Last summer, Our America Foundation’s Arizona Hometown Heroes stood up for local control of law enforcement by protesting against the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) consent decree to the Phoenix City Council.
And now, we have a victory – the DOJ has dropped the decree recommendation for the Phoenix Police Department (PPD).
We applaud this move, as we believe that communities are best served when they have a direct say in how they’re governed.
AZ Free Newsreported late last month that the DOJ rescinded the report and recommendation, thanks in part to an aggressive advocacy campaign by Rep. Abe Hamadeh (R–AZ-8). Hamadeh met with top DOJ officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon (an Our America-backed official), to push for the decision.
This reverses a June 2024 move by Biden’s DOJ, which released a highly critical report after concluding an investigation into the PPD. The report alleged a wide variety of misconduct and abuses by the PPD, and the DOJ pressured the city to sign a consent decree.
This decree would have meant federal monitoring and control over the PPD, and was criticized as a clear-cut example of federal overreach. The PPD was already taking proactive steps to fix any existing issues, and the department enjoyed strong support from the local community.
As we’ve written about in the past, similar moves by the DOJ to take control over police departments in Seattle and Albuquerque resulted in an increase in crime. Furthermore, these decrees put additional financial burdens on departments and in effect work as a de-facto way of defunding the police.
Keeping control in the hands of Americans over Washington bureaucrats is a good bet to make communities safer and stronger.
Our America is an organization seeking to build a broad, diverse coalition of people who support those timeless American values that empower everyone to thrive, including: equal opportunity, mutual respect, and freedom of expression.
“Promise made. Promise kept.” Congressman Abe Hamadeh was celebratory last week and praised the decision by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to rescind a politically driven report against the Phoenix Police Department on “patterns and practice” of discrimination that was found by law enforcement experts to be 97% “factually or contextually inaccurate.”
Describing the report as being from a “weaponized investigation by the Biden Administration,” Hamadeh urged FBI Director Kash Patel to take action to refute the report in a letter previously reported by AZ Free News. In a statement issued Wednesday, Hamadeh’s office said the Arizona Republican had engaged in “aggressive advocacy for the men and women of the Phoenix Police Department,” which culminated in a meeting with top DOJ Officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon.
“I promised our law enforcement officers before taking office that I would end the weaponization of our judicial system and work with President Trump’s Department of Justice to undo the damage wrought by the Biden Administration,” Hamadeh said.
He added, “I am grateful to President Trump and his team of patriotic professionals dedicated to the men and women of our local law enforcement agencies who run to the sound of danger to keep our communities safe and secure.”
Hamadeh explained, “As I noted in my communications with Trump Administration officials, our officers did everything right, voluntarily cooperating in good faith, opening their records, and participating in lengthy interviews. They were met with stonewalling, mischaracterized testimony, and a final report riddled with glaring inaccuracies.”
🚨ICYMI🚨
Congressman Hamadeh Delivers on Promise, DOJ Retracts Phoenix Police Department “Pattern and Practice” Report
— Office of Congressman Abe Hamadeh (@RepAbeHamadeh) May 22, 2025
“The Trump Administration has now shown that it will not tolerate attacks on our law enforcement officers – either through physical violence or bureaucratic machinations,” said Congressman Hamadeh.
“Overbroad police consent decrees divest local control of policing from communities where it belongs, turning that power over to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats, often with an anti-police agenda,” added Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon. “Today, we are ending the Biden Civil Rights Division’s failed experiment of handcuffing local leaders and police departments with factually unjustified consent decrees.”
As reported by Law Enforcement Today, law enforcement experts Dr. Travis Yates and Dr. JC Chaix released a bombshell analysis on May 1st describing the DOJ report as detailing 134 incidents of which 130 were “either factually or contextually inaccurate,” in a shocking “97% rate of false reporting.”
Yates and Chaix wrote, “The answer lies in the DOJ’s investigative methodology—one that leans heavily on anecdotal narratives, hindsight bias, and advocacy framing rather than factual accuracy. While the individuals conducting this investigation are anonymous, it’s clear that they lack expertise in police operations, policy, or law. In many cases, their descriptions misidentified lawful force as unconstitutional, ignored established case law standards, such as Graham v. Connor, and omitted critical contextual information, including suspect behavior, threats, or prior warnings.”
On Wednesday, the FBI office in Phoenix honored the 64 officers who made the ultimate sacrifice in 2024. Under Director Kash Patel, the FBI has directed public attention to its new special report on those officers’ deaths and the 85,000 assaults on law enforcement reported to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program.
The report details the deaths of the 64 officers in both felonious circumstances as well as the 43 killed in accidents. It explained, “Thus far in 2025, 16 officers have been feloniously killed in the line of duty. Firearms were used in 75 percent of the incidents. The leading circumstances surrounding officers’ deaths included activities related to responses to unlawful or suspicious activities (7), pursuits (3), and traffic stops (3).”
The data reveals that most officers were killed in the months of April and August followed by February, July, and September, with the majority being killed in the FBI’s Southern region while responding to unlawful or suspicious activity.
In his remarks before the Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.) Conference Thursday, Patel said, “The FBI is committed to honoring fallen officers, supporting their families and colleagues, and relentlessly pursuing those who do them harm.”
In his message for National Police Week, Patel told the nation:
“In my time as director, I’ve made a call to every chief or sheriff whose department has lost an officer to an adversarial action in the line of duty. And although I’ve only been in this position for less than three months, I’ve already made far too many of those calls.
“Every line of duty death is a tragedy for the families who lose a loved one; for the officers who lose a colleague and a friend; and for the communities that lose a faithful protector and guardian of justice. Those losses remind us of the tremendous sacrifice law enforcement officers across the country make to keep the American people safe.
“They go to work every morning knowing there’s a chance they won’t make it home that night that they might be targeted just because they wear the badge, like the 64 officers who were feloniously killed in the line of duty last year and the more than 85,000 others who suffered assaults. But the men and women of law enforcement continue showing up for all of us despite the hardships, the demands and the dangers. They do it because they’ve made a choice to serve and protect their fellow American citizens, and they have no intention of letting us down.”
Patel concluded, “I’m honored and humbled to work alongside those who have dedicated their lives to public service, to having the backs of the American people, and all of us owe them a debt we can never repay. That’s why National Police Week is so important. It’s an opportunity to express our deepest gratitude for those who have taken an oath to protect our communities and pursue justice. And to honor the legacies of those who gave their lives so that others could be safe. The FBI and I are proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with our partners throughout law enforcement together as we protect our nation.“
Congressman Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ) issued a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel, calling on him to rescind a Department of Justice report on the Phoenix Police Department. Hamadeh characterized the report as an example of the weaponization of the DOJ based on cherry picked narratives by the outgoing Biden Administration to support “their political agenda.”
In part, the letter from Hamadeh read, “The Biden DOJ’s ‘pattern or practice’ report on the Phoenix Police Department was a desperate witch hunt. It is nothing more than an attempt to undercut valid police work, leaving my constituents – both officers and civilians – at risk.
“Despite the Biden DOJ’s baseless claims, our officers did everything right, voluntarily cooperating in good faith, opening their records, and participating in lengthy interviews. They were met with stonewalling, mischaracterized testimony, and a final report riddled with glaring inaccuracies. The Biden DOJ’s claim that Phoenix Police Department officers violated constitutional standards during unrest following one of President Trump’s rallies was absurd. That claim is especially ludicrous because the Ninth Circuit affirmed that the department’s actions were lawful. The Biden DOJ ignored this and many other court-backed facts, choosing instead to cherry-pick narratives that support their political agenda.
“The Biden DOJ sowed distrust, diverting millions from public safety, and discouraging officers — at the very moment when Arizona’s communities need them most.”
As reported by AZ Free News, efforts had been underway during the Biden administration to shackle the Phoenix police with a DOJ Consent Decree designed to place the Department under court-ordered federal oversight. The move came following a report from the Biden DOJ that claimed, “We have reasonable cause to believe that PhxPD and the City engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the Constitution and federal law. First, PhxPD uses excessive force, including unjustified deadly force and unreasonable less-lethal force. Second, PhxPD and the City violate the rights of people experiencing homelessness by unlawfully detaining, citing, and arresting them and by unlawfully disposing of their belongings. Third, PhxPD discriminates against Black, Hispanic, and Native American people when making stops and arrests. Fourth, PhxPD violates individuals’ First Amendment Rights. Fifth, PhxPD and the City discriminate in their response to people who have behavioral health disabilities. Finally, we have serious concerns about PhxPD’s treatment of children, and the lasting impact aggressive police encounters have on their mental and physical wellbeing.”
Hamadeh, who participated in a regularly scheduled Air Support Mission with the PPD, had the opportunity to see the work of Phoenix Police Officers firsthand and a statement from his office said decisively, “Congressman Hamadeh believes that by rescinding the DOJ’s report on the Phoenix Police Department, the Trump administration will send a powerful message that political interference has no place in law enforcement, and that America First principles now govern the day.”
Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs has sent a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel calling upon the Bureau to launch an investigation into ActBlue, the primary fundraising platform employed by the Democratic Party and thousands of its candidates. Biggs’ request follows allegations that ActBlue has “been used to skirt the integrity of federal campaign finance laws.”
In the letter published by Fox News, Biggs called upon the agency to “initiate an inquiry into the fundraising apparatus known as ‘ActBlue.’” Biggs explained that ActBlue, a fundraising platform and application has raised “more than $16 billion for progressive causes since 2004.”
The congressman went on to cite a 2024 Biden Treasury Department investigation reported by The Washington Times which “found hundreds of suspicious transactions with ActBlue reported by banks,” noting that the White House had reportedly “stalled access to the necessary documents.”
As reported by Fox News, the House Oversight Committee said in a letter to The Treasury Department that its investigation was “intentionally stonewalled,” by the Biden administration.
Reps. Bryan Steil (R-WI), James Comer (R-KY), and Nick Langworthy (R-NY) wrote, “Until recently, ActBlue had not implemented standard procedures to guard against identity theft and fraud, such as by requiring a Card Verification Value (CVV) to process online transactions. The organization is also the subject of several state-level investigations stemming from allegedly fraudulent contributions made via the platform without the reported contributors’ awareness — serious allegations that, if proven true, would violate federal law.”
The platform has been the subject of inquiries from nineteen state Attorneys General. In October, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into ActBlue after discovering a large number of donations “systematically being made using false identities, through untraceable payment methods.” Paxton also petitioned the Federal Elections Commission for rulemaking to address the allegations.
“Our investigation into ActBlue has uncovered facts indicating that bad actors can illegally interfere in American elections by disguising political donations. It is imperative that the FEC close off the avenues we have identified by which foreign contributions or contributions in excess of legal limits could be unlawfully funneled to political campaigns, bypassing campaign finance regulations and compromising our electoral system,” said Attorney General Paxton. “I am calling on the FEC to immediately begin rulemaking to secure our elections from any criminal actors exploiting these vulnerabilities.”
Congressman Biggs noted further that a lawsuit alleging racketeering by ActBlue is also underway in Wisconsin.
In August, an undercover investigation by the O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) revealed the shocking reactions of alleged ActBlue donors who had no knowledge of hundreds of transactions made in their names.
In a post to X, Elon Musk said, “An investigation has found 5 ActBlue-funded groups responsible for Tesla ‘protests’: Troublemakers, Disruption Project, Rise & Resist, Indivisible Project and Democratic Socialists of America.”
He added, “ActBlue funders include George Soros, Reid Hoffman, Herbert Sandler, Patricia Bauman, and Leah Hunt-Hendrix. ActBlue is currently under investigation for allowing foreign and illegal donations in criminal violation of campaign finance regulations. This week, 7 ActBlue senior officials resigned, including the associate general counsel.”
An investigation has found 5 ActBlue-funded groups responsible for Tesla “protests”: Troublemakers, Disruption Project, Rise & Resist, Indivisible Project and Democratic Socialists of America.
ActBlue funders include George Soros, Reid Hoffman, Herbert Sandler, Patricia Bauman,…
When renewed attention was brought to the ActBlue scandal by Musk, OMG quipped in a post to X, “This isn’t news to us. OMG has been investigating ActBlue fraud for years. The work to expose the truth continues…”
This isn’t news to us. OMG has been investigating ActBlue fraud for years.
Biggs’ call for an investigation has come as ActBlue finds itself facing “internal chaos.” The outlet reported that seven senior officials with ActBlue have resigned in the past month and a remaining attorney within the organization suggested that he was facing internal retaliation.
Megan Hughes, an ActBlue spokeswoman, characterized the swath of resignations as the platform undergoing “transition.” She told the Times, “Like many organizations, as we undergo some transition heading into this new election cycle, we are focused on ensuring we have a strong team in place. We greatly appreciate the contributions of our incredible team members and remain deeply committed to the success of our organization and our mission to enable grass-roots supporters to make their voices heard.”
