![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/trump-holdovers.jpg)
March 05, 2021 | The American Prospect
Trump Holdovers Still Dot U.S. Attorneys Offices
De-Trumpifying all levels of the Department of Justice (DOJ) remains a critical factor in Joe Biden’s success. He needs an energized and progressive pool of U.S. attorneys committed to criminal justice reform, prosecuting white-collar crime, and protecting the environment to do that.
![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/US_Department_of_Justice-1.jpg)
February 24, 2021
Revolving Door Project Sees Cause for Concern at Biden's Justice Department
At his confirmation hearings this week, Merrick Garland made admirable commitments to reinvigorate a beleaguered Justice Department and redirect its energies towards domestic terrorism, civil rights, and antitrust enforcement. His ability to deliver on those promises and more will depend on his resolve to break with tired norms where necessary and populate the Department’s highest ranks with unabashed champions for the public interest, not corporate apologists.
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February 23, 2021 | Jacobin
INTERVIEW: Who Is Merrick Garland's Friend Jamie Gorelick?
Jamie Gorelick, a high-powered lawyer who defended the city of Chicago after the police murder of Laquan McDonald and sits on the board of Amazon, is a case study of the influence big corporate law firms wield behind the scenes in Washington — and she has friends like Merrick Garland in high places in the Biden administration. The Revolving Door Project’s Elias Alsbergas and Max Moran spoke with Jacobin’s Alex N. Press about what Gorelick’s ties to Garland could mean for the Biden Administration’s Justice Department.
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February 22, 2021
Garland Must Lock BigLaw Out Of DOJ Leadership To Enact Biden Agenda, 37 Groups Say
A coalition of 37 racial, worker, environmental, and social justice organizations demanded that President Biden’s attorney general nominee Merrick Garland keep BigLaw attorneys out of the leadership of his Department of Justice, especially those who generally represent large corporations or alleged white-collar criminals.
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February 22, 2021 | The American Prospect
Acting Officials Can Govern for Years. They Deserve Scrutiny.
Little attention is paid to acting officials, who hold jobs temporarily while permanent appointees go through lengthy confirmation processes. President Biden should choose personnel for these acting positions wisely.
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February 15, 2021
Trump Appointees Still Setting Agenda At Biden’s Antitrust Division
Last week the Biden administration appointed career civil servant Richard Powers as Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (ATR). With the question of who will become Assistant Attorney General still up in the air and their confirmation likely several months away, the direction of the ATR’s enforcement is left in the hands of three top officials.
![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/US_Department_of_Justice-1.jpg)
February 12, 2021 | Talking Points Memo
Resignation of Trump-Appointed US Attorneys Is Just The Start Of DOJ’s De-Trumpification
In the Reconstruction era following the Civil War, the Department of Justice was created in part to deliver and oversee equal rights to formerly enslaved Black men and women. This corrective institution was a major step toward building a federal government that protects the civil rights of all its citizens. In the wrong hands, however, the department can be weaponized. Whether through inaction or outright hostility on issues ranging from white-collar crime to mass incarceration, the values animating the nation’s top law enforcement agency matter.
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February 04, 2021 | American Prospect
Dorothy Slater Max Moran Timi Iwayemi
Op-Ed 2020 Election/TransitionClimate and EnvironmentDepartment of JusticeFinancial RegulationFintech
Even After The Cabinet Selections, Personnel Is Policy
As grinding as the cabinet fights have been, they’re only the first wave of the Biden administration’s personnel. Now comes a new stage of the transition, in which the newly-named secretaries choose their own undersecretaries and senior advisers. Although occupants of these positions typically operate outside the national spotlight, they still wield enormous power.
![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/renata-hesse-1.jpg)
January 16, 2021
Biden’s Antitrust Minefield
The vast majority of Americans believe that the monopoly power of tech companies is a major problem for the economy and a corrupting political influence. Biden should heed these concerns and avoiding appointing Big Tech insiders and allies of monopolies to head crucial antitrust regulatory posts at the Department of Justice.
![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/katyal-1.jpg)
January 13, 2021 | The American Prospect
Biden Must Close the Revolving Door Between BigLaw and Government
Biden framed his campaign as “Scranton vs. Park Avenue,” promising an end to corporate government. But in order to do that, Biden must seal the revolving door between corporate law firms and the federal government. There is no shortage of brilliant attorneys who have dedicated their careers to serving the public interest and fighting for social justice who are ready to do that work within the new administration.
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December 07, 2020
Sally Yates' Record of Ignoring The Innocent And Protecting The Guilty
Sally Yates, an anti-Trump #Resistance icon, spent her last year in Obama’s Justice department refusing to act on a high-profile clemency initiative, prompting a furious resignation letter from Obama’s pardon attorney. After her famous firing in the early Trump days, Yates went to work for BigLaw firm King & Spalding’s “Special Matters and Government Investigations” practice, which is BigLawspeak for “teaching corporate America which laws they can violate without DOJ filing suit, and how to tamp down on suits which they do file.”
July 29, 2020 | Talking Points Memo
Today’s Congressional Hearing Will Test Big Tech’s Simplest Algorithm: If An Ex-Regulator, Then Hire
The tech companies set to testify before the House today knew for years that a reckoning was in the works. They’ve been building up their defenses, and a key component of that defense is the antitrust enforcement officials who take a trip through the revolving door to the benefit of corporate clients.
July 18, 2020 | Washington Monthly
Better Policy Ideas Alone Won’t Stop Monopolies
Over the last four years, new voices in the Democratic Party have been calling for policies that push back on established power structures. The growing anti-monopoly movement is a major part of this populist uprising—aimed at breaking up the corporate giants that dominate large swaths of the economy.
April 08, 2020 | Talking Points Memo
What Will Feds Do About Corporate Bailout Bill Corruption? Look To Walmart's Opioids Case
If and when we (likely inevitably) learn that bailed-out companies and multi-trillion dollar slush funds misuse the public disaster relief dollars doled out by the Trump administration in the wake of the pandemic, we should turn back to this Walmart story for further evidence of why big corporations are rarely held accountable.