Brendan Ballou is a Minnesota-born former federal prosecutor and antitrust lawyer. He served as Special Counsel for Private Equity in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division from 2020 to 2025.
Path to the U.S. Department of Justice
Brendan Ballou grew up a “native Minnesotan”. He attended Columbia University (New York) for B.A. and then earned his J.D. from Stanford Law School. After law school, Ballou joined the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Security Division in Washington, D.C., where he worked on counterterrorism policies advising the White House. He also practised law in private. In 2020, he was appointed Special Counsel for Private Equity in the DOJ’s Antitrust Division – a newly created position to investigate the impacts of private equity firms on competition and the economy. In this role (2020–2025), he focused on enforcing antitrust laws against potential abuses by large investment funds.
In the Courtroom: Prosecutor of the Capitol Riot
As a DOJ prosecutor, Ballou took on high-profile cases. Notably, for about two years after the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack, he led prosecutions of rioters. These prosecutions were a major part of the Justice Department’s effort to hold accountable the hundreds involved in the Capitol breach. (Ballou himself mentioned in interviews and congressional testimony that he spent roughly 2021–2023 on those cases.) Under his leadership, DOJ secured convictions in many January 6 cases for crimes ranging from unlawful entry to assaulting officers. This public role brought Ballou into the media spotlight as a “former federal prosecutor” commenting on issues of justice and accountability. Throughout 2021–2025, Ballou was frequently quoted in news outlets about the legal aftermath of January 6 and the Trump administration’s impact on the DOJ. In May 2025, for example, he wrote in Slate and discussed on PBS’s Amanpour that the new administration’s early actions were “haemorrhaging [the DOJ’s] credibility,” criticizing moves like ignoring judicial limits and firing career lawyers. His mix of on-the-ground prosecutorial experience and public commentary has made him a known voice in debates over the “weaponization of DOJ” (as seen in Federalist Society events and media appearances).
Ballou’s role at the Justice Department focused on overseeing private equity. In both his prosecutions and scholarship, he showed how private equity deals can hurt workers, pensions, and communities. This work led to his 2023 book, Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America, which draws on his DOJ experience and reporting to show how buyout firms saddled companies with debt and fees before bankruptcy or layoffs. Plunder was well-received (named a Fortune Magazine “Best Book” of the year) and quickly made Ballou a public figure in discussions about Wall Street and regulation.
After Plunder, Ballou kept writing and talking about related issues. His upcoming book, When Companies Run the Courts (due 2026), examines forced arbitration clauses and other ways companies avoid being held responsible in court. He often gives interviews on PBS, CNN, NPR, and in print, discussing topics such as arbitration, Big Tech responsibility, and antitrust. For example, on PBS, he discussed how consumer tech companies use arbitration to keep cases out of court. These public efforts show Ballou’s goal: to highlight what he sees as widespread “corruption and abuse of power” by private interests.
Founding the Public Integrity Project
In 2025 Ballou shifted from government service to nonprofit advocacy. He founded the Public Integrity Project (PIP) and became its CEO. PIP’s stated goal is to “expose, educate, and counter” corruption and anti-democratic trends, particularly in corporate law and government. Ballou described his new group as carrying on public-interest litigation and research on issues like election integrity, antitrust, and worker rights (for example, campaigning against forced arbitration hidden in user agreements). PIP quickly made headlines: within days of launch, Ballou appeared with colleagues filing a lawsuit to stop a for-profit UFC cage-fighting event at the White House, calling it a “volcano of corruption” (citing his LinkedIn-post summary of the move).
Although PIP is a young organization, Ballou’s leadership there has already earned media coverage. A PBS interview introduced Ballou as “founder of the Public Integrity Project, an organization challenging corruption and abuse of power”. Under his direction, PIP has assembled a small team of lawyers and advocates (several of whom are also mentioned on its website) to pursue strategic impact litigation and public education. Ballou often emphasizes that his post-DOJ work draws on his prosecutorial insights – in his words, continuing to “serve the public” by taking on big corporate and political problems outside the government walls.
