Teamsters, DOJ move to end federal monitorship after 37 years
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Teamsters president Sean O'Brien attends a Senate hearing in March. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
The fallout from the Teamsters' affiliation with organized crime in the 20th Century is poised to end after President Trump's prosecutors agreed to cease federal monitorship of the union.
Why it matters: The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has been subject to oversight since 1989, when it signed a consent decree aimed at eliminating the mob's influence in the union.
- "Being the general president of the Teamsters, if I even think it, they want to indict me over it," Teamsters president Sean O'Brien joked on his podcast in early 2025 about the union's lingering image.
Driving the news: The Teamsters and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday filed a joint motion to end the monitorship.
- Judge Loretta Preska — who has overseen the monitorship since 2002 — will need to officially sign off.
- "Over the past four years, we have developed a system of internal controls and created a culture of vigilance in our union," O'Brien said Wednesday in a statement. "Our efforts have proven that we can police our own, and the controls we have put in place are more stringent than any labor organization in the country."
The intrigue: The filing marks the second win this week for O'Brien after he was reelected to his post at the 1.3-million-member union's convention in Las Vegas.
- O'Brien — a former Bernie Sanders ally who has more recently gravitated toward Trump — startled Democrats in 2024 by delivering a fiery speech at the Republican National Convention.
Zoom in: Barbara Jones, the independent monitor overseeing the Teamsters, recently determined in a report that the union had "developed the institutional tools, processes and procedures necessary to adequately detect, investigate, and resolve instances of major corruption," according to the joint court filing.
- The monitor also recommended additional internal disciplinary measures and audit steps that the union said it has agreed to.
Flashback: U.S. prosecutors — led by Rudy Giuliani, years before he became mayor of New York City and decades before he became a Trump ally — filed a civil racketeering case against the Teamsters in 1988, alleging pervasive corruption.
- Authorities accused the union of having been infiltrated by members of the La Cosa Nostra mob family.
- The resulting consent decree subjected the Teamsters to federal oversight and required it to allow members to directly elect officers.
- Federal prosecutors agreed in 2015 to end active oversight of the union but kept an independent monitor in place indefinitely.
What's next: Once the judge signs off, the independent monitor position will be eliminated in three years, unless Jones convinces the court that a monitor's still needed.
- After her term ends, the union has agreed to permanently retain an independent compliance professional and appoint that person to its board.
