On December 22, 2025, the Department of Justice (DOJ) made headlines by suing the District of Columbia over its longstanding ban on registering many popular semi-automatic firearms, including the well-known Colt AR-15 series rifles. The move, which comes amid a broader reshaping of federal law enforcement priorities under President Donald Trump, signals a decisive shift in how the nation’s capital—and perhaps the country at large—may approach gun rights and regulatory oversight in the coming years.
According to reporting from the Daily Caller News Foundation, the DOJ’s lawsuit contends that D.C.’s ban is “based on little more than cosmetics, appearance, or the ability to attach accessories, and fails to take into account whether the prohibited weapon is ‘in common use today’ or that law-abiding citizens may use these weapons for lawful purposes protected by the Second Amendment.” The suit directly challenges the city’s requirement that all gun owners register their firearms with local police, arguing that the ban on registering certain semi-automatic models violates constitutional rights.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, in a statement accompanying the lawsuit, was unequivocal: “Washington, D.C.’s ban on some of America’s most popular firearms is an unconstitutional infringement on the Second Amendment—living in our nation’s capital should not preclude law-abiding citizens from exercising their fundamental constitutional right to keep and bear arms.” Bondi’s comments reflect the new administration’s determination to reassert gun rights, particularly in jurisdictions with strict local controls.
The DOJ’s action is the first high-profile move for its newly launched Second Amendment Section, established in early December 2025. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon explained the rationale behind the suit: “This Civil Rights Division will defend American citizens from unconstitutional restrictions of commonly used firearms, in violation of their Second Amendment rights. The newly established Second Amendment Section filed this lawsuit to ensure that the very rights D.C. resident Mr. Heller secured 17 years ago are enforced today—and that all law-abiding citizens seeking to own protected firearms for lawful purposes may do so.”
The lawsuit references binding Supreme Court precedent, notably the landmark Heller decision, which recognized an individual’s right to possess firearms for lawful purposes. The DOJ argues that D.C.’s refusal to allow registration of “commonly possessed” semi-automatic firearms “run[s] afoul of binding Supreme Court precedent and therefore trample[s] the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.”
This legal challenge arrives at a moment of dramatic transformation inside the DOJ itself. As detailed by ProPublica, Todd Blanche, confirmed as the DOJ’s second-in-command on March 5, 2025, has been a key architect of the department’s new direction. Blanche, previously President Trump’s personal attorney during his New York criminal trial, was also a cryptocurrency investor with holdings between $159,000 and $485,000 at the time of his confirmation. He pledged to divest these assets within 90 days, promising not to participate in any matter that could affect his financial interests in the virtual currency until the divestment was complete.
Yet, just a month into his tenure—and before divesting—Blanche issued a sweeping memo that ended investigations into crypto companies, dealers, and exchanges launched during President Joe Biden’s term. He also disbanded the DOJ’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, which had previously secured convictions for crypto fraud involving $110 million and played a central role in high-profile prosecutions, including the Binance case. The April 7, 2025, memo criticized the previous administration’s approach as “a reckless strategy of regulation by prosecution, which was ill conceived and poorly executed.” Blanche wrote, “The digital assets industry is critical to the Nation’s economic development and innovation. President Trump has also made clear that ‘[w]e are going to end the regulatory weaponization against digital assets.’”
Legal experts, cited by ProPublica, say Blanche’s actions violated federal conflicts of interest laws and his own ethics agreement. Virginia Canter, a former ethics lawyer at the White House and several federal agencies, stated, “If you are invested in that industry and now making a decision that could affect whether or not the DOJ is gonna pursue prosecutions, that’s an obvious conflict of interest.” Although Blanche eventually divested his crypto holdings by transferring them to his adult children and a grandchild, experts argue that this move, while technically legal, skirts the spirit of the law. Kedric Payne, a former deputy chief counsel for the Office of Congressional Ethics, remarked, “The purpose of the law is to eliminate even the appearance that an official’s decisions are influenced by their financial interests. That purpose is defeated when an official simply gives conflicted assets to adult children.”
Blanche’s memo and the subsequent disbanding of the crypto enforcement team marked the end of a three-year effort to penetrate the shadowy world of transnational crypto crime. The National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team had previously assisted in a multiagency probe of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. The investigation led to criminal charges against Binance’s founder, Changpeng Zhao, who pleaded guilty, resigned, and paid $4.3 billion in penalties—only to be pardoned by President Trump in October 2025.
The Trump administration’s pro-crypto stance is not limited to Blanche. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and SEC Chair Paul Atkins, both Trump appointees, also held significant crypto assets prior to their confirmations. Lutnick, formerly CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald (a major player in crypto markets and banker for stablecoin issuer Tether), transferred his stake to his children after taking office, while Atkins signed an ethics agreement to sell his crypto investments, though the timing and details remain unclear. Trump himself has leaned into the digital assets space, launching World Liberty Financial with his sons and issuing meme coins after his 2024 election victory.
These moves have raised broader questions about the intersection of personal financial interests, public policy, and the ethical frameworks designed to keep them separate. James Thurber, professor emeritus at American University and a former congressional staffer on ethics reform, called the administration’s disregard of traditional government ethics “unprecedented,” contrasting it with the example set by President Jimmy Carter, who placed his peanut farm into a blind trust.
Meanwhile, the DOJ’s shift away from civil rights, environmental, and abortion access cases, coupled with the termination or resignation of thousands of employees, underscores the administration’s focus on different priorities, including tougher border enforcement and crackdowns on diversity-related policies. Blanche has even personally participated in high-profile investigations, such as the 2025 interview of Ghislaine Maxwell, longtime confidante of Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, defended the administration’s actions, stating, “The administration is fulfilling the President’s promise to make the United States the crypto capital of the world by driving innovation and economic opportunity for all Americans. Neither the President nor his family have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest.”
As the dust settles on these sweeping changes, Americans are left to ponder the implications: Will the DOJ’s new direction on gun rights and digital assets endure, and how will the balance between innovation, ethics, and public safety be struck in the years ahead?
