Amid the concerns of ethics watchdogs and members of Congress about how government officials might benefit from or manipulate prediction markets, Harmeet Dhillon, the social media-obsessed head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, promoted an online betting market’s wager as to whether her office would prosecute journalist Don Lemon.
On Thursday, Dhillon posted a response to a betting opportunity posted by the gambling platform Polymarket on X about whether the Justice Department would prosecute Lemon, who was covering a protest at a Minnesota church. Protesters believed the pastor there was a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official. The Trump administration has indicted three of the demonstrators, and even shared a doctored photo of one of them on Thursday, but the effort to squeeze Lemon hasn’t gone according to plan. A judge on Thursday reportedly refused to sign off on the charges that the Justice Department sought.
Dhillon’s post comes just weeks after someone used Polymarket to cash in on a bet that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro would be removed from office. That wager prompted a push for legislation to bar federal officials from making such bets. Meanwhile, just months ago, the family of Donald Trump launched a crypto-backed prediction market that plans to take bets on political matters the president and his administration can influence.
Dhillon herself has faced fierce condemnation and mass resignations over her leadership of the Civil Rights Division. There, she has pushed to roll back protections for nonwhite and trans people.
That’s the context for Dhillon’s post, flagged by independent journalist Adam Klasfeld. The assistant attorney general effectively promoted the odds on her own decision about whether to bring charges against Lemon.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment. The layers of potential corruption seem obvious. Not only is the Justice Department trying to punish a journalist for his reporting, but Dhillon’s reposting of the Polymarket bet raises even more questions about DOJ officials’ motives. Americans should have full confidence that Justice Department is making prosecutorial decisions rooted in sound jurisprudence — and not to settle political scores or to influence betting markets. But as Team Trump debases the DOJ, turning it into a tool to target the president’s perceived enemies while also potentially lining his pockets and those of his political allies, there’s no reason for that confidence today.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog. 
