James A. Baker (government attorney)

For other people named James Baker, see James Baker (disambiguation).

James A. Baker
General Counsel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
In office
January 2014 – December 2017
PresidentBarack Obama
Donald Trump
DirectorJames Comey
Andrew McCabe (acting)
Christopher A. Wray
Preceded byAndrew Weissmann
Succeeded byDana J. Boente
Personal details
Born
James Andrew Baker
EducationUniversity of Notre Dame (B.A.)
University of Michigan (J.D., M.A.)
Workplace

James Andrew Baker[1] is a former American government official at the Department of Justice who served as general counsel for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and later served as deputy general counsel at Twitter, Inc. before being fired by Elon Musk in December 2022.[2][3]

A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Michigan Law School, he joined the Department of Justice in 1990.

In December 2017, he was replaced as general counsel and reassigned to a different position within the FBI.[4] It was revealed in April 2018, that he was a recipient of at least one Comey memo.[5] In May 2018, Baker resigned from the FBI and joined the Brookings Institution as a fellow, writing for the justice-focused website, Lawfare.[6] In January 2019, Baker left Brookings to become director of national security and cybersecurity at the R Street Institute think-tank.[7]

Baker also teaches at Harvard Law School.

  1. ^ "University of Notre Dame 1983 Commencement" (PDF). May 1983. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 3, 2019. Retrieved December 4, 2019.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference bi2022 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "FBI — James A. Baker Appointed as FBI's General Counsel" (Press release). FBI National Press Office. January 15, 2014.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference WaPoDec17 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Comey Memo - Enclosure Unclassified" (PDF). CNN. April 19, 2018. Retrieved April 19, 2018.
  6. ^ Schmidt, Michael S. (May 4, 2018). "2 F.B.I. Officials, Once Key Advisers to Comey, Leave the Bureau". The New York Times. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
  7. ^ "R Street Institute names Jim Baker director of National Security and Cybersecurity". R Street. January 9, 2019. Retrieved January 10, 2019.