DOJ Investigating Allegations Around UAW President Shawn Fain

Source: US News & World Report/Reuters

July 12, 2026, at 6:32 p.m.


DETROIT, July 12 (Reuters) - The Department of Justice ⁠is ⁠probing allegations that United Auto Workers President Shawn ⁠Fain took actions to improperly benefit his fiancée and retaliated against another senior union member who ​objected to the actions, according to internal union documents reviewed by Reuters.

The lead counsel for the federal watchdog appointed to oversee union activities informed Fain and ‌the senior union member, Rich Boyer, last ‌month that the DOJ had initiated a grand jury investigation into matters detailed in the monitor's reports, including those involving Fain and his fiancée. ⁠The monitor’s office, led ⁠by New York attorney Neil Barofsky, issues periodic reports about the union’s inner workings.

Fain, who ​has denied the monitor's findings and called the allegations outlined by the monitor "bogus," is campaigning for a second four-year term as the leader of the union, and an election is scheduled for later this year. Boyer is one of a handful of candidates opposing Fain. The monitor issued a report last month finding that ​Fain had retaliated against Boyer and improperly used his authority, including in ways that would benefit his fiancée, but deferred a ⁠decision ⁠on disciplinary action pending further review ⁠without citing the federal probe.

"We ​are not publishing the details of our factual findings on this issue at this time out of deference to a Grand ​Jury investigation DOJ has initiated into ⁠that issue," the monitor's lead counsel wrote in a June 18 email reviewed by Reuters. "We do not intend to publicly disclose the existence of that investigation at this time," he continued.

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