Federal drug prosecutions hit a decades-low

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The Daily Docket

A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw

By Caitlin Tremblay

Good morning. The number of people charged with breaking federal drug laws dropped to the lowest level in decades. Plus, the indictment of James Comey escalates President Trump's campaign to chill opposition; Charlie Kirk's accused killer will face a preliminary court hearing; and a federal judge will hear arguments in Pfizer's bid to dismiss hundreds of lawsuits over its birth control shot Depo Provera. If a rare blanket of flowers can transform the world's driest desert, we can make it through Monday. Let's get going.

Federal drug prosecutions fall to lowest level in decades as Trump shifts focus to deportations

DEA agents patrol at Union Station D.C., August 12, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Federal drug prosecutions hit a decades-low in 2025, according to a Reuters review of nearly 2 million court records. Here's what to know:

Prosecutions dropped 10% compared to the same period in 2024 — about 1,200 fewer cases.
Money-laundering charges fell 24%, signaling a sharper decline in cases targeting high-level traffickers.
The drop follows President Trump's order that federal agents focus on his immigration crackdown — the broadest overhaul of U.S. law enforcement since the attacks of September 11, 2001.
The shift has produced a coast-to-coast slowdown in the types of investigations and prosecutions that the government had long viewed as central to taking on criminal networks, including the drug cartels whose products killed more than 80,000 people last year.
Learn more in Brad Heath's exclusive report.

Coming up today

U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers in Pensacola, Florida, will hear arguments in Pfizer's bid to dismiss hundreds of lawsuits alleging its birth control shot Depo Provera causes brain tumors. Pfizer has argued that the lawsuits should be tossed because regulators barred the company from including a warning about the tumors on the drug's label.
U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai in Eugene, Oregon, will hear a challenge by a group of Democratic-led states to a new Trump administration policy from the U.S. Department of Energy that they say will limit funding for state energy projects. Read the complaint.
Entrepreneur Charlie Javice is due to be sentenced after her March conviction on charges of defrauding JPMorgan Chase into buying her college financial aid startup Frank for $175 million in July 2021.
Prosecutors are due to submit a court filing outlining the sentence they believe hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs deserves for his conviction on charges of transportation to engage in prostitution.
Tyler Robinson, the suspect in the September 10 assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in his case. He faces seven counts, including aggravated murder, and Utah prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.

More top news

Industry insight

U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff in Virginia was assigned to hear former FBI Director James Comey's criminal case. He is an ex-public defender who advocated for sentencing reform and was appointed to the bench by Trump's Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden. More on Nachmanoff here.

$18.5 million

—That's how much Southwest Airlines agreed to pay to settle a class action alleging it denied paid leave to employees taking short-term military leave. The lawsuit claimed the carrier withheld pay for absences of 14 days or fewer, despite compensating sick leave, bereavement leave and jury duty. The preliminary settlement, filed in San Francisco federal court, awaits judicial approval. Read more here.

"I think there will be others."

— President Trump on Friday when asked about the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey. The indictment marked the first time his administration used the power of criminal prosecution against a prominent adversary, shattering norms of independence in federal investigations. Andrew Goudsward has more analysis here.

In the courts

The U.S. Supreme Court sided again on Friday with President Trump, allowing his administration to withhold about $4 billion in foreign aid authorized by Congress. Read more.
The Trump administration pushed back against arguments made by Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook that his attempted firing of her should not be allowed to proceed, telling the U.S. Supreme Court in a filing that his removal of her would be a valid exercise of his authority.
A coalition of Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit seeking to block the HHS from requiring them to remove all references to 'gender ideology' from sexual health education curricula to receive federal grant funding. Read the complaint.
U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman in D.C. ruled against China-based DJI in a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Defense Department's inclusion of the drone maker on a list of companies allegedly working with Beijing's military. Read the opinion.
Biotech company Factor Bioscience sued rival Cellectis and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca in Delaware federal court for allegedly infringing patents related to gene-editing technology used in cancer treatments. Read the complaint.
Martin Shkreli must face a lawsuit by a digital art collective that owns a one-of-a-kind album by the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, and that accused the convicted former pharmaceutical executive of copying the album and playing it online without permission. Read the decision.

Attorney Analysis

Tony Rospert and Filip Cukovic of Thompson Hine examine recent court decisions that highlight some of the unsettled questions about attorney-client communications during deposition breaks. Read today's Attorney Analysis.

Additional writing by Shruthi Krishnamurthy.

Contact

Caitlin Tremblay

caitlin.tremblay@thomsonreuters.com

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