Bringing Integrity And Expertise To Congress

What’s happening right now in Pennsylvania will determine the next two years — and perhaps two decades — for lawmaking, oversight, and government ethics and accountability. 

Regular Above the Law readers know I run a national court accountability nonprofit that holds abusive judges accountable for harassment and misconduct. I’ve spent the past four years working with or fighting against spineless members of Congress who don’t understand their oversight responsibility; don’t recognize their power, even in the minority, to hold lawless judges accountable; and lack the motivating personal experience to act on some of the most pressing issues of our time, like, for example, the lack of accountability for federal judges who rule on litigants’ misconduct in front of the bench, while committing misconduct behind the bench. So last year, I started thinking, What if I helped reshape Congress?

The situation in Washington, D.C., is untenable: Congress should check Executive Branch overreach. Many of my friends are former federal employees who were driven out of the Justice Department and other federal agencies since Trump’s second inauguration. These lifelong public servants — nonpartisan attorneys who served for decades between Democratic and Republican presidents and attorneys general — were for the first time pressured to compromise their integrity and instructed to carry out partisan, even unlawful, orders. Thousands across the federal government quit or were fired, as Trump weaponizes the historically apolitical Justice Department against his enemies. And citizens must protect themselves from government, rather than being protected by it. 

ATL readers may recognize the name of one such former federal prosecutor, Ryan Crosswell. Crosswell resigned from the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, created post-Watergate to prosecute public corruption, last year after then-Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove (now Judge Bove) pressured him and his colleagues to drop charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams as part of a quid pro quo. Rather than compromise his morals, Crosswell quit the job he loved and left the agency to which he’d given a decade of federal service. Now, after 10 years serving the public as a federal prosecutor, 17 years protecting our country as a Marine, and testifying before Congress about the corruption he witnessed, Crosswell is running for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District, the most flippable district in Pennsylvania. This seat is key to Democrats taking back the House majority and holding the Trump administration accountable for lawlessness, corruption, and abuses of power — which Crosswell personally witnessed and experienced. 

Crosswell’s experience immediately resonated with me. I dreamed of becoming a federal prosecutor to hold bad actors accountable. One internship at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, introducing myself at a hearing as “Aliza Shatzman, for the United States,” and I was hooked. But after I was harassed, fired, and retaliated against by the judge I clerked for six years ago, I discovered I couldn’t sue the judge, because the entire federal judiciary and its more than 30,000 employees are exempt from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and all anti-discrimination, labor, and civil rights laws. So, I pivoted, dedicating my life and career to correcting an injustice I personally experienced. That’s Crosswell’s guiding star, too: he witnessed corruption at DOJ and is running to solve it using his anti-corruption expertise and firsthand knowledge of DOJ’s internal machinations. Frankly, there’s no better reason to run for office than to correct an injustice you personally experienced. And no one is more motivated to serve with integrity than someone working to fix systems that personally screwed them over. 

Through my nonprofit’s work, I’ve fought spineless congressional Democrats, who lack the motivation to hold anyone — abusive judges, Trump’s corrupt administration, or their colleagues who sexually harass staff — accountable. So, I know the combination of galvanizing personal experience and meaningful expertise is what’s missing from and desperately needed in Congress right now. If we’re serious about holding the Trump administration accountable, we should send an anti-corruption prosecutor with the expertise and track record of standing up to Trump to Congress to do just that. 

Let’s be clear: one of the next Congress’ primary responsibilities will be conducting oversight over the Trump administration. The solutions are not primarily legislative, but oversight — holding hearings, subpoenaing documents and testimony, asking tough questions, and understanding which witnesses to call. And then using the national bully pulpit to galvanize the public. That’s Crosswell’s expertise: it’s why national news outlets regularly invite him to comment. 

And yet, the national Democratic Party “establishment,” as well as many local, state, and federal elected officials in Pennsylvania and across the country, have misguidedly circled the wagons around far less qualified firefighter and union leader Bob Brooks instead. I don’t discount anyone’s life experience: I do question whether certain experience makes someone qualified and prepared to be a member of Congress. So, consider this example: at a Lehigh County Democratic Committee (LCDC) forum in April, Brooks was asked how he’d conduct oversight. Perhaps he was searching for words like “testimony” and “subpoena,” but he wrongly insisted members of Congress “file charges” against witnesses who appear before congressional committees. When pressed to clarify, he insisted members “file charges.” To be clear: when Congress’ primary responsibility will be to hold the Trump administration accountable, and the primary way they’ll do so is through oversight, it’s a huge problem when one of the leading candidates for this congressional seat does not understand the job description. Subsequently, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) tried to pressure LCDC not to post the forum footage online — which many voters who could not attend, wanted to review in order to make an informed decision — presumably to shield Brooks from rightful scrutiny. 

The party is putting its thumb on the scales for their misguided idea of who can win — either taking all the wrong lessons, or no lessons at all, from 2024’s losses — with total disregard for who should be a member of Congress. Sadly, strategists, party leaders, and local elected officials do not understand what members of Congress actually do, or should do. Those federal job responsibilities include not just constituent services, but oversight, legislation, and appropriations — plus using the national bully pulpit to change hearts and minds. Yet many party leaders are far less interested in electing better Democrats, who’ll go to Congress and actually fix things — and solely focused on electing more Democrats, period. Job qualifications be damned. 

It’s hypocritical and offensive to hear members of Congress who’ve backed Brooks talking on the news about oversight and accountability goals for the next Congress — when it’s Crosswell, not Brooks, who possesses the unique expertise to actually accomplish this. It makes me wonder whether Democrats are serious about winning in November, let alone stopping this lawless administration if they do. 

The politics of these endorsements strikes me as a slightly less corrupt version of pay-for-play. That’s the antithesis of Crosswell’s expertise — as a public integrity prosecutor, he prosecuted pay-for-play schemes. That Crosswell won’t play ball with special interests is both why he isn’t backed by the party establishment, and why we need him in Congress — because he isn’t beholden to special interests. 

As lawyers, many of us engage with Congress differently from voters in districts a train or plane ride away from Washington, D.C. Some of us help draft legislation and oversight letters, lobby members and their staff, or testify ourselves. Most voters probably don’t spend their days railing about Congress abdicating its oversight responsibility, as I do. Yet Crosswell has doggedly educated voters across his district about why corruption is a kitchen table issue, and how his unique anti-corruption expertise positions him to stop this lawless administration. Whether you’re worried about Trump administration grift and self-enrichment; financial waste at the taxpayers’ expense; safeguarding our 2028 elections; or rogue federal agency heads trampling on our First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights while antagonizing our immigrant neighbors, Crosswell is your candidate. There’s never been a more urgent need for experts in Congress. In my experience, when the member of Congress you’re trying to educate isn’t an expert themselves, and they’re not personally motivated by their own experience to act, the issue simply won’t be addressed. Issues need champions: experiencing an injustice is the greatest personal motivator. 

Too many have lost sight of what Congress is supposed to do. Many have simply accepted congressional intransigence, assuming members of Congress are too cautious, cowardly, or comfortable to stand up for what’s right. But who’s in Congress making laws and conducting oversight affects all of us, no matter where we live. And voters this year in districts across the country have an opportunity to send some different leaders to Congress: candidates motivated by morals and service to country over self, and who epitomize integrity. I’m privileged to call one of them, Ryan Crosswell, my friend. 

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Aliza Shatzman is the President and Founder of The Legal Accountability Project, a nonprofit aimed at ensuring that law clerks have positive clerkship experiences, while extending support and resources to those who do not. She regularly writes and speaks about judicial accountability and clerkships. Reach out to her via email at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @AlizaShatzman.