June 01, 2022 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
Biden's War Against Himself
If the unchecked blood letting, billowing inflation, foreign conflict, and typhoon of domestic Covid infection wasn’t enough to set Americans on edge the past week, a persistent high pitched whine–not unlike the kind projected outside 7/11s to deter listless teenage delinquents from Sacramento to Scranton–descended on the nation. It emanated not from a thoughtfully angled speaker system, but out of the oval office and into the pages of the Wall Street Journal and Fox News studios. Nonetheless, It has had a similar effect in driving young people away.
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May 16, 2022
Biden DOJ Is Still Advancing Trump Positions, New Data Shows
Well over a year after President Biden’s inauguration, his administration continues to defend and advance Trump-era legal positions, according to an updated analysis released by the Revolving Door Project today. RDP’s long-running litigation tracker, documenting court cases in which the Biden administration has inherited and chosen to advance Trump-era legal positions, has been brought up-to-date to include new instances where the legal advocacy of Merrick Garland’s Justice Department on environmental, immigration, education, and other issues runs counter to the administration’s commitments.
May 16, 2022
Coalition Urges DOJ to Grant Jonathan Kanter a Waiver to Lead on Google Cases
We write to you as a coalition of organizations committed to holding anti-competitive behavior accountable. As a decorated antitrust lawyer committed to the public interest, Jonathan S. Kanter has the background needed to be a strong Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ). We are thus alarmed that Mr. Kanter was barred from participating in DOJ scrutiny of Google while the DOJ determines whether to ask for his recusal at the behest of the embattled company. Accordingly, we urge the DOJ to provide Mr. Kanter with a waiver to allow him to participate in DOJ scrutiny of Google’s anti-competitive behavior.
May 11, 2022 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
Environmental Quality, Justice, Enforcement, Oh My!
Tuesday dawned with the unwelcome news that Antitrust Chief Jonathan Kanter has been indefinitely barred from working on the anti-monopoly case against Google while the Justice Department decides whether his past work representing Google’s critics should require his recusal. This, despite the fact that none of his past clients are parties in the Google case at issue.
May 04, 2022 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
With SCOTUS In Flames, Something Is Wrong With The White House Fire Alarm
Monday’s wrenching news that the Supreme Court is set to overturn Roe v. Wade marks a final leg in Republicans’ long march to theocratic rule, bringing conservatives far closer to consolidating total power even before the reckoning of 2024, when the GOP is set to launch a barrage of anti-democratic incendiary balloons at an already scorched Constitution. The highest judicial body in the land has emerged from its terrifying chrysalis, emboldened by dark money groups and transformed into a bludgeon aimed at the most basic constitutional rights and federal agencies that regulate our air and water, our work and labor rights, and the vast public health apparatus of the United States government.
![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/U.S._Department_of_Justice_headquarters_August_12_2006.jpg)
April 05, 2022
Putting Biden’s Antitrust Budget Increases In Context
The federal government may no longer be operating under the onus of Trump-era austerity, but agencies across the federal government are still far from having the resources they need to quickly and effectively fulfill their responsibilities to the American people. For the most part, President Biden’s proposed FY 2023 budget fails to fill that gap. However, increased funding for antitrust regulation is one of the bright spots in an otherwise uninspired budget. As we have covered in the past, both the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (ATR) saw staffing levels stagnate and budget allocations that did not keep pace with inflation or GDP growth.
![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Biden.jpg)
March 29, 2022
Press Release Congressional OversightCorporate CrackdownDepartment of JusticeExecutive BranchIndependent Agencies
Biden Gave Most Corporate Crimes A Pass This Winter, New Analysis Shows
The Biden administration pursued at least 24 prosecutions and rulemakings to crack down on white-collar crime this winter, but took no action against at least 48 crimes or abuses, a new data set from the Revolving Door Project shows
![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/US_Capitol_Building_after_sunset.jpg)
March 28, 2022
Biden’s Weak Record On White-Collar Crime Is (Partly) Thanks To Congress
When Republicans blockade confirmation hearings, they handcuff the government’s ability to handcuff lawbreaking executives.
![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/U.S._Department_of_Justice_headquarters_August_12_2006.jpg)
March 28, 2022
The DOJ Should Follow Its Own Guidance on FOIA Administration
The celebration of Sunshine Week earlier this month underscored the importance of the continued effort to ensure effective administration of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and its central role for open democracy. Passed by Congress in 1966, FOIA allows citizens to request unpublished records and information from the federal government. Watchdog organizations have long relied on records obtained from FOIA requests to hold the government accountable to public interests. But, the system comes with a plethora of flaws that prevents adequate timeliness and transparency. Endless backlogs, increased usage of exemptions, partially redacted documents, and outright denials leave much to be desired in the administration of FOIA today.
![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/garland-1st-day.jpg)
March 25, 2022 | Left Anchor
LEFT ANCHOR PODCAST: The Hapless Merrick Garland, with Jeff Hauser
Why is Biden’s attorney general so reluctant to charge Donald Trump and his cronies for their crimes? Revolving Door Project founder and executive director Jeff Hauser joined Prospect managing editor Ryan Cooper on the Left Anchor podcast to discuss.
March 16, 2022 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
Facing Rising Prices and Falling Political Fortunes, Biden Needs to Go on Offense
With each passing day, Biden and his party appear to be facing ever more severe political headwinds. Inflation remains elevated, with a new variant threatening to further aggravate supply chain problems. Meanwhile, the (warranted) response to the war in Ukraine has specifically pushed gas prices upwards. Add to this that the Federal Reserve appears eager to throw millions out of work to slow the economy and that some of Biden’s outstanding nominations are in peril thanks to his own, uncooperative co-partisans, and things are undoubtedly looking bleak.
![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8479006257_90a09b7f02_b.jpg)
March 16, 2022
To Take Down Corporate Polluters, the DOJ's Environmental Enforcer Needs More Capacity
Overseen by Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim, the Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) is one of seven litigating components of the Department of Justice (DOJ). The ENRD is divided into ten sections, each with its own area of expertise. The Division fulfills a wide range of responsibilities. For instance, the ENRD is tasked with protecting the nation’s natural resources and enforcing U.S. civil and criminal environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and hazardous waste laws. The Division also handles tribal rights and resources cases. Other responsibilities include, but are not limited to, “facilitating cleaner energy and ensuring marketplace integrity; defending and adjudicating water rights for Federal agencies and Indian Tribes, as well as policies and decisions that support the generation of clean energy on Federal lands and the outer continental shelf; and, promoting international climate justice activities and the advancement of legislative and policy matters related to climate change.”
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March 15, 2022 | The American Prospect
Op-Ed Climate and EnvironmentCorporate CrackdownDepartment of JusticeEthics in GovernmentExecutive BranchIndependent Agencies
Where the Government’s Environmental Lawyers Stand
Joe Biden pledged that as president he would hold polluters accountable. But in 2021, the number of criminal cases against polluters referred to the Justice Department dropped even lower than the year before. At best, DOJ officials have set their sights on bringing environmental crime enforcement back up to Obama-era levels—but not exceeding them. That’s a decidedly muted goal; environmental crimes enforcement was higher under George W. Bush than Obama, and has always been underfunded.
March 09, 2022 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
The Seeming Minutiae that Matters Greatly
The Biden administration is continuing to ramp up economic pressure on Russia through a far-reaching sanctions regime. However, even as many experts praise the United States’ measures, particularly those aimed at Russian oligarchs’ overseas wealth, they are also questioning how effective they will be in the face of loopholes and implementation challenges.
![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/16430985597_d4264c4468_o-scaled.jpg)
March 03, 2022
Revolver Spotlight: Michael Easley Jr. and the Office of the U.S. Attorneys
As officers with extraordinary latitude and immense authority within their districts, U.S. Attorneys have the ability to implement ambitious reforms to the federal legal landscape in a direct and immediate fashion. U.S. Attorneys also have incredible freedom to reorient the undercurrent priorities of the federal legal system and to center historically under prosecuted, but systemic nonetheless, crimes such as corporate and white collar malfeasance. Because of the incredible potential of the position, it is critical that these offices are prioritized in Biden’s staffing of the federal bureaucracy. However, as we have examined previously, the Biden administration has proven remarkably slow in its nominations process for U.S. Attorneys positions, seemingly in part due to an unwillingness to decisively abandon deference to a racist Senate decorum procedure known as blue slips.