Why the DOJ Is Afraid to Prosecute White-Collar Criminals

As a United States Attorney in 2002, James Comey mocked prosecutors who never lost a case as members of "The Chickenshit Club." In Comey’s opinion, if a prosecuting attorney never lost, it meant they were too risk averse and failed to bring the most important cases to trial. In his book by the same name, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Jesse Eisinger of ProPublica argues that the entire Department of Justice has become a "Chickenshit Club" for prosecutors who are unwilling and unable to take on white-collar criminals at the biggest banks and financial firms.

In the latest episode of The Breach, Eisinger and host Lindsay Beyerstein discuss how and why this occurs – despite these crimes threatening the stability of the economy and the basic principle of equality before the law.

Recommended Reading:

Possible Presidential Pardon Scenarios, by Andy Wright for Just Security, July 2017