On April 22, the Department of Justice (DOJ) terminated at least 75 grants that amounted to $180 million. At this point in the second Trump administration, this amounts to 373 grants from the DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP), totaling $820 million in cuts. The terminated grants covered a wide swathe of the legal and justice system, impacting hate crimes, “federal support for violence reduction, policing and prosecution, victims’ services, juvenile justice and child protection, substance use and mental health treatment, corrections and reentry, justice system enhancements, research and evaluation, and other state- and local-level public safety functions.”
The grants were targeted based on what did not align with the Trump administration’s priorities, according to OJP acting head Maureen Henneberg. It is not the job of the DOJ or any of its offices to align with the President’s administration. These grant terminations also risk being illegal, as Congress appropriated the funding for them.
Criminals are undoubtedly rejoicing at some of the cuts. For instance, Boston’s Community Resources for Justice was stripped of $37 million dollars utilized for crime data analysis and other services. Workers related to law and justice have already been fired due to the cuts, and taxpayer money will be wasted, as many of the now-defunded projects were terminated before they could produce their intended deliverables. This is despite the second Trump administration’s boast of challenging “waste, fraud, and abuse.”
