What We Do
Our work is guided by one simple question: What would an independent, professional, nonpartisan Department of Justice be doing right now?
We answer that question the way any good prosecutor would: By applying the law to the facts, case by case, without fear or favor.
01 We document.
There can be no accountability without a record. That’s why we’re keeping a record of potential criminal conduct by federal officials and those who enable them, focusing on public corruption and state violence. We draw on public accounts, investigative reporting, court filings, FOIA responses, financial records, whistleblower accounts, and in-house research.
In short, we document the known facts, the laws potentially broken, and the evidence still needed to bring a case. We aim to ensure that nothing is lost in the news cycle, and to preserve the record for current and future prosecutors, and for the American public, which has an ethical, political, and historical interest in the information.
02 We investigate.
We cannot pursue every violation — and we do not try. We select the most serious and consequential matters for further investigation. Each one is measured against what we call the “Ordinary Times Test”:
Would an independent, professional, nonpartisan Department of Justice have investigated this conduct?
If not, we do not pursue it. If so, the matter receives the full weight of our investigative resources: former federal agents and former federal prosecutors in the field, interviewing witnesses, obtaining documents, and building the evidentiary record.
03 We build the cases.
For every matter we pursue, we produce a detailed prosecution memorandum laying out the law and the facts — the elements of the crime, and the evidence we have gathered that proves each one. The memos are designed to be used: to give a prosecutor with jurisdiction what she needs to open an investigation and file charges.
04 We press for prosecution.
Exposure is not good enough; criminal conduct demands accountability. That’s why, for every case we build, we identify the most promising avenues for prosecution.
Where state and local prosecutors have jurisdiction, we bring the case to them — both for speed and to put it beyond the reach of the federal pardon power. We draw on relationships built over decades and work closely with those offices to support investigations, charges, and ultimately convictions.
Where only federal prosecutors have jurisdiction, we press the current Department of Justice to act and, failing that, prepare the case for a DOJ that will one day be willing to bring it.
We also work with congressional and state legislative committees conducting oversight, to coordinate investigations and facilitate accountability wherever it may be found.
05 We make the public case.
The rule of law is not self-executing; it is a culture sustained by the shared expectation that the law binds and protects everyone. Rebuilding that culture will take more than successful prosecutions. It will take a public that demands accountability, and elected officials who are committed to “a government of laws, not of men.”
That’s why, whenever possible, we work with investigative journalists, human rights organizations, allied legal groups, and the broader rule of law community to make the argument that criminal conduct by public officials must carry criminal consequences.