U.S. deputy attorney general tells ABA about threats to U.S. democracy

Speaking shortly after the conclusion of the American Bar Association’s first Democracy Summit, hosted by the ABA Task Force for American Democracy, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco addressed the General Assembly on Aug. 2 at the association’s Annual Meeting in Chicago and invoked the summit as she talked about how the Department of Justice is defending democracy.

“By making the summit the centerpiece of its Annual Meeting … the ABA is leading the way at a critical time for our nation,” said Monaco, the DOJ’s second-highest official and its chief operating officer. “I want to thank the task force for reminding us that we all have a responsibility and an obligation as lawyers and as citizens to preserve our democratic institutions, to defend the Constitution, uphold the rule of law and build trust in our election system.”

Providing an overview of the Justice Department’s efforts to combat threats to the upcoming elections, Monaco spoke about threats from Russia, Iran and China as well as domestic threats against election workers and others who ensure that voting is free and fair.

“I receive daily urgent reports — reports that come in from the field, from our 94 U.S. attorneys across the country,” Monaco said. “And over the past few years, the frequency of reports involving threats of violence has skyrocketed. On a weekly basis, and often multiple times in a week, I get reports about violent threats to public officials, prosecutors, law enforcement agents, judges and election workers.”

Such threats, she said, “pose a clear and present danger.”

Over the last two years, Monaco said, the Justice Department has prosecuted nearly 700 threat cases. More than half of those threats, about 400, targeted federal and state public officials, judges, prosecutors, law enforcement officers and election workers. “No one should endure threats of violence simply for doing their job,” she said.

The Justice Department, Monaco said, created an Election Threats Task Force to investigate and prosecute growing threats to the election process. Just last week, she said, an Alabama man pleaded guilty to sending death threats via Instagram to election workers in Maricopa County, Arizona.

“We will not hesitate to bring more of these cases when supported by the facts and the law,” Monaco said.

“Because a threat to any election official, worker or volunteer is, at bottom, a threat to democracy.”

Monaco echoed the rallying cry of the Democracy Summit: “Our biggest challenges often require a whole-of-government response. But this challenge — the threat to our elections and our democratic institutions — requires a whole-of-nation response.

“It will take all of our efforts to protect our elections and secure our democracy.”

The Democracy Summit was developed by ABA President Mary Smith as a signature initiative of her term to address threats to democracy and the role of lawyers in ensuring democracy.