For more than two years, federal prosecutors in Virginia have been investigating whether Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, helped illegal drug sellers reach users on its platforms, including children, and made money from it.
Then they subpoenaed Meta's executives to testify. And Trump's Justice Department told them to stop.
Senior leaders at Justice Department headquarters ordered the career prosecutors in the Western District of Virginia to back off the criminal investigation, Bloomberg Law reported on October 15, citing people familiar with it. The order followed lobbying by Meta's legal team. Meta's executives are no longer being called before the grand jury.
What prosecutors were looking at
The investigation first became public in March 2024, when the Wall Street Journal reported that prosecutors were sending subpoenas and asking questions as part of a criminal grand jury probe. The question was whether Meta's platforms were facilitating and profiting from the illegal sale of drugs, including the promotion of prescription drugs to children.
This isn't a paperwork case. As Bloomberg Law described it, the probe went to whether Meta's platforms created a market for young people to buy fentanyl pills.
How it got shut down
According to Bloomberg Law, here's how it went:
- Prosecutors sent new subpoenas to Meta executives to testify before the grand jury.
- Meta escalated its complaints to the top of the Justice Department.
- Department leaders set up a meeting between Meta's outside lawyers, its in-house lawyers and the Virginia prosecutors.
- Afterward, the career prosecutors were told to retreat from the investigation.
The two officials Bloomberg Law named as now weighing how to resolve the case are acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter and his deputy, Aakash Singh. The options under discussion are a civil resolution with a fine, or a non-prosecution agreement. Either way, Meta would avoid criminal charges.
Department leaders intervened to protect the company, Bloomberg Law reported, as Mark Zuckerberg has played a core role in shaping President Trump's strategy to counter growing backlash over the safety of AI.
Asked about it, a Justice Department spokesperson said the department can't comment on ongoing investigations, and added that the department has "ended the Biden-era days of aggressively and indiscriminately targeting corporations and businesses." Meta declined to comment.
Not the first time
Bloomberg Law reported that Justice Department leaders have overruled career prosecutors in other corporate cases too. A criminal case against Abbott Laboratories ended in a $385 million civil settlement. Alibaba got a non-prosecution agreement with a $600 million payment.
Watchdog group Public Citizen has counted hundreds of enforcement actions cancelled involving more than 200 corporations under Trump, Common Dreams reported, and found that many of those companies gave to Trump's projects. We've written about Public Citizen's findings on the donors behind Trump's $400 million White House ballroom: 16 of the 27 known corporate donors were facing federal enforcement actions or had them suspended.
Zuckerberg has worked hard to get on Trump's good side, including helping pay for his inauguration and his ballroom, according to Common Dreams.
"This is what Meta's money is buying," said Kyle Jacobs-Morse of the Tech Oversight Project.
Who pays
If the case ends in a fine or a non-prosecution agreement, no one at Meta answers to a grand jury about what happened on its platforms. Shelby Knox of the parents' group ParentsTogether Action said a fine alone "is not meaningful accountability."
In summary
Federal prosecutors in Virginia spent more than two years investigating whether Meta facilitated and profited from illegal drug sales on its platforms, including to children. Right after they subpoenaed Meta executives to testify before a grand jury, Trump's Justice Department leadership, following lobbying by Meta's lawyers, ordered them to back off, Bloomberg Law reported. Officials are now weighing a fine or a non-prosecution agreement that would let Meta avoid criminal charges.
