How the Trump DOJ Has Betrayed Victims of Domestic & Sexual Violence
“If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say this was a crime.”
Those words, from the President of the United States last month, undercut more than 30 years of progress our country has made to prevent and educate people about domestic and sexual violence.
But they weren’t just the views of one man. They reflect the priorities of the leaders at the Justice Department, which has directed the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) – where I worked for 24 years – and the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) to terminate nearly 400 grants to over 200 organizations.
Although Attorney General Pam Bondi claims to care about victims of sexual assault and trafficking, some of the terminated grants included services to victims of these crimes. The grants, she says, don’t align with the department’s priorities. Considering how the victims of Jeffrey Epstein have been treated and a how a top DOJ official recently posed for pictures with Russell Brand (whose rape trial is scheduled for next year), it’s clear where the department’s priorities now lie.
The Violence Against Women Act
Domestic violence is a pervasive problem in America. According to CDC data, almost half of women reported a form of victimization by an intimate partner at some point in their lifetime, including physical violence, sexual violence, and stalking.
That is why Congress enacted the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) more than 30 years ago – the first comprehensive federal law addressing domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. It included funding for victim services and criminal justice responses, new federal crimes, and a new provision to require states to enforce out-of-state protection orders. It was passed after numerous hearings held by the Senate around the country demonstrated that too often these crimes were not taken seriously (e.g., “a little fight with the wife”), and that communities lacked sufficient resources to help victims.
I have dedicated my career to helping victims of domestic and sexual violence, starting with my first job after law school working in a domestic violence shelter providing support groups and educational presentations to community groups, law enforcement, students (from elementary school through college level), and basically anyone who would let me in the door.
Most recently, I was an attorney at OVW, the office created to implement VAWA. This was my dream job because of the office’s clear mission to improve criminal justice responses and help victims as well as the ability to impact policy on a national scale. OVW gives out hundreds of millions of dollars each year to provide services to victims and hold offenders accountable.
As an example of the critical nature of OVW funds, the Domestic Violence and Rape Crisis Center in North Dakota stated that “[VAWA] funding allows us to continue to keep our doors open. Without this funding, we would not be able to make ends meet.” VAWA funds provide services to hundreds of thousands of victims. For example, in the period covered by OVW’s 2022 biennial report to Congress, OVW grantees and subgrantees answered over one million hotline calls and provided over four million victim services, such as housing, support groups, and legal assistance.
The Justice Department Violated an Agreement With Grantees
For 30 years, OVW has been carrying out this work, and OJP has been providing related grants for even longer. But DOJ’s termination of hundreds of already-approved grants will make vital federal funds unavailable to those providing critical services for victims and preventing violent crimes.
The vast majority of terminated funds were to nonprofit organizations, which will have the toughest time finding other funding. Some have, and many more will, simply have to shut down.
The DOJ grant award process is extensive: applicants demonstrate how they are eligible and how they will use the funds, and applications are subjected to expert peer review. DOJ issues the awards with a set of terms and conditions that the grantee must agree to when they accept the award.
The grantees that were terminated had submitted applications based on the requirements outlined for the year that they applied, and they were following the terms of their awards. The award essentially forms an agreement between DOJ and the grantee that they will perform certain tasks as described in their application (such as providing transitional housing for domestic violence victims or prosecuting sexual assault), that the grantee will abide by the grant conditions, and that DOJ will provide the funding amount specified.
It would be appropriate to consider termination if the grantee failed to perform the agreed upon tasks or abide by the grant conditions. In this case, however, the Justice Department is the one in violation by failing to uphold their side of the agreement.
Terminating Approved Grants Will Harm Victims and Those Supporting Them
At her oversight hearing earlier this month, Attorney General Bondi proudly emphasized she has implemented an appeals process for the terminated grants, encouraging Senators who are concerned about the devastating consequences to meet with her team to address their concerns.
I hope that she is sincere about this and will be grateful if department leadership is willing to correct their mistakes, but the abrupt cancellation of funding has already caused significant harm.
Victims are harmed the most because the Trump administration’s grant terminations reduce the services available and the resources necessary to hold offenders accountable and prevent violent crime.
No other funds are readily available to replace the ones lost, so the affected organizations don’t have a way to continue providing the services without federal money. These entities have done what was asked of them – they submitted proposals aligned with the department’s grant requirements under which they applied, and they had begun implementing their projects according to the terms of their grants.
The abrupt terminations harm the nonprofit staff as well. One of my friends was fired when the grant she was working on was terminated and numerous other people are in the same boat. In addition to the effect on our country’s increasing unemployment rate, this makes people more reluctant to work for nonprofits that support victims, further diminishing the availability of services.
These terminations are also harmful to communities, which are less safe when there are fewer resources available to address violent crime. The terminated grants addressed many types of crimes and both streets and homes are more dangerous without the services and interventions provided.
Finally, there is harm to the DOJ staff forced to implement these terminations. OVW is a very mission-driven office, and people work there because they are compassionate about helping victims. Many staff, including me, have left due to the changes wrought by the Trump administration. The reduction in staff means that the grant loads will be higher for the remaining staff, which will make it more difficult to ensure that each grantee is engaged in best practices to hold offenders accountable and assist victims.
As someone who has dedicated her career to this work, seeing so many people leave that office is heartbreaking because I know how hard it will be to build back the level of support and expertise that has been lost.
We need leadership at the department who, unlike the President, understand that a “little fight with the wife” is a serious crime.
Without it, we put at risk the ability of women throughout this country to receive help at a moment when they are most vulnerable and in the most need of help.
Marnie Shiels is currently a consultant on gender-based violence policy. Prior to that she was employed as an attorney in the Office on Violence Against Women of the U.S. Department of Justice from 2001-2025 where she worked on responses to domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking in the Federal government workplace, forensic medical exam protocols, and the intersection of domestic violence and firearms, among other things.
In 2012, she received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award for her work on the Prison Rape Elimination Act Working Group. In 2005, she received The Attorney General’s Award for Outstanding Contribution by a New Employee for her work on the National Protocol for Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examinations. Previously, Ms. Shiels was employed as a legal analyst at the National Center for Victims of Crime, tracking federal and state statutes and cases relating to crime victims and writing articles on legal issues related to sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.
