Eric Holder threw four decorated cops in federal prison for doing their jobs.
Their crime was busting a $2 million illegal alien fraud ring.
Now Trump has the pen – and these men have been waiting over a decade for justice.
The Obama War on Cops Case No One Talked About
Dennis Spaulding was eight years into a spotless career with the East Haven Police Department in Connecticut.
He'd earned commendations, medals of valor, and a reputation as one of the most productive officers on the force.
Then he and his partner walked into a local bodega and saw approximately 80 license plates displayed on the wall with price tags on them.
They were part of a Pennsylvania-based fraud ring – fake plates that let hundreds of illegal aliens drive unregistered vehicles and evade detection.
Spaulding boxed the plates.
A customer in the store became disruptive and was placed under arrest.
That customer turned out to be a Catholic priest and immigration activist.
That one arrest launched a three-year DOJ investigation that sent Spaulding to a federal prison in Michigan for five years.
The guilty verdict came back two days after his daughter was born.
Tom Perez Built This Case to Send a Message Nationwide
This was about power, not justice.
In 2009, Obama Attorney General Eric Holder tapped Tom Perez to run the Civil Rights Division.
Perez's mission was clear – open for business and aggressive.
He launched more civil rights investigations into police departments than any predecessor, targeting big-city forces he could brand as systemically racist.
East Haven was different. It was a small Connecticut town whose officers arrested aliens committing fraud.
When the town refused to surrender control of its police department to a DOJ consent decree – a federal takeover that would have placed the department under long-term Washington oversight – Perez escalated.
Routine enforcement decisions became federal crimes.
Officer Cari's brief physical struggle arresting a man who refused to drop a video camera became felony assault.
Sergeant Miller's one-time finger-poke to the chest of a threatening drunk became a federal civil rights violation.
Jason Zullo forgot to note that his patrol car grazed a motorcycle during a high-speed chase – now that was obstruction.
Dennis Spaulding exposed a $2 million fraud network – and got five years in federal prison.
The Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund put it bluntly: these officers were sent to prison not because their conduct was illegal, but to send a chilling message to every cop in America.
Enforce the law in a neighborhood full of illegal aliens – and you risk federal prison.
It worked.
Trump Has the Power to Pardon These Officers and Here Is Why He Should
Perez got rewarded for East Haven with a seat in Obama's Cabinet as Labor Secretary.
He later became chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
The playbook he built in that small Connecticut courtroom became the template for everything that followed.
Seattle cops who enforced the law in illegal alien neighborhoods got federal consent decrees that gutted their department's authority for years.
Baltimore officers who made proactive arrests watched Freddie Gray turn their entire force into a federal reform project.
The Biden years expanded the machine.
Every cop who hesitated to make an arrest in a politically sensitive neighborhood knew exactly why he was hesitating.
Jason Zullo did two years. David Cari did 30 months.
Dennis Spaulding served five years in a Michigan federal prison 12 hours from home — his in-laws parked an RV five miles from the facility to avoid hotel costs, and his wife Nicole made that drive with a newborn.
She published an open letter asking Trump to use his pardon power to give her family back twelve years of dignity.
The Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund formally submitted pardon and commutation paperwork to the Trump administration.
Trump already pardoned two DC Metropolitan Police officers convicted in connection with the pursuit death of a suspect, and he cleared Sheriff Joe Arpaio in his first term.
He ran on ending the weaponization of federal power against American law enforcement — and he meant it.
The East Haven Four are not asking for sympathy.
They are asking for what Trump himself has called the correction of a rigged system.
Dennis Spaulding uncovered a $2 million fraud ring that was preying on his community.
Eric Holder sent him to prison for it.
Tom Perez got promoted for it.
That is the exact injustice Trump came back to fix.
Sources:
- Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, "Jason Zullo, John Miller, David Cari, & Dennis Spaulding," policedefense.org, November 2025.
- Nicole Spaulding, "East Haven Four Deserve Presidential Pardon," The Washington Times, February 16, 2026.
- Jason C. Johnson, "East Haven Four Deserve Justice," Tipp Insights, January 2026.
- Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund (@LELDF), Twitter/X posts, March 17, 2026.
- Change.org petition, "Pardon for 4 CT police officers charged under the Obama administration's war on cops," 2018.
