seidel was Chief of the FBI’s Record/Information Dissemination Section (RIDS) and was reportedly given the option to retire or be fired after resisting political pressure related to the disclosure process of a high-profile internal review led by Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel of the Epstein files. | Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) | | 2025-07-25 | Workforce | April Falcon Doss is fired from her position as General Counsel for the National Security Agency (NSA). | The NSA General Counsel serves as the agency’s chief legal officer—a senior civil service role intended to be nonpartisan and protected from political interference. Doss was dismissed following criticism amplified by conservative activist Laura Loomer, who reposted a Daily Wire article accusing Doss of partisan behavior. The firing of Doss raises concerns about escalating politicization of legal roles within national security agencies. | National Security Agency (NSA) | | 2025-07-22 | Oversight | The administration has reportedly moved to block the Government Accountability Office (GAO) from investigating its withholding of federal funds, with support from republican members of Congress. | The GAO enforces a post-Watergate statute called the Impoundment Act that bars the executive branch from defying congressional spending directives. In response to scrutiny, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought has defended the administration’s actions as efforts to manage taxpayer funds more efficiently and criticized the GAO, calling it a “a quasi-independent arm of the legislative branch that played a partisan role in the first-term impeachment hoax.” At the same time, House Republicans have introduced legislation to significantly weaken GAO’s capacity—proposing to slash its budget by half—a move that could gut its staff and curtail its ability to oversee federal spending. | Executive Office of the President (EOP) | | 2025-07-18 | Workforce | Carolyn Feinstein, forensic accountant working in the U.S. Trustee program at the Department of Justice is fired, leaving large portions of the state of Texas without federal auditing coverage for bankruptcy cases. | Feinstein’s termination followed mounting attention from right-wing media due to an app her husband created—ICEBlock—which tracked the movement of immigration enforcement agents in real time. Although Feinstein herself had no involvement in the app, her firing reportedly came after pressure from Attorney General Pam Bondi and Border Czar Tom Homan. The decision raises concerns about politically motivated retaliation and the weakening of nonpartisan civil service protections, particularly in technical roles unrelated to immigration policy. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-07-17 | Workforce | President signs an executive order creating a new classification of non-career federal workers, “Schedule G” employees, to expand the number of non-career political appointees within federal agencies. | The order allows agencies to reclassify a broader range of roles as “policy-determining” or “policy-influencing,” enabling political appointees to fill positions that have historically been staffed by career civil servants. Analysts warn that Schedule G, like its predecessor Schedule F, could disempower the apolitical, merit-based civil service and weaken the institutional independence necessary for objective governance. | Executive Office of the President (EOP) | | 2025-07-13 | Oversight | Attorney General Pam Bondi dismisses the DOJ’s Director of its Ethics Office, Joe Tirrell, the senior DOJ official responsible for overall leadership of the department’s ethics program. | The Director serves as Designated Agency Ethics Official (DAEO), the top department official responsible for counseling senior political appointees on ethics and conflict-of-interest rules. The Director oversees the entire agency ethics program, provides guidance on certifying senior officials’ financial disclosures, issues recusal and conflict-of-interest guidance, and serves as DOJ’s liaison to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. The removal follows a broader personnel shake-up all linked to former Special Counsel Jack Smith. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-06-10 | Enforcement | Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announces new guidelines for FCPA investigations. Enforcement resumes but with a narrower scope focused on U.S. economic and national security interests. | The new guidelines emphasize that new FCPA investigations require senior approval and reprioritize enforcement toward serious bribery threats connected to national security interests, while reducing emphasis on routine or low-level cases. Specifically, the new guidance directs prosecutors to: limit the “undue burden on American companies operating abroad;” target enforcement actions against conduct that directly undermines US national interests; focus on cases involving criminal conduct by individuals; proceed expeditiously; and, consider collateral impacts throughout the investigation and resolution process. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-06-10 | Oversight | Cara Petersen, the acting Enforcement Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), resigns. Petersen notes, “I have served under every Director and Acting Director in the Bureau’s history and never before have I seen the ability to perform our core mission so under attack.” | The CFPB, established by Congress after the 2008 financial crisis to investigate banking fraud and supervise banking services to individual customers using retail services. It broadened the scope of its supervision in 2024 to technology firms that provide digital payment services: Google Pay, Apple Pay, Venmo, Samsung Pay, Cash App, and PayPal. | Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) | | 2025-05-29 | Independent Agencies | President Trump nominates Paul Ingrassia, a former far-right podcast host and conservative commentator, to serve as head of the Office of the Special Counsel. | Ingrassia is known for inflammatory statements on social media, including a 2021 post supporting the use of martial law to overturn the 2020 Presidential election. Members of Congress and government watchdog groups expressed alarm at the nomination, warning that Ingrassia lacks the experience, temperament, and nonpartisan integrity required to lead a key government watchdog office. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency. Its authority comes from four statutes: the Civil Service Reform Act, the Whistleblower Protection Act, the Hatch Act (which restricts partisan political activity by federal employees), and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). OSC’s primary mission is to safeguard the federal merit system by protecting employees and applicants from prohibited personnel practices, including coercing political activity, nepotism, and retaliation for whistleblowing. It also serves as a secure channel for employees to report government wrongdoing and enforces employment protections for military service members under USERRA. | Office of Special Counsel (OSC) | | 2025-05-29 | Workforce | The White House Office of Personnel Management introduces a new Hiring Plan that requires agencies to add new assessment and essay questions that will test career applicants’ support for the president’s Executive Orders and other policies, and requires a senior-level political appointee to oversee the hiring process instead of a career supervisor. | The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM)wascreatedin1979as part of theCivil Service Reform Act of 1978. It sets presidential priorities across the federal workforce, administers USAJOBS, conducts background investigations, and manages federal retirement and insurance benefits. By centralizing hiring authority under political appointees, introducing ideologically driven assessments, and restricting data collection, the OPM’s new Merit Hiring Plan could enable bipartisan favoritism and weaken accountability. | Executive Office of the President (EOP) | | 2025-05-27 | Transparency | Employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs are reportedly required to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in preparation for significant staffing cuts. | Federal employees already have a duty to not disclose pre-decisional matters to the public. A House Oversight committee inquiry notes that extending agreements beyond an employee’s tenure “could chill employees from disclosing violations of waste, fraud, and abuse.” Others note that this is part of a growing trend of secrecy across the federal government. | Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) | | 2025-05-15 | Independent Agencies | The FBI disbands its public corruption squad in the Washington Field Office, known internally as “CR15.” Though the Bureau indicated that public corruption investigations will continue, cases will now be handled by other units without a dedicated squad. | CR15 specialized in probing major public corruption, including alleged misconduct by members of Congress and investigations tied to the Capitol riot. The FBI says that investigations will continue through other field units. | Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) | | 2025-05-14 | Transparency | Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard fires two members of the National Intelligence Council who reportedly helped facilitate the FOIA release of an intelligence assessment that determined that the Tren de Aragua gang does not take orders from or operate in close coordination with the Maduro government. | Some suggest this firing was punishment for providing information that does not support the administration’s agenda. Retaliation against these officials has the potential to have a chilling effect on FOIA offices and on independent and objective intelligence across the government. | Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) | | 2025-05-01 | Transparency | President Trump signs Executive Order 14290, titled “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media,” halting direct funding to National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). | Under the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, Congress allocates federal funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), to help support and expand non-commercial broadcasting in the United States. The statute does not grant the president or any other agency purview over the CPB. | Executive Office of the President (EOP) | | 2025-05-01 | Enforcement | The DOJ reportedly suspends the long-standing policy requiring the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section (PIN) to review and approve all public-corruption prosecutions, and has reassigned oversight of election-fraud, including allegations of election disinformation, cases away from PIN. | The PIN review requirement was designed to add an internal check against politically motivated or unfounded indictments of public officials. Eliminating this safeguard could leave charging decisions more vulnerable to political influence. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-04-24 | Workforce | President Trump issues an executive order expanding the ground on which agencies may fire probationary employees. | Previously, probationary employees (those in their first year of federal employment or first one to two years after promotion) could only be dismissed for poor performance or misconduct. The new order allows removal if an employee’s continued service is deemed inconsistent with agency “needs, goals, and efficiency.” Agencies must now certify affirmatively that retaining a probationary employee serves the public interest. Analysts warn that the change may be unlawful and may circumvent the Civil Service Reform Act. Note: in Sept. 2025, a District Court Judge rules that related probationary employee firings were unlawful. | Executive Office of the President (EOP) | | 2025-04-23 | Independent Agencies | President Trump issues anexecutive memorandum directing the DOJ, in consultation with the Treasury, to investigate ActBlue, a major fundraising platform for Democratic campaigns. | The directive marks a notable expansion of White House involvement in DOJ-led campaign finance investigations. Recent reporting highlights concern among legal experts and lawmakers about a shift away from longstanding norms that seek to insulate prosecutorial decisions from political influence. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-04-23 | Workforce | The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issues a proposed rule to revive and rename “Schedule F,” a Trump-era personnel category that would convert thousands of career civil servants into at-will employees. The proposal follows Executive Order 14171 and renames the classification “Schedule Policy/Career.” | The new proposed Schedule Policy/Career designation would apply to civil servants involved in “policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating” roles. While these employees would still be hired through merit-based processes, they would no longer be protected by Title 5 procedures governing discipline and removal—effectively rendering them at-will employees that serve at the pleasure of the President. | Office of Personnel Management (OPM) | | 2025-04-11 | Legal Profession & Civil Society | The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announces a multi-year settlement with four major law firms—Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and A&O Shearman Sterling—under which the firms affirm “merit-based” hiring, promotion, and retention; agree to discontinue any policies previously branded as “DEI”; and accept ongoing EEOC compliance monitoring. | This action follows Acting EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas’ March 17, 2025 letters questioning the legality of private law firms’ DEI fellowships and affinity-group practices. A bipartisan group of former officials and others write that similar orders and actions risk chilling the independence of the legal profession. | Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) | | 2025-04-09 | Independent Agencies | President Trump signs a new memorandum, “Addressing Risks from Chris Krebs and Government Censorship,” directing every federal agency to revoke any security clearance held by former CISA Director Chris Krebs and his associates and orders a review of Krebs’ leadership of CISA and its activities since 2018. | The memorandum was issued four years after Krebs publicly declared the 2020 election “the most secure in American history,” contradicting President Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud. The text accuses Krebs of having “weaponized” his former office and labels him a “significant bad‑faith actor.” Mainstream coverage and fact‑checks describe the directive as a direct retaliation for Krebs’s election‑security assessment. Analysts warn that using clearance revocations and retroactive probes in response to such statements could chill future officials from offering candid advice on election integrity. | Executive Office of the President (EOP) | | 2025-04-09 | Legal Profession & Civil Society | President Trump signs Executive Order, “Addressing Risks from Susman Godfrey LLP,” directing clearance suspensions, federal-contract reviews, and access limits similar to earlier law-firm orders. | This order is one of several executive actions targeting major U.S. law firms for prior legal work the President described as personally detrimental. A bipartisan group of former officials and others write that such orders risk chilling the independence of the legal profession. | Executive Office of the President (EOP) | | 2025-04-09 | Enforcement | Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issues a Department-wide memorandum that (1) no taxpayer funds may be used for travel to or engagement with American Bar Association events and (2) DOJ employees, “when acting in their official capacities,” may not speak at, attend, or otherwise participate in ABA-hosted functions prohibits taxpayer funds from paying for any travel to or engagement with American Bar Association (ABA) events. | Blanche states the restriction is warranted because the ABA is in active litigation against the Department. The ABA has long served as a major convening body for the legal profession, with senior DOJ officials routinely attending in its events. In granting a preliminary injunction against a related grant termination, Judge Cooper (D.D.C.) observed that Blanche “candidly explained” the memo was issued in direct response to the ABA’s lawsuit and held that DOJ’s actions likely violate the First Amendment’s ban on reprisals for protected petitioning activity. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-04-07 | Oversight | The Department of Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) announces a reorganization that consolidates its Region and Corporate Audit Directorates with the goal of improving the agency’s “operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness.” | The DCAA, established in 1965, conducts audits and provides financial advisory services for government contracts. Its primary purpose is to prevent corruption and safeguard taxpayer dollars spent in government contracts for defense-related expenses. | Department of Defense (DOD) | | 2025-04-07 | Enforcement | Deputy Attorney General Blanche ends the Department’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) effective immediately. | NCET was established in February 2022 to investigate and prosecute serious cryptocurrency crimes, including fraud, money laundering, and illicit finance tied to cartels and terrorist organizations. Under Blanche’s April 7, 2025 memo titled “Ending Regulation by Prosecution,” the DOJ will shift focus away from prosecuting exchanges and wallet providers for regulatory violations. The memo states that enforcement will continue against defrauders, and those using crypto for terrorism, cartels, hacking, or human trafficking. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-04-03 | Transparency | Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly cuts public records teams at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other agencies within the department as part of sweeping layoffs in his “radical transparency” initiative. | Those offices were responsible for handling public information and compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) —including responding to records requests and safeguarding personal data. As of May 2025, a few of the team members from the FDA were reportedly rehired without an explanation given for the reinstatement. | Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) | | 2025-04-02 | Enforcement | The administration declines to appoint a Coordinator on Global Anti-Corruption and disbands the team responsible for leading implementation of the U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption. | The position of Global Anti-Corruption Coordinator was created to lead international efforts against kleptocracy, illicit finance, and transnational corruption, and to implement the first-ever U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption, released in 2021. | Department of State | | 2025-04-02 | Enforcement | Two senior officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission’s FCPA unit—Charles Cain (the unit’s chief since 2017) and Tracy Price (the unit’s deputy chief since 2018)—resign. Their resignations follow the administration’s decision to pause Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement reviews. | With Cain and Price stepping aside, the SEC joins the DOJ’s Fraud Section in losing senior officials that enforce the FCPA, potentially reducing capacity and deemphasizing anti-bribery enforcement across both agencies. | Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) | | 2025-03-27 | Legal Profession & Civil Society | President Trump signs Executive Order 14250, “Addressing Risks from Wilmerhale LLP,” suspending the firm’s security clearances, directing agencies to terminate or withhold federal contracts, and restricting firm personnel from certain federal facilities. | This order is one of several executive actions targeting major U.S. law firms for prior legal work the president described as personally detrimental. A bipartisan group of former officials and others write that similar orders and memoranda risk chilling the independence of the legal profession. | Executive Office of the President (EOP) | | 2025-03-25 | Legal Profession & Civil Society | President Trump signs Executive Order, “Addressing Risks from Jenner & Block LLP,” instructing agencies to suspend the firm’s clearances, terminate federal contracts “to the maximum extent permitted by law,” and limit facility access. | This order is one of several executive actions targeting major U.S. law firms for prior legal work the president described as personally detrimental. A bipartisan group of former officials and others write that such orders risk chilling the independence of the legal profession. | Executive Office of the President (EOP) | | 2025-03-24 | Transparency | The Office of Management and Budget removes a public-facing website that displayed how federal funding is apportioned to agencies, claiming that disclosure of such information is sensitive, predecisional, and deliberative. | As part of the Fiscal Year 2022 Consolidated Appropriations Act, Congress enacted new legislation requiring OMB to make apportionments public. The rollback raises concerns about transparency in federal spending and limits the ability of Congress, watchdog groups, and the public to track how appropriated funds are controlled, delayed, or redirected within the executive branch. Note: on Aug. 9, 2025, an appeals court unanimously reinstated a lower court’s order to restore the database. | Executive Office of the President (EOP) | | 2025-03-22 | Independent Agencies | President Trump signs a memorandum, “Rescinding Security Clearances and Access to Classified Information from Specified Individuals,” revoking security clearances for 18 named figures, including whistle-blower attorney Mark Zaid. | Advocacy groups say that removing Zaid’s security clearance is “unrestrained retaliation” for “legally protected speech under Intelligence Community whistleblower laws,” potentially chilling future whistle‑blower advocacy. | Executive Office of the President (EOP) | | 2025-03-21 | Oversight | DHS orders a reduction‑in‑force that shutters three internal oversight units — the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL), the Immigration Detention Ombudsman (OIDO), and the Citizenship & Immigration Services Ombudsman (CISOM) — placing more than 100 employees on leave. The department later reverses course (following a lawsuit), but a June 11, 2025 court filing says the offices remain “severely understaffed and unable to perform their statutory functions.” | DHS said the closures were meant to “remove bureaucratic hurdles” that “obstruct immigration enforcement.” Advocates and a bipartisan group of former officials argue the move eliminates key channels for civil‑rights complaints and detention oversight; plaintiffs now ask the court to monitor staffing and budget restoration. | Department of Homeland Security (DHS) | | 2025-03-18 | Workforce | President Trump fires two members of the Federal Trade Commission, Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, before their terms end. | The FTC, established in 1914, is an independent agency whose mission is to protect the public from “deceptive or unfair business practices and unfair methods of competition.” The FTC has five commissioners who serve seven-year terms; the law requires that no more than three commissioners be from the same political party and allows removal by the President only “for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” | Federal Trade Commission (FTC) | | 2025-03-13 | Oversight | Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reportedly begins a sweeping restructuring of the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps, including replacing several senior JAGs with appointees outside the traditional promotion pipeline. | The unprecedented shake-up of uniformed military lawyers has prompted concerns among former Pentagon officials and others that it could compromise the neutrality of military legal advice and carry “wide‑ranging consequences for how the U.S. military conducts operations and disciplines personnel.” | Department of Defense (DOD) | | 2025-03-11 | Enforcement | The DOJ’s Public Integrity Section is reportedly drastically downsized, with its 30-person staff cut to as few as five and remaining cases transferred to U.S. Attorney’s Offices nationwide. | Created in 1976 in response to Watergate, the DOJ's Public Integrity Section investigates and prosecutes alleged misconduct of public officials in all three branches of the federal government, as well as state and local public officials. This includes public corruption, election crimes, campaign finance offenses, and related misconduct by federal officials. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-03-10 | Enforcement | The DOJ does not attend the March 2025 quarterly meeting of the OECD Working Group on Bribery, the first absence since the working group's formation in 1994. | Since 1994, the DOJ has consistently sent representatives to these meetings, which oversee implementation of the OECD Anti‑Bribery Convention and monitor global enforcement of foreign-bribery laws. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-03-08 | Independent Agencies | Acting Special Counsel Jamieson Greer issues a “Probationary Directive” ordering the closure of all Office of Special Counsel (OSC) investigations into the February 2025 mass firing of more than 2,000 probationary civil servants. | In February 2025, the Trump Administration directed the terminations of thousands of probationary federal employees, which are those employees who were hired within the past two years. These firings were reportedly conducted en masse, with no individualized assessments of workers’ performance or conduct. OSC began investigating these firings, as its mandate is to investigate prohibited practices, such as firing or demoting employees for political reasons, retaliating against whistleblowers, or violating merit system principles. After the investigations began, President Trump fired the Special Counsel and replaced him with Acting Special Counsel Greer. Note: On Sept. 10, 2025, five former civil servants filed suit in federal court against OSC and Greer, alleging the Probationary Directive was unlawful and violated OSC’s statutory duty under the Civil Service Reform Act and the Administrative Procedure Act. | Office of Special Counsel (OSC) | | 2025-03-06 | Legal Profession & Civil Society | President Trump signs Executive Order 14230, “Addressing Risks from Perkins Coie LLP,” suspending the firm’s security clearances, directing agencies to terminate or withhold federal contracts, and restricting firm personnel from certain federal facilities. | This order is one of several executive actions targeting major U.S. law firms for prior legal work the president described as personally detrimental. A bipartisan group of former officials and others write that similar orders and memoranda risk chilling the independence of the legal profession. | Executive Office of the President (EOP) | | 2025-03-06 | Enforcement | Several career prosecutors in the DOJ Fraud Section are reportedly either reassigned or fired, and numerous others in the section are encouraged to take a detail, or temporary assignment to work on non-white collar cases. | These changes suggest the Department may be shifting resources away from complex financial crime investigations. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-03-02 | Workforce | The Department of Treasury announces that it will no longer enforce the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). | The CTA, passed in 2021, was a bipartisan effort aimed at curtailing the use of shell companies and tracking flows of illicit money, in partnership with Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). It was designed to combat money laundering, terrorism financing, tax evasion, and other illicit finance by increasing transparency into who actually owns and controls companies operating in the U.S. Consistent with this announcement, FinCEN issued an interim final rule on March 21, 2025, that removed the requirement for U.S. companies and U.S. persons to report beneficial ownership information (BOI) to FinCEN under the Corporate Transparency Act. | Department of Treasury | | 2025-02-27 | Enforcement | The CFPB dismisses five enforcement actions against financial services companies accused of wrongdoing under the prior administration (cases against Capital One, Vanderbilt Mortgage, Heights Holding, Rocket Homes, and PHEAA). On March 5, the CFPB dropped its case against the company that runs the Zelle payment platform and three U.S. banks, which had been filed in December. | The CFPB was created by Congress in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to investigate banking fraud and oversee consumer financial services. In 2024, it expanded its supervisory authority to include technology companies offering digital payment platforms, like Apple Pay, Venmo, and PayPal. | Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) | | 2025-02-25 | Workforce | The General Services Administration (GSA) terminates the Federal Advisory Committee on Open Government. | This 15‑member committee, first launched in April 2024, provided expert advice on transparency, anti‑corruption, public participation, and digital governance. GSA terminated the committee pursuant to a February 2025 executive order directing agencies to eliminate “unnecessary” advisory panels. | General Services Administration (GSA) | | 2025-02-25 | Legal Profession & Civil Society | President Trump signs Executive Order 14237, “Addressing Risks from Paul Weiss,” directing agencies to suspend security clearances held by Paul Weiss lawyers (including, as directly named in the E.O., Mark Pomerantz); terminate or withhold all federal contracts and other benefits to the firm “to the maximum extent permitted by law”; and bar Paul Weiss employees from sensitive federal facilities and limit future hiring of the firm’s personnel. President Trump adds that “[g]lobal law firms have for years played an outsized role in undermining the judicial process and in the destruction of bedrock American principles.” | This order is one of several executive actions targeting major U.S. law firms for prior legal work the president described as personally detrimental. A bipartisan group of former officials and others write that such orders risk chilling the independence of the legal profession. | Executive Office of the President (EOP) | | 2025-02-25 | Legal Profession & Civil Society | President Trump issues a White House memorandum suspending the security clearances of all Covington & Burling lawyers who represented former Special Counsel Jack Smith and instructs agencies to terminate the firm’s federal engagements “to the maximum extent permitted by law.” | This order is one of several executive actions targeting major U.S. law firms for prior legal work the president described as personally detrimental. A bipartisan group of former officials and others write that similar orders and memoranda risk chilling the independence of the legal profession. | Executive Office of the President (EOP) | | 2025-02-23 | Enforcement | All USAID direct-hire personnel, with limited exceptions, are placed on administrative leave globally, effectively shuttering the department. This included those working on anti-corruption initiatives. | These cuts include defunding programs that focused on anti-corruption efforts, such as USAID's Dekleptification Guide, which included tools like public asset declarations and ownership registries to specialized institutions to prevent, investigate, prosecute, and rule on cases of grand corruption. It also cut their work in the anti-corruption space, which included establishing the permanent Anti-Corruption Center and providing technical assistance and developing technical guides to countering corruption worldwide. | U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) | | 2025-02-22 | Oversight | Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth fires top military lawyers, Lt. Gen. Joseph Berger III (Army), Rear Am. Lia M. Reynolds (Navy), Lt. Gen. Charles Lummer (Air Force). Hegseth justifies the firings to reporters, explaining that he didn’t want the military lawyers to put up “roadblocks to orders that are given by a commander in chief.” | Military lawyers, or Judge Advocate Generals (JAGs) are responsible for upholding the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and interpreting military law for top leaders. | Department of Defense (DOD) | | 2025-02-18 | Transparency | The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) reportedly fires a significant number of staff from its privacy, communications, and FOIA teams—reportedly including its entire privacy office. When CNN filed a FOIA request, the agency reportedly replied, “Good luck with that; they just fired the whole privacy team.” | OPM’s privacy unit ensures federal employees’ personal data is protected and manages compliance with privacy laws and policies. FOIA and communications teams oversee government transparency and respond to public information requests. | Office of Personnel Management (OPM) | | 2025-02-18 | Independent Agencies | The White House issues Executive Order 14215 titled “Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies,” declaring that all executive power resides with the President, including independent agencies, to ensure unified execution of federal law. The order also declares that the “President and the Attorney General shall provide authoritative interpretations of the law for the executive branch.” | EO 14215 significantly expands presidential oversight of independent agencies by requiring all agency rulemaking be preapproved by the president and that the legal positions offered by any executive department on behalf of the United States be consistent with the legal position held by the president or, by delegation, the attorney general. | Executive Office of the President (EOP) | | 2025-02-14 | Independent Agencies | FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson bars agency political appointees from holding American Bar Association (ABA) leadership roles, attending ABA events, or renewing ABA memberships, writing that the organization “advances radical left‑wing causes and promotes the business interests of Big Tech.” | The ABA has long served as a major convening body for the legal profession, with senior administration officials routinely attending in its events. Analysts note that restricting employees’ participation in a mainstream professional body could limit engagement with peer regulators and outside experts, and may chill interaction with organizations critical of administration policies | Federal Trade Commission (FTC) | | 2025-02-11 | Enforcement | David Hubbert, the head of the DOJ’s Tax Division, resigns rather than accept an involuntary transfer to the Trump administration’s new Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group. | The DOJ Tax Division works closely with the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) division, the enforcement arm of the IRS. IRS-CI investigates and sends prosecution referrals to the Tax Division when there is a tax matter involved. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-02-11 | Oversight | President Trump fires USAID Inspector General Paul Martin. The removal proceeds without the 30 days’ advance notice to Congress and written explanation typically required by law. | The day before Martin was fired his office issued an advisory notice warning that the administration's sweeping aid freeze had jeopardized oversight of $8.2 billion in unspent humanitarian funds and put $489 million in food assistance at risk of spoilage. | U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) | | 2025-02-10 | Enforcement | The White House issues Executive Order 14209, pausing all Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement, which is the law that prohibits bribery to foreign officials. The E.O. (1) halts new FCPA cases for 180 days (unless authorized by the Attorney General), (2) directs the Attorney General to review all ongoing FCPA cases, and (3) requires the DOJ to issue updated enforcement guidelines. | The order states that FCPA enforcement has become overly expansive and may hurt U.S. foreign policy and economic interests. It authorizes a six-month pause in new cases, subject to special approval. Within 180 days, the DOJ must also finalize and publish new FCPA guidelines that narrow enforcement to “serious misconduct” affecting U.S. national security or harming U.S. companies, while de-emphasizing routine business practices or low‑value conduct. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-02-10 | Oversight | President Trump removes David Huitema as the Director of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), reverting to an acting Director. Huitema was appointed by President Biden, confirmed by the Senate in November 2024, and sworn in on December 16, 2024, for a five-year term. | Established in 1978, the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) leads ethics programs across more than 140 executive-branch agencies, overseeing financial disclosures, ethics training, and rules to prevent conflicts of interest. Part of its mission is to prevent financial conflicts of interest for government officials and ensure the federal government’s actions and decisions are not unduly influenced by personal financial interests. | Office of Government Ethics (OGE) | | 2025-02-10 | Transparency | Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove instructs prosecutors in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) to dismiss federal bribery charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams without prejudice “as soon as is practicable.” Multiple career prosecutors refuse to carry out the directive and later resign in protest. | Career prosecutors handling the case refused to prepare or sign the dismissal motion, stating in resignation letters that they saw no factual or legal reason for the DOJ to move to dismiss this case. On Apr. 2, Judge Ho (S.D.N.Y.) granted DOJ’s request but dismissed the case with prejudice, writing that permitting a future refiling could leave the mayor “more beholden to the demands of the federal government than to the wishes of his own constituents.” Former federal prosecutors note that overriding line prosecutors and prompting mass resignations is highly unusual and may chill future public-corruption investigations involving politically sensitive defendants. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-02-09 | Enforcement | DOJ reportedly weakened long-standing guardrails limiting White House contact with federal prosecutors. | The Justice Department has reportedly rescinded or revised prior guidance that restricted communications between the White House and DOJ officials, particularly concerning pending criminal cases. The changes reportedly ease the “no contact” rules that were designed to insulate law enforcement decisions from political influence. Under prior policy—reaffirmed in a July 2021 memo by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland—such communications were strictly limited to prevent improper interference in prosecutorial matters. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-02-08 | Enforcement | CFPB leadership unveils a reduction‑in‑force plan to eliminate roughly 1,400 of the agency’s 1,600 positions (over 90 percent of its staff) and instructs the Federal Reserve to halt the Bureau’s quarterly funding. Two days later, reporters speaking with President Trump ask him to confirm that “his goal was to have [the CFPB] totally eliminated.” President Trump replies, “I would say, yeah, because we’re trying to get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse.” | The CFPB was created by Congress in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to investigate banking fraud and oversee consumer financial services. In 2024, it expanded its supervisory authority to include technology companies offering digital payment platforms, like Apple Pay, Venmo, and PayPal. Advocates say that “with each day that the agency remains shut down, the financial institutions that seek to prey on consumers are emboldened—harming their law-abiding competitors and the consumers who fall victim to them.” | Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) | | 2025-02-07 | Oversight | President Trump terminates Hampton Dellinger, Head of the Office of Special Counsel. | The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency. Its authority comes from four statutes: the Civil Service Reform Act, the Whistleblower Protection Act, the Hatch Act (which restricts partisan political activity by federal employees), and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). OSC’s primary mission is to safeguard the federal merit system by protecting employees and applicants from prohibited personnel practices, including coercing political activity, nepotism, and retaliation for whistleblowing. It also serves as a secure channel for employees to report government wrongdoing and enforces employment protections for military service members under USERRA. | Office of Special Counsel (OSC) | | 2025-02-05 | Enforcement | The Department of Commerce and the U.S. Trade Representative have reportedly been granting tariff waivers to select companies and industries, raising concerns about preferential treatment. | Recent reporting suggests the tariff exemption process may advantage politically connected firms, functioning in effect as a spoils system. Prior studies of similar processes during the first Trump administration found that corporations with political ties were more likely to secure exemptions. | Department of Commerce (DOC) | | 2025-02-05 | Enforcement | Attorney General Pam Bondi ends the DOJ's Task Force KleptoCapture, Kleptocracy Team, and the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiatives. Attorneys staffed on these teams are told to “return to their prior posts, and resources currently devoted to those efforts shall be committed to the total elimination of Cartels and [transnational criminal organizations].” | These teams were created to protect the U.S. financial system from being used to launder the proceeds of corruption, investigate foreign corruption, and recover stolen assets. Recent cases include a criminal case against the president of a Russian state-owned bank accused of violating U.S. sanctions and a case involving a Russian oligarch accused of laundering money. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-02-05 | Enforcement | Attorney General Pam Bondi limits the types of criminal cases DOJ can bring under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) to cases similar to “more traditional espionage by foreign government actors.” She also directs the FARA Unit to focus on civil enforcement, regulatory initiatives, and public guidance. | DOJ uses FARA to bring cases against individuals who act on behalf of foreign governments or political interests without properly disclosing their activities. These cases include unregistered lobbying, influence campaigns, or covert public relations work. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-02-05 | Enforcement | Attorney General Bondi disbands the National Security Corporate Enforcement Unit. Bondi's memo directs staff from the unit to return to their prior assignments and reallocates DOJ's focus toward other priorities like transnational criminal organizations and terrorism-related offenses. | The National Security Corporate Enforcement Unit was in charge of investigating and prosecuting companies and individuals for economic crimes tied to national security, such as evading sanctions and violating export controls. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-02-05 | Enforcement | The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reportedly shrinking the size of its cryptocurrency enforcement unit and re-assigning some of its 50-person staff. | The SEC's cryptocurrency enforcement unit was created during the first Trump administration and then grew under the Biden administration. It is responsible for bringing enforcement actions against fraudulent or unregistered crypto-asset offerings and platforms. Between its founding and December 2024, the unit brought over 200 crypto-related enforcement actions focusing on fraud and unregistered securities. The unit’s work was more than half of the SEC's total recovered penalties in 2024 (including $4.5 billion from the Terraform Labs and Kwon case). | Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) | | 2025-02-05 | Enforcement | Attorney General Pam Bondi shuts down the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, a unit created to investigate foreign meddling in U.S. elections and democracy. The task force was set up in 2017 to track and stop new forms of foreign interference. Bondi says the closure will help redirect resources to “more pressing priorities” and prevent what she calls misuse of prosecutorial power. | The Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) was a special FBI unit made up of experts from multiple divisions, including counterintelligence and cybercrime. Its job was to detect and stop foreign efforts to interfere in U.S. democracy, particularly elections. The team worked closely with other U.S. intelligence agencies and international partners as part of a broader government effort to respond to these threats. | Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) | | 2025-02-05 | Enforcement | Attorney General Pam Bondi directs the DOJ’s Criminal Division to “review and reassess” the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and to focus FCPA investigation on transnational organized crime and cartels. | The FCPA criminalizes bribery of foreign officials. With the new guidance, DOJ prosecutors are instructed to prioritize FCPA investigations involving bribes tied to organized crime and drug cartels, while deprioritizing cases that do not involve such threats. Historically, DOJ has relied on other laws to prosecute transnational organized crime and cartels. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-02-03 | Oversight | U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent—also now acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)—reportedlyhalts pending activities at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), including investigations, rulemaking, litigation and public communications. | The CFPB was created by Congress in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to investigate banking fraud and oversee consumer financial services. In 2024, it expanded its supervisory authority to include technology companies offering digital payment platforms, like Apple Pay, Venmo, and PayPal. | Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) | | 2025-01-31 | Independent Agencies | President Trump fires Gwynne A. Wilcox, Chair of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). | The NLRB was established in 1935 and serves to safeguard employee rights, governs labor unions, and acts to prevent and remedy unfair labor practices committed by the private sector. This is the first time an NLRB member has been removed since the agency was created in 1935. | National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) | | 2025-01-27 | Independent Agencies | President Trump fires two sitting members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), leaving the five-member oversight body without the three-member quorum it needs to issue reports, subpoena executive-branch agencies, or formally review surveillance programs. | PCLOB’s primary mission is to oversee intelligence and counter-terrorism surveillance for legality, necessity, and civil-liberties compliance. Although its focus is broader than corruption‐specific misconduct, the board forms part of the government’s wider integrity architecture. It operates as an internal check that executive-branch powers are exercised within the rule of law and not repurposed for improper ends. Loss of quorum effectively suspends that oversight. | Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) | | 2025-01-27 | Transparency | The head of DOJ’s Public Integrity Unit resigns rather than accept a transfer to the Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group. | The DOJ Public Integrity Section is responsible for sensitive criminal probes and prosecutions of elected officials and judges for bribery and other misconduct. The head of the section, Corey Amudson, was in a career position and had been appointed by Attorney General William Barr during the first Trump administration. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-01-27 | Oversight | DOJ’s senior-most career official, and the senior official designated to make ethics determinations for the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General, Associate Deputy Attorney General Brad Weinsheimer, is informed of his reassignment from his position to the Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group. Weinsheimer eventually accepts deferred resignation. | Weinsheimer, a 33-year career DOJ official, held decision-making authority over referrals from the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), inspector general requests for grand jury material, and disclosures to Congress—including privilege assertions and responses to subpoenas. This portfolio is later reassigned to two other career employees. Weinsheimer was initially appointed to his role on an interim basis by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and later made permanent by Attorney General Bill Barr. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-01-25 | Oversight | The Trump administration removes roughly 18 inspectors general (IGs) across the federal government, including those at the Departments of Defense, State, Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Veterans Affairs, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Intelligence Community. The removals proceed without the 30 days’ advance notice to Congress and written explanation typically required by law. | Inspectors General (IGs) are independent watchdogs within federal agencies responsible for detecting and preventing waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct. Established under the Inspector General Act of 1978 (IG Act), their role is to conduct audits and investigations and keep both agency leadership and Congress informed of significant problems. | Multiple Agencies | | 2025-01-25 | Oversight | The Trump administration fires Mike Ware from his position as Chair of Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE). | The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) is an independent entity established by the Inspector General Act of 1978, tasked with promoting integrity, economy, and effectiveness across federal agencies through coordinated oversight and support of the Inspector General (IG) community. CIGIE is composed of all federal IGs and is responsible for addressing issues of waste, fraud, and abuse in government programs. | Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) | | 2025-01-23 | Enforcement | The president signs a new Executive Order, “Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology,” establishing the Presidential Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, chaired by the White House AI & Crypto Czar, David Sacks. In the accompanying White House Fact Sheet, the White House states that the president is “halting aggressive enforcement actions and regulatory overreach that have stifled crypto innovation.” | As later reported in Dec. 2025, this is allegedly a part of a deliberate effort to “rein in” what the new SEC chair sees as the “prior administration’s overzealous stance toward the crypto industry.” This is not just a departure from the Biden administration’s approach toward prosecuting crypto cases. During the first Trump administration, the SEC brought 50 crypto-related cases. | Executive Office of the President (EOP), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) | | 2025-01-21 | Oversight | President Trump fires or reassigns senior career employees in the DOJ’s National Security Division, Criminal Division, and Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys. | These career positions generally do not change with changes in administration and are designed to be insulated from political pressure. Those moved include the Deputy Assistant Attorney General responsible for combatting foreign interference and the longtime Deputy Assistant Attorney General who oversaw extradition and mutual‑legal‑assistance regarding all cross‑border crimes, including corruption, and who also was responsible for the Department’s internal rule of law programs. | Department of Justice (DOJ) | | 2025-01-20 | Workforce | President Trump signs Executive Order 14171, “Restoring Accountability to Policy‑Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce.” This order directs OPM to implement rulemaking to reclassify thousands of policy‑facing federal employees as at-will employees. | The order attempts to restrict the number of professional career civil servants that the government hires based on merit as opposed to political allegiance across the federal government. This sets the stage for sweeping changes to the federal government’s professional civil service and threatens to roll back protections designed to insulate career federal workers from corruption. | Executive Office of the President (EOP) |