Lisa Monaco, 57, has discovered herself on the heart of a political firestorm after President Donald Trump demanded Microsoft fireplace her from her position as president of worldwide affairs, calling her “a menace to U.S. Nationwide Safety” in a Reality Social put up on Friday.
“Corrupt and Completely Trump Deranged Lisa Monaco (A purported pawn of Authorized Light-weight Andrew Weissmann), was a senior Nationwide Safety aide below Barack Hussein Obama,” Trump wrote. “Monaco has been shockingly employed because the President of World Affairs for Microsoft, in a really senior position with entry to Extremely Delicate Data. Monaco’s having that sort of entry is unacceptable, and can’t be allowed to face.”
Microsoft has declined to touch upon Trump’s calls for.
The Harvard-educated former deputy legal professional common now faces Trump’s public strain marketing campaign in opposition to former Biden administration officers who’ve moved into company management roles.
A profession in authorities service
Monaco joined Microsoft in July to be the corporate’s president of worldwide affairs, main the corporate’s interactions with overseas governments, based on her LinkedIn profile. The appointment got here after a distinguished profession spanning greater than twenty years in authorities service, together with senior roles in each the Obama and Biden administrations.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 25, 1968, Monaco graduated from Harvard College in 1990 with excessive honors in American historical past and literature. She earned her regulation diploma from the College of Chicago Legislation College in 1997, the place she served as editor-in-chief of the College of Chicago Legislation College Roundtable. Her early profession included work as a researcher for The Wilson Quarterly and a task coordinating analysis for the Senate Judiciary Committee below then-Chairman Joe Biden, contributing to the Violence Towards Girls Act.
Monaco’s authorities profession started with a clerkship for Decide Jane Richards Roth on the U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the Third Circuit, adopted by service as counsel to Legal professional Common Janet Reno from 1998 to 2001. She spent 15 years on the Division of Justice, serving as a federal prosecutor and in senior administration positions, together with chief of workers to FBI Director Robert Mueller after the September 11 assaults.
Below President Obama, Monaco served as assistant legal professional common for the nationwide safety division from 2011 to 2013, changing into the primary girl to carry that place. She then moved to the White Home as assistant to the president for homeland safety and counterterrorism from 2013 to 2017, the place she coordinated the federal authorities’s response to cybersecurity threats, terrorism, and different nationwide safety challenges.
Key position in Trump investigations
Throughout the Biden administration, Monaco served as deputy legal professional common, the second-highest place within the Justice Division, from 2021 to the start of 2025. On this position, she grew to become a central determine in a number of high-profile investigations that straight concerned Trump, making her a selected goal of his ire.
Monaco helped coordinate the Justice Division’s response to the January sixth assaults on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters in 2021. In January 2022, Monaco publicly introduced that the Justice Division was investigating the Trump faux electors plot, saying in a CNN interview that the division would pursue the matter.
Her involvement prolonged to the Election Threats Process Drive, which Legal professional Common Merrick Garland established to fight threats in opposition to election employees. Monaco frequently participated in process pressure conferences alongside FBI Director Christopher Wray and different senior officers, working to handle what prosecutors described as an unprecedented rise in violent threats in opposition to election directors.
Monaco additionally performed a supervisory position in the course of the particular counsel investigations led by Jack Smith, who was appointed in November 2022 to research Trump’s dealing with of labeled paperwork and his alleged makes an attempt to overturn the 2020 election. As deputy legal professional common, Monaco would have been concerned in overseeing these politically delicate instances, although she maintained that every one selections have been made independently of political affect.
Company transition and Trump’s response
Between her authorities stints, Monaco labored within the personal sector as a CNN nationwide safety analyst and later as a companion at worldwide regulation agency O’Melveny & Myers, the place she co-chaired the agency’s information safety and privateness group. She suggested high-profile purchasers together with ExxonMobil and Apple, whereas additionally instructing at NYU Legislation College.
Trump’s objections to Monaco’s Microsoft position heart on her entry to what he termed “Extremely Delicate Data” given the corporate’s in depth authorities contracts. Microsoft has vital relationships with the federal authorities, together with a current settlement with the Common Companies Administration that might present $3.1 billion in financial savings on cloud companies over one yr.
The controversy emerged after Fox Enterprise anchor Maria Bartiromo highlighted Monaco’s Microsoft appointment on X Friday morning, suggesting Trump might have solely just lately change into conscious of her company position.
In his Reality Social put up, Trump wrote: “It’s my opinion that Microsoft ought to instantly terminate the employment of Lisa Monaco.” He claimed the U.S. authorities had just lately stripped Monaco of safety clearances and banned her from federal properties, although these actions seem associated to his broader revocation of clearances for former Biden administration officers. The controversy round Monaco got here simply someday after the Justice Division indicted former FBI Director James Comey.
For this story, Fortune used generative AI to assist with an preliminary draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the knowledge earlier than publishing.
