Tim Tai

Michael Ellis LAW ’11, President Donald Trump’s appointee for deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, was sworn in on Monday.

Ellis now holds one of the most powerful positions in the American intelligence community, making him the second Yale alum to do so. The role, which does not require Senate confirmation, was previously held by David S. Cohen LAW ’89, who served in both the Biden and Obama administrations.

“Michael is a smart and highly respected lawyer who graduated from Yale University,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “He will now help our fantastic CIA Director, John Ratcliffe, fix the CIA, and make it, once again, the Greatest Intelligence Agency in the World.”

Ellis has maintained a long-standing presence in Republican politics. Before attending Yale Law School, he volunteered for the George W. Bush 2004 presidential campaign while on academic leave from Dartmouth College. Ellis used college credits earned in high school to spend his sophomore and junior years working in polling and strategy for the campaign.

That early involvement helped him secure a position as Associate Director of the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives in the Bush administration. He also served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve.

After graduating from Dartmouth summa cum laude — where he served as editor-in-chief of The Dartmouth Review, a conservative undergraduate publication — Ellis worked as an aide to former Republican Congressman Devin Nunes, who chaired the House Intelligence Committee.

He was also named on the Forbes Top 30 Under 30 for Law & Policy list. In an interview with the Review, Ellis called it “a very nice honor, especially to be considered among such an impressive bunch of folks,” admitting that he was “not exactly sure how they found me.”

Ellis contributed to legal scholarship while at Yale Law School, writing for the Yale Law Journal about legal strategies in the war on terror and the historical development of elected prosecutors.

He also took on a leadership role within the conservative legal community. In 2011, during his third and final year, he served as president of the Yale Federalist Society, a group that describes itself as providing “conservative and libertarian perspectives that balance the law school’s left-leaning curriculum and enrich its intellectual atmosphere.”

Under Ellis’ leadership, the organization expanded, boasting a club email list of over 200 members and frequently hosting legal discussions and guest speakers. 

“Our mission is to foster an exchange of ideas on important legal issues,” Ellis told YLS Today, the law school’s media publication, in 2011. “In doing so, we challenge our own assumptions and those of a left-leaning student body and faculty.”

One event featured then-Sixth Circuit Judge Jeffrey Sutton, for whom Ellis would later clerk. Ellis also clerked for Amul Thapar, then-Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.

While clerking for Sutton, Ellis competed on Jeopardy!, advancing to the final round and winning $16,400. By then, he had moved to Ohio with his wife, Katherine Racicot. 

Following his clerkships, Ellis went on to hold multiple roles in the first Trump administration. He served as deputy national security council legal advisor, special assistant to the President and senior associate counsel to the President.

Ellis was also appointed to the position of general counsel of the National Security Agency just days before Biden took office. The appointment drew criticism, particularly due to reports that Ellis had played a role in attempting to block former National Security Advisor John Bolton “from publishing a damning book about the president.”

On Monday, CIA Director John Ratcliffe praised Ellis’ appointment in an agency press release, calling him “highly respected in the Intelligence Community” and ranking him “among our nation’s finest national security professionals.”

“Having known Michael for many years, I am truly excited to welcome him to Langley,” Ratcliffe added.

The Central Intelligence Agency was established in 1947 during the Harry Truman administration.