Corporate Clemency: How Trump Is Halting Enforcement Against Corporate Lawbreakers
Key Findings
After freeing January 6 rioters, Donald Trump’s second administration is rapidly moving toward a new priority: granting “get out of jail free” cards to corporations facing investigations and federal lawsuits over corporate misconduct. Trump’s administration is moving rapidly to halt and hinder federal investigations and cases against alleged corporate lawbreaking.
- Trump administration has already halted or moved to dismiss enforcement investigations and cases against 89 corporations (25% of the corporations in Public Citizen’s tracker of prominent investigations into and enforcement actions against corporations at the end of the Biden administration), including:
- All 42 corporations facing Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) cases and investigations (seven dismissals have been sought so far)
- Twenty corporations facing Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) cases and investigations into possible Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations
- Eight corporations facing DOJ Civil Rights Division cases and investigations (one dismissal, a case against Elon Musk’s SpaceX, has been sought so far)
- Seven corporations facing DOJ Environment and Natural Resources Division cases and investigations
- Seven cryptocurrency corporations facing SEC cases and investigations, five of which the Trump administration has filed to dismiss.
- Six employers facing Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) cases for discrimination against transgender and nonbinary workers, which the Trump administration has filed to dismiss
- Additionally, firings of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) members and EEOC commissioners mean these regulators lack the quorum needed for finalizing enforcement decisions, including NLRB cases against 100 corporations included in the tracker. (There are nearly 27,000 open NLRB cases in total.)
- 34 corporate inauguration donors facing federal enforcement collectively gave at least $34 million toward Trump’s inaugural festivities. These 34 corporations collectively face 60 separate federal investigations and lawsuits.
- These findings are based on analysis of cased listed on Public Citizen’s Corporate Enforcement Tracker, which we will continue to update.
Beneficiaries of Trump’s Corporate Clemency
President Trump talks “tough on crime,” but his administration is once again betraying a preference for going soft on corporations that break the law.
Public Citizen is tracking federal investigations and cases into corporate misconduct the Trump administration inherited from the Biden administration. The following analysis covers 429 separate investigations and cases against 361 corporations over alleged lawbreaking – including at least 25 involving allegations of criminal misconduct.
The first time Trump took office, corporate enforcement plunged.
Now, just over one month into Trump’s second term, it’s clear that the permissive approach to corporate crime and misconduct is returning with a vengeance.
Whole categories of enforcement have come to a screeching halt, including:
- All Consumer Financial Protection Bureau cases, seven of which the Trump administration has already moved to dismiss,
- Justice Department cases brought by the Civil Rights and Environment and Natural Resource divisions,
- Investigations and cases under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and
- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission cases defending transgender and gender non-conforming workers from workplace abuse and discrimination, six of which the administration has already moved to dismiss, and
- An increasing number of Securities and Exchange Commission cases against cryptocurrency corporations, two of which have been paused and four of which the administration has moved to dismiss.
This is only the beginning.
The tracker is not comprehensive, but is intended to highlight the most significant corporate investigations and cases gleaned from agency announcements, news reporting, and financial filings. Priority for inclusion is given to investigations and cases against larger corporations and categories of enforcement targeted by Trump administration policies.
Note: The existence of investigations and/or allegations of misconduct do not necessarily mean that any laws were broken, or that an enforcement action necessarily would have been brought under a different administration.
The full searchable database of corporate investigations and links to underlying sources are available through Public Citizen’s Corporate Enforcement Tracker.
Big Tech Oligarchs Seeking Corporate Clemency from the Trump Administration:
It should not be seen as a coincidence that the billionaires and CEOs who lined up behind Trump alongside cabinet members during the inauguration represent corporate lawbreakers facing numerous federal enforcement actions the Trump administration is inheriting from the Biden administration. Among them were:
- Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon, which faces a DOJ investigation for into an alleged fraudulent scheme to conceal warehouse worker injuries from OSHA, an EEOC investigation into alleged discrimination against pregnant warehouse workers, an FCC investigation into alleged illegal sales of wireless frequency jammers, CPSC litigation over the sales of unsafe recalled products, two FTC lawsuits – one over deceiving consumers into enrolling in Prime and one for acting as an illegal e-commerce monopoly – and over 300 open NLRB cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 1.6 million employees.
- Mark Zuckerberg, the billionaire founder and CEO behind Meta, which faces a CFPB investigation into allegations it improperly obtained and used consumer financial data to fuel its advertising business, an FTC lawsuit alleging illegal monopolistic behavior in the social media market, and two open NLRB cases alleging unfair labor practices covering up to 65,000 employees.
- Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet, the parent company of Google. The DOJ’s search monopoly case against Google is in penalty phase – with antitrust prosecutors recommending a breakup of the search giant – and the trial for the DOJ’s advertising monopoly case against Google recently concluded. Google also faces 20 open NLRB cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 180,000 employees.
- Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, which faces a DOJ antitrust lawsuit alleging monopoly violations in the smartphone market and over 20 open NLRB cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 160,000 employees.
- Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok which, in addition to facing a legislative ban in the US that the Trump administration has paused, also faces a DOJ lawsuit alleging violations of the children’s privacy laws and whose parent company ByteDance faces three open NLRB cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 150,000 employees.
- Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, which faces an FTC investigation into possible consumer harms from its data collection practices and AI-generated misinformation and an SEC investigation into investors possibly being misled.
- Dara Khosrowshahi, the CEO of Uber, which is reportedly opposing an FTC settlement proposed at the end of the Biden administration over alleged consumer protection violations because the settlement involves an “enormous monetary amount.”
- And Elon Musk, the CEO of Neuralink, SpaceX, Tesla, X (formerly Twitter), and xAI, which started the Trump administration collectively facing 17 federal investigations.
- Neuralink faces a USDA investigation into alleged misconduct related to the treatment of test monkeys and an SEC investigation alleging unspecified misconduct.
- SpaceX has been in the process of negotiating a resolution with the EPA over repeated pollution discharges in Texas, an FAA lawsuit alleging multiple safety violations involving rocket launches in Florida, and an NLRB complaint alleging the company illegally fired workers who criticized Musk. The Trump administration dismissed a DOJ civil rights lawsuit against SpaceX alleging discrimination against asylees and refugees in hiring.
- Tesla faces a criminal fraud investigation by the DOJ over exaggerated claims about the “full self-driving” capability of vehicles’ “Autopilot” mode, a related SEC investigation into whether exaggerated claims about “full self-driving” vehicles misled investors, a joint investigation by the DOJ and SEC into Tesla’s plans to construct a private residence for Musk, an EEOC investigation into alleged racial discrimination and workplace retaliation at a Tesla factory in California, four NHTSA investigations into vehicle problems, and seven open NLRB cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 140,474 employees. An OSHA investigation into a worker’s death at a Tesla factory in Texas was closed in January, though no announcement as to whether a citation was issued has been disclosed.
- X (formerly Twitter) faces an SEC lawsuit against Musk alleging misconduct related to the CEO’s $44 billion takeover of the company and an NLRB case alleging unfair labor practices.
- xAI faces an EPA investigation into air pollution concerns related to its “Colossus” supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee.
With the carrot of dropped or weakened enforcement dangling over Corporate America, we are already seeing executives approve actions to pander to the president in apparent hopes of friendly treatment in return. Apple, Google, and Microsoft renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” on their map applications, Jeff Bezos re-orienting the Washington Post editorial page to exclusively publish columns promoting “personal liberties and free markets,” and Sam Altman partnering with Trump to announce the $500 billion “Stargate” AI infrastructure plan should be understood with the prospect of potentially dropped enforcement cases as a key part of their political context.
The investigations and cases into corporations documented in Public Citizen’s Corporate Enforcement Tracker includes a wide range of misconduct, including alleged financial violations by the biggest banks, antitrust violations by big tech titans, unfair labor practices by large employers, pollution crimes by oil and gas corporations, egregious instances of discrimination, and safety violations that injured or killed workers and consumers.
Additional Beneficiaries of the Trump’s Corporate Clemency Include:
A&G Coal and 12 coal companies owned or operated by James “Jay” Justice III. Jay Justice’s father is Sen. Jim Justice II (R-WV), the former governor who switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican at a Trump rally in 2017.
The younger Justice’s companies face a civil lawsuit filed in 2023 by the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resource Division. The Trump administration halted all DOJ Environment and Natural Resource cases during its first week.
According to the DOJ lawsuit, the coal companies were cited for over 130 violations and have failed to pay over $5.19 million in civil penalties assessed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department.
Trump has close ties to the Justice family, having endorsed Justice in the Republican Senate primary. Sen. Justice declared some of the coal businesses named in the DOJ suit among his assets with his candidacy financial disclosures.
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Boxwood Hotels and eight related hotel franchises, including Holiday Inn Express and Hampton Inn hotels in western New York, were sued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in September of 2024 for allegedly discriminating against a transgender employee. One day after the transgender housekeeper complained to the corporate office about mistreatment by a manager, who directed multiple offensive derogatory remarks at the employee, the hotel business fired the employee.
Trump’s EEOC in February moved to dismiss the case, along with five other cases alleging discrimination against transgender workers, citing Trump’s day one anti-trans executive order. In a statement, Trump’s acting EEOC chair Andrea Lucas prioritized purging “gender ideology” from the agency’s actions.
This decision may run afoul of the 6-3 US Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, authored in 2020 by Trump nominee Justice Neil Gorsuch, which determined that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits workplace discrimination against LGBTQ people. A former EEOC general counsel told CBS News this is the first time the agency has moved to dismiss cases based on characteristics of individuals they sought to protect, rather than the strength of the cases, and suggested that for the EEOC to single out transgender workers as exempt from agency protection is itself an act of discrimination.
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Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange platform that spent $54 million during the 2024 elections, primarily to a super PAC backing pro-crypto candidates, was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2023 for operating as an unregistered securities exchange and other securities violations. The unlawful activity allegedly allowed the corporation to make billions of dollars facilitating trading of cryptocurrencies.
One month into the Trump administration, Coinbase announced that Trump’s SEC agreed to dismiss its case against the company.
Trump campaigned as an ally of the crypto sector and characterized enforcement against crypto businesses as unfair “weaponization” of the government, echoing Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong’s characterization of SEC enforcement. Coinbase donated $1 million toward Trump’s inaugural fund, and Armstrong attended the celebratory Crypto Ball along with administration insiders, including AI and Crypto Czar appointee David Sacks, soon-to-be-Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and soon-to-be-Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. To help advance its interests before the administration, Coinbase hired the Trump campaign’s 2024 co-manager, Chris LaCivita, as an advisor.
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CoreCivic, a for-profit prison corporation expecting “significant growth” to serve Trump’s mass deportation agenda, faces an investigation by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
The Trump administration halted enforcement by the DOJ Civil Rights Division during its first week.
The investigation, announced in August of 2024, centers on CoreCivic’s Trousdale Turner Correctional Center outside of Nashville, Tenn., and whether the prison adequately protects inmates from harm, including physical violence and sexual abuse. CoreCivic donated $500,000 to Trump’s inaugural committee, and CoreCivic president Damon Hininger contributed $300,000 to a joint fundraising committee between the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee over the last year. CoreCivic employs Miller Strategies, a lobbying firm founded by Trump Inauguration finance chair Jeff Miller.
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eBay, a Silicon Valley-based online auction platform and Fortune 500 company, has been fighting a lawsuit by the DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division over sales of illegal pesticides, diesel defeat devices, and other unlawful products since 2023, alleging violations of product safety and anti-pollution laws.
A federal judge in September dismissed the DOJ lawsuit, agreeing with eBay’s argument that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act shields the auction platform from liability. But DOJ lawyers appealed the ruling in November.
But now the Trump administration’s halting of ENRD cases during its first week and reassignment of top prosecutors casts doubt on the department’s ability to continue the case. To lobby federal agencies and Congress, eBay hired Miller Strategies, a lobbying firm founded by Trump Inauguration finance chair Jeff Miller.
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Meta, the social media giant behind Facebook and Instagram, has been facing a federal investigation by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and lawsuits by the National Labor Relations Board and Federal Trade Commission. The Trump administration has halted all enforcement and regulatory oversight being performed by the CFPB, and fired NLRB commissioners and the board’s top lawyer, paralyzing its ability to finalize enforcement decisions.
The halted CFPB investigation into Meta is looking into the company’s alleged improper use of user financial data obtained from third parties for advertising purposes, part of its inquiry into potential misconduct by big tech payment platforms.
The Meta NLRB cases allege unfair labor practices and cover up to 65,000 employees. One case alleges the non-disparagement agreements forced on over 7,000 employees laid off in 2022 unlawfully violated workers’ rights to organize.
The FTC case, which is ongoing, alleges Meta illegally maintained a social networking monopoly through a years-long course of anticompetitive conduct.
Meta donated $1 million toward Trump’s inaugural fund, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg stood among the big tech oligarchs on the dais behind Trump during the inauguration ceremony. Rick Dearborn, who lobbied for Meta in 2024, worked on Trump’s 2016 transition team and in the White House, and authored a section of Project 2025. David Sacks, who Trump appointed to be the White House “AI & Crypto Czar,” made a “notable investment” in the company according to the Craft Ventures website.
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Pfizer, the multinational pharmaceutical corporation, is facing five Justice Department investigations into possible misconduct, including two investigations into possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in Mexico and China. (Pfizer previously settled charges of alleged FCPA violations in Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Italy, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Serbia with the SEC in 2012.)
Trump signed an executive order on February 10 pausing FCPA enforcement and characterizing the anti-bribery law as “disadvantageous” for US corporations.
Pfizer donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. Trump’s Attorney General, Pam Bondi, provided legal services to Pfizer over the past year while working as Of Counsel to the law firm Panza, Maurer & Maynard. Jeff Miller, a lobbyist who represents Pfizer and pharmaceutical industry group PhRMA, is a finance chair for Trump’s inaugural committee.
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Phillips 66, a Texas-based multinational oil and gas corporation with annual revenue of more than $100 billion, faces a six-count criminal indictment filed in late November by the Department of Justice for knowing and negligent violations of the Clean Water Act. The fossil fuel giant allegedly discharged industrial wastewater containing an unlawful concentration of oil and grease multiple times into the Los Angeles County sewer system.
On the campaign trail, Trump asked Big Oil executives for $1 billion in donations in exchange for reversing the Biden administration’s environmental policies, and oil and gas executives and lobbyists will be critical in crafting Trump administration policies.
Within a week of Trump taking office, the DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division was reportedly ordered to halt all enforcement efforts, including making no further court filings. The head of the DOJ’s Environmental Crimes Section is among those the Trump administration reassigned to immigration cases, and no leader is currently listed on the section’s website.
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Solo Funds, an online lending platform, was sued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in May of 2024 for misleadingly advertising itself as a zero interest alternative to high-cost payday loans while employing deceptive dark patterns to trick consumers into paying fees with annual percentage rates as high as 1000%.
Trump fired CFPB director Rohit Chopra before the end of his five-year term and named Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent acting director. Bessent froze CFPB litigation. Shortly thereafter, Trump’s Office of Management and Budget director Russ Vought was named acting CFPB director – and Vought closed the CFPB offices and ordered all staff not to “perform any work tasks,” effectively halting at least 42 CFPB cases and investigations, including the Solo Funds Case.
On February 21, Trump’s CFPB filed to dismiss the Solo Funds case with prejudice. In a post defending the case’s dismissal, Vought wrote, “More to come but the weaponization of ‘consumer protection’ must end.”
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SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket technology corporation, has been facing a lawsuit filed by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division in August of 2023 accusing the business of discriminating against asylum recipients and refugees in hiring decisions. According to the DOJ, SpaceX allegedly routinely discouraged asylum recipients and refugees from applying for jobs and refused to hire or consider them because of their citizenship status over a period of four years, a violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
SpaceX retaliated soon after with a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the DOJ case. A federal court in Texas issued a temporary stay, pausing the DOJ lawsuit. The DOJ filed to lift the stay.
Two days after taking office, Trump’s DOJ ordered a freeze on all Civil Rights Division cases, halting the SpaceX case along with at least eight other corporate cases. On February 20, Trump’s DOJ filed to dismiss the SpaceX discrimination case.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk spent more than $290 million helping elect Trump and is now attacking federal agencies and terrorizing government employees under the auspices of the so-called Department Of Government Efficiency. SpaceX employs Miller Strategies, a lobbying firm founded by Trump Inauguration finance chair Jeff Miller. David Sacks, who Trump appointed to be the White House “AI & Crypto Czar,” made a “notable investment” in the company according to the Craft Ventures website.
These are just ten among the hundreds of cases that the Trump administration’s apparent preference for self-regulation and corporate lawlessness is placing at risk.
Further Analysis
Regulatory oversight is widely expected to diminish across corporate sectors, including cryptocurrency and fossil fuels, as deregulation and cutting enforcement is an apparent priority of Trump and Musk’s so-called Department Of Government Efficiency.
Cases involving corporations with close ties to Trump’s inner circle, such as those owned by Elon Musk, may exploit their positions to corruptly receive special treatment that outsiders would not. Corporations that lack close ties to Trump insiders may seek insider status in various ways, including through inauguration payments, employing lobbyists with ties to the administration, purchases of Trump-affiliated cryptocurrencies, and by outspokenly embracing the administration’s policies.
28% of the investigations and cases – 100 out of 361 – involve alleged wrongdoing by Fortune 500 corporations. Four corporations facing federal cases and investigations previously employed Attorney General Pam Bondi as counsel or as a corporate lobbyist: Amazon, Pfizer, Republic Services, and Uber. The corporations that began the Trump administration facing the greatest number of separate investigations and cases in Public Citizen’s Corporate Enforcement Tracker are:
- Tesla (8) and SpaceX (4)
- Amazon (7)
- Pfizer (5)
- Wells Fargo (4)
- UnitedHealthcare (4)
The cases are being investigated and litigated by 19 federal agencies, mostly:
- Department of Justice (161)
- Securities and Exchange Commission (58)
- National Labor Relations Board (55)
- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (45)
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (42)
- Federal Trade Commission (37), and
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration (19).
Of the 361 corporations facing federal enforcement actions, 56 have close ties with the Trump administration, including 34 that donated to Trump’s inaugural fund. Others are employing lobbyists with ties to the administration, have seen former lobbyists or executives named to serve in Trump’s cabinet, or have advanced Trump’s business or political interests. The 34 corporate inauguration donors facing federal enforcement collectively gave at least $34 million toward Trump’s inaugural festivities. These 34 corporations collectively face 60 separate federal investigations and lawsuits (see Table 1).
Table 1: 34 Corporations Facing Federal Enforcement that Donated at Least $34 Million to Trump’s Inauguration
| Corporation | Inauguration Donation | Enforcement Agency | Status | Subject of Investigation or Allegation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abbott Laboratories | $500,000 | DOJ | Criminal investigation ongoing | Misconduct connected with tainted baby formula |
| FTC | Investigation disclosed | Potential collusion or coordination in bidding for WIC infant formula contracts | ||
| Adobe | $1,000,000 | DOJ, FTC | Civil complaint filed | Complaint charges that maker of Photoshop and Acrobat deceived consumers about early termination fees, inhibited cancellations |
| Amazon | $1,000,000 | CPSC | Civil litigation ongoing, Amazon contesting | Commission determined that Amazon was a “distributor” of products that are defective or fail to meet federal consumer product safety standards, and therefore bears legal responsibility for their recall |
| DOJ | Investigation ongoing | Alleged fraudulent scheme designed to hide the true number of worker injuries in warehouses | ||
| EEOC | Investigation reported | Discrimination against pregnant workers | ||
| FCC | Investigation reported | Investigating sales of illegal wireless frequency jammers | ||
| FTC | Antitrust suit filed | Acting as a monopolist among e-commerce superstores and fulfillment providers | ||
| Civil suit filed, trial set for June 2025 | Enrolling consumers into its Prime program without their consent while knowingly making it difficult for consumers to cancel their subscriptions | |||
| NLRB | Cases open. Amazon seeking dismissal, contesting NLRB's constitutionality | Over 300 open cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 1.6 million employees | ||
| Apple (CEO donation) | $1,000,000 | DOJ | Antitrust suit filed | Smartphone market monopoly violations |
| NLRB | Cases open | Over 20 open cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 160,000 employees | ||
| AT&T | $1,000,000 | EPA | Investigation reported | Potential environmental contamination from at least 2,000 old lead-sheathed telco cables |
| NLRB | Cases open | Over 120 open cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 230,000 employees | ||
| Bank of America | undisclosed | CFPB | Civil suit filed | Alleged misconduct related to Zelle Network banks not doing enough to reimburse customers who were defrauded by scammers using the network |
| SEC | Investigation disclosed | Systematically cheating customers out of billions of dollars of interest payments | ||
| Boeing | $1,000,000 | DOJ | Plea agreement rejected by judge | Failure to remediate as required following legal agreements to reform following Boeing deceiving the FAA and subsequent deadly 737 Max crashes |
| NLRB | Cases open | Over 30 open cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 70,000 employees | ||
| Citibank | undisclosed | NLRB | Cases open | Two open cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 120,000 employees |
| Coca-Cola | $250,000 | FTC | Investigation reported | Over potential price discrimination in the soft drink market |
| Coinbase | $1,000,000 | SEC | Reportedly dismissed by Trump administration | Charged with operating its crypto asset trading platform as an unregistered national securities exchange and other securities violations |
| CoreCivic | $500,000 | DOJ Civil Rights | Civil rights investigation announced | Whether those incarcerated are protected from harm, including physical violence and sexual abuse |
| Ericsson | $500,000 | DOJ | Investigation disclosed | Business activities in Iraq that may constitute a violation of the FCPA |
| ExxonMobil | $1,000,000 | PHMSA | Civil penalty proposed | $2.4 million fine proposed against pipeline company Exxon-owned Denbury and its contractor, Republic Testing Laboratories, for blocking federal pipeline inspectors from carrying out their duties |
| Ford Motor Company | $1,000,000 | NHTSA | Investigation opened | Potentially faulty seat belt retractor pretensioners in 2019-2020 Ford Expeditions |
| Investigation opened | Insufficiently extensive recalls | |||
| NLRB | Cases open | Over 80 open cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 10,000 employees | ||
| General Motors | $1,000,000 | EEOC | Civil suit filed | Age discrimination |
| Goldman Sachs | $1,000,000 | CFTC | Investigation reported | Investigating futures trading fees |
| DOJ | Investigation reported | Whether there was collusion or a conspiracy to collude to control prices as part of the effort to limit exposure to the Archegos meltdown in 2021 | ||
| $1,000,000 | DOJ | Trial underway | Monopoly violations in advertising | |
| Breakup plan proposed | Monopoly violations in search | |||
| NLRB | Cases open | Over 20 open cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 180,000 employees | ||
| Hewlett Packard | undisclosed | DOJ | Investigation started under Biden, antitrust suit filed on 1/30/25 | Anticompetitive merger sought |
| Hyundai affiliate Glovis EV Logistics America | $1,000,000 | DOL | Civil suit filed | Child labor violations |
| Hyundai, Smart Alabama, Best Practice Service | OSHA | Investigation reported | Workplace safety investigation of worker crushed in factory | |
| Johnson & Johnson | $1,000,000 | DOJ | Investigation disclosed | False Claims Act investigation relating to free or discounted intraocular lenses and equipment used in eye surgery |
| Kraken | $1,000,000 | SEC | Reportedly dismissed by Trump administration | Charged with operating crypto trading platform as an unregistered securities exchange, broker, dealer, and clearing agency |
| Lockheed Martin | $1,000,000 | NLRB | Cases open | 15 open cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 19,000 employees |
| Meta | $1,000,000 | CFPB | Civil investigation ongoing | Allegations that it improperly used financial data obtained from third parties in its highly-lucrative advertising business |
| FTC | Antitrust suit filed | Social media monopoly violations | ||
| NLRB | Cases open | Two open cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 65,000 employees | ||
| Microsoft | $1,000,000 | FTC | Antitrust investigation reportedly opened | Anticompetitive actions related to cloud computing services |
| Antitrust suit filed | Anticompetitive merger sought | |||
| Antitrust investigation reportedly opened | Whether Microsoft structured its deal with AI startup Inflection to avoid a government antitrust oversight | |||
| OpenAI (CEO donation) | $1,000,000 | FTC | Investigation opened | Consumer harms from data collection and misinformation |
| SEC | Investigation reported | Investigating internal communications to understand if investors were misled | ||
| Pfizer | $1,000,000 | DOJ | FCPA investigation disclosed | Relating to the company's operations in Mexico |
| Investigation disclosed | Relating to manufacturing operations in India | |||
| Investigation disclosed | Relating to relationship with another drug manufacturer and its production and manufacturing of drugs including, but not limited to, Quillivant XR | |||
| Investigation disclosed | Related to alleged quality issues involving the manufacture of auto-injectors | |||
| DOJ, SEC | FCPA investigation disclosed | Possible non-compliance with FCPA in China | ||
| Ripple | $5,000,000 | SEC | SEC opening brief filed against district judge ruling | Securities law violations |
| Robinhood Markets | $2,000,000 | SEC | Reportedly dismissed by Trump administration | Securities violations within crypto unit |
| Stanley Black & Decker | $1,000,000 | OSHA | Company contesting citation | Workplace safety violations after worker suffered severe burns in electrical arc fire |
| Stellantis | $1,000,000 | NHTSA | Investigations opened | Safety investigation of engine fires |
| NLRB | Cases open | Over 190 open cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 56,000 employees | ||
| Syngenta | $250,000 | FTC | Case ongoing | Allegedly paying distributors to block competitors from selling their cheaper generic products to farmers |
| Toyota | $1,000,000 | DOJ, SEC | FCPA investigation disclosed | Possible anti-bribery violations related to a Thai subsidiary |
| Uber (corporate and CEO donation) | $2,000,000 | FTC | Investigation reported, proposed settlement reportedly opposed by Uber | Allegedly automatically signing people up for its Uber One subscription service and making it hard to cancel |
Source: News reporting, agency announcements, and financial filings compiled in Public Citizen’s Corporate Enforcement Tracker database.
So far, of the 56 corporations with ties to the Trump administration, 17 are benefiting from the enforcement pauses that have halted investigations and cases against 89 corporations (see Table 2).
Table 2: 17 Corporations with Trump Ties Benefiting from Enforcement Pauses and Dismissals
| Corporation | Enforcement Agency | Subject of Investigation or Allegation | Known Trump Administration Ties | Trump Administration Intervention |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A&G Coal et al. (13 coal companies owned or operated by James "Jay" Justice III) | DOJ Environment and Natural Resources Division | $7.6 million in unpaid civil penalties previously assessed by federal authorities | Jay Justice's father is Sen. Jim Justice II (R-WV), former governor who switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican at a Trump rally. Trump endorsed Justice in the Republican primary | Cases brought by DOJ's ENRD were reportedly frozen on week one of the Trump administration |
| Adani Green Energy Ltd and Azure Power Global | DOJ, SEC | Whistleblower complaints allege FCPA misconduct | Billionaire executive Gautam Adani, also indicted, congratulated Trump on X and pledged to invest $10 billion in the US, creating 15,000 jobs. Adani is reportedly an ally of Indian Prime Minister Modi, who is seen as friendly with Trump | Trump signed an executive order on 2/10/25 halting FCPA enforcement |
| Bank of America | CFPB | Alleged misconduct related to Zelle Network banks not doing enough to reimburse customers who were defrauded by scammers using the network | Bank of America reportedly donated an unspecified amount to Trump's 2024 inaugural fund Trump's Commerce Secretary, billionaire Howard Lutnick, borrowed $100 million from Bank of America in 2019 and 2023, according to financial disclosures | Trump's CFPB halted investigations and cases on 2/3/25 |
| Coinbase | SEC | Charged with operating its crypto asset trading platform as an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency. The SEC also charged Coinbase for failing to register the offer and sale of its crypto asset staking-as-a-service program | Coinbase donated $1 million toward Trump's inaugural fund Coinbase spent more than $50 million backing Fairshake, a pro-crypto super PAC that helped elect Trump allies to Congress Coinbase listed Trump’s meme coin, $TRUMP, creating a multimillion-dollar surge in income for the president Coinbase hired the Trump campaign's 2024 co-manager, Chris LaCivita, as an advisor | According to a post on Coinbase's website, Trump's SEC agreed to dismiss its case on 2/21/25 |
| CoreCivic | DOJ Civil Rights | Whether those incarcerated are protected from harm, including physical violence and sexual abuse | CoreCivic donated $500,000 to Trump's inaugural committee CoreCivic president Damon Hininger contributed $300,000 to a joint fundraising committee between the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee over the last year CoreCivic employs Miller Strategies, a lobbying firm founded by Trump Inauguration finance chair Jeff Miller | Trump DOJ leadership announced a freeze on Civil Rights litigation on 1/22/25 |
| Denka Performance Elastomer and DuPont | EPA, DOJ Environment and Natural Resources Division | The complaint asserts that the LaPlace plant’s operations present an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health and welfare due to the cancer risks from chloroprene emissions | Lynn Ann Dekleva, who Trump nominated to serve as deputy assistant EPA administrator, worked for DuPont for over 30 years | Cases brought by DOJ's ENRD were reportedly frozen on week one of the Trump administration |
| eBay | EPA, DOJ Environment and Natural Resources Division | Alleged eBay is liable for sales of products banned by EPA | eBay hired Miller Strategies, a lobbying firm founded by Trump Inauguration finance chair Jeff Miller, to lobby federal agencies and Congress Gail Slater, who Trump nominated to lead the DOJ's Antitrust Division, worked formerly as general counsel for the Internet Association, which lobbied on behalf of big tech corporations, including eBay | Cases brought by DOJ's ENRD were reportedly frozen on week one of the Trump administration |
| Ericsson | DOJ | Business activities in Iraq that may constitute a violation of the FCPA | Ericsson donated $500,000 to Trump's inaugural committee | Trump signed an executive order on 2/10/25 halting FCPA enforcement for at least 180 days |
| JPMorgan | CFPB | Disclosed the bank was “responding to inquiries from civil government authorities ... regarding the handling of disputes related to transfers of funds through the Zelle Network” | CEO Jamie Dimon has reportedly served for months as an informal policy advisor to Trump | Trump's CFPB ordered a freeze on all investigations and cases on 2/3/25 |
| Kraken | SEC | Charged with operating crypto trading platform as an unregistered securities exchange, broker, dealer, and clearing agency | Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell donated $1 million in cryptocurrency backing Trump for president Kraken reportedly donated $1 million toward Trump's inaugural fund | The Trump administration's SEC filed to dismiss the case on 3/3/25 |
| Meta | CFPB | Allegations that it improperly used financial data obtained from third parties in its highly-lucrative advertising business | Meta donated $1 million toward Trump's inaugural fund Rick Dearborn, who lobbied for Meta in 2024, worked on Trump's 2016 transition team and in the White House, and authored a section of Project 2025 David Sacks, who Trump appointed to be the White House "AI & Crypto Czar," made a "notable investment" in the company according to the Craft Ventures website Gail Slater, who Trump nominated to lead the DOJ's Antitrust Division, worked formerly as general counsel for the Internet Association, which lobbied on behalf of big tech corporations, including Facebook | Trump's CFPB ordered a freeze on all investigations and cases on 2/3/25 |
| OpenSea | SEC | Alleged sale of unregistered securities | Trump NFTs are traded on OpenSea's platform | The Trump administration's SEC filed to dismiss the case on 2/21/25 |
| Pfizer | DOJ | Relating to the company's operations in Mexico | Pfizer donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund. Trump's AG nominee Pam Bondi provided legal services to Pfizer, Inc. over the past year while working as Of Counsel to the law firm Panza, Maurer & Maynard. Jeff Miller, a lobbyist who represents Pfizer and pharmaceutical industry group PhRMA, is a finance chair for Trump's inaugural committee | Trump signed an executive order on 2/10/25 halting FCPA enforcement for at least 180 days |
| DOJ, SEC | Possible non-compliance with FCPA in China | |||
| Robinhood Markets | SEC | Securities violations within its crypto unit | Robinhood donated $2 million toward Trump's 2024 inaugural fund Robinhood listed Trump’s meme coin, $TRUMP, creating a multimillion-dollar surge in income for the president Robinhood hired Trump ally Brian Ballard to lobby on crypto issues in 2024. Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles is a former lobbyist with Ballard's firm | The Trump administration moved to dismiss the case on 2/24/25 |
| SpaceX | DOJ Civil Rights | Accuses SpaceX of discriminating against asylees and refugees in hiring decisions | CEO is Elon Musk, who spent more than $290 million to help elect Trump and who oversees DOGE, an effort to impose severe cuts to regulators David Sacks, who Trump appointed to be the White House "AI & Crypto Czar," made a "notable investment" in the company according to the Craft Ventures website SpaceX employs Miller Strategies, a lobbying firm founded by Trump Inauguration finance chair Jeff Miller | Trump's DOJ filed to dismiss the case on 2/20/25 |
| Toyota | DOJ, SEC | Possible anti-bribery violations related to a Thai subsidiary | Toyota donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund | Trump signed an executive order on 2/10/25 halting FCPA enforcement for at least 180 days |
| Tron Foundation Limited, BitTorrent Foundation, Rainberry | SEC, DOJ | Fraud and other securities law violations | Billionaire CEO Justin Sun purchased $75 million worth of tokens from Trump-affiliated crypto World Liberty Financial, purchases which sent $50 million to Trump | Trump's SEC and Sun filed a joint request to pause litigation for 60 days on 2/26/25 |
Source: News reporting, agency announcements, and financial filings compiled in Public Citizen’s Corporate Enforcement Tracker database.
Conclusion
It has only been a little over a month since Trump took office, and the message that the administration intends to let corporate lawbreakers off the hook could not be clearer – especially when those corporate lawbreakers are also Trump administration insiders.
The biggest corporate titans and billionaire executives have lined up behind the administration’s zealous and increasingly authoritarian antipathy toward consumer, worker, and environmental protections. They self-servingly echo Trump’s grievances about the “weaponization” of enforcement to advocate the disarmament of regulators protecting the public from corporate predators.
Office of Management and Budget director and Project 25 author Russ Vought – who Trump also made acting CFPB director – proclaimed “More to come but the weaponization of ‘consumer protection’ must end” in a post justifying the agency’s dismissal of the case against Solo Funds.
In other words, under Trump, expect a thorough disarmament of consumer protection agencies.
The consequences for the public when corporations face a diminished threat of enforcement are disastrous, and the consolidation of state power with corporate power with a mission to prioritize profits over the public poses dire threats to our democracy.
Meanwhile, honest businesses that are not Trump administration insiders – or that refuse to play along with the ultra-MAGA ideological agenda – may face genuine disadvantages of disfavor from the administration’s politicized approach to enforcement.
Corporate crime and lawbreaking can victimize millions of Americans at an unimaginable scale. The bitter irony that it can happen under the banner of a supposed “law and order” presidential platform might be amusing if the reality was not so plainly catastrophic. This will not end well.