Appointments, Confirmations & Budgets

Jim Baker Appointed as FBI General Counsel

Monday, January 27, 2014, 7:00 AM

FBI Director Jim Comey has appointed Jim Baker as FBI General Counsel. This is an outstanding appointment. The announcement is here.

Jim Baker is one of the most experienced and conscientious intelligence professionals in the United States, with particular expertise in FISA, terrorism, cyber-security, and the intersection of criminal law and intelligence operations. A career prosecutor, he served from 2001-2007 as head of the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review in the Department of Justice and later returned as Associate Deputy Attorney General from 2009-2011. He served as Associate General Counsel for national security at Verizon and more recently as Associate General Counsel at Bridgewater Associates while Jim Comey was General Counsel.

Jim is well-known to many of us who write for Lawfare. He has taught a course on national security for many years at Harvard Law School, including a course with Jack Goldsmith. I worked closely with Jim when I was at the Justice Department and the NSC.

Jim is a lawyer of great integrity -- a real straight arrow. The FBI, the Justice Department, and the rest of the intelligence community will get excellent counsel from him.

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Appointments, Confirmations & Budgets

John B. Bellinger III is a partner in the international and national security law practices at Arnold & Porter in Washington, DC. He is also Adjunct Senior Fellow in International and National Security Law at the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as The Legal Adviser for the Department of State from 2005–2009, as Senior Associate Counsel to the President and Legal Adviser to the National Security Council at the White House from 2001–2005, and as Counsel for National Security Matters in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice from 1997–2001.

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