Jeh Johnson

Johnson's first name is taken from a Liberian chief, who reportedly saved his grandfather's life while he was on a League of Nations mission to Liberia in 1930.

Jeh Charles Johnson ( "Jay"; born September 11, 1957) is an American lawyer and former government official.

Johnson was born on September 11, 1957, in New York City, the son of Norma (Edelin), who worked for Planned Parenthood, and Jeh Vincent Johnson, an architect and lecturer at Vassar College.

His parents met as a result of the elder Johnson's friendship with Norma's brother, Milton.

His father and his Uncle Milton were the only black students in their respective classes at Columbia University's School of Architecture.

He is also the nephew of Kenneth C. Edelin, a physician who was a defendant in a landmark case involving abortion rights.

Johnson is the grandson of sociologist and Fisk University President Charles S. Johnson.

Raised in Wappingers Falls, New York, he graduated from Roy C. Ketcham High School in 1975.

He described himself as "a big underachiever", earning grades of C and D in school until he went on to college, citing the fact that he didn't "have a lot of African-American role models" in what was a mostly white community.

It was during his sophomore year in college that a vision of becoming an attorney led him to work to increase his "GPA above a dismal 1.8".

Johnson is a graduate of Morehouse College (B.A.) and Columbia Law School (J.D.).

He is the recipient of thirteen honorary degrees.

Johnson began as an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in November 1984, then left in 1989

to serve as an assistant United States Attorney in the public corruption section at the Southern District of New York.

There, he prosecuted politicians, police, and immigration agents.

Johnson returned to Paul, Weiss in 1992 and was elected partner (the first African-American partner at the firm) in 1994.

In 1998, Johnson was appointed General Counsel of the Air Force by President Bill Clinton and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

As General Counsel, Johnson was the senior legal official in the Air Force, and the Governor of Wake Island, which is administerd by the Air Force.

His tenure coincided with Operation Allied Force in 1999.

He was awarded the Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service for his efforts.

After his service in the Clinton administration, Johnson returned to Paul, Weiss in 2001, where he tried large commercial cases.

Johnson was a member of the Executive Committee of the New York City Bar Association.

From 2001 to 2004, he served as chairman of the City Bar's Judiciary Committee, which rates and approves all federal, state and local judges in New York City.

Johnson served as special counsel to John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign, and was an early supporter of Barack Obama's presidential campaign, active as a foreign policy adviser and as a member of his national finance committee.

In 2007, Johnson was shortlisted by the New York State Commission on Judicial Nomination to be Chief Judge of New York though the incumbent, Judith Kaye, was ultimately reappointed by former Governor Eliot Spitzer.

Johnson was active in Democratic Party politics, as a fundraiser and adviser to presidential campaigns.

From 2009 to 2012, Johnson was the general counsel of the Department of Defense during the first years of the Obama administration.

Before joining the Obama administration, he was a federal prosecutor, the general counsel of the Department of the Air Force, and an attorney in private practice.

Johnson is currently a partner at the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, a member of the boards of directors of Lockheed Martin, U.S. Steel, and MetLife, and a trustee of Columbia University.

On January 8, 2009, then President-elect Barack Obama announced Johnson's nomination as Department of Defense General Counsel.

On February 9, 2009, he was confirmed by the Senate by a voice vote.

In 2009, Johnson was heavily involved in the reform of military commissions, and testified before Congress numerous times in support of the Military Commissions Act of 2009.

In February 2010, the Secretary of Defense appointed Johnson to co-chair a working group, along with Army General Carter Ham, to study the potential impact of a repeal of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

In November 2010, following an extensive study, Johnson and General Ham reported that the risk to overall military effectiveness of a repeal would be low.

As general counsel, Johnson gave a number of speeches on national security.

In a speech delivered at The Heritage Foundation in October 2011, Johnson warned against "over-militarizing" the U.S. government's approach to counterterrorism: "There is risk in permitting and expecting the U.S. military to extend its powerful reach into areas traditionally reserved for civilian law enforcement in this country."

At a speech at Yale Law School in February 2012, Johnson defended "targeted killings".

At the Oxford Union in November 2012, shortly before his resignation, Johnson delivered an address titled "The conflict against al Qaeda and its affiliates: how will it end?"

In that speech, he predicted a "tipping point" at which the U.S. government's efforts against al Qaeda should no longer be considered an armed conflict, but a more traditional law enforcement effort against individual terrorists.

He was United States Secretary of Homeland Security from 2013 to 2017.