Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Robert O\u2019Brien, who was former President Donald Trump\u2019s last national security advisor, is rejoining the law firm he co-founded in Los Angeles, according to a person familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien recently moved back to LA and is returning to Larson LLP, a litigation firm, with around 30 lawyers, that he started in 2016 with former federal judge Stephen G. Larson. O\u2019Brien will be Of Counsel to the firm and will have an international practice on arbitration. Last month, the Nixon Foundation announced that O\u2019Brien would co-chair its foundation\u2019s monthly foreign policy seminar with former Secretaries of State Mike Pompeo and Henry Kissinger.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien, who arguably had the lowest public profile of Trump\u2019s four national security advisors, prioritized focusing on America\u2019s geostrategic competition with China and also worked on the Abraham Accords and economic normalization between Serbia and Kosovo, among other foreign policy issues. <\/b>A fierce advocate on television for Trump\u2019s policies, he also downsized the NSC\u2019s staff. He also drew negative attention in two inspector general complaints filed by whistleblowers.<\/p>\n
According to Bob Woodward\u2019s book \u201cRage,\u201d O\u2019Brien, who tested positive for Covid-19 last summer, told Trump in late January of 2020 that the coronavirus \u201cwill be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency,\u201d a warning that Trump didn\u2019t seem to take as seriously since he spent much of the next year dismissing the impact of the virus. <\/p>\n
Before joining the White House, O’Brien was the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs at the State Department and helped free dozens of Americans detained abroad. According to a former law firm bio online<\/a>, he also continued working at his law firm at the same time, only leaving the firm when he became national security advisor. <\/b>(Such work was allowed in his status as a special government employee.)<\/p>\n