Opinion | Marie Yovanovitch Fought Corruption, Then Lost Her Post

During my 31 years at the State Department, we brought members of the Justice Department’s office of public corruption to countries to talk about best practices and outline some of the most serious cases in the United States, to underscore the point that while you could never completely eliminate corruption by public officials, the effort to bring them to justice was honorable, necessary, and often successful.

In destroying that consensus on the importance of the rule of law and the fight against corruption, the Trump administration has also delivered a significant blow to any ability of the United States government to hold the moral high ground on these issues. And that is a blow to our own national security, which is enhanced when we work closely with allies who share our values. Indeed, we prosper when our companies, bound by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, compete without graft for contracts and major commercial projects.

In other words, we lead by example. And what is the example of President Trump and his chosen advisers?

In ceding the moral high ground and becoming not only crassly transactional, but corrupt in our dealings with other countries, we have lost something that should be precious to us and we must regain: our values of being a country of laws, believing that access to a fair, accessible, accountable legal system is a universal right, and keeping our commitment that those around the world who fight for those rights will have our support. The current loss of those principles makes us “like everybody else” in a world where “everybody does it” — a loss that makes us less safe, less prosperous, and less of an example.

And that worries not just us, but also millions beyond our borders.

Roberta Jacobson, the United States ambassador to Mexico from 2016 to 2018, when she retired, is a senior adviser at the Albright Stonebridge Group.

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