In the 20 years that NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson has covered the U.S. Department of Justice, she’s learned to expect changes with each administration.
“But there have been seismic shifts in this DOJ under President Trump,” she told host Sarah Fenske on Wednesday on St. Louis on the Air.
“We’ve not only seen basically a defanging of the Civil Rights Division — especially with respect to its investigations of excessive force and potential discrimination by state and local police — but we’ve also seen a big shift in the environment, in the kinds of cases it takes on the environment,” Johnson said.
“We have near record low numbers of white-collar crime prosecutions at the Justice Department under this administration,” she added, “and of course a major shift in immigration. The Justice Department controls, in part, the immigration courts, and there’s been a lot of unrest there over the last three, three and a half years.”
On Friday, Johnson will take the virtual stage, alongside St. Louis Public Radio reporter Rachel Lippmann, for the second annual Justice Speaks event in partnership with Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, which has worked to provide access to justice since 1956.
Related Event
What: Justice Speaks with Carrie Johnson
When: 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 11
Virtual Event: https://twitch.tv/stlpublicradio
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is hosted by Sarah Fenske and produced by Alex Heuer, Emily Woodbury, Evie Hemphill and Lara Hamdan. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
