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The Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, created after Watergate to prosecute corrupt politicians, has been gutted from 36 full-time corruption attorneys to just 2, with open cases collapsing from roughly 175-200 down to about 20. Meanwhile, President Trump pardoned at least 15 elected officials and aides convicted of corruption — including a Las Vegas councilwoman who stole $70,000 from a fund to build a police memorial and a sheriff convicted of selling badges for $75,000 in bribes.
“The Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, created after Watergate to prosecute corrupt politicians, has been gutted from 36 full-time corruption attorneys to just 2, with open cases collapsing from roughly 175-200 down to about 20. Meanwhile, President Trump pardoned at least 15 elected officials and aides convicted of corruption — including a Las Vegas councilwoman who stole $70,000 from a fund to build a police memorial and a sheriff convicted of selling badges for $75,000 in bribes.”
For fifty years, the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section was the office that put crooked politicians, judges, and cops in prison. Created in the wake of Watergate, it was the federal government's standing answer to the question: who watches the powerful? As of 2026, the answer is almost no one. According to reporting confirmed by NPR (May 13, 2026) and NOTUS, the section that once fielded 36 full-time corruption prosecutors is down to two.
The collapse is not subtle. When the administration took office in January 2025, the section had roughly 40 attorneys and between 175 and 200 open public-corruption matters. By spring 2026, NPR reported the active caseload had cratered to around 20. The lawyers didn't vanish — they quit under pressure, resigned in protest, or were quietly detailed to other priorities, chiefly immigration enforcement. Former prosecutor Andrew Tessman put it bluntly: the gutting 'just screams that public corruption cases are no longer a priority of DOJ.'
While the cops were being pulled off the beat, the people they had already caught were being set free. NPR documented that more than 15 former elected officials and their co-conspirators received pardons or commutations after the President returned to office. Michele Fiore, a Las Vegas councilwoman, was convicted of charity fraud for pocketing roughly $70,000 in donations meant to build a memorial for fallen police officers. Pardoned. A Virginia sheriff convicted of taking $75,000 in bribes to hand out deputy badges. Pardoned.
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The pattern triggered a formal oversight investigation: in May 2026, Rep. Dave Min and Sen. Peter Welch sent letters to 17 pardon recipients flagged for corruption, financial-crime, and conflict-of-interest concerns. NPR noted that more than half of the 15 corruption-related pardons went to Republicans or Trump supporters.
Beat the odds
This had a 0.5% chance of leaking — someone talked anyway.
Conspirators
~500Large op
Secret kept
2.4 years
Time to 95% exposure
500+ years
