About Open File

Before entering media in early 2020, I was a federal prosecutor at the Justice Department specializing in financial fraud and white-collar crime. Before that, I worked at a New York law firm in commercial litigation and white-collar corporate defense. I hold a law degree and a B.A. from Columbia University and clerked for a federal judge in the Southern District of New York.

I’ve been the legal affairs columnist for Politico and New York Magazine, and contributed to The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, The Financial Times, The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, The Atlantic, TIME, USA Today, WIRED, Slate, The American Prospect, and Columbia Journalism Review.

I regularly provide legal commentary and analysis on television, radio, and podcasts, including MS NOW, CNN, BBC, C-SPAN, and NPR, as well as other international news channels in Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, India, Australia, Italy, and more.

You can check out my personal website for more about me, all of my past writing, and links to appearances.

Open File is an extension of my interests and work, anchored by the same rigor and perspective.

What Open File Is

Analysis and commentary on national legal affairs — covering the Justice Department, the courts, and the intersection of law and politics — from former federal prosecutor Ankush Khardori.

Plain-English analysis and reporting on the most important stories in national legal affairs. Free, in your inbox, twice a week.

Coverage: the Justice Department, federal prosecutions, the Supreme Court, white-collar crime, separation of powers, the rule of law, and law and politics.

The law doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Understanding what’s happening legally often requires understanding the political and electoral landscape — and vice versa.

Editorial Standards

The law can and should be accessible to everyone.

When I started writing, I saw a gap. Legal commentary at the time was skewed toward telling people what they wanted to hear, and it often assumed that readers were either uninterested in legal nuances or incapable of understanding them. I strongly reject that idea.

My goal is to give readers the kind of analysis that a paying client deserves: to the point, accessible, and honest, both about the full range of possibilities in any given situation and the likely outcomes as a practical matter. That means being clear not just about what I think, but about how I think about it — so that readers can understand why they agree or disagree with me.

I try to focus on how lawyers and the DOJ actually operate — not just in theory, but in practice — based on my own experience as a lawyer and my time as a federal prosecutor. But legal analysis alone isn’t enough. I’m interested in the intersection of law and politics, which means I actually talk to the people involved: national politicians, congressional staffers, prominent lawyers, foreign diplomats, and more.

Ownership & Funding

Open File is independently owned and written by me, and it’s free. I have no outside sponsors or any affiliation with any political party or PAC.

Corrections

I take accuracy and transparency very seriously. I aim to correct factual errors quickly. If you’d like to submit a correction, please contact me.