Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Delivers Remarks at the U.S.-EU Justice Home Affairs Meeting in Stockholm

Remarks as Delivered

Good afternoon, everyone. I want to thank Minister Strommer and the Swedish Presidency for the very gracious welcome to Sweden, particularly on Midsommar.

The foundation of the partnership between the United States and our European allies is a shared commitment to uphold the rule of law.

The challenges we have just spent the day discussing represent increasingly urgent threats to that fundamental principle.

Those threats include Russia’s unjust war and its continued atrocities in Ukraine.

They include the threat posed by both international terrorism and international links between violent extremists within our countries.

They include the threats posed by violent drug trafficking organizations and transnational criminals. And they include those acting on behalf of criminal enterprises, as well as those acting as proxies for nation-states, who are turning to cyberspace to commit and conceal their crimes. 

These threats are complex, evolving, and increasingly serious. But today’s meetings made clear that the United States and Europe are united in our resolve to defeat them.

First, despite Russia’s efforts to divide us, the United States and Europe continue to stand together in solidarity and support for the people of Ukraine and for the defense of their democracy.

Together, we are committed to ensuring accountability for war crimes and atrocities committed by the Russian regime during its brutal and unjust invasion of Ukraine.  

One year ago, I traveled to Ukraine and announced the creation of a War Crimes Accountability Team within the Justice Department.

Since then, the Justice Department has worked closely with our partners here today – and our partners in the Prosecutor General’s Office in Ukraine – to pursue accountability for Russian war crimes.

After signing a historic agreement in Lviv earlier this year – my second visit to Ukraine – we are also working closely with the Ukraine Joint Investigative Team, along with six EU Member States, to increase our cooperation on investigating core international crimes.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department’s Task Force KleptoCapture – which works closely with the EU’s Freeze & Seize Task Force – continues to bring prosecutions and effect seizures of sanctions evaders and those who are illicitly aiding the Kremlin and the Russian military.

Today, I am proud to announce several steps we are taking to build on these efforts.

Earlier this week, we deployed a veteran Department prosecutor, Jared Kimball as a resident legal advisor in Kiev, where he will work with our Ukrainian partners on complex justice issues.

And on Monday, I announced that I had appointed a highly experienced federal prosecutor, Jessica Kim, to serve as U.S. Special Prosecutor for the Crime of Aggression. She will be available to work with the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression Against Ukraine being established at Eurojust in the Hague.

We will continue to seek justice alongside, and stand with, our Ukrainian partners – for as long as it takes.

Second, the United States and our European partners are advancing our work together to combat both international and domestic terrorism. I witnessed this not only at today’s Ministerial, but also yesterday when I visited Europol and Eurojust at The Hague.

During today’s meetings, we discussed the “battlefield evidence” that we are sharing for use by EU investigators and prosecutors. This is information relating to Foreign Terrorist Fighters obtained by Coalition Forces in Syria and Iraq.

Today, we also discussed the global network that we are building to counter the international links of domestic violent extremism. This was also the subject of a multilateral forum the U.S. Department of Justice and the Norwegian Ministry of Justice sponsored just two weeks ago.

Finally, we discussed together several of our recent successful operations that we have taken to dismantle online darknet marketplaces and international ransomware networks.

In just one example of our cooperation, earlier this year, the Justice Department, together with Europol and Eurojust, launched an unprecedented takedown of a major criminal marketplace that enabled cybercriminals to victimize individuals, businesses, and governments around the world. This subject, too, was one that I discussed with our counterparts at Europol and Eurojust yesterday in The Hague.

Today, we also discussed and committed to continuing to share information and pursue joint operations to combat transnational organized crime groups, and in particularly, those that traffic in deadly drugs like fentanyl.

A landmark study conducted by Europol and the Department of Justice’s Drug Enforcement Administration has found that cartels in the Western Hemisphere are active in Europe. Our teams are now working closely together to build cases against those cartel operatives. 

The message from the countries represented here today to cybercriminals and drug criminals should be clear: you can try to hide, but, together, we will shut down your illegal enterprises, we will find you, and we will bring you to justice.

Thank you again to our Swedish and EU partners for hosting us today. 

The United States looks forward to our continued work together.

And now I’ll turn it over to Ali, my counterpart at the Department of Homeland Security.