Lisa Monaco

Lisa Oudens Monaco (born February 25, 1968) is an American attorney, former federal prosecutor and national security official who has served as the 39th and current United States Deputy Attorney General since April 21, 2021.

She is a member of the Democratic Party.

Monaco graduated from the Winsor School in Boston in 1986.

Monaco attended Harvard University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, in American history and literature in 1990.

After earning her bachelor's degree, she worked as a research associate for The Wilson Quarterly at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars from 1990 to 1991, and as a senior associate for the Health Care Advisory Board, a healthcare advisory group, from 1991 to 1992.

She worked as a research coordinator for the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary from 1992 to 1994 under then-chairman Joe Biden, where she worked on the Violence Against Women Act.

During her time at the University of Chicago, she spent summers working in Washington, D.C. as an intern on the D.C. Superior Court and as an intern for the United States Department of Justice in 1995.

Additionally, Monaco served as the editor-in-chief of the University of Chicago Law School Roundtable, a legal journal.

Monaco enrolled at the University of Chicago Law School, working as an intern in the White House Counsel's Office in 1996 before earning her Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in 1997.

Monaco was also a summer associate for the law firm Hogan and Hartson, LLP.

From 1997 to 1998, Monaco worked as a law clerk for the Honorable Jane Richards Roth on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, before she went on to work as counsel to then U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno from 1998 to 2001.

Following graduation from law school, she joined the New York State Bar Association in 1998.

From 2001 to 2007, she was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the United States Attorney's office for the District of Columbia, and was appointed as a member of the Justice Department's Enron Task Force, co-leading the trial team in the prosecution of five former Enron executives from 2004 to 2006.

Monaco received Department of Justice Awards for Special Achievement in 2002, 2003 and 2005.

She received the Attorney General's Award for Exceptional service for her work on the Enron Task Force, the department's highest award.

After the end of the Enron trial and the Justice Department's disbandment of the special task force, Monaco worked as a special counselor to FBI Director Robert Mueller.

Prior to this, Monaco served as Associate Deputy Attorney General from 2009 to 2011 and Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division from 2011 to 2013.

Monaco was born in Boston, to parents Mary Lou (Oudens) and Anthony Monaco, and was raised in Newton, Massachusetts.

She comes from an Italian-American family.

She was later chosen by Mueller to be his deputy chief of staff and then his chief of staff, a position she held until January 2009.

In January 2009, Monaco was appointed by United States Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden to serve as Associate Deputy Attorney General focusing on national security issues.

She later served as Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General, the top aide to the deputy attorney general, from February 2010 to June 2011, in an acting capacity until January 2011.

On July 1, 2011, Monaco took office as assistant attorney general for national security following her appointment by President Barack Obama, leading the Justice Department division which oversees major counterterrorism and espionage cases, as well as authorizes the use of FISA warrants.

In that role, she oversaw the investigation of Mansour Arbabsiar for a plot directed by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to kill the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. She also made combatting cyber threats a top priority during her tenure, creating the first ever network of national security cyber specialist prosecutors from across the country.

Monaco has been involved in meetings and attempts to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

Monaco previously served as Homeland Security Advisor under President Barack Obama from 2013 to 2017.

In this role, she served as the chief counterterrorism advisor to the president and was a statutory member of the U.S. Homeland Security Council.

On January 25, 2013, President Barack Obama announced he would name Monaco to be his assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, the chief counterterrorism advisor to the President.

Monaco succeeded John Brennan, who was nominated by Obama to become the director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Monaco took office on March 8, 2013, and became a statutory member of the United States Homeland Security Council.

In this role, Monaco led U.S. policy to disrupt terrorist threats against the United States, including degrading Al-Qaeda and affiliates from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, putting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on a lasting path to defeat, and building partner capacity to prevent and disrupt terrorist threats.

She also led initiatives to expand collaboration with the private sector to counter ISIL's messaging and abuse of online platforms while lifting up alternative narratives.

Monaco, alongside James Comey, was considered a frontrunner to succeed Robert Mueller as FBI Director in 2013.

Monaco would have been the first woman to serve as Director if she had been chosen; ultimately, Comey was nominated and confirmed as Director.

On May 23, 2013, Daniel Klaidman, writing for the Daily Beast reported a White House official confirmed Monaco would handle "day-to-day responsibilities" for Guantanamo.

Separately, she led a comprehensive hostage policy reform effort from 2014 to 2015 to better align and coordinate U.S. government efforts and better serve affected families.

In late July 2014, Monaco answered a question as to whether the mandate to keep Guantanamo open would end when U.S. troops had effectively retired from Guantanamo.

Scholars at Lawfare interpreted Monaco's comment as a sign that the Obama presidency would ask the United States Congress to pass legislation enabling Guantanamo to remain open after U.S. involvement in the Afghan war ended.

In February 2016, the White House and Department of Defense presented a comprehensive plan to Congress to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.

In the Homeland Security Advisor role, Monaco was also President Obama's chief cybersecurity advisor.