Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco Delivers Remarks at the Plenary Session of the G-7 Justice Ministers’ Meeting

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery July 7 at Approximately 2:40 p.m. local Tokyo time / 1:40 a.m. ET

As we gather today, rogue nation-states actively seek to undermine the global rules-based order.

From Ukrainian battlefields to online information domains, they seek new ways to hollow out our democratic institutions to entrench their power, subvert dissent, and sever the multilateral alliances that underpin global peace and security.

No country alone can defend these norms – the norms that, rooted in the rule of law, underpin every just and free society.

But by locking arms, and working together, we can hold these autocracies accountable and make the world a safer place.

The most challenging rebuke of the rules-based international order is without a doubt Russia’s continuing unjustified and brutal invasion of Ukraine.

For nearly 500 days, the Russian regime and military have executed a new campaign of brutality against the Ukrainian people.

They have bombed hospitals and apartment buildings; committed sexual violence against women, men, and children; carried out execution-style murders; and illegally removed thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia or Russian-occupied territory.

There can be no mistake – Russia has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.

Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked actions seek to destroy a nation and its democratic institutions, because Russia sees those institutions as a threat.

Russia’s actions aim to discredit the entire premise that law – and global norms – matter.

Russia’s continued war against Ukraine poses a serious threat to global peace and stability. Thankfully, the countries gathered here are steadfast in their commitment to Ukraine – for as long as it takes – and to ensuring accountability for the atrocities committed by the Kremlin.

On accountability, we continue to collaborate effectively on investigations of war crimes. And with respect to aggression, with thanks to the leadership of Commissioner Reynders, earlier this week we saw the landmark opening of the International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine – ICPA – under the auspices of Eurojust in The Hague.

I am pleased to announce that we have assigned a Department of Justice attorney as Special Prosecutor for the Crime of Aggression, who will serve as our representative to ICPA.

Together, we have also made important progress in fighting Russian illicit finance. The G7 has been a leader on limiting Russia’s access to the global financial system and degrading its ability to fuel its war machine.

REPO, the G7 Plus Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs Task Force – working with the EU’s Freeze & Seize Task Force and our own Task Force KleptoCapture – are enforcing sanctions, export restrictions, and economic countermeasures in response to Russia’s aggression.

Since the start of the war, through the Justice Department’s Task Force KleptoCapture:

We have restrained over $500 million in assets of Russian oligarchs and others who prop up the Russian regime and have evaded U.S. economic countermeasures.

We have indicted over 30 individuals accused of sanctions evasion, export control violations, money laundering, and other crimes.

And, with the help of our international partners, arrests have been made in over half a dozen countries, with a view towards extradition to the United States.

And now, under the Japanese leadership of the G7, we are coming together to help Ukraine strengthen the rule of law and fight corruption – through the Anti-Corruption Task Force for Ukraine – or ACT for Ukraine.

As our friend and colleague, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin, has so eloquently put it: “Ukraine has two enemies: one external, Russia, and one internal, which is corruption.”

We enthusiastically embrace the decision of the G7 to aid Ukraine’s commitment to fight the internal enemy of corruption.

We have long been committed to this task in partnership with Ukraine.

For more than a decade, including throughout the period of Russia’s invasion, our Department of Justice international police capacity building unit has been on the ground in Ukraine. They have been working with Ukrainian counterparts to build a police force that is community-focused and committed to democratic policing.

And I am very happy to say that just last month, we, at the U.S. Department of Justice, sent one of our veteran federal prosecutors – Jared Kimball – to be resident in Kiev, with a focus on rule of law and anti-corruption capacity building.

I urge each of us here today to nominate a representative to the new G7 Anti-Corruption Task Force – and the United States would propose that Mr. Kimball be our member. He is available to work with all of you.

Unfortunately, Russia is not alone in its effort to degrade the international rules-based system. China, Iran, and others harbor variations on the same ambition.

From plots to murder dissidents to campaigns of intimidation, unlawful imprisonment and violence, autocratic regimes work to extinguish dissent within their borders and around the globe.

In January, the Justice Department exposed a murder-for-hire plot directed against a prominent critic of the Iranian regime living and working in the United States. The plot was meant to silence her for speaking out against human rights abuses in Iran and for speaking up for the rights of women.

Likewise, the Chinese government also goes to great lengths to silence dissent outside of China.

Just last month, a federal jury in New York convicted three individuals for their role in China’s involuntary repatriation program – “Operation Fox Hunt.” The defendants engaged in a campaign of harassment and coercion to force the victims to return to China from the United States.

And we know that these malicious actors – in particular, the government of China – are also increasingly offering to help build the capacity, through training, facilities, and equipment, of the security sectors of other countries.  

It is essential, as the Japanese Presidency has proposed at the Ministerial, that we coordinate our rule of law assistance to counter this threat. We know that what malign nation states are offering is not truly “rule of law” but rather a system designed to repress, not protect, human rights and fundamental freedoms.   

And we must work together to deny repressive regimes the technology they abuse and exploit to monitor, harass, and intimidate.

Earlier this year, the Justice Department launched the Disruptive Technology Strike Force. A collaboration between the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Commerce, the mission of the Strike Force is to prevent foreign adversaries from obtaining critical advanced technologies that certain governments might abuse to repress their people.

But our focus is not only on the transfer of sensitive technologies, but also on how U.S. investment might be harnessed by autocratic regimes to develop those sensitive technologies, to fuel their military advantage, and to repress their own and other populations.

So, the United States is exploring how to monitor and, in some cases, restrict the flow of private capital in critical sectors. We will ensure that our own “outbound investment” in dual-use technology doesn’t provide our adversaries with a national security advantage, or new repressive powers. International partnerships will be absolutely critical if these new safeguards are to work.

In sum, our adversaries are not content with the status quo – they are increasingly creative, brazen, and malicious in their efforts to weaken democracies, to sow discord, and to spread corruption across the globe.

Only by defending the rule of law, protecting civil liberties, and holding fast to the values that underpin our countries can we defeat these autocratic regimes – and we can and must do so by working together.

I look forward to our continued partnership on these critical issues. Thank you.