SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Sen. Elizabeth Warren in New Hampshire, January 2019. (Photo: Marc Nozell, Flickr)
New Warren, Jayapal Report Details Corporate Crime Free-for-All Under Trump Administration
"Our justice system's soft touch with huge corporations and billionaires is not a new phenomenon. But under President Trump, it is far worse than it has ever been."
May 14, 2019
The Trump administration is letting corporate crime run rampant.
"This country's government is rigged in favor of the rich and powerful, and the Trump administration has turned this power gap into a chasm."
That's the message delivered by a new report (pdf) out Tuesday from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.).
The report, "Rigged Justice 2.0," explains how President Donald Trump's government is allowing corporations to do whatever they want.
"Our justice system's soft touch with huge corporations and billionaires is not a new phenomenon," reads the report. "But under President Trump, it is far worse than it has ever been."
The report is the second in a series. The first edition, "Rigged Justice," was released by Warren, a Democratic presidential candidate, in January 2016. The report detailed the weakness of the Obama administration on corporate crime--but, as Warren's office pointed out in a statement announcing "Rigged Justice 2.0," those were the good old days.
"This new analysis reveals a catastrophic decline in corporate accountability under President Trump," said Warren's office, "illustrating the impact of corporate malfeasance on the American public through a dozen case studies in which the government failed to hold companies and white collar criminals accountable for ripping off the American people, hurting workers, or damaging the environment."
Among the highlights of the new report are a 20-year low in corporate crime enforcement and an abdication of governmental responsibility for workers, consumers, and the environment. The lack of action to hold corporations accountable, the report argues, is because of an unprecedented takeover of the federal government by corporations.
Among the key findings:
- A rapid decline in the number of white collar crime enforcement actions pursued by the federal government, bringing enforcement activity to a 20-year low -- down 33.5 percent from 2013, and down 41 percent from 1998;
- A decline in monetary penalties and enforcement actions across nearly every federal government agency, including drops in penalty amounts of more than 80% during the administration's first 20 months at the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Federal Communications Commission;
- A failure to punish banks and financial firms that break the law, including a more than 50% decline in the number of cases brought by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Securities and Exchange Commission, and DOJ; and
- Massive declines in the number of federal government employees responsible for enforcing federal laws that protect the security of our financial markets, the safety of our workplaces, and the quality of our air and water.
"The Trump administration has treated their billionaire buddies and corporate campaign contributors like the old friends they are," reads the report, "handing them the keys to government regulatory decisions, and neutering the federal government's enforcement tools to address and prevent corporate crime."
In its 16 pages, the new report exhaustively details a litany of corporate crimes across all sectors and notes the Trump administration's inaction on nearly every issue, including a defunding and defanging of the regulatory state apparatuses put in place to protect the American people.
"This country's government is rigged in favor of the rich and powerful," the report says, "and the Trump administration has turned this power gap into a chasm."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
The Trump administration is letting corporate crime run rampant.
"This country's government is rigged in favor of the rich and powerful, and the Trump administration has turned this power gap into a chasm."
That's the message delivered by a new report (pdf) out Tuesday from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.).
The report, "Rigged Justice 2.0," explains how President Donald Trump's government is allowing corporations to do whatever they want.
"Our justice system's soft touch with huge corporations and billionaires is not a new phenomenon," reads the report. "But under President Trump, it is far worse than it has ever been."
The report is the second in a series. The first edition, "Rigged Justice," was released by Warren, a Democratic presidential candidate, in January 2016. The report detailed the weakness of the Obama administration on corporate crime--but, as Warren's office pointed out in a statement announcing "Rigged Justice 2.0," those were the good old days.
"This new analysis reveals a catastrophic decline in corporate accountability under President Trump," said Warren's office, "illustrating the impact of corporate malfeasance on the American public through a dozen case studies in which the government failed to hold companies and white collar criminals accountable for ripping off the American people, hurting workers, or damaging the environment."
Among the highlights of the new report are a 20-year low in corporate crime enforcement and an abdication of governmental responsibility for workers, consumers, and the environment. The lack of action to hold corporations accountable, the report argues, is because of an unprecedented takeover of the federal government by corporations.
Among the key findings:
- A rapid decline in the number of white collar crime enforcement actions pursued by the federal government, bringing enforcement activity to a 20-year low -- down 33.5 percent from 2013, and down 41 percent from 1998;
- A decline in monetary penalties and enforcement actions across nearly every federal government agency, including drops in penalty amounts of more than 80% during the administration's first 20 months at the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Federal Communications Commission;
- A failure to punish banks and financial firms that break the law, including a more than 50% decline in the number of cases brought by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Securities and Exchange Commission, and DOJ; and
- Massive declines in the number of federal government employees responsible for enforcing federal laws that protect the security of our financial markets, the safety of our workplaces, and the quality of our air and water.
"The Trump administration has treated their billionaire buddies and corporate campaign contributors like the old friends they are," reads the report, "handing them the keys to government regulatory decisions, and neutering the federal government's enforcement tools to address and prevent corporate crime."
In its 16 pages, the new report exhaustively details a litany of corporate crimes across all sectors and notes the Trump administration's inaction on nearly every issue, including a defunding and defanging of the regulatory state apparatuses put in place to protect the American people.
"This country's government is rigged in favor of the rich and powerful," the report says, "and the Trump administration has turned this power gap into a chasm."
The Trump administration is letting corporate crime run rampant.
"This country's government is rigged in favor of the rich and powerful, and the Trump administration has turned this power gap into a chasm."
That's the message delivered by a new report (pdf) out Tuesday from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.).
The report, "Rigged Justice 2.0," explains how President Donald Trump's government is allowing corporations to do whatever they want.
"Our justice system's soft touch with huge corporations and billionaires is not a new phenomenon," reads the report. "But under President Trump, it is far worse than it has ever been."
The report is the second in a series. The first edition, "Rigged Justice," was released by Warren, a Democratic presidential candidate, in January 2016. The report detailed the weakness of the Obama administration on corporate crime--but, as Warren's office pointed out in a statement announcing "Rigged Justice 2.0," those were the good old days.
"This new analysis reveals a catastrophic decline in corporate accountability under President Trump," said Warren's office, "illustrating the impact of corporate malfeasance on the American public through a dozen case studies in which the government failed to hold companies and white collar criminals accountable for ripping off the American people, hurting workers, or damaging the environment."
Among the highlights of the new report are a 20-year low in corporate crime enforcement and an abdication of governmental responsibility for workers, consumers, and the environment. The lack of action to hold corporations accountable, the report argues, is because of an unprecedented takeover of the federal government by corporations.
Among the key findings:
- A rapid decline in the number of white collar crime enforcement actions pursued by the federal government, bringing enforcement activity to a 20-year low -- down 33.5 percent from 2013, and down 41 percent from 1998;
- A decline in monetary penalties and enforcement actions across nearly every federal government agency, including drops in penalty amounts of more than 80% during the administration's first 20 months at the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Federal Communications Commission;
- A failure to punish banks and financial firms that break the law, including a more than 50% decline in the number of cases brought by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Securities and Exchange Commission, and DOJ; and
- Massive declines in the number of federal government employees responsible for enforcing federal laws that protect the security of our financial markets, the safety of our workplaces, and the quality of our air and water.
"The Trump administration has treated their billionaire buddies and corporate campaign contributors like the old friends they are," reads the report, "handing them the keys to government regulatory decisions, and neutering the federal government's enforcement tools to address and prevent corporate crime."
In its 16 pages, the new report exhaustively details a litany of corporate crimes across all sectors and notes the Trump administration's inaction on nearly every issue, including a defunding and defanging of the regulatory state apparatuses put in place to protect the American people.
"This country's government is rigged in favor of the rich and powerful," the report says, "and the Trump administration has turned this power gap into a chasm."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.