Trump Admin Stopped Criminal Charges Against Abbott Nutrition for Infant Formula Illnesses
According to information uncovered by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), a Trump Administration Executive Order halted the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) criminal prosecution of Abbott Nutrition, the infant formula manufacturer at the center of the 2022 infant formula safety and supply crisis.
At a Glance: Abbott Nutrition Infant Formula Safety Incident
In 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) received complaints of four hospitalizations and one death among infants who consumed formula produced at Abbott Nutrition’s Sturgis, Michigan manufacturing facility. Upon investigating these complaints, FDA detected Cronobacter sakazakii in environmental samples from the facility and recorded several adverse inspectional observations. A review of the firm’s internal records also indicated environmental contamination with C. sakazakii and the firm’s destruction of product due to the presence of the pathogen.
Production was temporarily halted at the Sturgis, Michigan facility—one of the U.S.’s most significant producers of infant formula—greatly contributing to the subsequent nationwide infant formula shortage.
No unopened, distributed Abbott infant formula products tested positive for the strain of C. sakazakii that infected the sickened babies, and a definitive link between Abbott and the illnesses was never made by FDA.
DOJ Considered Criminal Charges Against At Least One Person
Despite the lack of a genetic link between the C. sakazakii isolates from product samples and clinical cases, in 2023, DOJ opened a criminal case against the company.
Three years and a new President later, in 2026, sources familiar with the matter revealed to WSJ that DOJ has closed the investigation in favor of the alternative approach of recovering money that Abbott earned from selling its formula through federally funded nutrition programs.
The source also told WSJ that, before dropping the case, prosecutors were considering charging at least one individual at Abbott.
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A DOJ spokesperson confirmed to WSJ that the case was closed, saying criminal charges would have been “heavy-handed” and that the concerns were instead addressed through the related civil lawsuit focusing on Abbott’s profits on formula sales through federal child-nutrition programs.
Trump Administration DOJ ‘Does Not Believe in Regulation by Prosecution’
“Ensuring the safety of our nation’s food supply is a top priority for the Trump Administration; however, this Department of Justice does not believe in regulation by prosecution,” the DOJ spokesperson told WSJ.
The decision to drop the criminal investigation of Abbott Nutrition aligns with the Trump Administration’s May 2025 Executive Order, Fighting Overcriminalization in Federal Regulations, which states, “Prosecution of criminal regulatory offenses is most appropriate for persons who know or can be presumed to know what is prohibited or required by the regulation and willingly choose not to comply, thereby causing or risking substantial public harm.”
The Executive Order mandated the Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to compile a report on all criminal regulatory offenses enforceable by federal agencies or DOJ, adding, “Criminal enforcement of any criminal regulatory offense not identified in the [OMB] report… is strongly discouraged.”
