The Trump administration declared war on woke corporations.
Now the Justice Department is bringing out the heavy artillery.
And Trump's DOJ just turned a Civil War law into a weapon against Google and Verizon.
DOJ weaponizes 162-year-old fraud statute to target DEI programs
The Department of Justice dropped a bombshell on Google and Verizon this week by launching fraud investigations into their diversity, equity, and inclusion hiring programs.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued demands for documents and internal information about workplace DEI initiatives at both tech giants, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Prosecutors aren't using civil rights laws or employment discrimination statutes to go after these companies.
They're using the False Claims Act, a 162-year-old law originally passed during the Civil War to stop defense contractors from defrauding the Union Army.
The False Claims Act allows the government to recover triple damages plus massive penalties from any entity that "knowingly" submits false claims for federal payment.
Under the Trump administration's legal theory, companies that certified compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws while maintaining DEI programs deemed discriminatory face charges of submitting "false claims" for government contracts.
The investigations extend far beyond tech and telecommunications into automotive, pharmaceutical, defense, and utility sectors.
Several executives have already met in person with DOJ officials, sources told The Journal.
Google claims it eliminated DEI language from corporate documents back in February.
Verizon says it shut down dedicated diversity leadership positions in May after the Federal Communications Commission held its $20 billion Frontier Communications acquisition hostage.
But Trump's DOJ isn't buying their excuses.
Investigators are probing whether these companies actually dismantled their discriminatory hiring practices or just scrubbed the words "diversity, equity, and inclusion" from their websites while keeping the same racist preferences operating under different names.
Companies face catastrophic penalties for lying about compliance
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche made the Trump administration's strategy crystal clear in a May memo establishing the "Civil Rights Fraud Initiative."
Blanche called the False Claims Act "the Justice Department's primary weapon against government fraud, waste, and abuse" and wrote that "many corporations and schools continue to adhere to racist policies and preferences."¹
The memo directed every U.S. Attorney's office nationwide to appoint prosecutors dedicated to hunting down federal contractors maintaining illegal DEI programs.
Blanche also "strongly encouraged" whistleblowers to file lawsuits exposing discrimination by companies receiving federal funds — with the promise they'd share in massive financial recoveries.²
That opens the floodgates for disgruntled employees who watched their companies discriminate against white and Asian workers to cash in by turning over evidence to federal prosecutors.
DOJ secured more than $2.9 billion in False Claims Act recoveries in fiscal year 2024 — and that was before launching this massive corporate DEI investigation.³
Successful civil cases leave companies paying three times the damages plus inflation-adjusted penalties that can run into the hundreds of millions.
Google and Verizon both face catastrophic financial exposure.
Trump made eliminating DEI a centerpiece of his 2024 campaign after Americans rejected the radical Left's obsession with race-based hiring quotas and gender ideology in the workplace.
President Trump signed Executive Order 14173 on his first day in office, directing federal agencies to end all DEI programs and requiring contractors to certify compliance with merit-based hiring.
Companies rushed to issue press releases announcing they were ending DEI.
But the Trump administration suspects many of them are lying.
Google's not fooling anyone by removing a few web pages while the same executives who built their discriminatory hiring machine remain in charge of "talent acquisition."
Verizon caved to FCC pressure in May only after Chairman Brendan Carr threatened to block their $20 billion acquisition.
They weren't ending discrimination because it was wrong.
They killed DEI because Trump's regulators had them by the throat.
Trump sends message that cosmetic compliance isn't enough
The investigations have sent shockwaves through corporate boardrooms nationwide.
The timing couldn't be worse for Verizon, which has hemorrhaged customers for three straight quarters and desperately needs government contracts to stabilize revenue.
A successful DOJ prosecution could bankrupt struggling companies or force them into settlements worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Attorney General Pam Bondi blasted activist judges who tried blocking Trump's DEI crackdown, calling their rulings violations of separation of powers.
But Trump's prosecutors aren't waiting for the courts.
They're using a 162-year-old fraud law that liberal judges can't easily block because it's been settled law since Abraham Lincoln was President.
The message to corporate America is crystal clear — virtue signaling with discriminatory hiring practices while collecting federal contracts is over.
And if companies think they can just delete a few web pages and keep discriminating, Trump's Justice Department is coming for them with fraud charges that carry triple damages.
Google hired thousands of workers through DEI programs that explicitly considered race in hiring decisions.
Those aren't just policy violations.
Under Trump's DOJ, those are fraud claims against the federal government worth billions in damages.
Companies that thought they could ride out Trump's term by making cosmetic changes to their DEI programs just learned the hard way that this administration plays for keeps.
The Civil War-era fraud statute Trump's weaponizing has already recovered $78 billion since 1986 — and corporate DEI violations represent the biggest untapped source of fraud recoveries in DOJ history.⁴
Trump's not just ending DEI.
He's making companies pay for every discriminatory hire they made while lying to the federal government about following the law.
¹ Todd Blanche, "Memorandum: Civil Rights Fraud Initiative," U.S. Department of Justice, May 19, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ "DOJ Announces Over $2.9 Billion in False Claims Act Recoveries in Fiscal Year 2024," Morgan Lewis, January 16, 2025.
⁴ "The False Claims Act," U.S. Department of Justice Civil Division, January 15, 2025.
