Michael Ellis (Trump administration official)


Michael Ellis was the Senior Associate Counsel to the President and Deputy Legal Advisor to the National Security Council. In March 2020 Ellis was appointed Senior Director for Intelligence on the NSC.

Early life

Ellis received a B.S. from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

Trump Tower wiretapping allegations

On March 29, 2017, The New York Times reported that Ellis and Ezra Cohen-Watnick were involved in the leaking of intelligence documents to Representative Devin Nunes, chair of the House Intelligence Committee. The following day, The Washington Post reported that John Eisenberg was also involved. In April 2017 the Associated Press quoted a U.S. official as saying that although Cohen-Watnick had access to those kinds of intelligence materials, he did not play a role in helping Nunes gain access to the documents. The official instead suggested that Ellis had shared the documents. According to the U.S. official, Cohen-Watnick was not involved in showing the material to Nunes, did not clear Nunes onto the White House grounds, did not review the material with Nunes, and was not even aware that the material was going to be shared with Chairman Nunes.