Jay Lefkowitz

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Jay Lefkowitz (born 20 November 1962) is an American neoconservative politician and lawyer. He is a senior partner at the Kirkland & Ellis law firm, and he also serves as President Bush’s Special Envoy for Human Rights in North Korea. (1)

Earlier in the George W. Bush administration, Lefkowitz was general counsel in the Office of Management and Budget and later deputy director of domestic policy at the White House. He crafted Bush’s policy on stem cell research. After leaving the White House in 2003, he was twice offered West Wing jobs. (2)

He was also Director of Cabinet Affairs and Deputy Executive Secretary to the Domestic Policy Council for President George H.W. Bush. Near the end of the Cold War, Lefkowitz was active in the movement to allow Soviet Jews or “Refuseniks” to emigrate from the Soviet Union.

As envoy for North Korean human rights, Lefkowitz has referred to the North Korean government as a “criminal regime,” criticized those who provide Pyongyang with assistance, and urged that China respect the rights of North Korean refugees. (3) He has taken issue with countries that use North Korean workers and the Kaesong Industrial Complex. (4)

In the 1990s, Lefkowitz was director of the New Citizenship Project, which in turn initiated the Project for the New American Century, a conservative think-tank that was influential in the development of the Bush administration’s foreign policy.

At the State Department, Lefkowitz reports to Secretary Condoleezza Rice and is advised by neoconservative political appointee Christian Whiton. (5) According to his official State Department biography, Lefkowitz is the author of numerous essays about law, politics, and religion which have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, The Public Interest, The Jerusalem Report, Commentary and other publications. (6)

Mr. Lefkowitz is a graduate of Columbia University and Columbia Law School.