NEW YORK — On April 2, President Donald Trump announced through Truth Social the removal of Attorney General Pam Bondi as head of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Following this, Insha Rahman, vice president of advocacy and partnerships at Vera and director of Vera Action, issued a statement highlighting the changes under Bondi that affected victim services, youth justice and more.
The Vera Institute of Justice statement emphasizes that the U.S. Department of Justice “gutted funding for programs working to prevent crime and serve victims of crime.”
The statement highlights how Bondi’s leadership “decimated the department’s civil rights division that investigated misconduct and corruption” and further “encouraged ‘unleashing’ the police to act without accountability.”
Further, under Bondi, the U.S. Department of Justice “abruptly and illegally terminated millions in funding for Vera’s programs,” which focused on promoting safety, supporting crime survivors with disabilities and broadening mental health crisis response services.
The Vera Institute of Justice states that these funding cuts are part of the “373 multi-year cooperative agreements and grants, totaling roughly $820 million.”
These cuts affect various programs that support many causes such as violence prevention, law enforcement training, victim services and youth justice.
Specifically, the Vera Institute of Justice “lost $5 million in funding that helped make prisons safer, expanded diversion to community-based programs, supported crisis response programs for 911 calls for behavioral health emergencies and aided Deaf survivors of crime and trafficking.”
In an earlier statement from May 22, 2025, the Vera Institute of Justice states that their organization received letters “without any advance notice” notifying them of the funding cuts.
In response to these grant terminations from Bondi’s DOJ, Vera has led a pending class-action lawsuit alongside organizations working on community violence intervention, victim advocacy, youth justice and criminal justice.
The Vera Institute of Justice points out that if the pending class-action lawsuit is successful, it “will benefit all 200+ organizations—not just the named plaintiffs, but every organization whose work with the DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs was summarily terminated with a single line in a form letter.”
The programs facing these funding cuts are funded with bipartisan support and align with the Trump administration’s statements that mental health, substance use treatment and more are priorities, yet Bondi has stated that they “do not align” with the administration priorities.
Moreover, the Vera Institute of Justice says that they “did not even have the opportunity to recoup money for costs already incurred,” increasing the financial burdens of the cuts.
The Vera Institute of Justice then cites that “the remarkable and historic gains in public safety across the nation,” especially crime declining since 2023, are not driven by the administration’s actions.
Rather, from the Vera Institute of Justice’s earlier statement, President Trump’s administration has “repeatedly attacked independent, mission-driven organizations that are a fundamental part of civil society by either terminating funding or intimidating them with threats.”
It highlights each of these damaging changes as “the legacy Bondi leaves” now with her forced exit from the DOJ.
Further, her successor will likely carry on efforts and “Trump’s DOJ agenda” that undercut meaningful progress toward safer communities and programs like those of the Vera Institute of Justice.
As stated by The Associated Press, various sources familiar with the matter have mentioned Lee Zeldin, “a Trump loyalist and head of the Environmental Protection Agency,” as a potential successor.
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