WASHINGTON, D.C. — Former federal civil rights and corruption prosecutors and investigators are joining with human rights leaders who spent decades uncovering and documenting rights abuses around the world to launch The Rule of Law Project, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to restoring criminal accountability for public officials and law enforcement who break the law in the United States.

“I’ve spent my career working in countries where the rule of law has collapsed, but I never thought I’d see it erode here so quickly,” said co-founder and board chair Brad Adams, who spent 20 years with Human Rights Watch overseeing investigations of state violence. “Now, senior officials openly engage in corruption, while federal agents beat and kill innocent people with impunity. The rule of law is on life support, but it’s our collective responsibility to make sure it doesn’t die. The Rule of Law Project’s mission is to bring back the ideal that the law protects and binds everyone, that criminal conduct has consequences, and that no one — regardless of office, badge, or influence — may escape those consequences.”

The Rule of Law Project will investigate and document instances of public corruption and state violence in the United States that go unexamined and unpunished. It will build the criminal cases the Department of Justice would have brought in ordinary times, and then turn over case files to state and local authorities or a future Department of Justice willing to uphold the rule of law.

The effort will be led by Mark Blumberg, who spent nearly 30 years in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division investigating and prosecuting acts of official misconduct. For the last 20 years, Blumberg led the department’s election response on civil rights threats. He also served on the FBI’s Shooting Investigation Review Group and Customs and Border Protection’s National Use of Force Review Board, giving him rare insight into internal accountability systems within federal agencies. He now leads a team of former federal prosecutors and investigators with decades of federal law enforcement experience.

“The rule of law matters — it’s not just some abstract legal principle,” said Blumberg. “It is the foundation for equal justice for all, no matter how vulnerable or powerful they are. We will apply what we call the “Ordinary Times Test” and only investigate cases that an independent Justice Department would have pursued. We’re not here to seek retribution or to settle scores. We’re here to ensure the law applies to the powerful the same way it applies to the rest of us.”

The Rule of Law Project will investigate officials who use their public office for private gain, including those who solicit or accept something of value in exchange for influencing their official duties, who improperly seek to influence executive and legislative actions, and whose official acts affect their personal financial interest. The subjects of investigation will be people in government and individuals outside government who share responsibility.

The Project will also investigate the use of unnecessary and excessive force and improper conditions of confinement, with a specific focus on unlawful conduct by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Investigators will also look into interference with the right to vote and other protected liberties.

“Civic groups have played an instrumental role in investigating abuses by autocrats and kleptocrats the world over,” said Kenneth Roth, a board member of the Project and former Executive Director at Human Rights Watch. “People like Rodrigo Duterte, Charles Taylor, and Ratko Mladić would never have been brought to justice if not for the detailed investigative work of private organizations. Since the current U.S. government won’t investigate allegations of ICE violence or official corruption, we will — to lay the foundation for prosecutions when they become possible.”

The Rule of Law Project is supported by an expert Advisory Council that includes eminent former Department of Justice officials, international human rights leaders, law professors, and lawyers. Members include:

• Roy L. Austin, Jr. — Director, AI Initiative, Howard University School of Law and former Deputy Assistant to the President for the Office of Urban Affairs, Justice and Opportunity
• Mark Bergman — Principal of 7Pillars Global Insights and former international law partner
• Reed Brody — Board member of DAWN and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights and former spokesperson and advocacy director for Human Rights Watch
• Erwin Chemerinsky — Dean of Berkeley Law School and one of the nation’s leading constitutional scholars
• Natalie Bridgeman Fields — Philanthropic advisor and founder and former executive director of Accountability Global
• Stephanie Hinds — Former U.S. Attorney and former head of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys at the Justice Department
• Aziz Huq — Law professor at the University of Chicago Law School and former director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Project
• Gary Restaino — Former U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona
• Beth Van Schaack — Distinguished fellow at Stanford and former U.S. ambassador for global criminal justice