As political optics go, the Trump administration’s latest law enforcement move doesn’t look great. On the one hand, Donald Trump and members of his immediate family are increasingly involved in cryptocurrency schemes. On the other hand, as The New York Times reported, the president’s Justice Department is also scaling back law enforcement efforts related to the crypto industry.
The Trump administration is disbanding a unit in the Justice Department that was responsible for investigating cryptocurrency crimes, criticizing the Biden administration as too aggressive against the fast-growing industry. … The directive is in keeping with President Trump’s broad embrace of the crypto industry during his campaign and in office as he moves to relax enforcement.
The news came by way of a memo from Todd Blanche — the deputy attorney general who used to be one of the president’s criminal defense attorneys — who also disbanded the national cryptocurrency enforcement team.
This announcement came just two weeks after Trump’s Justice Department also disbanded a team that had been responsible for investigating foreign kleptocrats.
As The Washington Post reported, the DOJ operation had succeeded in recent years in recovering “hundreds of millions in cash and valuables that had been embezzled by corrupt politicians. It repatriated substantial sums to the plundered nations, including Nigeria, Kazakhstan and, in its most renowned case, Malaysia, which received more than $1.4 billion that had been looted in an investment scam.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi disbanded it anyway.
A week earlier, Reuters reported, “Federal agents who usually hunt down child abusers are now cracking down on immigrants who live in the U.S. illegally. Homeland Security investigators who specialize in money laundering are raiding restaurants and other small businesses looking for immigrants who aren’t authorized to work. Agents who pursue drug traffickers and tax fraud are being reassigned to enforce immigration law.”
Shortly before that, the president signed an executive order pausing enforcement of a federal law that makes it a crime for U.S. businesses to bribe foreign officials.
That came on the heels of Trump’s Treasury Department announcing that it would stop enforcing an anti-money laundering law. At the same time, Trump and his team repeatedly undercut the Internal Revenue Service, which no doubt delighted those who’ve broken federal tax laws. And did I mention that the administration disbanded the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and pared back enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, opening the door to additional corruption? Because that happened, too. I can appreciate why many observers look for evidence of Trump and his team committing crimes, but let’s also not forget the importance of Trump and his team abetting crimes.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
Latest Post
Recommended
