John E. McLaughlin

McLaughlin's CIA career lasted more than 30 years, starting in 1972 with a focus on European, Russian, and Eurasian issues at the Directorate of Intelligence.

He also founded the Sherman Kent School for Intelligence Analysis, an institution dedicated to teaching the history, mission, and skills of the analytic profession to new CIA employees.

[2] President Bill Clinton designated McLaughlin as the Acting Deputy Director of Central Intelligence on June 28, 2000, and later nominated him for the position.

On January 8, 2010, Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair announced that he had appointed McLaughlin to head a group of experts to investigate the December 2009 bombing attempt by alleged terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253, and the November 2009 Fort Hood shooting, carried out by Army Maj. Nidal Hasan.

[7] In October 2020, McLaughlin signed a letter stating the Biden laptop story “has the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation[8]

McLaughlin during his tenure as Acting Director of Central Intelligence during a testimony at Senate Armed Services Committee with Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld , Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard B. Myers , and Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen A. Cambone on August 17, 2004.