Protecting American innovation: The Department of Justice’s China Initiative

Join the USC U.S.-China Institute for a conversation with U.S. Assistant Attorney General John Demers, who became Assistant Attorney General for National Security in February 2018. In that capacity, he leads the Department of Justice’s efforts to combat national security-related cyber-crime, terrorism and espionage, to enforce export control and sanctions laws, to use the authorities of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and to conduct national security review of foreign investments.  In November 2018, John was selected to lead the Attorney General’s China Initiative, put in place to counter the Peoples Republic of China’s persistent and aggressive economic espionage, trade secret theft, hacking and other related crimes.

Prior to rejoining the Department, John was Vice President and Assistant General Counsel at The Boeing Company, where he held several senior positions including in Boeing Defense, Space, and Security and as lead lawyer and head of international government affairs for Boeing International.

From 2006 to 2009, John served on the first leadership team of the National Security Division, first as Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General and then as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Law & Policy.  In addition, he has served in the Office of Legal Counsel and the Office of the Deputy Attorney General.  From 2010 to 2017, he taught national security law as an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center.  John worked in private practice in Boston and clerked for Associate Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He graduated from Harvard Law School and the College of the Holy Cross.

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