Our investigation with the Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project found that instead of preparing for the long-announced January 6th prisoner pardons, the Biden-appointed director of the US Marshals spent his final weeks on a taxpayer-funded trip to the Caribbean.
On January 17th, Ronald Davis ceased to be the Director of the United States Marshals Service. Davis chose to spend much of his final weeks as Director in the Caribbean.
On January 11th, 2025, we spotted the Director taking a leisurely walking tour of Fortaleza Ozama, located in the Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo.
It is worth asking what the director of the US Marshals Service is doing in the Dominican Republic to begin with. The US Marshals Service is tasked with supporting the federal judiciary. Its primary functions include apprehending fugitives, ensuring the security of federal courts, transporting and managing federal prisoners, and operating the Witness Security Program (WITSEC).
It is doubtful that any of the duties entrusted to Ronald L. Davis, as the chief of the oldest federal law enforcement organization in the United States, are better executed in the Dominican Republic than in the United States.
Unfortunately for all concerned with government efficiency, it gets worse. We learned that Ronald's taxpayer-funded Caribbean getaway did not start in the Dominican Republic. It actually began in Jamaica a few days prior, where Ronald, despite being engaged in critical and time-consuming international affairs, allegedly brought his wife with him (at the taxpayers' expense). Upon his departure from Jamaica for Santo Domingo, the two allegedly parted ways.
This leads to one critical question: Even if this tropical extravaganza was in good keeping with the proper execution of Ronald's functions as U.S. Marshals Service Director, and even if we overlook the free vacation provided to Ronald’s wife on the first leg of the trip, how could any of this be a good use of taxpayer funds when Ronald’s tenure was about to come to an end, less than 10 days after this trip, upon the inauguration of Donald Trump?
Not only is it doubtful that Ronald's foreign island relations provided any immediate national benefit, but any marginal national gain (if any was made at all) is almost certain not to last with the swearing-in of a new director immediately after this balmy mission.
The creation of a Department of Government Efficiency could not come at a better time.
