Press Releases

Today, the Justice Department took significant steps to move forward with implementing a critical program to prevent China, Russia, Iran, and other foreign adversaries from using commercial activities to access and exploit U.S. Government-related data and Americans’ sensitive personal data to commit espionage and economic espionage, conduct surveillance and counterintelligence activities, develop AI and military capabilities, and otherwise undermine our national security. 

A Florida man was sentenced to 18 months in prison, two years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $4,381,265.76 in restitution to the United States for willfully failing to pay over employment taxes and willfully failing to file individual income tax returns.

To commemorate the 2025 National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, the Department of Justice reaffirms its steadfast commitment to compensate crime victims with federally forfeited assets. The Justice Department’s Asset Forfeiture Program has surpassed $12 billion in compensation to crime victims.

A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Missouri returned an indictment on Wednesday charging Travis Santel Jones, 21, of St. Louis, Missouri, with one count of murder in aid of racketeering, RICO conspiracy, using a firearm during a crime of violence, and causing death with a firearm, all related to Jones’s alleged part in the Cochran Crips, a violent street gang based in St. Louis. Two victims were gunned down in the street and one victim was killed at his own home.

A Georgia man was sentenced today to 78 months in prison for his involvement in a conspiracy to launder millions of dollars in drug proceeds on behalf of foreign drug trafficking organizations, including the Sinaloa cartel and Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (the Jalisco cartel). On Dec. 4, 2024, his co-conspirator was sentenced to 90 months in prison for his role in the money laundering scheme.

Shawn Monper, 32, a resident of Butler, Pennsylvania, has been charged by federal criminal complaint with making threats to assault and murder President Donald J. Trump, other U.S. officials, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

Today, the Department of Justice announced that that its Civil Rights Division will immediately close an “environmental justice” matter. Effective immediately, the division will terminate the environmental justice settlement agreement that stemmed from the investigation launched by the previous administration targeting Lowndes County, Alabama.

WASHINGTON—Today, the Justice Department announced that it has acted to end the state of Illinois’ unlawful minority-only scholarship program.  After the Justice Department threatened to file suit, the state and six universities suspended the program.

The Justice Department filed a statement of interest today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York supporting a claim by a religious Islamic organization that the Town of Oyster Bay violated its rights under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) when it denied the organization’s site plan application to expand its current facility into a mosque that would meet the religious needs of its congregation.

A San Diego restaurant owner was sentenced to 42 months in prison for schemes to defraud COVID-19 relief programs and filing false tax returns.

Extensive coordination and cooperation between U.S. and Honduran law enforcement authorities resulted in the extradition of a Honduran national for his alleged role in a conspiracy to smuggle drugs from Honduras to the United States.

A federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment this week, charging Ishmael Petty, 56, with first degree murder and murder by a federal prisoner serving a life sentence.