Walt Cummings
Template:Spoilers Walt Cummings was a fictional character played by John Allen Nelson, on the FOX television show 24. Cummings served as Head of Security to Vice-President Charles Logan in the show's fourth season and later became Chief of Staff when Logan formally became President of the United States in the fifth season.
Day 4
Cummings first appears on 24 late in the fourth season.
Charles Logan is the Vice President of the United States, but was sworn into office after President John Keeler was critically injured during a terrorist attack on Air Force One. When Logan unravels and starts to show his indecisive qualities, he goes to former president David Palmer, Mike Novick, and Cummings for help on a difficult witness/lawyer situation at CTU.
The terrorist Habib Marwan, the season's main villain, had called a lawyer from Amnesty Global (a fictional version of Amnesty International), asking the lawyer to defend Joe Prado, who had been taken into custody with no charges against him. Cummings advised Logan that if he went above the lawyer's head and approved Prado's torture, it would haunt his presidency should Prado turn out to be innocent. Jack Bauer assaults Prado 'off the books', and extracts the information from him, proving Cummings' advice false.
Cummings expresses concern to CTU after Jack Bauer leads an undercover raid on the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles, in an attempt to locate Lee Jong who was thought to have information about the terrorist plots of Marwan. During the raid, the Chinese Consul is killed in friendly fire. This outrages the Chinese and results in a serious diplomatic problem. China wants to extradite Bauer and hold him responsible for the death of the Chinese Consul. The United States initially resists this idea, but they eventually capitulate to the demands of the Chinese and agree to hand over Bauer.
Cummings is worried that the Chinese will extract important national security information from Bauer and use it against the United States. Cummings makes a phone call to Secret Service Agent Dale Spaulding, ordering him to kill Jack Bauer once he is in CTU custody. Mike Novick, who is acting as Chief of Staff to former President David Palmer, overhears Cummings' phone conversation and notifies Palmer. Palmer and Jack had become friends after working together to resolve previous terrorist threats (seasons 1-3), and Novick knows that Palmer considers Bauer a friend.
Palmer immediately goes to President Charles Logan's office and warns him about Cummings' plot to kill Bauer. Logan refuses to intervene, stating (unconvincingly) that he knows Cummings will follow his orders. Palmer then calls Jack and warns him that he is a target for assassination. This warning allows Jack to fake his own death with the help of his fellow CTU colleagues Tony Almeida, Michelle Dessler, and Chloe O'Brian.
Day 5
As day 5 progresses it is revealed that, six months previously, Cummings had been recruited by a man named James Nathanson for an elaborate scheme to manipulate a Russian separatist faction. Due to Nathanson's role as middleman, Cummings had no idea that President Logan himself was behind the plot, authorizing the plan which was masterminded by power broker Graham and his cabal. Using his position in the White House, Cummings is working as a mole for Nathanson. The members of the plot had discovered that Jack Bauer was still alive, and so they arranged to have David Palmer and those who knew that Jack was alive killed. They then attempted to frame Jack Bauer for the murders. Cummings was therefore complicit in the deaths of David Palmer and Michelle Dessler.
When they are unsuccessful in framing Jack, Cummings then tries to have Jack Bauer killed with the assistance of a mole in CTU, but fails once again after Jack kills the assassin. Furthermore, his plan backfires when the mole, Spenser Wolff, is captured by CTU. Wolff had been led to believe that he was hired by Cummings to do an internal investigation at the behest of the White House. When Bauer realizes this, he figures out that Cummings is behind Palmer's assassination and decides to go after him.
When Cummings learns that Bauer is after him, he attempts to save himself by 'confessing' to President Logan and putting a spin on events. He reveals that he helped the separatists acquire a shipment of Sentox nerve gas; however, he changed the arming codes of the nerve gas cannisters, so that they would detonate once the terrorists had reached their homeland. This would provide evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Central Asia, thus justifying a stronger U.S. military presence and therefore ensuring oil futures for the next generation. Cummings insists that it is too late to stop the operation, and that he does not know where the gas shipment is. However, when Cummings is violently interrogated by Jack in front of Logan, he admits that much of his confession was a lie.
Angered, Logan has Cummings placed under arrest. Walt Cummings is later found dead hanging from a noose after apparently having committed suicide. When Logan is ultimately exposed as the initiator behind the Sentox Nerve Gas Conspiracy, however, he reveals in 1:00AM-2:00AM that he had Cummings killed (under the orders of Graham and presumably at the hands of Secret Service Agent Justin Adams, who was later ordered to capture and kill Aaron Pierce) in order to avoid liability being traced back to him.
Cummings was survived by his wife Suzanne, who was unaware of her husband's illegal activities. Between Day 4 and Day 5, Walt Cummings had a brief affair with Audrey Raines while Cummings and his wife were briefly separated and Jack was believed to be dead.
Cummings' motives are in line with those of Roger Stanton of season 2, who was also a pawn of conspirators in a plot involving oil. Additionally, the circumstances of his death are very similar to that of Jamey Farrell in season 1. Both were found dead of an apparent suicide shortly after being exposed as a traitor, but were later found to have been murdered by someone else higher up in the conspiracy to cover their own involvement.