He worked in private practice at the law firm O'Melveny & Myers, specializing in international and appellate litigation.
[2] In late 2009 the New York Post and the Washington Times started to criticize the Obama Presidency for its employment of lawyers who had helped provide legal assistance to Guantanamo captives.
[6][7][8][9] On May 24, 2010, the Vancouver Sun reported that the Canwest News Service had recently learned that there was internal controversy within the Obama administration over new rules for conducting Guantanamo military commissions.
Edwards also noted that OLC employed two lawyers including Thompson, who had been dubbed members of the "Al Qaeda 7" because they had worked on behalf of terrorism suspects prior to joining the government.
[10] In July 2015, Thompson signed a legal opinion regarding the Department of Justice Inspector General's access to certain narrow classes of information protected by the Federal Wiretap Act, Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e) (which deals with grand jury matters), and section 626 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
To date no documents have been ultimately denied but the OIG has complained that the need to comply with the terms of these laws is contrary to the letter and the spirit of the IG Act and has delayed the issuance of reports critical of the Justice Department.