The Accountability Crisis
Impunity for the wealthy and powerful is not a new phenomenon. From the abuses of the global war on terror to the crimes of the 2008 financial crisis, the United States has often failed to hold the rich, well-armed, and powerful accountable for their lawlessness.
But the last few years have been different in both degree and kind.
We now face a crisis of impunity.
The mechanisms that hold power to account are failing. Federal officials and their private-sector enablers are violating federal, state, and international law on a daily basis, with open contempt for the rule of law, and the public’s ability to stop them is rapidly diminishing.
Pardons are bought and sold. Contracts are steered to friends and family. Bribes are solicited and received in broad daylight.
No one is charged.
American communities are terrorized by armed, masked government agents. People are held in detention under the cruelest of conditions. Citizens are shot and killed on city streets.
No one is held to account.
This accountability deficit is a blight on our republic. It sows distrust in our government and in our fellow citizens. It tears the social fabric of our nation. And it sends the message — to the powerful and powerless alike — that the law is for suckers:
Break it, and you will be rewarded.
Follow it, and you will be left behind.
The Rule of Law Project exists to reverse that equation.
By the numbers
What impunity looks like, based on public reporting.
52
Deaths in ICE custody in the 500 days between January 20, 2025 and June 4, 2026.
1,000+
Credible reports of human rights abuses in immigration detention.
200 → 20
Open investigations at the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, from then to now.
85+
Public officials charged with or convicted of corruption who have received presidential clemency since 2017.
Figures are drawn from the linked public sources and are not our own findings.