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Following news coverage that Yelp and the News/Media Alliance filed an unsuccessful motion to take BigLaw firm Paul Weiss off Google’s defense team in the adtech antitrust case brought by the DOJ, the Revolving Door Project submitted a Freedom of Information Act Request for communications between Paul Weiss and key Department of Justice officials. The American Prospect featured the request in their coverage of Google’s attempts to remove DOJ Antitrust Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter from the case, as well as Paul Weiss’ potential conflicts. 

Transparency surrounding the identities of the country’s senior-most political leaders should be a given. Unfortunately, the federal government presently falls short in this regard. Inconsistent and insufficient standards for publishing and maintaining leadership and senior staff directories makes it difficult, if not impossible, to learn who occupies hundreds of critical roles throughout the federal government.

With few exceptions, the Biden administration has not moved nearly as quickly to remove Trump holdovers as we had hoped he would. Most of the figures who we identified for immediate removal last November remained in office well past Biden’s day one and some are still there today (day 161). Happily, however, none of that foot-dragging was on display last week after a Supreme Court decision gave Biden the green light to remove Trump’s director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Mark Calabria. Within hours, Calabria was out and a new acting Director, Sandra Thompson, was in.

Today, the Revolving Door Project is introducing a new initiative to uncover and draw attention to the ways the Trump administration may be seeking to interfere with the federal government’s ability to effectively serve the public interest over the long-term. RDP has issued Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for the resumes of new hires at 10 federal departments and agencies. We seek to determine if hiring for career positions has been subjected to political influence. It is our hope that, by identifying potential instances of politicization, we can build political support for efforts to reverse any damage.

Max Moran
Washington is awash with proposals for a new regulatory agency centered on Silicon Valley. Often lost in that important conversation is the fact that the executive branch already has some positions with a direct focus on the technology sector, though they are limited in scope and scattered across the alphabet-soup of agencies. Perhaps no tech-focused bureaucrat has the president’s ear quite like the Chief Technology Officer. The CTO is the White House’s top advisor on anything to do with technology and innovation, tasked with explaining the latest developments and guiding the thinking of the most powerful politician on earth.

Max Moran
The Revolving Door Project’s mission is to scrutinize the nexus of corporate power and the executive branch. In the United States, two agencies within the executive branch have the power to seek to break up a company: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Antitrust Division. That is why it is important that we research any entanglements undermining the FTC and DOJ Antitrust’s commitment to serving the public interest.

Eleanor Eagan
With just under $6 trillion in assets under management (as of year-end 2018) BlackRock is the largest money manager in the world. Virtually unheard of only a decade ago, it has now grown into one of the most powerful forces in financial markets and politics alike. Central to this ascendance was its risk management software, Aladdin. Aladdin — an acronym for Asset Liability and Debt and Derivative Investment Network — has become the “industry’s dominant platform for keeping track of portfolios.” It counts among its clients approximately 200 financial firms who use the software to manage approximately $18 trillion in assets.