March 02, 2022 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
Dylan Gyauch-Lewis Max Moran Toni Aguilar Rosenthal
Corporate CrackdownDepartment of JusticeEconomic PolicyFinancial Regulation
What Can Biden Actually DO From His State Of The Union?
If there’s one thing the readers of this newsletter definitely haven’t read yet today, it’s a reaction to last night’s State of the Union address.
Like many, we were hoping to see President Joe Biden adopt a new overall message to the American people as his poll numbers have sagged and Democrats brace for a rough midterm election in just eight short months. We’ve been making our pitch for the last few months about what that message should be: Biden ought to use his powers to crack down on corporate villains, and heavily publicize doing so. The ubiquity of already unpopular enemies and latent presidential powers gives Biden the chance to clarify to the public what exactly he stands for. Our Jeff Hauser and Max Moran laid out the case for this “Corporate Crackdown” message in Democracy Journal in January.
![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Amazon_Monopoly.png)
February 22, 2022
Making The Antitrust Division Competitive: A Look At Capacity As Biden Revitalizes Enforcement
The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (ATR) is, along with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the primary regulator of antitrust law and is responsible for ensuring markets’ competitiveness. In that capacity, it investigates corporate consolidation and allegations of collusion and anticompetitive practices that undermine the free market. ATR is also responsible for supervising mergers and acquisitions to ensure that companies cannot establish monopolies. While both ATR and the FTC share this objective, the two divide jurisdiction based on industry. ATR also investigates and prosecutes criminal antitrust violations.
February 16, 2022 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
Is Crypto Experiencing Inflation in the Price of Revolvers?
Inflation, it’s all anyone can seem to talk about. With prices rising at their fastest rate in more than three decades, the White House is understandably looking for ways to get things under control. Rhetorically, they’ve pointed their finger at corporate greed, highlighting the stark contradiction between companies’ claims that price hikes are unavoidable and their record profits (which, by definition, mean they can raise prices faster than their costs are rising). Action to follow that diagnosis, however, has been more muted. That is not because they don’t have options at their disposal.
![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/49331527821_08bccbbe23_b.jpg)
February 11, 2022
Abandon Blue Slips: An Examination of the U.S. Attorneys Office
President Biden campaigned on ambitious reforms to the criminal legal system. Among these promises were key proposals like expanding the use of the President’s clemency powers, reorienting federal prosecutorial priorities, and decentering carcerality in the Federal system. His administration has also promised the public a new focus on white collar and corporate crime as part of a fundamental shift towards systemic accountability instead of individual punishment. Yet, more than a year into Biden’s presidency, many of these promises remain unfulfilled. His Department of Justice (DOJ) – a key tool in the fight for meaningful legal reforms – remains pockmarked by Trump-era officials and lacks the permanent progressive leadership integral to successful reform efforts. U.S. Attorneys’ offices, in particular, remain limited by the standing lack of nominations, confirmations, and stable leadership that persists over a year after President Biden’s inauguration.
February 03, 2022 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
From Shriveled Enforcement to OLC Opinions, Trump Stench on Exec Branch Remains
It seems that each passing day brings another example of how chronic underfunding of government is threatening the Biden administration’s ability to make good on its promises to the public. On the campaign trail, for example, Biden pledged to hold polluters accountable. But, according to a new analysis from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) referrals to the Justice Department fell to their lowest level in three decades in 2021 and were fully one-third lower than in 2020. A lack of capacity may also be undermining the EPA’s ability to quickly and effectively deploy new infrastructure funds for wastewater and drinking water infrastructure programs, lead pipe replacement, and cleanup of PFAS contaminants.
![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/48267993582_08cf6b3f10_b.jpg)
January 31, 2022 | The American Prospect
Garland Has Yet to De-Trumpify His Office of Legal Counsel
One former employee of the Office of Legal Counsel, upon quitting her job during the Trump presidency, described the OLC’s work to The Washington Post succinctly: “using the law to legitimize lies.” Three years later, and a year after Trump left office, most of those legitimized lies remain intact.
![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/1200px-2016-03-22_Senator_Amy_Klobuchar_meets_with_Merrick_Garland_04.jpg)
January 27, 2022
Letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland Highlights Urgent Need for Resources in the Antitrust Division
The Justice Department plays a key role in President Biden’s vision of promoting “the interests of American workers, businesses, and consumers” through increasing competition, a plan which stands to be one the most enduring legacies of this administration. Your commitment to promote “competition by fairly and vigorously enforcing the antitrust laws,” along with the confirmation of Jonathan Kanter to Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division, are crucial steps forward in this vision.
![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/2016-03-22_Senator_Chuck_Schumer_meets_with_Merrick_Garland_06_cropped_to_Garland_shoulders.jpg)
January 25, 2022 | Talking Points Memo
Op-Ed 2020 Election/TransitionDepartment of JusticeExecutive BranchIndependent AgenciesRevolving Door
DOJ Civil: Progressives Should Pay Attention To The Actions Of This Powerful Litigating Division
If you search for the Civil Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Google, you’ll find an overwhelming majority of search results are for the Civil Rights Division. That’s unsurprising — the average person is typically more aware of the Civil Rights Division’s work. And it makes sense: As the “crown jewel” of the DOJ, the division performs the crucial work of enforcing the laws that prohibit discrimination.
![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/2016_March_16_Merrick_Garland_profile_by_The_White_House.jpeg)
January 06, 2022 | The American Prospect
Merrick Garland Is Undermining The Biden Antitrust Strategy
In theory, nothing prevents Biden from hiring whomever Kanter personally trusts to help execute their shared agenda. So what’s causing the chaos?
January 05, 2022 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
The Stones that Paved the Way to 1/6
Tomorrow marks one year from when rioters stormed the Capitol building in an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election. In the 364 days since that horrific event some things have certainly changed: the presidency has successfully changed hands, almost 200 insurrectionists have plead guilty, and a handful of Trump’s associates have been held in contempt of Congress for their refusal to testify before the select committee. And yet, in other respects, progress has been woefully incomplete. Key officials from the Trump administration remain in place, the federal government continues to defend many of Trump’s seemingly indefensible legal positions, and Trump and his inner circle have not faced consequences for inciting the insurrection.
![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/2016-03-22_Senator_Chuck_Schumer_meets_with_Merrick_Garland_06-scaled.jpg)
December 17, 2021
Dorothy Slater Hannah Story Brown
Op-Ed Climate and EnvironmentDepartment of JusticeEthics in Government
Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice Is Perpetuating Climate Destruction
When the government’s lawyers defend fossil fuel interests, people and the planet pay the price.
December 15, 2021 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
Biden’s Bank Regulators Play Hardball
Late last Thursday, a Democratic majority on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) board announced that it had voted to take comment on the agency’s process for reviewing bank mergers, a policy that fits neatly within the Biden administration’s whole-of-government approach to competition. On its face, this is wholly unremarkable. But what should have been just another early step towards meeting this administration’s goals quickly turned into an all out war thanks to the FDIC’s Trump holdover chair Jelena McWilliams.
![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/18971897734_18d1314538_b.jpg)
December 14, 2021
Biden Gets Why Meat Prices Are So High. Why Isn't He Going On Offense About It?
Being correct, it turns out, isn’t enough. A dry blog post full of economic statistics and analysis simply isn’t how best to message the President’s position to the public.
![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/1200px-2016-03-22_Senator_Amy_Klobuchar_meets_with_Merrick_Garland_04.jpg)
December 13, 2021 | The American Prospect
The Trump Officials Still Running Biden’s Justice Department
We are rapidly approaching the one-year anniversary of January 6, and Attorney General Merrick Garland has yet to give any sign that his Justice Department is independently investigating former President Trump and his fellow instigators. This is, by far, Garland’s most high-profile failure when it comes to accountability for the prior administration, one that more observers have begun to notice. But it is not the only one.
![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/FCIDanburylarge-1.jpeg)
December 08, 2021 | Talking Points Memo
Op-Ed 2020 Election/TransitionCriminal JusticeDepartment of JusticeEthics in GovernmentExecutive Branch
The Bureau Of Prisons Needs New Leadership, Now
Progressives, prison workers and prisoners are in agreement: the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Michael Carvajal, should be fired. The Bureau of Prisons is in a crisis several layers deep, and new leadership will be key to its reformation.