In August 2024, he was added to Vladimir Putin's "black list". Casey Michel, who heads the program to combat kleptocracy at the Human Rights Foundation, is a journalist known for his commitment to fighting corruption. Last summer, the American author published "Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World" - a book in which he examines the threat posed by American lobbyists working on behalf of foreign dictatorships, and how they could strengthen regimes around the world, including the one in Russia. His previous book, "American Kleptocracy: How the US Built the World's Biggest Money Laundering Scheme" (2021), was named by The Economist as one of "the best books on understanding financial crime". A regular contributor to Foreign Policy, the Financial Times and the New York Times, this investigative journalist is now alarmed by the Trump administration's unprecedented dismantling of decades-old anti-corruption measures. "I've never seen anything like it before." The US president has started touting "golden visas" for $5 million, inspired by the green card, to attract wealthy investors to the United States, including Russian oligarchs: "A disaster for American politics and for what remains of its leadership in the fight against corruption", Casey Michel recently warned in an article published in The New Republic.
In an interview with the French newspaper L'Express, the latter describes how Donald Trump, who "sold his country to foreign powers", is playing with the national security of the United States. He also explains how and why, in his opinion, the American president will do everything to circumvent the institutional obstacles that, in principle, prevent him from remaining in power in 2028. He also believes that the Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi, "represents a much more obvious threat to American democracy" than the head of intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who has been widely criticized. As speculation mounts about why Trump shares Vladimir Putin's vision for the conflict in Ukraine, Casey Michel sees more than just "ideological" similarities between the two leaders. And he warns: "I sincerely hope that every politician in Paris understands the threat posed by a vengeful dictatorship like Putin's."
L'EXPRESS: In your opinion, the United States is going through the worst period in its history in terms of fighting corruption and kleptocracy...
CASEY MICHEL: Absolutely. To be clear about what we're talking about, it's important to remember that the United States has been developing a set of policies to fight corruption and kleptocracy for decades. We can go back to the 1970s to see the first foundations of this initiative, with laws like the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). This was the first law, not only in the United States, but in the world, to prohibit American companies and executives from bribing foreign officials. This law became the cornerstone of American policy to combat large-scale corruption and allowed the United States to claim a leadership role in this area. Over the years, a number of policies have solidified this leading position. The Department of Justice has created specialized units to identify assets and dirty money associated with oligarchs and kleptocratic regimes around the world. Recent reforms, such as the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) of 2021 (Editor’s note: it requires owners of shell companies to disclose their identities), have made significant strides forward in identifying and truly exposing the dirty money networks that influenced policymaking in Washington, targeting American politicians. But the past seven weeks have seen a real dismantling of these efforts by the Trump administration. And it’s not just a question of challenging some recent policies, but rather a complete undoing of decades of work in this area. The Trump administration, among other things, has eliminated the anti-kleptocracy unit at the Justice Department and made clear its intention to no longer enforce anti-corruption laws. Even the FCPA is under threat, as Trump has announced his suspension. This is a green light for oligarchs, kleptocrats, and anyone else who seeks to hide their dirty money in the United States, knowing full well that they will never be prosecuted, at least not under this administration.
L"EXPRESS: You accuse Donald Trump of "selling America to his kleptocratic friends". Which friends are you talking about?
K. MICHEL: I mean the Russian oligarchs to whom Trump promised to sell American citizenship for $5 million through the "Golden Card" visa system. But it's not just about Russia. It's giving carte blanche to all the oligarchic networks that rely on illegal financial flows and have built authoritarian regimes. This includes Hungary, Azerbaijan, China, Venezuela... The list goes on.
L"EXPRESS: Is all this just about money? What is Donald Trump's goal?
K. MICHEL: Yes, money is the main reason. The goal is to enrich these regimes, dictators and oligarchs, both in the short and long term. They seek to use every possible resource and tool to stay in power, to enrich themselves, their families and their inner circles, while undermining any attempt, whether in their own countries or in places like the United States, to investigate and sanction these authoritarian networks that have taken root in these countries. In the 21st century, authoritarian and kleptocratic regimes do not limit their corrupt practices to the country of origin. They now cross borders, oceans and even hemispheres. And the best thing that could happen to these corrupt networks is for the United States to abandon all efforts to combat them. Now that they are withdrawing from the scene, I do not know who will take on this leadership role.
L"EXPRESS: What does Donald Trump gain from this? Does he see it as a way to inject money into the American economy?
K. MICHELLE: Partly. He has long opposed many of these anti-corruption policies. We've seen attempts to attack them since his first term. At that time, he tried to repeal the FCPA, but that didn't work. There's an ideological element to all of this: he doesn't think that businessmen like him or companies like his "Trump Organization" in the United States or elsewhere should be investigated or regulated in any way. But now it's becoming increasingly difficult to understand what his role as a businessman is - whether he's acting for the benefit of his company or for his own financial interests - and what his relationship is with authoritarian regimes abroad who want to continue laundering as much money as possible. All of this is also related to his own vision of power.
L"EXPRESS: So?
K. MICHELLE: The question Americans will face in the coming years is: what do we do with a president who clearly doesn’t want to leave office at the end of his second term? The United States hasn’t faced this type of situation in almost a century. (Editor’s note: Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only American president to be elected four times between 1933 and 1945.) We believed that the two-term limit, established by the 22nd Amendment in 1947, was a fundamental and unshakable principle of American democracy. Yet I have no doubt that Trump will do everything he can to stay in power in 2028. To that end, he will try to find allies both in the United States and in authoritarian and kleptocratic regimes around the world. Russia, Hungary, Azerbaijan - they will all do their best to keep Trump in the White House, because they know that if the Democrats win in 2028, it is very likely that many of these anti-corruption policies will be reinstated, many of the investigations will be reopened, and that would be very damaging to them. So we are witnessing the formation of a kind of transnational alliance between authoritarian forces in the United States and regimes abroad that have a vested interest in keeping Trump in power.
L"EXPRESS: But in the United States, a president can only serve two consecutive terms... and amending the constitution would require a complicated procedure.
K. MICHELLE: This is a question that we have been asking ourselves on many topics for several years. And if there is one thing that Donald Trump has taught us, it is that many of the elements that we have considered the cornerstones of American democracy and the separation of powers are in part just norms or practices. And if you have someone in the presidency, the most powerful office in the United States, who doesn't meet those standards, then it becomes hard to see where the line is drawn.
There are many ways for Trump to stay in power. He could try to repeal the 22nd Amendment, which limits presidential terms. He could also declare that the Republican Party is not legally barred from renomining him. And if voters vote for him in an election - which again would not be illegal - who is to say that the Supreme Court or anyone else should go against the will of the American people? Or, to put it more simply, he could refuse to leave the White House. There are many possible mechanisms, and I'm sure he and his allies are thinking about them right now.
L"EXPRESS: Trump has said: "I know some Russian oligarchs who are very nice people". How does the fact that Russian oligarchs, most of whom were sanctioned by Washington after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, spend their money in the United States pose a threat to American democracy?
K. MICHELLE: These Russian oligarchs are not independent businessmen or tycoons. They are soldiers in the service of Vladimir Putin’s regime. And of course, I don’t need to explain to you what a dictatorship in Russia looks like: no freedom of speech, very little freedom of religion, very little freedom in general, including in business. It’s a dictatorship from the top down. Opening the doors to Russian oligarchs, inviting them in, is tantamount to inviting Putin’s regime itself. And the latter has no interest other than expanding its influence, whether in Russia or internationally. So from an economic, democratic or national security perspective, this poses a threat. Unfortunately, I don't think Donald Trump realizes the magnitude of this...
L"EXPRESS: There has been a lot of talk in recent months about the risks associated with the appointment of Tulsi Gabbard as head of intelligence, but at the moment the appointment of US Attorney General Pam Bondi seems equally worrying. With her, you write, "the United States has eliminated or undermined in one day its most effective and important tools for combating kleptocracy".
K. MICHELLE: Pam Bondi poses a much more obvious threat to American democracy, both today and in the future, than Tulsi Gabbard. It's not that Gabbard occupies a purely symbolic position, but she cannot herself initiate investigations or end ongoing legal investigations. Her role is more of an intermediary: she directly contacts the president, offering him certain priorities and at the same time trying to establish connections with potential partners. Although at this point I don’t know if the partners Gabbard is referring to are NATO allies like France or authoritarian states like Russia, China or Iran. As for Pam Bondi, on the other hand, her role has been greatly underestimated until now. But she occupies a unique position in the history of the Department of Justice. In fact, she is the first attorney general to have previously worked as a foreign lobbyist – not for American companies or American employees, but for a foreign dictatorship, that of Qatar. This is an unprecedented event in the history of the United States: a person who was directly paid by a foreign dictator now finds himself at the head of the Department of Justice! This is just an addition to what we are seeing right now: a complete loss of independence for the US Department of Justice, which now seems ready to do whatever Donald Trump wants. A situation like this has not happened in the United States for decades. You have to go back to Richard Nixon to find something like this. So Pam Bondi is in a unique position to make life harder for many people simply because they oppose Donald Trump's policies and presidency. What worries me most, structurally, for the future of American democracy is this disappearance of the independence of the Department of Justice.
L"EXPRESS: Has Donald Trump become an enemy of Europe after his spectacular U-turn on Ukraine?
K. MICHELLE: I don't know if I would go so far as to call Trump an enemy of Europe. He certainly poses a significant threat, much greater than anything Europeans have ever seen from an American politician, probably in their entire history. This president clearly sees Europeans as a group of nations that can be pressured, that can be dominated, and that he doesn't consider worthy of being taken seriously, whether on matters of alliance within NATO or on matters of security in general. It is clear that America has abandoned its traditional leadership role in efforts to consolidate and expand liberal democracy around the world. It seems obvious to me that this role will remain abandoned as long as Donald Trump is in power. And that puts even more pressure on Europeans from a security perspective, and also forces them to take up the torch of liberal democracy on the international stage. Those of us who still believe in the liberal democratic project in the United States are now looking to Paris, Brussels, Ottawa and other capitals for leadership on this issue. And so far I have been pleasantly surprised to see that the Europeans are beginning, at least at first glance, to claim that leadership.
L"EXPRESS: Will Trump be able to convince Zelensky to make a deal with Russia or even remove him from the post of president of Ukraine?
K. MICHELLE: We have seen this in recent days with the suspension of military aid and the cessation of intelligence sharing. There are many other actions that he could continue to take, whether it is to choke off Ukrainian resources or even to pressure European allies not to help Ukraine. I do not know what the next step will be, but it is already clear that the Trump administration’s vision for Ukraine coincides with that of Russia. And that includes removing Zelensky as leader, whether through exile or electoral defeat. A supposedly negotiated ceasefire in Ukraine will be repeatedly violated by the Russians, over and over again, without response from the United States. And eventually — perhaps not immediately, but gradually — this will lead to the establishment of a pro-Russian regime in Kiev, conducive to autocracy and kleptocracy. This does not necessarily mean that Russian troops will march through Kiev, as Putin envisioned a few years ago. But one possible scenario, and one that seems appealing to Trump and perhaps even Putin at this point, is the one we have seen unfold in Georgia in recent months: a highly contested election that brought to power a pro-Russian, pro-Kremlin oligarchic regime. Of course, public protests continue, and there is broad public support for Georgia’s membership in the European Union and NATO. But the current regime has no intention of moving in that direction. And I wouldn't be surprised if that's the model we start to see emerge in Ukraine in the future, because that's what some people want. The question now is how long it will take. In Georgia, it's been seventeen years since the Russian invasion, and today a pro-Russian regime is taking root in power. But Putin isn't getting any younger. Is he willing to wait that long to see the same thing happen in Ukraine? I don't think so.
L"EXPRESS: Some French politicians think that Vladimir Putin is not the "main" threat to France. And they don't think he'll attack Moldova or Romania... What do you think?
C. MICHELLE: It's quite clear that his goal is not limited to restoring a pro-Kremlin regime in Kiev. And again, that doesn't necessarily mean Russian ground troops in the Ukrainian capital. Putin has clearly shown his desire to be the dominant military power on the European continent. And this includes several elements: a return of NATO to its mid-1990s borders, or even the dissolution of NATO itself. But this does not necessarily mean direct invasions of countries like Poland, and even less so of countries like France. Rather, it is about recognizing the country as the leading military power in Europe. Putin's ambitions extend far beyond Ukraine. For example, there are certain elements in Moldova that I think make it a much more attractive target. A few days ago, the Romanian authorities arrested several citizens who were planning a coup d'état in Bucharest, which fits the pattern we have already seen in Moldova or Montenegro. Not to mention the pro-Kremlin voices in Hungary, Serbia and elsewhere. I sincerely hope that every politician in Paris understands the threat posed by a revanchist dictatorship like Putin's.
L"EXPRESS: What do you know about the invisible relationship between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin?
K. MICHELLE: That's an excellent question, and I hope I live long enough to see the archives opened, both in the United States and in Russia, so that we can finally analyze in depth how this relationship developed and what really drives it. On the one hand, there is clearly an ideological affinity between Trump and Russia. I think deep down Trump likes Putin. He appreciates the model that Putin has built for himself. He likes how that model has allowed him to get rich while staying in power forever. And it's not just about Russia. Trump has the same fascination with other dictators and autocrats, whether in Hungary, Turkey, or North Korea. The list goes on. But beyond ideology and the pursuit of wealth, there are other elements that I've explored in several of my books. There is a transnational network of oligarchs, largely centered in Moscow, but not just in Russia. There are still a number of Ukrainian oligarchs who would like Zelensky to be overthrown so that they can continue to plunder Ukraine and eliminate any form of democracy in that country. And over the past ten years, they have managed to infiltrate Trump’s inner circle. They have done this with the help of a number of American figures such as Paul Manafort, who was Donald Trump’s first campaign manager, Michael Flynn, who was his first national security adviser, and several members of his inner circle who lobby for the interests of these oligarchs, as well as those of the Kremlin, to the detriment of Zelensky, NATO, and the core interests of US national security. This is a real network of influence that extends to Paris, Budapest, Brussels, and even London. But it is in the United States that this network has found fertile ground, flourishing in Trump’s entourage. And I think that explains a lot of his political preferences and decisions regarding Ukraine and Russia.
L"EXPRESS: Listening to you, one would think that Moscow already has one foot in the White House...
K. MICHELLE: Yes. Just like I would say that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have their place in the White House. And certainly also a country like Qatar. Part of it is structural, but a lot of it is due to Donald Trump himself. This is a president who not only destroyed all of America's anti-corruption policies, but also launched this new cryptocurrency, Trump Memcoin, which anyone in the world can use to directly finance him. Just imagine, a way to directly finance an American president, we've never seen that in American history! And of course, he's also a president who has a private company that his family continues to run, which has said that he will do business with any country, any regime. It is about selling American policy, especially foreign policy, to the highest bidder. It is about eliminating any distinction between the interests of the United States and Trump's personal financial interests.
L"EXPRESS: Are American institutions strong enough to provide protection against Trump's maneuvers? The Democrats seem to be completely silent...
K. MICHELLE: It has only been seven weeks since the inauguration of the new administration, and we are now right in the middle of the famous "honeymoon" period that every president experiences after arriving in the White House. Usually this grace period lasts about a hundred days. President Biden seems to have lasted about six months before withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. So I think right now Donald Trump is structurally the most powerful. As far as the Democrats are concerned, they lost the presidency, the Senate, the House of Representatives... It was a complete defeat on all fronts. So I'm not really surprised that they haven't reorganized yet to try to find the best strategy for attack. But the 2026 midterm elections are coming up very quickly. And I'm extremely optimistic that the Democrats will do very well there. Once that happens, they'll start new investigations. Nothing much will happen in terms of public policy, but we'll have a better idea of how Donald Trump sold out the country to foreign powers. Which will lead to another drop in his approval rating.