Robert O’Brien: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

Robert C. O’Brien is a hostage negotiator, lawyer and diplomat who has been picked by President Donald Trump to be his fourth national security adviser, replacing John Bolton in the White House position. Trump announced his selection of O’Brien in a tweet on September 18, and later met with O’Brien on Air Force One while in Los Angeles.

“I am pleased to announce that I will name Robert C. O’Brien, currently serving as the very successful Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs at the State Department, as our new National Security Advisor,” Trump tweeted. “I have worked long & hard with Robert. He will do a great job!”

Standing next to Trump at Los Angeles International Airport, O’Brien told reporters, “It’s a privilege to serve with the President. We look forward to another year and a half of peace through strength. We’ve had tremendous foreign policy successes under President Trump’s leadership. I expect those to continue.”

Trump’s selection of O’Brien came a week after Bolton left the White House. The national security adviser position does not require Senate confirmation. Trump’s first national security adviser was Lt. General Michael Flynn, who resigned before eventually pleading guilty to lying to the FBI during the Russia investigation. Lt. General Henry McMaster replaced Flynn, before eventually being replaced himself by Bolton.

Here’s what you need to know about Robert O’Brien:

1. President Trump Says Robert O’Brien Is ‘Very Talented’ & ‘Fantastic’ & O’Brien Has Praised Trump in the Past, Calling Him the ‘Greatest Hostage Negotiator in History’

President Donald Trump waves next to new national security advisor Robert O’Brien on September 18, 2019 at Los Angeles International Airport.

President Trump praised Robert O’Brien while standing alongside him at LAX on September 18. “Mr. O’Brien is highly respected. He was highly respected by so many people that I didn’t even know really knew him,” Trump told reporters. “He did a tremendous job on hostage negotiation. Really tremendous. Like, unparalleled. We’ve had tremendous success in that regard, brought home many people. And through hostage negotiation I got to know him very well myself but also a lot of people that I respect rated him as their absolute number one choice. So you know I think we have a very good chemistry together and I think we’re going to have a great relationship. He is a very talented man.”

O’Brien has praised Trump in the past, which Trump pointed out to reporters on Air Force One.

“Robert O’Brien said, ‘Trump is the greatest hostage negotiator in history.’ He happens to be right,” Trump told reporters. “We are 38-0. 38-0, ask Robert. In fact, I had never heard the term. Robert O’Brien said Donald Trump is the greatest hostage negotiator of all time. 38-0. At the time he said it we were 29-0. We are 38-0.”

O’Brien also praised Trump during a March 2019 Oval Office meeting, telling him, “This wouldn’t happen with all of these hostages and detainees without the support of the President. The President has had unparalleled success in bringing Americans home without paying concessions.”

In December 2016, following Trump’s election victory, O’Brien wrote a column hailing his success in diplomacy before he was even inaugurated. The opinion piece in National Interest was titled “Trump Just Keeps Winning: America’s Allies Are Boosting Defense Spending.”

O’Brien wrote, “We may be witnessing the most impressive presidential transition from a national-security standpoint in history. Wait until Secretary of Defense Mattis and America’s secretary of state and NATO ambassador start hammering this message home to our allies. The message will have added impact, because Trump has promised to rebuild America’s military and return the United States to a posture of peace through strength. If the United States is making such a sacrifice, you can bet that President Trump will expect a similar effort by our friends in what has sadly become a very dangerous world.”

2. O’Brien Was Sent to Sweden to Help Free Rapper A$AP Rocky

Robert C. O’Brien, special envoy sent by Donald Trump, arrives at the courthouse during the third day of the A$AP Rocky assault trial at the Stockholm city courthouse on August 2, 2019 in Stockholm, Sweden.

In March 2018, the Trump administration tabbed O’Brien to be its special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, a State Department role, and was given the rank of ambassador in 2019.

One of O’Brien’s most high-profile assignments during his time in that position came when Trump sent him to Sweden to help free rapper A$AP Rocky. The music star was accused of assault, along with two members of his entourage, after an altercation with a 19-year-old man. A$AP Rocky and the other two men were held in jail in Sweden while awaiting trial and Trump publicly called for their release.

According to The Washington Post, O’Brien was in Stockholm “on a mission for POTUS.”

O’Brien also sent a letter to Swedish officials saying there could be “negative consequences” relating to the relationship between the two countries if the case was not handled properly. The letter was leaked to CNN and published in August.

The rapper was eventually found guilty in the case, but was not sentenced to any additional jail time.

According to The Washington Post, O’Brien also helped secure the release of Pastor Andrew Brunson from Turkey and several other Americans held in Afghanistan, Libya and Yemen.

3. O’Brien Is a Los Angeles Native Who Attended UCLA & Berkeley Law Before Working as a Private Lawyer & Eventually Starting His Own Firm

Robert O’Brien.

Robert O’Brien was born in Los Angeles and graduated from Cardinal Newman High School in Santa Rosa, California. He then attended UCLA, graduating in 1988 with a political science degree. While at UCLA, O’Brien spent a year studying at the University of the Free State in South Africa as a Rotary Foundation Scholar and he is fluent in Afrikaans.

O’Brien completed his law degree at the University of California Berkeley in 1991. O’Brien clerked for federal Judge J.P. Vukasin on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in 1990. After law school, he was hired as an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP & Affiliates in Los Angeles, where he worked for five years.

In 1999, O’Brien was the managing partner of O’Brien Abeles LLP in Los Angeles. From 2007 to 2016, he was the managing partner at Arent Fox. He formed a new firm, Larson O’Brien LLP with former federal judge Stephen Larson in January 2016.

He wrote on Linkedin about the firm:

His practice focuses on complex litigation and domestic and international arbitration. He has expertise in entertainment, intellectual property, oil and gas, contract and business tort matters. Robert has tried numerous cases to verdict in state and federal courts in both jury and bench trials as well as in domestic and international arbitral proceedings. In addition, he has been appointed chair and wing arbitrator in over 25 domestic and international arbitrations. Robert has been a federal court-appointed discovery master in several of the largest recent cases in the Central District of California, including MGA v. Mattel (“Barbie v. Bratz”) and United States v. Standard & Poors. He has been named one of the top 100 lawyers in California by the Daily Journal.

According to his law firm’s website, “Since founding Larson O’Brien, Mr. O’Brien has served as lead trial and appellate counsel, defending class action lawsuits alleging unfair business practices, American Disabilities Act (ADA) and Proposition 65 claims for corporate clients including F. Korbel & Brothers, IBM subsidiary, Seterus, and Hobby Lobby.”

The website adds, “Mr. O’Brien has represented A-list celebrities, producers, and national figures, including astronaut Buzz Aldrin and the estates of astronauts Pete Conrad and Jim Irwin, in right of publicity, privacy, and defamation disputes, to protect his clients’ reputations and intellectual property right.”

4. He served in the Army Reserve JAG Corps & as a Diplomat in President George W. Bush’s Adminstration

Robert C. O’Brien.

Along with his career in private law practice, O’Brien has several years of public service on his resume. He served in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG) from 1992 to 2005, rising to the rank of major.

From 1996 to 1998 he worked for the United Nations Security Council in its government claims section:

Robert lead a multinational team of legal officers, loss adjusters and accountants in the UNCC’s government claims (“F”) section and was responsible for the Secretariat’s review and processing of billions of dollars in claims resulting from Iraq’s 1990-91 invasion and occupation of Kuwait. He served as the legal advisor to the three-member F1 Panel of Commissioners, which developed the legal framework and held the proceedings to decide the precedent-setting government claims; Robert lead a UN fact-finding mission to Kuwait; and, met regularly with government delegations regarding claims and UNCC procedural and legal matters.

According to his law firm’s website, “He was the U.S. Alternate Representative to the 60th session of the United Nations General Assembly, which met in New York from 2005 through 2006. In 2008, Mr. O’Brien was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve a three-year term on the Cultural Property Advisory Committee, which advises the U.S. Government on the Convention on the Cultural Property Implementation Act. He was the founding Co-Chairman of the Department of State Public-Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan from 2007 to 2011, and served under both Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

According to The Washington Post, O’Brien will be the highest-ranking Mormon in the U.S. government. He converted from Catholicism in his 20s, the newspaper reports.

5. O’Brien Has Been an Adviser to the Presidential Campaigns of Mitt Romney, Ted Cruz & Scott Walker

Robert O’Brien.

O’Brien served as a national security adviser to the presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney, Ted Cruz and Scott Walker.

According to his law firm’s website, “His articles on international law, the right of publicity, and civil procedure have been published in leading law reviews and journals. His essays and editorials on foreign policy and national security regularly appear in national publications. In 2016, he authored While America Slept: Restoring American Leadership to a World in Crisis. Since 2016, the Los Angeles Business Journal named Mr. O’Brien one of the 500 most influential people in Los Angeles.”

Romney tweeted, “Congratulations to my friend Robert O’Brien, who the President has appointed to serve as National Security Advisor. As the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, he has doggedly pursued the release of American hostages abroad. He is a man of the highest integrity.”

Richard Grenell, the U.S. Ambassador to Germany, who was also considered a possible successor to Bolton as national security adviser, tweeted, “Amazing and perfect choice. No one better. Thoughtful, tough, experienced and a true supporter of
@realDonaldTrump. And one of my closest friends in life.”

A source in the Trump administration told The Washington Post that O’Brien is the “safest option” who will bring little “drama.” The source told the newspaper, “He gets along with everybody. He’s the nicest guy on the planet.”

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