Lisa Monaco, former second-in-command for former President Joe Biden’s Justice Department, is now being referred to the DOJ over allegations that she helped hide investigations into Microsoft’s cybersecurity failures before she was hired for a top job with the company, according to information contained in a letter from the American Accountability Foundation.
Monaco, who served as Deputy Attorney General under former Attorney General Merrick Garland, became part of the Microsoft team in May 2025, taking a position as President of Global Affairs, a few short months after leaving the government. President Donald Trump slammed her being hired by the company in a Truth Social post from September 2025.
“Corrupt and Totally Trump Deranged Lisa Monaco,” Trump said in the post, “was a senior National Security aide under Barack Hussein Obama, and a Lawfare and Weaponization obsessed Deputy Attorney General under Crooked Joe Biden.” Trump then added that Monaco’s access to “Highly Sensitive Information” at Microsoft was “unacceptable” due to the company’s extensive government contracts.
According to Breitbart News, President Trump also alleged that Monaco had all of her security clearances stripped and was banned from federal properties, saying, “It is my opinion that Microsoft should immediately terminate the employment of Lisa Monaco.”
The Justice Department referral from the American Accountability Foundation points toward the possibility that the president’s concerns about Monaco may go beyond politics and extend into the realm of national security and possible corruption. The letter states that Microsoft fell victim to at least five major cyber intrusions between 2019 and 2023, all of which involved players from Russian intelligence services, Chinese state-sponsored hackers, and Russian cybercriminals.
The company described the breaches as “among the most damaging series of breaches of U.S. government information systems in American history.” And yet, the Biden administration never took serious enforcement action against Microsoft during its own cybersecurity crackdown.
“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,” the letter said.
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“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,” it added. The referral also notes that there is a growing network of former Biden administration cybersecurity officials who were later hired by Microsoft or firms with direct ties to the company.
Bryan A. Vorndran, the FBI’s representative on the Cyber Safety Review Board, went on to become Microsoft’s Deputy Chief Information Security Officer, just a month after Monaco was hired. Another board member, Jerry L. Davis, was also hired to be a Microsoft Chief Security Advisor. Critics are now making the case that Microsoft’s political connections inside the Biden administration protected the company from being held accountable for cybersecurity failures that exposed sensitive government systems to foreign adversaries.