Michael Romano Represents the Best of Us
Terrorism is the effort to coerce a civilian population or influence government policy by violent criminal acts. That’s exactly what the rioters were trying to do.
Mike Romano spent nearly 18 years as an attorney with the Department of Justice (DOJ). He loved his job and thought it would be his forever job. On January 20, 2025, he watched four years of work get wiped away.
In January 2021, Mike was a trial attorney in DOJ’s Public Integrity Section. He remembered watching the events of January 6th unfold on the news. He was horrified as he saw an enormous swarm of people descend upon the US Capitol, overwhelming the building and brazenly committing crimes in broad daylight. Rioters attempted to intimidate members of Congress into keeping Donald Trump in office, demanding Congress completely disregard the legal process for certifying an election. Mike had a horrible feeling about what was happening. He worried that people would leave Washington, D.C., without facing consequences for their actions. He was sick at the thought.
By February 2021, Mike was on loan to the D.C. US Attorney’s Office for the Capitol Siege Section (CSS). For the next four years, he relived the Capitol attack every day while prosecuting January 6th cases, eventually serving as Deputy Chief beginning in September 2022. Nearly 1,600 defendants were “federally charged with crimes associated with the attack of the US Capitol.”
Note: The above linked webpage has since been removed from DOJ’s website but is still available through the Internet Archive.
By Inauguration Day 2025, Mike and his colleagues were worried about what would happen next. They didn’t have to wonder long. President Trump signed an executive order pardoning the January 6th rioters—not just the defendants who committed misdemeanors, but also those who committed violent crimes. The pardons were based on what President Trump called a “grave, national injustice.” The real injustice was that the pardons rewarded acts of domestic terrorism intended to undermine the peaceful transfer of power.
Mike had the sinking feeling that he had to leave. For almost two months, he lived with a pit in his stomach, wondering daily if he would get fired. He had seen several of his co-workers from CSS terminated. Mike returned to Public Integrity just in time to watch his principal deputy chief and three deputy chiefs resign after refusing to sign the Motion to Dismiss corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams in the Southern District of New York. Mike knew he could not stay and watch the rule of law completely disregarded.
Mike resigned from the DOJ in March 2025 and joined Lichten & Liss-Riordan, P.C., where he represents workers and advocates for their rights. He continues to speak out about the changes happening at DOJ and within the US Government.
You can connect with Mike on LinkedIn.
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Read Mike's comments in The New York Times Magazine.
Tom Joscelyn
Explore a comprehensive breakdown of the January 6 pardons.
The White House
Read the language of the pardon granted to domestic terrorists who attacked the US Capitol.
Capitol Riot Map
Learn more about the Capitol rioters and where they are after the pardons.
franquiz
Read the open letter requesting a disciplinary investigation into Ed Martin.
OPM's fork in the road email to federal employees mirroring the Twitter email.
Lora Kolodny
Coverage and full text of Twitter's fork in the road email.
The Associated Press
An update on Twitter employees' lawsuit over their fork in the road email.
Larry Neumeister, Associated Press
Read about resignations in protest of demands to drop NYC Mayor Adams' corruption case.
Learn more about DOJ's Public Integrity Section.