Noah Bookbinder Discusses His Work to Hold Government Accountable

In a wide-ranging conversation, Noah Bookbinder, former president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), shared lessons learned during his work to promote government accountability at an event sponsored by the Tsai Leadership Program on March 5.

The discussion was moderated by Dean Cristina Rodríguez ’00, who has known Bookbinder since they were students at Yale College. In her introduction, she described him as “a model of the leadership the Tsai program is designed to empower.” In addition to CREW, Bookbinder has worked at the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Since January 2026, he has led The Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics.

Bookbinder began by discussing his work at the Justice Department prosecuting public corruption cases, and his time on the U.S. Sentencing Commission where he was part of a bipartisan effort to reduce federal drug sentences. 

Bookbinder said the effort succeeded because the commission members were able to find enough common ground to agree on sentencing reform. The commission deliberately conducted their work quietly and stayed out of the headlines, he added. “That was a big lesson — sometimes the way you actually get things done is behind the scenes with personal relationships,” he said.

Bookbinder also discussed a lawsuit CREW brought against President Donald Trump in 2017 for violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which prohibits the president from receiving gifts or payments from foreign governments. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled in CREW’s favor, but the case was dismissed by the Supreme Court in January 2021 because Trump had left office.

“One thing we learned from the case is that delay is a really significant legal tactic,” Bookbinder said. Organizations that bring impact litigation against the government can use it to their advantage by slowing down illegal and dangerous activity. “Every day that you are stopping bad things from happening is a good day,” he added.

Bookbinder also discussed his current role leading Fellowships in Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE), working to promote ethical leadership among professionals in business, technology, law, journalism, and medicine. FASPE studies the ethical breakdown among professionals in Europe during the Nazi era as a framework for approaching professional integrity today.

Bookbinder responded to a student question about how litigation against the government can have the most impact, since many legal advocacy groups are facing resource constraints. 

“I think one of the strategies of the current administration is to act on so many fronts that it’s impossible to respond to all of them,” he said. As a result, legal organizations should focus on areas where they judge the most harm is being done. Bookbinder also noted that legal organizations are only part of the solution, with policy experts, political representatives, and the private sector needing to step up to support the checks and balances within the government.

Bookbinder’s talk was sponsored by the Ludwig Citizenship and Equality Speaker Series, part of the Tsai Leadership Program.