The Biden Justice Department’s former second-in-command, Lisa Monaco, is facing a referral to the Department of Justice over allegations that she buried investigations into Microsoft’s cybersecurity failures before landing a top job at the tech giant, according to a letter from the American Accountability Foundation.
Monaco, who served as Deputy Attorney General under former Attorney General Merrick Garland, joined Microsoft in May 2025 as President of Global Affairs just months after leaving government. Her hiring drew immediate criticism from President Donald Trump, who blasted Monaco in a Truth Social post last September.
“Corrupt and Totally Trump Deranged Lisa Monaco,” Trump wrote, “was a senior National Security aide under Barack Hussein Obama, and a Lawfare and Weaponization obsessed Deputy Attorney General under Crooked Joe Biden.” Trump added that Monaco’s access to “Highly Sensitive Information” at Microsoft was “unacceptable” given the company’s extensive government contracts.
Trump further alleged that Monaco had been stripped of security clearances and barred from federal properties, declaring: “It is my opinion that Microsoft should immediately terminate the employment of Lisa Monaco.”
The DOJ referral from the American Accountability Foundation suggests Trump’s concerns may extend beyond politics into national security and potential corruption.
According to the letter, Microsoft suffered at least five major cyber intrusions between 2019 and 2023 involving Russian intelligence services, Chinese state-sponsored hackers, and Russian cybercriminals. The breaches were described as “among the most damaging series of breaches of U.S. government information systems in American history.”
Despite those incidents, the Biden administration never brought a major enforcement action against Microsoft under the administration’s own cybersecurity crackdown.
The American Accountability Foundation noted:
Lisa Monaco served as Deputy Attorney General from April 2021 through January 2025. In October 2021, she announced the Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative, which was designed to use the False Claims Act against contractors who knowingly misrepresent cybersecurity risks. During her tenure, the Department brought such actions against companies whose conduct, on the public record, appears far less serious than the conduct attributed to Microsoft in the same period, including against a medical contractor, a defense contractor, a telecommunications provider, and a university. No such action was ever brought against Microsoft. In May 2025, approximately four months after leaving the Department, Ms. Monaco joined Microsoft as President of Global Affairs.
The referral also points to a growing web of former Biden administration cybersecurity officials who later joined Microsoft or firms tied to the company.
John P. Carlin, Monaco’s former deputy at DOJ, served on the Cyber Safety Review Board before departing for Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, where he now chairs the firm’s cybersecurity and national security practices. In February 2024, Carlin co-authored an amicus brief in SEC v. SolarWinds Corp. that critics argue contradicted the very enforcement theory behind Monaco’s Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative.
Breitbart News previously reported that Mark Pomerantz, a central figure in Democrats’ lawfare campaign against President Trump, also joined Paul Weiss after leaving Alvin Bragg’s office.
Other officials tied to Microsoft investigations also moved into lucrative private-sector positions connected to the company.
Bryan A. Vorndran, the FBI’s representative on the Cyber Safety Review Board, became Microsoft’s Deputy Chief Information Security Officer roughly one month after Monaco joined the company. Jerry L. Davis, another board member, later became a Microsoft Chief Security Advisor.
The letter also raises concerns about Melinda Rogers, formerly Deputy Chief Information Officer at the Department of Justice, who joined Microsoft at the same time as Monaco.
According to the report:
“Two independent assessors reportedly told FedRAMP it was ‘difficult to impossible’ to properly evaluate the product. The GSA executive director responsible for the program is reported to have said that Ms. Rogers was ‘not willing to put heat to Microsoft’ and that DOJ was ‘too sympathetic to Microsoft’s claims.’”
The American Accountability Foundation requested that DOJ inspectors general investigate whether Monaco and other officials violated federal ethics laws and recusal obligations.
Specifically, the group requested:
“That the Office of the Inspector General open a review of the conduct of the former and current Department of Justice officials identified above — including Ms. Monaco, Mr. Carlin, and Ms. Rogers — to determine whether each complied at all relevant times with 18 U.S.C. §§ 207 and 208, the executive-branch standards of ethical conduct, and any applicable recusal obligations”
The foundation further asked:
“That the Office of the Inspector General coordinate, as appropriate, with the Inspectors General of the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the National Security Agency with respect to the conduct of officials within those components … who served on the Cyber Safety Review Board and subsequently entered into employment or consulting arrangements with Microsoft”
And finally:
“That the Civil Division and the National Fraud Enforcement Division evaluate whether Microsoft’s representations to federal customers concerning the security of its products and services — including but not limited to its Active Directory Federation Services, Exchange Server, authentication systems, and GCC High platform — give rise to liability under the False Claims Act”
In response to a Breitbart News request for a comment, a DOJ spokesperson stated: “The Department of Justice is committed to aggressively fighting fraud and protecting taxpayer dollars. We welcome referrals from anyone with credible information about fraud, and we will act where the facts and the law support it.”
The allegations arrive as FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson continues ramping up an antitrust and competition probe into Microsoft’s business practices, including accusations that the tech giant bundled AI, cybersecurity, and identity software products to cement its dominance in the federal marketplace.
As Breitbart News previously reported, Microsoft also played a major role in the censorship apparatus that flourished under the Biden administration, including cooperation with foreign censorship regimes and the broader “censorship industrial complex.” Ferguson has warned Big Tech firms against censoring Americans in response to foreign laws such as the European Union’s Digital Services Act.
Critics now argue that Microsoft’s political ties inside the Biden administration may have insulated the company from accountability over cybersecurity failures that exposed sensitive government systems to foreign adversaries.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.