David Spears Addington (born January 22, 1957) is an American lawyer who was legal counsel (2001–2005) and chief of staff (2005–2009) to Vice President Dick Cheney.

[6] During 21 years of U.S. government service, Addington worked at the Central Intelligence Agency, the Reagan White House, the Department of Defense, four congressional committees, and in the Office of the Vice President.

In this role, the elder Addington, who was promoted to brigadier general in 1965, was responsible for U.S. training and security assistance programs for the Armed Forces of Saudi Arabia.

Books and news articles have said that he was one of the principal authors of a controversial minority report issued at the conclusion of the joint committee's investigation,[17][18] which "defended President Reagan by claiming it was 'unconstitutional for Congress to pass laws intruding' on the 'commander in chief.

[9] Addington's influence strongly reflects his hawkish views on US foreign policy, a position he had apparently already committed to as a teenager during the late phase of the Vietnam War in the early 1970s.

[10] In his House Judiciary Committee testimony, Addington said that he applied three filters in formulating advice on the War on Terror: (i) comply with the Constitution, (ii) within the law, maximize the President's options, and (iii) ensure legal protection of military and intelligence personnel engaged in counterterrorism activities.

"[33] US Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as Colin Powell's chief of staff when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—at the same time Addington was Cheney's personal counsel as Secretary of Defense—and then later when Powell was Secretary of State, stated in an in-depth interview regarding extraordinary measures taken post 9/11: "The man who, to me, brings all of this together more than Cheney himself, because he has one foot in the legal camp—and I must admit it's a fairly brilliant foot—and he has one foot in the operator camp, that's David Addington.

"[34] Press reports also state that Addington reportedly took a leading role in pressing for the use of torture (so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques") for interrogations when a delegation of top Bush administration attorneys traveled to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in September 2002 to observe operations there,[35] although Addington said that he could not recall this in his sworn House Judiciary Committee testimony.

[37] Shortly after September 26, 2002, a Gulfstream jet carrying Addington, Alberto Gonzales, CIA attorney John A. Rizzo, William Haynes II, two Justice Department lawyers, Alice S. Fisher and Patrick F. Philbin, and the Office of Legal Counsel's Jack Goldsmith flew to Camp Delta to view the facility that held enemy combatants, including Mohammed al-Qahtani, then to Charleston, South Carolina, to view the facility that held enemy combatants, including José Padilla, and finally to Norfolk, Virginia, where they briefly viewed an enemy combatant on a videoscreen display.

[43][44][45] Former Secretary of State Colin Powell is alleged to have remarked in private, regarding who was responsible for the NSA wiretapping of U.S. citizens without a warrant: "It's Addington," and further, that "he doesn't care about the Constitution.

"[39]: 88  Michael Kirk, director of the PBS Frontline documentary United States of Secrets, also claims that Addington was responsible for authorizing the NSA's mass surveillance program in his capacity as Vice President Dick Cheney's attorney.

This deep and eager interest in the CO-OP was reported by the New Yorker[10] to extend to drills where Cheney spent his nights in a bunker, perhaps that "secure undisclosed location" which he was said to occupy following 9/11.

[20]: 44–45  In a June 26, 2007 letter to Senator John Kerry, Addington asserted that by virtue of Executive Order 12958 as amended in 2003, the Office of the Vice President was exempt from oversight by the National Archives' Information Security Oversight Office for its handling of classified materials,[47] which President George W. Bush confirmed to be the correct interpretation of his revised order.

[55] A PBS Frontline documentary "Cheney's Law" broadcast on October 16, 2007, detailed Addington's key role in Bush administration policy making, and noted that he declined to be interviewed regarding his thoughts on the limits of executive privilege.

[56] On June 26, 2008, Addington appeared to testify under subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee along with former Justice Department attorney John Yoo in a contentious hearing on detainee treatment, interrogation methods and the extent of executive branch authority.

[61][20] Human Rights Watch and The New York Times editorial board have called for the investigation and prosecution of Addington "for conspiracy to torture as well as other crimes.

[67] On April 13, 2013, Addington was on a list released by the Russian Federation of Americans banned from entering the country over their alleged human rights violations.