As Trump Politicizes Justice Dept., Prosecutors Struggle With Grand Juries

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/us/politics/trump-justice-department-grand-juries.html?unlocked_article_code=1.lVA.zB68.xFBSDGb-Ardi&smid=url-share

As Trump Politicizes Justice Dept., Prosecutors Struggle With Grand Juries
Judges and grand juries have increasingly lost faith in the Justice Department as the president uses it to reward his friends and go after his opponents.

Grand juries are the heart of the criminal justice system, the inner sanctum where prosecutors, working unchecked and in secret, have enormous power to indict their fellow citizens.

But under President Trump, the Justice Department has had serious difficulties presenting cases to grand juries, running into problems that would have seemed unthinkable a year ago.

In the past several months, prosecutors have repeatedly failed to persuade grand juries that the cases they have brought warrant criminal charges. And if it were not unusual enough, they have also been admonished at least three times since last November by federal judges who have accused them of misconduct.

The latest setback came in Chicago, where a judge cited a remarkable list of grand jury errors in a case that was dismissed against four Democratic activists about to face trial for impeding the police during a protest last fall at a suburban immigration detention facility.