Trump's Reign of Terror in the Civil Rights Division

Talking Feds

Harry Litman

News, Politics, Government

4.8 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2026

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Normally, after a controversial law enforcement shooting like that of Renee Good or Alex Pretti, the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division would quickly announce an investigation. Under Trump, however, there's still no investigation into Good's killing, and the Department announced it would examine Pretti's shooting only after days of immense pressure. Bill Yeomans, a 24-year veteran and former acting head of the Division, walks Harry through the ways that Trump has stifled, undermined, and perverted this crucial wing of the DOJ. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, everyone. Harry here. We've got a great conversation for you today about the Department of
0:05.7	Justice's Civil Rights Division. They're the prosecutors usually tasked with leading the charge on
0:12.7	investigations into controversial police shootings, like those of Renee Good and Alex Prettie.
0:19.8	In the wake of those shooting deaths, I spoke with Bill
0:23.4	Yeomens, a 24-year veteran of the Civil Rights Division. As you'll hear, when we spoke,
0:30.2	the administration still seemed committed to blocking any DOJ investigation of those deaths.
0:38.3	Now, after much foot-dragging and huge external pressure,
0:42.8	the department says that the Civil Rights Division has begun looking at Preti shooting.
0:49.0	There's still no investigation nor any expected into goods killing.
0:57.1	In a few moments, you'll hear why this chain of events was so shocking and why these investigations are so vital. Here's my conversation with
1:04.6	Bill Yeomens.
1:18.1	Welcome to Talking Fed's one-on-one, deep-dive discussions with national figures about the most fascinating and consequential issues defining our culture and shaping our lives.
1:25.6	I'm your host, Harry Littman. We've had some very unusual goings on
1:31.8	in the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, and that's an understatement. All expectations
1:39.4	of people who know the division were that the criminal section of the civil rights division
1:45.5	would begin a criminal investigation into the shootings of Renee Good and then Alex
1:52.0	Pretty for potential violations of civil rights laws. And but in the Renee Good killing,
2:00.2	they were pulled off the case, prompting a sheaf of resignations by the top people in the section.
2:08.4	And it's far from clear how the department is planning to handle the pretty killing, which so far seems, if anything, even more jarring in terms of the use of deadly force without any
2:20.6	legal justification. So I wanted to talk about the aberrant conduct we're seeing and what's going
2:28.3	on in the Civil Rights Division. We really have the perfect person to discuss it.
2:39.2	Bill Yeoman spent 24 years at the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division,
	...

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