Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser filed his 50th lawsuit against the Trump administration on January 9, 2026, challenging a $275 million freeze in child care funding. The milestone arrived one year after Weiser announced his gubernatorial campaign. Democrats allocated $604,491 annually for three attorneys dedicated to fighting federal actions—money that bought press conferences, not protection.
Of those 50 lawsuits, Colorado leads exactly one. The state co-leads six more. The remaining 43? Weiser joined as a coalition member, adding Colorado’s name to other states’ litigation before scheduling press conferences to claim credit. The strategy delivered campaign talking points while Coloradans suffered through a crime surge that ranked Colorado fourth-worst nationally.
When Weiser took office in January 2019, Colorado’s murder rate stood at 0.7 per 100,000 residents—the lowest in five years and the only quarter below 1.0. That safety vanished. By 2021, murders surged 47 percent. Violent crime jumped 17 percent. Auto theft exploded 86 percent, and identity theft more than doubled from 121 to 396 crimes per 100,000 residents. The 2022 violent crime rate peaked at 492.5 per 100,000, the highest in a decade. Property crime hit 854.2 per 100,000 in third quarter 2022, a five-year high.
State prosecutors filed 7,500 fewer drug charges in 2021 than 2020—a 15 percent drop in total felony filings during the crisis. Colorado State Patrol reported quadrupled fentanyl and methamphetamine seizures while Colorado posted the worst fentanyl overdose death increase nationally except Alaska between 2015 and 2021. Juvenile aggravated assaults with firearms jumped from 29 percent of all aggravated assaults in 2016 to 44 percent by 2021.
Weiser’s response exposed his priorities. In July 2025, he sued a Mesa County deputy for coordinating with ICE via encrypted chats, then probed State Patrol and three other agencies for immigration cooperation. He chilled border enforcement during a fentanyl crisis to score progressive points, then allocated $604,491 for Trump litigation while murders climbed 47 percent.
Consumer protection activity continued. Weiser’s office secured $400 million in recoveries by 2023 through CenturyLink settlements, $740 million in opioid distributions to localities, and Google privacy cases. Consumer complaints rose from 13,970 in 2021 to 20,390 in 2023 as Weiser marketed the process. Each settlement delivered a press release with his signature. Good politics. Consumer protection doesn’t stop murders.
The federal lawsuit strategy backfired. Trump moved Space Command to Alabama, threatened to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder with 1,000 jobs at risk, terminated $724 million in federal funding, denied disaster relief requests for wildfires and flooding, and vetoed the Arkansas Valley Conduit water pipeline. Weiser went 0-3 at the Supreme Court. His 50th lawsuit challenges the child care funding freeze triggered by investigative journalist Nick Shirley’s exposé of Minnesota welfare fraud. Weiser’s complaint dismisses Shirley’s evidence because Minnesota officials visited the accused facilities and reported everything looked fine. He believes bureaucrats over journalists.
Crime began falling in 2024, but only after three years. Fifty lawsuits bought Weiser a gubernatorial campaign narrative built on “standing up to Trump” while Coloradans endured record violence. The $604,491 allocated annually funded three attorneys to fight the federal government while murders surged 47 percent, auto thefts doubled, and felony prosecutions collapsed. Weiser provoked federal retaliation costing Colorado hundreds of millions, chilled law enforcement during a border crisis, and transformed the Attorney General’s office into campaign headquarters. He protected his political future. He abandoned Colorado’s safety.
Support Independent Local Journalism — High Country Advocate was created as a real alternative to regional media that too often silences dissenting voices while taking sides in the political struggle. Producing in-depth, unflinching reporting like this series and others is expensive: servers, editing, research time, and legal review all add up quickly. If these articles have informed you or given you new perspective, please consider supporting HCA with a paid subscription — every subscriber helps keep this reporting strong and independent. 