Michael Ellis (Trump administration official)

Michael Ellis (born 1984/1985)[1] is an American attorney, Republican political operative, and government official. He served in multiple positions in the Trump administration and is known as a Donald Trump loyalist. His installation as the general counsel of the National Security Agency (NSA) during the closing days of the Trump administration, over the objections of the Director of the NSA and in obedience to a direct order from the acting Secretary of Defense, sparked controversy.[2][3] On January 20, 2021, Ellis was put on administrative leave due to a Department of Defense inspector general investigation into his appointment.[4]

Michael Ellis
Born1984/1985 (age 35–36)
EducationDartmouth College (BA)
Yale University (JD)
Occupation
  • Attorney
  • political operative
  • government official
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)
Katherine Racicot
​
(m. 2011)​

Early life and education

During high school, Ellis lived in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. He socialized with the journalist David Klion, with whom he often played the strategy board game Diplomacy. In a profile in Foreign Policy, Klion writes that Ellis "was always a staunch conservative" who "had a nervous tic when he lied" and was "an admirer of Otto von Bismarck." In Klion's view, Ellis was "awkward and gangly" as a youth and "made a point of not listening to any contemporary popular music." He wore bowties as well as Eisenhower and Nixon campaign pins on a daily basis. At the age of 17, Ellis wrote an essay about the Battle of Caporetto. Ellis is an Eagle Scout.[5]

Ellis earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dartmouth College (where he served as Editor in Chief of The Dartmouth Review)[6] and a Juris Doctor in 2011 from Yale Law School[7] (where he was President of that school's chapter of the Federalist Society[8]). In 2011 he was named as one of the Forbes 30 Under 30 for law and policy.[9][6]

Dartmouth Review

As editor for the Dartmouth Review, Ellis described former University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill as a "pseudo-Indian" and argued that Lawrence Summers, when he was president of Harvard University, should not have been criticized for having "the gall to suggest to [sic] perhaps the sexes' brains may function in different ways."[10] In another editorial, titled "Stalinist Dartmouth," Ellis argued that the administration of Dartmouth College was "like most Communist regimes" for changing its rules for elections to its Board of Trustees.[11] Ellis also opposed Dartmouth's punitive actions against Zeta Psi fraternity for its role in what The New York Times called "publishing a newsletter that named and derided some of the women who it said had sex with the fraternity's members and promised 'patented date rape techniques' in a future edition"; members had defended the newsletter as satirical.[12] Ellis outlined his views in an editorial entitled "Drinkin' Like A Dartmouth Man," where he argued that "re-recognizing Zeta Psi would [have gone] a long way towards showing the administration's sincerity about promoting a healthy Greek culture. Today's Zete brothers were not even on campus for the notorious Zetemouth incident, and formally bringing the house back into the Greek system would bring Zete's drinking back into the light, where it could be more safely monitored."[13] Ellis' tenure at the Review was marked by his criticism of the policies of the Dartmouth administration, which he viewed as indicative of liberal excesses. In "La Plus Ca Change [sic]," Ellis argued against the college's affirmative action policy in admissions, writing that "Dartmouth may have a checkered past in its admissions policy when it comes to the Jews, but that is no reason to sacrifice its essential character on the altar of 'diversity.'"[14]

A frequent subject of Ellis' critique in his Review articles is what he describes as "the administration's culture of secrecy." In "Sabinson's Salvo," he wrote that "[i]f administrators spent a little more time explaining their decision-making processes to the public, they might save themselves a lot of future embarrassment and lawsuits"[15]

Career

Ellis was an associate director of the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives in 2006–2007. In 2007–2008 he was the deputy director of strategy in Boston for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.[16] Prior to his appointment to the Trump administration, Ellis clerked for Judge Amul Thapar of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky and Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.[17][7]

He served as chief counsel to Rep. Devin Nunes and the Republican majority on the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.[18][19] In 2017, Ellis achieved notoriety as one of two aides who assisted Rep. Nunes get access to classified information suggesting that Donald Trump's pre-election communications may have been collected by federal investigators.[20][21]

Ellis served as the senior associate counsel to President Trump and deputy legal advisor to the National Security Council (NSC).[22] In March 2020, Ellis was appointed Senior Director for Intelligence on the NSC.[23][24]

Controversy surrounding sharing of intelligence documents
Main article: Trump Tower wiretapping allegations

On March 29, 2017, The New York Times reported that Ellis and Ezra Cohen-Watnick were involved in leaking intelligence documents to Representative Devin Nunes, chair of the House Intelligence Committee.[25] The article stated that while neither were accused of breaking laws, Ellis and Cohen-Watnick appeared "to have sought to use intelligence to advance the political goals of the Trump administration."[25]. The documents at issue purported to show that communications by Trump and some of his associates were incidentally intercepted by American intelligence during surveillance of foreign nationals.[26] Rep. Nunes and the White House subsequently used this information in an attempt to derail the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and to support Trump’s allegation that he was spied upon.[27]

In April 2017, the Associated Press quoted a U.S. official as saying that although Cohen-Watnick had access to those kinds of intelligence materials, he did not play a role in helping Nunes gain access to the documents. The official instead suggested that Ellis alone had shared the documents.[28] According to the U.S. official, Cohen-Watnick had not been involved in passing the material to Nunes, did not clear Nunes onto the White House grounds, did not review the material with Nunes, and was not aware that the material was going to be shared with Nunes.[25][29]

Connection to the Ukraine scandal

In July 2019 after Trump’s controversial telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ellis was the person who suggested moving the record of the call to the most highly classified server, according to sworn testimony by Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman. Ellis is named in the second article of the January 2020 impeachment of Trump, regarding obstruction of Congress.[30]

Eugene Vindman

Ellis has been under investigation by the Defense Department inspector general regarding accusations that he retaliated against Eugene Vindman, the twin brother of Alexander Vindman who was a whistleblower in the Trump-Ukraine scandal.[31]

John Bolton memoir

As Trump faced an impeachment trial that raised the possibility former national security advisor John Bolton might provide testimony, the White House on January 23, 2020 issued a formal threat to stop Bolton from publishing his memoir, The Room Where It Happened, citing national security concerns.[32][33] Bolton had submitted his manuscript, which contained criticism of Trump, to the National Security Council for prepublication security review in December 2019. On April 27, 2020, after months of discussion, Bolton was told by Ellen Knight, NSC's senior director for prepublication review, that no other classification issues remained. Despite this, the White House did not provide written notice that Bolton could proceed with publication.[34][35]

In May 2020 Ellis, then a Trump political appointee under national security advisor Robert O'Brien, was assigned to further review the manuscript.[36][37] Ellis conducted the review from May 2 to June 9, before he had received training in how to conduct such reviews.[35] The Trump administration claimed that Bolton did not report his decision to proceed with publication, yet Bolton asserted he was not advised of the second review by Ellis.[37][38]

On June 16, 2020—after the book had been shipped to distribution warehouses awaiting official release the following week—the Trump administration filed a civil lawsuit against Bolton in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging breach of contract for failing to submit his manuscript for prepublication security review, seeking to confiscate his $2 million advance, asserting the manuscript was "rife with classified information."[39] The next day, the Department of Justice filed an emergency application for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against Bolton, "seeking to enjoin publication of a book containing classified information."[40] By that day, media outlets had acquired copies of the book and had begun publishing articles on its contents.[41][42]

Bolton's attorney, Chuck Cooper, asserted that the White House was slow-walking the review process to prevent the book from being released during the 2020 election campaign. Cooper had written to Knight when he submitted the manuscript in December, to recount a phone conversation they'd had, stating, "it is our understanding that the process of reviewing submitted materials is restricted to those career government officials and employees regularly charged with responsibility for such reviews. Accordingly, we understand that the contents of Ambassador Bolton's manuscript will not be reviewed or otherwise disclosed to any persons not regularly involved in that process." His letter also noted that, per Bolton's 2018 agreement with the government, there was a 30 working-day limit for the prepublication review.[43] Trump asserted the book contained "highly classified" information but also characterized the book as "pure fiction."[44]

In its June 17 brief filed with the court, the Justice Department provided six examples of what it asserted were classified items that remained in the book, including some characterized as "exceptionally restricted," meaning they could jeopardize intelligence sources and methods. Trump had previously asserted that every conversation with him is "highly classified," and Bolton stated in his book that the prepublication review prohibited him from quoting the president's exact words but not from characterizing what Trump said. For example, in his book Bolton characterized Trump as "pleading with Xi to ensure he'd win" the 2020 election, while Vanity Fair—citing the original pre-review manuscript it had seen—showed Bolton quoted Trump telling Xi, "Make sure I win" and "I will probably win anyway, so don't hurt my farms.… Buy a lot of soybeans and wheat and make sure we win."[45][46][47][42]

During a hearing on June 19, judge Royce Lamberth castigated Bolton for proceeding to publish his book without formal clearance, but expressed doubt he could block publication. A Justice Department attorney acknowledged that Ellis had received no training in reviewing classified information until that month, and that as many as half of the items Ellis had marked as classified may not have been so when Bolton wrote his manuscript, and Ellis's review was the first time they were flagged.[48][49][50][42][37][51][52] Both Lamberth and Cooper noted that while the Justice Department provided an affidavit from Ellis in its brief, it did not include any statement from Knight. On June 20, Judge Lamberth ruled that "Bolton likely published classified materials" and "has exposed his country to harm and himself to civil (and potentially criminal) liability," but denied the government's motion for a temporary restraining order, as "the government has failed to establish that an injunction will prevent irreparable harm."[53][54][55] In a September 2020 letter to Justice Department officials and Bolton's attorneys, Knight's attorney asserted that "a designedly apolitical process had been commandeered by political appointees for a seemingly political purpose." The letter also asserted that Knight had been forced out of the NSC the previous summer because she had not joined an effort to condemn Bolton, and that the White House and Justice Department might be trying to smear her, politicize the prepublication review process and prevent disclosure of information about the Bolton book review.[56][57][58]

NSA general counsel appointment

After Trump lost his bid for re-election in November 2020, at the direction of the White House Ellis was named general counsel of the National Security Agency (NSA). At the time he was working as White House senior director for intelligence - a political position.[59] His nomination came shortly after Trump fired then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper.[60] He did not immediately assume the position, and NSA director Paul Nakasone opposed the appointment.[21][61][18] The NSA position was within the federal civil service, which would allow Ellis to remain beyond the end of the Trump administration, though he was seen as a political appointee.[19][62] Former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden described Ellis' appointment as "really, really bad" and "not good at all."[63] Senators Mark Warner and Jack Reed requested that the Pentagon’s acting inspector general conduct an investigation. They wrote: "The combination of timing, comparative lack of experience of the candidate, the reported qualifications of the other finalists, and press accounts of White House involvement create a perception that political influence or considerations may have played an undue role in a merit-based civil service selection process."[64]

Four days before Trump was set to leave office in January 2021, acting defense secretary Christopher Miller ordered the NSA to install Ellis by 6pm on January 16, 2021.[62] NSA Director Nakasone did not honor Miller's request by the deadline, as he was still not in favor of Ellis's selection.[64] Nakasone had concerns that Ellis is "not qualified for the post and that it’s an attempt by the Trump administration to 'burrow' a political appointee into a career civil service position at the nation’s largest spy agency."[65][66] Nonetheless, on the required day, NSA announced that "Mr. Ellis accepted his final job offer yesterday afternoon."[67] Two days before Miller's order, judge Lamberth issued a ruling making it likely that Bolton's attorney would be allowed to question Ellis about whether classification decisions about Bolton's book had been made in bad faith, and Ellis's appointment to the NSA position could allow him to stall such testimony. In the closing days of the Trump administration, some of the president's allies continued to call for the declassification of documents that they believe would support Trump's claims that the Obama administration spied on him.[68]

Nakasone placed Ellis on administrative leave on the first day of the Biden administration, pending a defense department inspector general inquiry into the circumstances of his NSA appointment.[69]

Personal

Ellis married Katherine Racicot in 2011.[16] In 2013, he appeared as a contestant on Jeopardy! and won with a final score of $16,400.[1]

See also

References
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