Restoring the expectation that criminal conduct has consequences.
Our Mission
No one is above the law.
The Rule of Law Project exists to end impunity and ensure accountability for serious crimes committed by public officials in the United States, and those who enable them.
We are an independent, nonpartisan team of former career prosecutors and investigators. We investigate public corruption and state violence, build the criminal cases the Department of Justice would have brought in ordinary times, and press prosecutors at every level to act on them.
Above all, we aim to restore the basic expectation that criminal conduct has consequences, and that no one — regardless of office, wealth, or influence — is above the law.
The Accountability Crisis
Impunity for the wealthy and powerful is not a new phenomenon. From the abuses of the post-9/11 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.
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, while the public’s ability to hold them accountable rapidly diminishes.
Pardons are bought and sold. Contracts are steered to friends and family. Bribes are solicited and received, delivered in cryptocurrency and paper bags filled with cash.
No one is charged.
Immigrants are abused in detention centers. U.S. citizens are shot and killed by federal agents on city streets. Evidence is withheld and destroyed.
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.
Our Work
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 building a database 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.
We identify the facts we know, the statutes that may have been violated, and the facts we do not know but would need to know in order 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 investigate, 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 men.
That’s why we publish our findings whenever possible, and 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.
Our work is also a message.
To anyone now weighing whether to carry out an unlawful order, to facilitate a corrupt payment, or to simply look the other way: a record is being kept. Your name may be in it. History will remember what you did.
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Investigations cost money: agents in the field, records, travel, expert review. Your gift builds cases.