Michael Ellis (born 1984/1985)[1] is an American attorney, Republican political operative,[2] and former government official who has served as the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency since 2025.

[3] He worked as a legal advisor to the National Security Council and was later appointed as Senior Director for Intelligence for the agency.

NSA director Paul Nakasone opposed the appointment, but was ordered by acting defense secretary Christopher Miller to install Ellis to the position.

[7] Ellis attended Dartmouth College[8] where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2006 and graduated summa cum laude.

[10] Ellis clerked for Judge Amul Thapar of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky and Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals,[16][11] and later served as counsel to Mike Rogers from 2013 to 2015 [9] and Devin Nunes and the Republican majority on the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence from 2015 to 2017.

[19] In 2017, Ellis became the deputy legal advisor to the National Security Council (NSC) and the senior associate counsel to President Trump.

[22][23] The same year, he was assigned to further review the manuscript for The Room Where It Happened, a memoir written by former national security advisor John Bolton.

[18] Senators Mark Warner and Jack Reed requested that the Pentagon's acting inspector general conduct an investigation into the appointment.

[37][38] Nonetheless, on the required day, NSA announced that "Mr. Ellis accepted his final job offer yesterday afternoon.

[42] In May 2021, Ellis became a visiting fellow for law and technology with The Heritage Foundation's Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.