Trump’s DOJ drops fraud case against billionaire who hired former Trump lawyer

Steve Benen Tue, August 11, 2026 at 3:34 PM UTC

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In a Fox News appearance last week, JD Vance continued to try to talk up the White House anti-fraud task force that he leads, taking a firm stance against the crimes he and his team are trying to track down. “If you are committing fraud against the American people,” the vice president said, “all of us in public leadership should be trying to stop it and throw you in prison.”

It seemed like a straightforward and entirely uncontroversial statement, although his boss’ record is making matters far more complicated than they need to be.

Prosecuting and convicting those who commit fraud sounded great, even if Donald Trump hasn’t exactly advanced the cause. The president has repeatedly used his authority to pardon convicted fraudsters, which is the opposite of the message Vance took to the public.

What’s more, Trump’s Justice Department has also simultaneously abandoned cases against those accused of fraud. Take Gautam Adani, for example.

In late 2024, when federal prosecutors secured an indictment against Adani, it wasn’t just another case. Adani, with a net worth of $104 billion, is India’s richest man, and his unparalleled influence in his home country made the criminal indictment a matter of geopolitical significance.

In the United States, Justice Department officials nevertheless alleged that he had overseen a fraudulent scheme, which he and his team allegedly lied about while trying to raise money from American investors.

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In May, after Adani pledged $10 billion in investments if prosecutors dropped the charges, Trump’s DOJ took steps to abandon the case. This week, it succeeded. The New York Times reported:

A federal judge on Monday dismissed criminal charges against Gautam Adani, India’s richest man, granting a contentious request made by the Justice Department after Mr. Adani offered billions of dollars in investment if the case were to be abandoned.

The Times’ report made clear that U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis agreed that elements of the underlying case were dubious, but he also took Trent McCotter, a senior Justice Department official, to task for falsely claiming that the case was a politically motivated prosecution brought by the previous Justice Department, a claim Garaufis called baseless and “unbecoming of his office.”

Just as notably, McCotter agreed to drop the case after coordinating with Robert Giuffra Jr., who has worked as one of Trump’s personal lawyers and whom Adani hired after dropping his original legal defense team.

Adani wrote online that he welcomed the decision “with humility and deep respect for the judicial process.”

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

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