A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Michigan Law School, he joined the Department of Justice in 1990.
In December 2017, he was replaced as general counsel and reassigned to a different position within the FBI.[4] It was revealed in April 2018, that he was a recipient of at least one Comey memo.[5] In May 2018, Baker resigned from the FBI and joined the Brookings Institution as a fellow, writing for the justice-focused website, Lawfare.[6] In January 2019, Baker left Brookings to become director of national security and cybersecurity at the R Street Institute think-tank.[7]
In 1998, Baker was promoted to deputy counsel for intelligence operations. From May 2001 he served as acting counsel, and in January 2002 was appointed counsel. In January 2014, he was appointed general counsel of the FBI. As of December 2017, newly appointed director Christopher A. Wray reassigned him from this role with his new duties unclear.[4] On May 4, 2018, Baker resigned from the FBI.[6]
Private sector
Baker's government service was interrupted twice by stints in the private sector. Baker was assistant general counsel for national security at Verizon Business from 2008 to 2009.[3] He was associate general counsel with Bridgewater Associates from 2012 to 2014.[13] He worked as director of National Security and Cybersecurity for the non-partisan, right-center leaning think-tank R Street Institute between January of 2018 and June of 2020.[14][15]
Baker served as deputy general counsel at Twitter, Inc. from June 2020 to December 2022, until being fired publicly by CEO Elon Musk.[16][2] Following the disclosure of internal Twitter communications ("Twitter Files") regarding limiting the distribution of a news article concerning materials from Hunter Biden's laptop on the platform in the leadup to the 2020 presidential election, Musk expressed concerns about Baker's possible role in its suppression and his alleged interference in the publication of "Twitter Files" as reasons for his termination.[2][17][18]
In 2007, according to The Washington Post, Baker revealed that he had informed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales "about mistakes the FBI has made or problems or violations or compliance incidents" prior to Gonzales' April 2005 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee that "[t]here has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse" after 2001.[20]
In 2017, Circa reported that Baker was under a Department of Justice criminal investigation for allegedly leaking classified national security information concerning the Trump administration to the media.[21] The probe, described as "a strange interagency dispute that ... attracted the attention of senior lawmakers", reportedly "ended with a decision not to charge anyone," per The Washington Post.[4]
On May 10, 2019, Baker was interviewed for a taped Lawfare podcast, a justice-focused blog, during which he discussed his role in the FBI investigation of events during the 2016 presidential election that would be taken over by Robert S. Mueller III. Previously Baker had refrained from making public comment. He stated that he felt compelled to speak publicly now that the report is public and being characterized adversely by Trump and some members of his administration.[22]
In September 2021, Special Counsel John Durham indicted Michael Sussmann, a partner for the law firm Perkins Coie, alleging he falsely told Baker during a September 2016 meeting that he was not representing a client for their discussion. Durham alleged Sussman was actually representing "a U.S. Technology Industry Executive, a U.S. Internet Company and the Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign." Sussmann focuses on privacy and cybersecurity law and had approached Baker to discuss what then appeared to be suspicious communications between computer servers at the Russian Alfa-Bank and the Trump Organization. Sussmann had represented the Democratic National Committee regarding the Russian hacking of its computer network. Sussmann's attorneys denied he was representing the Clinton campaign and he pleaded not guilty to the charge.[23][24][25] Sussmann would later be found not guilty by a jury.[26]
Views on encryption
Baker was the FBI's general counsel during the FBI–Apple encryption dispute, and took credit for "leading" the bureau's efforts to access the suspect's iPhone.[27] During that dispute, the FBI asked Apple to create a backdoor that would allow the iPhone's passcode to be bruteforced.[28]
Baker had long supported legislation requiring encryption systems to include a means to allow access by law enforcement with a proper warrant, as a way to address a phenomenon law enforcement officers call "going dark".[27] In a published essay and press interview, Baker announced his decision to "rethink [his] prior beliefs about encryption", and "embrace [the] reality" that Congress would not pass laws mandating backdoors in consumer devices.[27][29][30] He called for the U.S. to embrace a zero trust security model, and said that "public safety officials should also become among the strongest supporters of widely available strong encryption".[27]
^Young, Rick (May 16, 2007). "PBS Frontline: 'Spying on the Home Front'". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 26, 2017. Mr. FISA himself, Mr. James Baker, the DOJ point man on FISA.