James A. Baker

Mr. Baker has worked on numerous national security matters during his career. A former federal prosecutor, he worked on all aspects of national security investigations and prosecutions, including in particular the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), during his long career at the U.S. Department of Justice. From 2001-2007, Mr. Baker served as Counsel for Intelligence Policy at the Justice Department, where he was head of the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review. In that position, he was responsible for developing, coordinating, and implementing national security policy with regard to intelligence and counterintelligence matters for the department. Mr. Baker provided the Attorney General, the U.S. Intelligence Community, and the White House with legal and policy advice on a range of national security issues for many years, and also conducted oversight of the Intelligence Community, including the FBI, on behalf of the Attorney General. In 2007, Mr. Baker was a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and started as a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. From 2014-2018, he was the General Counsel of the FBI. He is currently a Visiting Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Lawfare Institute.