Top officials at the US Department of Justice have reportedly halted a years-long criminal investigation into Facebook parent company Meta for allegedly facilitating—and profiting from—the illegal sale of drugs on its platforms, including to children.
Bloomberg Law reported Thursday that “senior leaders” at the Justice Department “ordered career prosecutors in the Western District of Virginia to cease the criminal investigation following advocacy from Meta‘s legal team.” Meta is headed by Mark Zuckerberg, a billionaire who has worked to ingratiate himself with President Donald Trump by helping to bankroll his inauguration and ballroom project.
“This is what Meta’s money is buying,” Kyle Jacobs-Morse, deputy executive director of the Tech Oversight Project, wrote in response to reports of the halted probe.
The existence of the Meta investigation was first revealed in March 2024 by The Wall Street Journal, which reported at the time that US prosecutors were “sending subpoenas and asking questions as part of a criminal grand jury probe looking into whether the company’s social-media platforms are facilitating and profiting from the illegal sale of drugs.”
According to Bloomberg Law, DOJ leaders’ decision to sideline the probe came “just after company executives were subpoenaed to testify.”
Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter and Associate Deputy Attorney General Aakash Singh “are considering a civil resolution with a fine or a non-prosecution agreement,” Bloomberg Law reported.
“Such a deal would allow the social media giant to avoid charges for its role in creating a market for youth to purchase deadly fentanyl pills and other addictive drugs,” the outlet added.
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on the investigation but boasted in a statement to Bloomberg Law that the Trump DOJ has “ended the Biden-era days of aggressively and indiscriminately targeting corporations and businesses.”
“Instead, we are focused on following the facts and the law to surgically address corporate wrongdoing,” the spokesperson said.
Shelby Knox, tech campaign director with the advocacy group ParentsTogether Action, said in a statement Friday that “when the Justice Department says it wants to ‘surgically address corporate wrongdoing,’ a grand jury investigation into potential drug sales to children should be exactly the kind of case it pursues.”
“A criminal investigation does not automatically establish guilt, but prosecutors must be allowed to follow the evidence without political interference,” Knox added. “Meta is worth more than a trillion dollars; a fine alone is not meaningful accountability. If the evidence supports charges, file them. If it doesn’t, explain why. Children and families deserve more than apologies or a financial settlement. They deserve the truth, meaningful protections, and accountability under the law.”
The Justice Department’s reported decision to halt the Meta probe fits a broader pattern of lax corporate enforcement during Trump’s second White House term.
The consumer advocacy group Public Citizen released a report earlier this month showing that the administration has cancelled hundreds of enforcement actions involving more than 200 corporations—many of which have donated to Trump’s projects.
Rick Claypool, a research director at Public Citizen, wrote on Friday that Meta is “just one of the 200+ corporations benefiting from Trump’s enforcement retreat.”
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