Yesterday, Bloomberg Law reported that senior Justice Department officials shut down a grand jury investigation into whether Meta facilitated illegal drug sales to children. According to the report, career prosecutors were ordered to stand down after Meta’s lawyers went to DOJ leadership, just as company executives were being subpoenaed to testify. Officials are now reportedly weighing a civil fine or a non-prosecution agreement.
If this report is true, it is a betrayal of every family who has buried a child poisoned by a fentanyl-laced counterfeit pill sold on Instagram or Facebook as a prescription drug.
DOJ says it is focused on following the facts to “surgically address corporate wrongdoing.” If any case demands that focus, it is a grand jury investigation into drugs sold to children. A fine is not accountability. For a company worth more than a trillion dollars, it is a cost of doing business. A non-prosecution agreement is a permission slip.
This is not the first time the administration has intervened in Meta’s business. In June, the White House reportedly helped Zuckerberg avoid testifying before the Senate on child safety while endorsing the James T. Woods Act, named for a 17-year-old who died after being sextorted on Instagram. We stand with the Woods family and support that law. But protecting children should never be traded for protecting a CEO.
Many of us were in the room in 2024 when Zuckerberg apologized to us. We are still waiting for answers. This case must be decided on the evidence and the law, not on who has access to power. If there is evidence of wrongdoing, file charges. If not, explain why. Grieving families cannot make a criminal investigation disappear by calling in favors. Neither should a trillion-dollar company.
An administration that promised law and order and made fentanyl a national priority must apply that commitment to powerful corporations, too.
We demand:
- Career prosecutors be allowed to finish their investigation.
- Any resolution includes admissions of wrongdoing and enforceable reforms.
- Mark Zuckerberg testify under oath before Congress. Not a stand-in. Him.
Our children are not expendable. No corporation should be able to buy its way out of answering for them.