The Justice Department under President Donald Trump quietly dropped more than 23,000 criminal investigations in the first six months of his administration, according to a ProPublica analysis that found prosecutors closed cases involving terrorism, fraud, labor racketeering, health care abuse, and other offenses while federal resources were increasingly redirected toward immigration enforcement.
The figure refers to "declinations," cases that federal prosecutors decide not to pursue. Declinations are not unusual on their own. Prosecutors regularly drop cases for reasons that include insufficient evidence, limited resources, or shifting enforcement priorities. What made this period stand out, ProPublica reported, was the scale: nearly 11,000 cases were declined in February 2025 alone, the highest monthly total in data going back to at least 2004. ProPublica said the previous monthly high was just over 6,500 in September 2019.
