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A frontline documentary "Cheney's Law" broadcast on October 16th, 2007 implicated addington as a chief architect in the erosion of constitutional government and noted that addington was not willing to be interviewed commenting on his thoughts on the limits of executive priviledge.


==War crimes prosecution ==
==War crimes prosecution ==
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== External links ==
== External links ==
* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/cheney/ "Cheney's Law"] PBS ''Frontline'', October 16, 2007
* [http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/pushing_the_envelope_on_presi/index.html "Pushing the Limit on Presidential Powers," by Barton Gellman and Jo Becker], ''The Washington Post'', Monday, June 25, 2007
* [http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/pushing_the_envelope_on_presi/index.html "Pushing the Limit on Presidential Powers," by Barton Gellman and Jo Becker], ''The Washington Post'', Monday, June 25, 2007
* [http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060703fa_fact1 "The Hidden Power," by Jane Mayer], profile of David Addington in the July 3, 2006, issue of ''The New Yorker'' magazine.
* [http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060703fa_fact1 "The Hidden Power," by Jane Mayer], profile of David Addington in the July 3, 2006, issue of ''The New Yorker'' magazine.

Revision as of 02:41, 17 October 2007

David Addington

David S. Addington (b. January 22, 1957, Washington, D.C.), is chief of staff and former legal counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney. He was appointed to replace Lewis "Scooter" Libby as Cheney's chief of staff upon Libby's resignation on October 28, 2005.[1] He was described by U.S. News and World Report as "the most powerful man you've never heard of".[2]

Family

Addington is the son of Eleanore and Jerry Addington, a retired brigadier general and West Point graduate.[3] He is married to Cynthia Mary Addington; the couple have three children. Previously, Addington had been married to Dr. Linda Werling, whom he met while the two were both attending Duke University.[4]

Education and career

Addington graduated from Sandia High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1974. He is a graduate of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and holds a J.D. from Duke University School of Law. He was admitted to the bar in 1981.

Addington was assistant general counsel for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1981 to 1984. From 1984 to 1987 he was counsel for the House committees on intelligence and international relations. He served as a staff attorney on the joint U.S. House-Senate committee investigation of the Iran-Contra scandal as an assistant to Congressman Dick Cheney, and was one of the principal authors of a controversial minority report issued at the conclusion of the joint committee's investigation.[5]

Addington was also a special assistant to President Ronald Reagan for one year in 1987, before becoming Reagan's deputy assistant. He was Republican counsel on the Iran-Contra committee in the 1980's. From 1989 to 1992, Addington served as special assistant to Cheney who was then the Secretary of Defense, before becoming the Department of Defense's general counsel in 1992.

From 1993 to 2001, he worked in private practice, for law firms Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz and Holland & Knight, and the American Trucking Associations.[6] He headed a political action committee, the Alliance for American Leadership, set up in large part to explore a possible presidential candidacy for Cheney.

Vice President's office

After he began working for Vice President Cheney, Addington was very influential in many different areas of policy. He authored or helped to shape many of the most controversial policies of the Bush administration.[2] Addington's influence strongly reflects his hawkish views on U.S. foreign policy, a position he had apparently already committed to as a teenager during the late phase of the Vietnam War in the early 1970s.[7]

Addington has consistently advocated that under the Constitution, the President has unlimited powers as commander in chief during wartime.[8] In October 2005, Addington was tapped to become the Vice President's chief of staff, replacing I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who had resigned after being indicted on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. He is the legal force behind over 750 signing statements President Bush has added to bills passed by Congress. Addington was a legal advisor to President Reagan, and suggested that such signing statements be used to exempt President Reagan from responsibility for the Iran-Contra scandal.

Addington helped to shape an August 2002 opinion from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel that said torture might be justified in some cases.[9] He advocates scaling back the authority of lawyers in the uniformed services. According to Jack Goldsmith, the head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel from 2003 to 2004, Addington once said that "we’re one bomb away from getting rid of that obnoxious court,” referring to the secret FISA court that oversees clandestine wiretapping. [10] According to a New York Times report, at a 2004 White House meeting, former Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey asserted that “no lawyer” would endorse the legal justification authored by former Justice Department attorney John Yoo for the NSA warrantless surveillance program. Addington reportedly replied that he was a lawyer and found it convincing, to which Comey shot back: “No good lawyer,” according to someone present at the meeting. [11]

He consistently advocates the expansion of presidential powers and Unitary Executive theory, nearly absolute deference to the Executive Branch from Congress and the Federal judiciary. In a June 26, 2007 letter to Senator John Kerry, Addington asserted that by virtue of Executive Order 12958 as amended in 2003 that the Office of the Vice President was exempt from oversight by the Information Security Oversight Office for its handling of classified materials.[12]

Addington was mentioned by title in "Scooter" I. Lewis Libby Jr.'s indictment for five felony charges related to the Plame affair, regarding the leak of the identity of a CIA officer.[13]

War crimes prosecution

In November 2006, the German government received a complaint seeking the prosecution of Addington for alleged war crimes.[14]

References

  1. ^ Keith Olberman (November 4, 2005). "Cheney's new chief of staff controversial". MSNBC. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ a b Chitra Ragavan (May 29, 2006). "Cheney's Guy". U.S. News and World Report. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/07/03/060703fa_fact1?currentPage=3
  4. ^ http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/07/03/060703fa_fact1?currentPage=4
  5. ^ Mr. Cheney's Minority Report by Sean Wilentz, July 9, 2007, New York Times.
  6. ^ Murray Waas (October 30, 2005). "Addington's Role In Cheney's Office Draws Fresh Attention". National Journal. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ Jane Mayer, "The Hidden Power", The New Yorker, July 3, 2006.
  8. ^ Dana Milbank (2004-10-11). "In Cheney's Shadow, Counsel Pushes the Conservative Cause". The Washington Post.
  9. ^ Douglas Jehl (November 2, 2005). "In Cheney's New Chief, a Bureaucratic Master". New York Times. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ Jeffrey Rosen (2007-09-07). "Conscience of a Conservative". The New York Times.
  11. ^ Scott Shane, David Johnston and James Risen (2007-10-04). "Secret U.S. Endorsement of Severe Interrogations". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-10-04.
  12. ^ Addington and the Question of Intent, in Secrecy News, published by the Federation of American Scientists, June 28, 2007.
  13. ^ Daniel Klaidman (February 6, 2006). "Palace Revolt". Newsweek. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/GermanCase2006/Docs/Table%20of%20Contents%20for%20German%20Complaint.pdf
Preceded by Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States
2005– 		Succeeded by
Incumbent
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