Justice Department launches investigation into Portland police
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating the Portland Police Department in Oregon, days after a conservative influencer was arrested amid a federal crime crackdown in the city.
Harmeet Dhillon, the DOJ’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, “signed, sealed [and] delivered!” a letter to Portland police about the investigation on Friday, according to a post from her X account.
In a separate post, Dhillon said she spoke with Nick Sortor, the influencer who was arrested outside an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility on Thursday. She also said she talked to Attorney General Pam Bondi “about what is happened in Portland and the urgent need for a federal civil rights investigation over there.”
“Portland is already under a failed consent decree for its failed police practices,” Dhillon said. “It has been for over a decade now.”
Sortor was among three people arrested outside an ICE facility on Thursday. He was released on his own recognizance, according to the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office. Following the news from DOJ, he shared a copy of Dhillon’s letter on X.
“Harmeet is wasting NO TIME holding Portland accountable!” Sortor posted Friday night.
The government has requested body camera footage and “details about why multiple journalists have been attacked there in Portland and the police seemed to do nothing about it,” wrote in the Friday letter.
She asked “folks to stay tuned and have faith,” and that President Trump has deployed the U.S. National Guard to Portland “to feel safe from the scourge of antifa.”
Portland Police chief Bob Day welcomed the DOJ’s scrutiny at a Friday presser, stating the department has worked with the federal government since a 2012 police reform agreement.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday that the administration would open a federal investigation into Sortor’s arrest.
Last weekend, President Trump said he would call on the National Guard to go into Portland amid immigration protests. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield (D) said that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth sent a memo to Gov. Tina Kotek (D) “authorizing 200 members of the Oregon National Guard to perform federal functions for 60 days,” according to a post on X.
Trump also directed his team at the White House to review any federal aid meant to go to Portland that can be cut.
“We will not fund states that allow anarchy,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing on Friday.