Happy 2023

Who doesn’t love a new year, fresh and full of promise!

I’m starting 2023 on a more upbeat note than 2022, and really, any year since Donald Trump hijacked our democracy. Of course, there’s no certainty, but I’m optimistic that 2023 is the year we start charting a course back to sanity.

When I left the Justice Department, I expected to continue working on issues that had become important to me during my time there: on criminal justice reform, access to education, expanding voting rights, and other social justice issues. Obviously, I had no idea what was in store. I don’t think any of us expected to live through a time where our democracy itself would come under attack, where Margaret Atwood’s novel Handmaid’s Tale would seem more like a possible reality than fiction. But here we are.

I’m looking forward to continuing the important work of keeping the Republic. I’m glad you’re here with me.

I’m still parsing the 845 page January 6 committee report and working through thousands of pages of transcripts. It’s an overwhelming abundance of information. But I’ll be back this week, likely throughout the week, hopefully with some insight into what it all means. It’s a little bit like being back at DOJ and reading a case file—materials agents compile during an investigation and that prosecutors review to learn the evidence and begin to make prosecutive decisions. We’re all getting a lesson in something that it’s hard to understand in the abstract: seeing the volume of material and struggling to assimilate it all, to see the positives and the negatives, to identify which charges it proves and where there are gaps in the evidence or problems, can help us appreciate some of the challenges special counsel Jack Smith with face on the insurrection side of his investigation. You can find all of the materials on the January 6 committee website.

We celebrated the new year with friends and then came home to a sad German Shepherd who is both wearing the cone of shame (ear problems) and desperately afraid of fireworks. My new year’s resolution is to make sure I get enough sleep, so I’m hoping last night with Bella isn’t indicative of how that’s going to go for the whole year. Whether you’re nursing a hangover or up early to fulfill a new year’s resolution to get in some early exercise, I hope your year is off to a good start!

We’re in this together,

Joyce