Department of Justice

The Office of the United States Attorneys has 94 offices (led by 93 Attorneys) across the U.S., Puerto Rico, Guam, Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Each U.S. Attorney is appointed to these districts by the President for a four-year term, and each official serves as the top federal law enforcement officer in their district, and has historically had significant latitude over policy implementation within the district’s borders. 

This week’s stories show that from the Justice Department to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Trump admin is simultaneously eroding, side-stepping, and outright defying the checks and balances that distinguish a government that is accountable to the public from one that exists simply to enrich the elite. 

We’re back for another edition of this newsletter proposing tough questions that need to be asked of Trump’s nominees. This iteration will cover Pam Bondi, the nominee for Attorney General, and Scott Bessent, the nominee to lead the Department of Treasury.

This week’s newsletter highlights three litmus tests of the Biden administration’s commitment to holding the wealthy and powerful accountable to the public interest within their dwindling time in office. 

As the Democratic Party apparatus’s post-election reflections continue this week, they would do well to consider this basic question: Was it smart to run a campaign hinging on your opponent’s blatant corruption and white-collar criminal status, despite the failure of the Biden administration to take tangible steps to address the harms perpetrated by corporations and the wealthy during their time in office?

Corporate revolvers are keeping industry giants from facing real accountability.

The last time she ran for president, Kamala Harris gave a 16-minute interview with then-Mother Jones reporter Rebecca Leber about her vision for tackling the climate crisis. Harris brought evident comfort and energy to the topic, but most striking was the framing to which she returned again and again: corporate accountability.

Donald Trump and his Department of Justice consistently made a mockery of the law throughout his four years in power. And while their laughable reasoning and indefensible positions were struck down at a historic rate, many cases were still waiting for Biden. The new administration tossed out a handful immediately but an alarming number remain, either in some form of pause or advancing forward with the Biden administration adopting Trump’s position.

In response to the lawsuit filed today by the Department of Justice Antitrust Division and eight states, the Revolving Door Project issued the following statement.

President Biden’s Justice Department has been offered two opportunities to act on holding oil and gas companies responsible for their deceit. It can protect state efforts to pursue accountability, and it can join them.

On May 28th 2024, the Revolving Door Project sent a letter to the office of Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco expressing concern over her recently reported off-the-record meeting with senior tech company executives. The Revolving Door Project called on DAG Monaco to publicly disclose who she met with, what was discussed, and permanently discontinue holding private meetings that may sow public distrust of the Department of Justice.