Barack Obama declared war on American law enforcement the moment he took office.
Now, Donald Trump is about to sign 250 pardons for America's 250th birthday.
Four names belong on that list – and what Obama's DOJ did to earn them a spot will make your blood boil.
The East Haven Four: How Obama DOJ Turned Decorated Cops Into Federal Felons
In 2009, East Haven, Connecticut, officers found more than 1,000 vehicles running fraudulent out-of-state license plates – tags sold to illegal aliens through a Pennsylvania scheme for roughly $1,500 apiece.
Officers Dennis Spaulding, Jason Zullo, John Miller, and David Cari dismantled the ring – arresting hundreds of illegal aliens and the woman who masterminded the operation.
Their reward was a federal indictment.
Obama's handpicked Civil Rights Division chief, Tom Perez, wanted a federal consent decree forcing East Haven to adopt sanctuary-city policies.
When the town refused, Perez brought the hammer down.
The FBI ran an undercover operation sending agents who looked Hispanic driving around East Haven in vehicles with legal plates, trying to bait officers into pulling them over.
After weeks of surveillance, no officers stopped them – because there was no cause to stop them.
Three separate investigations followed: the department's own internal affairs, the state of Connecticut, and the FBI itself.
All three cleared the officers of racial bias charges.
Perez prosecuted them anyway.
Tom Perez Jailed Them for Doing Their Jobs Then Ran the Democrat Party
What Perez charged as civil rights violations were, in fact, the routine work of law enforcement.
Sgt. Miller poked an unruly, intoxicated suspect in the chest. He was sentenced to four months in prison.
Officer Zullo left out of a report that his cruiser bumped a suspect's motorcycle during a chase. He served two years.
Officer Cari – decorated, wounded in the line of duty – received 30 months.
Officer Spaulding, convicted on similar charges plus one count of excessive force, received five years.
His daughter was two days old on the day the verdict came in.
Spaulding's wife Nicole described making monthly 12-hour drives to a federal prison in Michigan for years – her in-laws parked an RV nearby to cut hotel costs, and she made every trip with a newborn and a toddler in the back seat.
The Obama DOJ tore four families apart to score a political point.
How Tom Perez Went From Prosecuting Cops to Running the Democrat Party
Tom Perez's career didn't stall after he sent four decorated officers to prison. It accelerated.
Obama rewarded him with the Secretary of Labor post in 2013, and by 2017 Perez was chairing the Democrat National Committee – the top political job in the party.
Biden then handed him a White House desk as senior advisor and director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.
He now works at a top Washington law firm.
Not one mainstream media outlet called for accountability. Not one Democrat politician demanded answers.
Trump Pardon Could Clear Four Officers Obama DOJ Sent to Prison
The Article III Project's Mike Davis – who previously called for pardons of D.C. officers Terence Sutton and Andrew Zabavsky, both of which Trump granted – has now gone public calling for the East Haven Four to be included in Trump's upcoming 250 pardons.
Davis has no personal connection to these men and no financial interest in the outcome. He calls it one of the most glaring political prosecutions in modern American law enforcement history.
Trump knows what weaponized prosecution looks like from the inside – and he has the power to correct it.
The years Perez took from Spaulding, Zullo, Miller, and Cari are gone. The felony records followed them out of prison and have not let go.
But Trump can sign four names before July 4 and declare, on the 250th anniversary of this country's founding, that government exists to serve the people – not to punish cops who enforce the law.
Tom Perez turned four cops who arrested criminals into federal felons. Only Trump can undo it.
Sources:
- Mike Davis, "Trump Should Pardon 4 Cops Politically Persecuted By Obama's DOJ," The Federalist, June 18, 2026.
- Amy Curtis, "President Trump Must Pardon Connecticut Police Maliciously Prosecuted by Obama's DOJ," Townhall, March 18, 2026.
- Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, "Jason Zullo, John Miller, David Cari, & Dennis Spaulding – East Haven, CT Police Department," policedefense.org, November 2025.
- Fox News, "Ex-top Biden DOJ official now prosecuting Trump was once paid by DNC for 'political consulting,'" Fox News, May 6, 2024.
