In response to a wave of complaints that the Trump administration is weaponizing the Justice Division in opposition to political critics, a nationwide group of protection attorneys has launched a instrument to trace and map the place that “weapon” has been deployed.
The Nationwide Affiliation of Legal Protection Legal professionals has posted an interactive monitoring instrument to allow attorneys and residents to verify for a number of the controversial, uncommon or unsuccessful tried prosecutions by the Justice Division within the first yr of Trump’s second time period.
The on-line instrument, which is being supported professional bono by a bunch of attorneys and authorized professionals, contains a number of the notable misfires by the Trump Justice Division.
The mapping function reveals the rising variety of instances during which grand juries rejected the Justice Division’s makes an attempt to acquire indictments in opposition to Trump administration critics, Democratic public officers or protesters.
The instances featured embrace the so-called “sandwich thrower” case, during which a Washington, D.C., grand jury rejected an try by the Trump administration to criminally indict a person who tossed a sandwich at a federal agent in 2025.
The instrument is designed for use and shared by protection attorneys to watch for controversial instances nationwide and asks them to contribute instances or study from any examples.
“What has been taking place is so uncommon and totally different that I felt that it wanted to be dropped at the general public’s consideration,” stated Steven Salky, a D.C. lawyer who’s serving to to supervise the challenge.
“I assumed that this was a great way to assist protection attorneys — significantly federal defenders — defend instances,” Salky stated.
“The Invoice of Rights wasn’t written to be a well mannered suggestion; it was written to be a protect in opposition to tyranny,” stated NACDL President Andrew Birrell of Minneapolis, in saying the net instrument.
“What we’re seeing in courtrooms from the Midwest to the coasts is a basic, righteous rejection of the concept legal regulation can be utilized as a instrument for political retribution,” Birell stated. “Jurors are seeing via these ‘novel’ and transparently skinny theories. They’re reminding this authorities that the folks — not the prosecutors — maintain the last word energy in our justice system.”
The tracker additionally comprises instances during which the Justice Division was accused of “weaponized discussion board procuring.” In trying to safe an indictment in Virginia in opposition to New York Legal professional Common Letitia James, for instance, the division convened grand juries in three totally different cities: Alexandria, Richmond and Norfolk. The tracker illustrates references superimposed on Virginia inside a searchable map of the nation.
NACDL stated in rolling out the instrument that its net database offers a “state-by-state visible breakdown of tracked instances and rising enforcement tendencies.” The group is attempting to assist attorneys filter via instances nationwide, enabling them to go looking by alleged conduct, courtroom, final result and different case options. NACDL says its instrument will present entry to key filings and judicial rulings “to assist efficient advocacy in opposition to novel, expansive, and aggressive theories.”
A Justice Division spokesperson, in response to a request for remark in regards to the new monitoring instrument, stated, “We respect the judicial course of and jurors’ position as neutral arbiters of proof — no matter what the outcomes could also be — and won’t be deterred or distracted from preserving the American folks protected.”
The variety of failed grand jury indictments tallied within the new database, together with a controversial try by the Trump administration to prosecute six Democratic members of Congress this month, is exclusive within the historical past of the federal legal justice system.
A search of the database, which is constant to be expanded, by Sunday contained 11 prosecutions during which the Justice Division didn’t safe an indictment. A number of of the instances had been dismissed, the division is pursuing expenses within the D.C. Superior Courtroom in a few instances and in a single — the case in opposition to James — the federal government has filed a discover of attraction.
Former Justice Division prosecutor Brendan Ballou, who left the company in 2025, instructed CBS Information, “The truth that this tracker must exist speaks to the imploding credibility of the Division of Justice, the place no payments had been as soon as terribly uncommon. That is necessary work, and the knowledge will assist political opponents focused sooner or later argue that they’re being vindictively prosecuted.”
Mark Zaid, a nationwide safety lawyer who has represented whistleblowers and briefly had his safety clearance stripped in retribution by the Trump administration, stated the brand new net instrument reveals the Justice Division’s broad effort at retribution.
“The rise up by grand juries throughout the nation in opposition to the Trump administration’s political weaponization of the Division of Justice is unequivocal proof that enormous swaths of America favor the rule of regulation over petty retaliatory agendas,” Zaid stated.
