The US Justice Department has quietly walked away from a years-long criminal investigation into Abbott Laboratories over a contaminated baby formula plant, around 17 months after the company handed half a million dollars to Donald Trump's inauguration.
The Wall Street Journal first reported on 28 June 2026 that prosecutors had dropped the case even though some believed they had gathered enough evidence to charge the maker of Similac. Department leaders opted for civil clawbacks rather than criminal counts, a far softer landing for a firm tied to a national formula shortage in 2022 and to a recall of products from a plant where regulators found dangerous bacteria.
