David Addington

David Addington is an American attorney, closely associated with Dick Cheney, who is a strong advocate of the unitary authority theory, especially during the George W. Bush Administration. Even his detractors, and there are many, agree he is a brilliant lawyer, convinced that he is acting in the spirit of the Constitution, a copy of which he carries in his pocket.

Early career

After graduation, he became Assistant General Counsel at the Central Intelligence Agency (1981-1984), and then counsel to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and House Foreign Affairs Committee (1984-1987).

During this time, he first worked with Cheney. The Minority Report on Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair was signed by Dick Cheney as ranking minority member; the primary drafter was Michael Malbin and David Addington contributed to it.

He developed a knowlege of intelligence matched by few other government attorneys, and moved to the White House as Deputy Assistant to President Ronald Reagan and Special Assistant to Reagan (1987).

Defense Department

Special Assistant to Defense Secretary Cheney (1989-1992), General Counsel (1992-1993)

Private Sector

Practiced law at various law firms (1993-2001) and headed a political action committee to test potential presidential run by Dick Cheney during 2000 campaign.

George W. Bush Administration

Jack Goldsmith, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), described an immensely powerful yet secret group of Administrative lawyers, which approached legal strategy for the War on Terror policy, often before the National Security Council, U.S. State Department, or U.S. Defense Department had examined the policy and legal aspects. It consisted of:

• Alberto Gonzales, Counsel to the President and later Attorney General
• David Addington, Counsel to the Vice President
• William "Jim" Haynes II, General Counsel of the Department of Defense
• John Yoo, a member of OLC, but not his manager, Bybee
• Tim Flanagan, deputy to Gonzales

In White House matters, the U.S. Justice Department was represented only through Yoo, whose close working relationship to Addington and Gonzales offended Yoo's second-level manager, John Ashcroft, the incumbent U.S. Attorney General. Gonzales distrusted Ashcroft, whom he believed pushed a social conservative agenda to the political detriment of the President. Ashcroft blocked Yoo's appointment to run OLC.

Haynes suggested Goldsmith for OLC; Goldsmith then met with Addington. In their first meeting, Goldsmith was impressed with Addington's grasp of Goldsmith's thinking about internationalization, citing an appellate court ruling that had cited Goldsmith's Harvard Law Review article. They did not discuss, however, Goldsmith's belief that "the administration should embrace rather than resist judicial review of its wartime legal policy decisons...[Goldsmith] could not understand why the administration failed to work with a Congress controlled by its own party to put all its antiterrorism policy on a sounder legal footing. Goldsmith was confirmed by the Senate in July 2003.

Soon after taking office, Goldsmith determined that certain Geneva Convention protections applied in the Iraq War, which Addington furiously said could not change the February 2002 presidential decision that "...terrorists do not receive Geneva Convention protections. You cannot question his decision." This decision was the root of the Administration's extrajudicial detention and intelligence interrogation policies. Addington was counsel and national security adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, and, after Scooter Libby left office, became Cheney's chief of staff.

Education

• Georgetown University: B.S., Foreign Service (1978)
• Duke University School of Law: J.D. (1981)