Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Remarks as Delivered
Thank you, Lisa. There is no one I would rather have worked with day in and day out to lead this Department. The American people could not have asked for a better Deputy Attorney General to serve our country at this important time.
And thank you, Chris, Elizabeth, Vanita, and Jolene, for your kind words, and for your extraordinary service to the Department and the American people.
To my family — you well know I would not be here today without your support.
Four years ago, when I returned to the Justice Department for the fifth time, I told you that it felt like coming home. And I meant it.
I had first set foot in the Department more than four decades before — the grandson of immigrants, looking for work that would give me the chance to pay this country back for protecting them.
And I found it.
I found it in the company of dedicated men and women who start each day committed to doing nothing more or less than what is right.
Not what is politically expedient.
Not what is easiest, or most comfortable.
But what is right.
After that first tour, my career took a few detours. But I had the great good fortune to return to this Department again and again and again.
I had the opportunity to see it at every level — as a young special assistant, as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, as a supervisor in the Criminal Division, and as the Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General.
So, when I came back to the Department as Attorney General four years ago, I really did not think it possible that my respect and admiration for the people who work here could be any greater.
But it is.
I am simply in awe of what the public servants of this Department — across the country and around the world — have done over the past four years to fulfill our mission to keep our country safe, to protect civil rights, and to uphold the rule of law.
I am grateful beyond words to each of you. So, I will just say thank you. Thank you for the communities you have made safer; the threats you have disrupted; the people whose civil rights you have defended; the consumers and workers you have protected.
Thank you for the way you have done that work — with integrity, skill, and compassion.
And thank you for ensuring the Justice Department’s adherence to the rule of law in everything you do.
Each of us who comes to work at this Department begins our period of service with an oath. It is an oath that I have taken many times in my career, and an oath that I have administered to others many more times.
We swear that we will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and that we will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.
But bearing true faith and allegiance to the Constitution is not the end of our obligation. It is just the beginning.
It is just the beginning because, as Attorney General Robert Jackson warned in this very hall 85 years ago, the same powers that enable the federal prosecutor to pursue justice also create the potential for grave injustice.
Although our Constitution and laws include important constraints on law enforcement, they nonetheless grant law enforcement considerable discretion to determine when, whom, how, and even whether to investigate or prosecute for apparent violations of federal criminal law.
To ensure fairness in the administration of justice, we must temper this grant of discretion with a set of principles that ensure we exercise our authority in a just fashion.
We must understand that there is a difference between what we can do — and what we should do.
That is where our norms come in.
Developed in the wake of the Watergate scandal, and formalized over almost half a century, those norms are our commitment to constrain our own discretion – so that our agents will begin investigations only when there is proper predication; and so that our prosecutors will bring charges only when we conclude that a jury will convict beyond a reasonable doubt and that the conviction will be upheld on appeal.
In short, that we will make our law enforcement decisions based only on the facts and the law.
Our norms are a promise to treat like cases alike — that we will not have one rule for the powerful and another for the powerless, one rule for friends and another for foes.
They are a promise to ensure respect for the integrity of our career agents, lawyers, and staff, who are the institutional backbone and the historical memory of this Department.
They are a promise to ensure protections for journalists in law enforcement [investigations], because a free press is essential to our democracy.
Those norms include our commitment to guaranteeing the independence of the Justice Department from both the White House and the Congress concerning law enforcement investigations and prosecutions.
We make that commitment not because independence is necessarily constitutionally required, but because it is the only way to ensure that our law enforcement decisions are free from partisan influence.
We know that only an independent Justice Department can protect the safety and civil rights of everyone in our country.
And we know that only an independent Justice Department can ensure that the facts and law alone will determine whether a person is investigated or prosecuted.
Those norms have been woven into the DNA of generations of DOJ employees, career and noncareer alike.
They are the commitments that ensure we will adhere not only to the letter of the law, but to the rule of law.
It is the obligation of each of us to follow our norms not only when it is easy, but also when it is hard — especially when it is hard.
It is the obligation of each of us to adhere to our norms even when — and especially when — the circumstances we face are not normal.
And it is the obligation of the Attorney General to insist on those norms as the principles upon which this Department operates.
It is the obligation of the Attorney General to make clear that the only way for the Justice Department to do the right thing is to do it the right way. That unjust means cannot achieve just ends.
The Attorney General must ensure that this Department seeks justice, only with justice.
And, critically, it is the obligation of the Attorney General to understand that the Attorney General is only a temporary steward of this Department, and that its heart and soul is its career workforce.
The Attorney General must not just lead this Department’s workforce, but must respect it, and when necessary, defend it.
It is the responsibility of every employee at the Justice Department to do what is right. And it is the obligation of the Attorney General to have their backs when they do.
That is what you have done. And that is the kind of Attorney General I have tried to be.
On my first day back at the Justice Department four years ago, I said that working here is more than a job. It is a calling.
I said that those of us who come to work here are united by our commitment to the rule of law and to seeking equal justice under law.
We are united by our commitment to protecting our country, as our oath says, “from all enemies foreign and domestic.”
And we are united by our commitment to enforcing our country’s laws and to ensuring the civil rights and civil liberties of our people.
I also said that these would be the principles that would guide us, not only in word but also in deed.
I am grateful to each of you for the work you have done over the last four years to fulfill that promise.
Today, communities across the country are safer because of you:
Because you worked shoulder-to-shoulder with local law enforcement officers, and with the communities they serve, to dramatically turn the tide against the violent crime that spiked during the pandemic.
Because you answered the call when families who lost loved ones to fentanyl poisoning were seeking justice, and when local police departments were seeking help to confront the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced.
Because you disrupted threats from foreign and domestic terrorists, and from authoritarian regimes, that threatened our country’s security.
You made the lives of people across the country better because you challenged anticompetitive agreements and unlawful monopolies; because you safeguarded taxpayers and citizens from fraud and public corruption; and because you protected neighborhoods harmed by environmental degradation.
You secured historic financial penalties against corporations that violated the law. And you made clear to corporate executives that they do not operate outside of the bounds of the law.
You worked tirelessly to fulfill the Justice Department’s founding purpose to protect civil rights.
You confronted the discrimination in lending and housing that harms families for generations; the discrimination in schools that deprives students of educational opportunities; and the discrimination in the workplace that stifles economic opportunity.
You stood up for the right of every citizen to vote and to have that vote counted.
You stood up for the right of women to access lawful and life-saving reproductive care.
You made clear to communities victimized by hate crimes that they do not stand alone — that the United States Department of Justice stands with them.
You protected our country’s democratic institutions from violence and threats of violence. You charged more than 1,500 people for criminal conduct that occurred during the January 6 attack on the Capitol, as well as in the days and weeks leading up to that attack.
You brought to justice those who kicked, punched, beat, and tased law enforcement officers who were protecting the Capitol that day.
And you pursued accountability for that attack on our democracy wherever it led — guided only by your commitment to follow the facts and the law.
I am proud of the work you have done.
I am equally proud of the way you have done that work.
I am proud that when I visited you in communities across the country, I saw not only the skill with which you have done your work, but the depth of your compassion.
In Uvalde, I saw how you truly honored the lives of the 19 children and two teachers who were taken from their loved ones.
In Pittsburgh, even after the Tree of Life trial was over and it felt like the rest of the world had moved on, I saw you sit with family members of victims of that attack and listen to them talk about the people they lost.
In Louisville, in Minneapolis, and in Memphis, I saw the care you took in approaching families and communities mourning loved ones killed by those sworn to protect them.
I saw your commitment to pursuing justice in honor of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Tyre Nichols. I saw your commitment to working with both local law enforcement and the community to enact long-term, systemic reforms.
In Charlotte, after Deputy U.S. Marshal Tommy Weeks and three other officers were shot and killed while apprehending a fugitive, I saw you come together to support their loved ones. I saw the U.S. Marshals family show up — through their own grief — to be there for each other.
And in Tommy’s wife, Kelly, I saw that too often unseen, unimaginable strength of the families of law enforcement officers.
I know that this barely scratches the surface of the work you have done.
It does not capture the hours you have spent away from family, the long days and nights, weekends, and holidays you have spent working.
It does not capture the enormous risks you have taken and the dangers you have faced while doing your jobs.
But for all of this work — and for so much more, I thank you.
I am so proud of you.
I know that you do not do this work for public recognition — you do this work because you are public servants.
But I also know that a lot has been said about this Department by people outside of it — about what your job is, and what it is not, and about why you do your work the way you do it.
I know that, over the years, some have criticized the Department, saying that it has allowed politics to influence its decision-making. That criticism often comes from people with political views opposite from one another, each making the exact opposite points about the same set of facts.
I know that you have faced unfounded attacks simply for doing your jobs, at the very same time you have risked your lives to protect our country from a range of foreign and domestic threats.
But the story that has been told by some outside of this building about what has happened inside of it is wrong.
You have worked to pursue justice — not politics.
That is the truth.
And nothing can change it.
I know that a lot is being asked of you right now.
All I ask of you is to remember who you are, and why you came to work here in the first place.
You are public servants and patriots who swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution.
You are professionals of the utmost integrity who are worthy of the trust of the American people.
Your job is to do what is right, nothing more and nothing less.
More than 40 years after I first entered this building, it is now time to say goodbye.
It will be hard to leave these hallowed halls.
It will be hard to leave the leadership team that has guided the Department with such extraordinary skill, integrity, and 24/7 dedication: Lisa, Ben, and Vanita before him; all of our component heads; the leaders of our law enforcement agencies; our U.S. Attorneys; and my long-suffering staff.
It will be even harder to leave the career workforce, who have been my colleagues, my mentors, and my friends over so many years.
But it will be hardest to leave this job — where every day is another opportunity to uphold the rule of law, to keep my fellow citizens safe, and to protect civil rights.
I will miss it. I will miss all of you.
I could not be more honored than to have served alongside you as Attorney General.