Richard Grenell

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Richard Grenell

White House official portrait

United States Ambassador to Germany

In office

May 8, 2018 – June 1, 2020

President Donald Trump

Preceded by John B. Emerson

Succeeded by Robin Quinville (acting)

Acting Director of National Intelligence

In office

February 20, 2020 – May 26, 2020

President Donald Trump

Deputy Andrew P. Hallman (acting)

 Neil Wiley (acting)

Preceded by Joseph Maguire (acting)

Succeeded by John Ratcliffe

Special Presidential Envoy for

Serbia and Kosovo Peace Negotiations

In office

October 4, 2019 – January 20, 2021

President Donald Trump

Preceded by Position established

Succeeded by Position abolished

Personal details

Born September 18, 1966 (age 54)

Jenison, Michigan, U.S.

Political party Republican

Domestic partner Matt Lashey

Education Evangel University (BA)

Harvard University (MPA)

Richard Allen Grenell (born September 18, 1966) is an American diplomat, political

advisor, and media consultant who served as Acting Director of National
Intelligence in Former President Donald Trump’s Cabinet in 2020. A member of
the Republican Party, Grenell served as the United States Ambassador to
Germany from 2018 to 2020 and as the Special Presidential Envoy for Serbia and
Kosovo Peace Negotiations from 2019 to 2021.
Grenell was a U.S. State Department spokesperson to the United Nations during
the George W. Bush administration. Following his State Department tenure, he
formed Capitol Media Partners, a political consultancy; he also was a Fox News
contributor. Grenell was a foreign policy spokesperson for Mitt Romney during
his 2012 presidential campaign.[1]
 In September 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Grenell as the U.S.
Ambassador to Germany. On April 26, 2018, he was confirmed by the United States
Senate by a vote of 56 to 42.[citation needed] Grenell presented his credentials to
the President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, on May 8, 2018. [2][3][4]
Grenell was named by President Trump in 2020 as Acting Director of National
Intelligence in the Trump administration, making him the first openly gay person to
serve at a Cabinet level, albeit in an acting capacity, in the United States. He was
Acting DNI from February to May 2020.
Grenell has expressed interest in running for governor of California if a recall election
against Gavin Newsom takes place in the state in 2021.[5]

Contents

 1Early life and education

 2Career
o 2.1Minister-Counselor, State Department (2001–2008)
o 2.2Consulting, media, and campaign work (2009–2017)
o 2.3Ambassador to Germany
o 2.4Special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations
o 2.5Acting Director of National Intelligence
 2.5.1Tenure
 2.5.2Policies
o 2.6Private sector (2020–present)
 2.6.1Controversies
o 2.7Senior fellow at Carnegie Mellon University's Institute for Politics and Strategy
 3Personal life
 4Honors
 5Notes
 6References
 7External links

Early life and education[edit]

Grenell graduated with a bachelor's degree in Government and Public Administration
from Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri. He received a master's degree in
Public Administration from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of
Government.[6][7][8]

Career[edit]
Prior to his service at the State Department, Grenell was a political adviser to a
number of prominent Republicans, including George Pataki and Dave Camp.[9]
Minister-Counselor, State Department (2001–2008)[edit]

Grenell voting at a UN Security Council meeting in 2005

In 2001, Grenell was appointed by President George W. Bush as Director of

Communications and Public Diplomacy for the United States Permanent
Representative to the United Nations in New York (formally, his title was Minister
Counselor).[10] Serving in that role until 2008, Grenell advised four different U.S.
Ambassadors. During his tenure, Grenell promulgated U.S. official position and
strategy on such issues as the War on Terror, global peacekeeping operations,
nuclear proliferation, and the UN Oil for Food corruption scandal.[11]
Consulting, media, and campaign work (2009–2017)[edit]
In 2009, Grenell founded Capitol Media Partners, an international strategic media
and public affairs consultancy with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York,
and Washington, D.C.[citation needed] He was also under contract as a Fox News contributor,
commenting on foreign affairs and the media. [12][13] Grenell has written for The Wall
Street Journal,[14][15] CBS News,[16][17] CNN,[18] Politico,[19] Huffington Post,[20] The
Washington Times,[21] and Al Jazeera.[22] In 2012, CNN ranked Grenell as one of the
top five Republican consultants in social media, [23] and Time magazine named Grenell
as one of the Top 10 Political Twitter Feeds of 2014. [24]
Grenell was a foreign policy spokesperson for Republican candidate Mitt
Romney during his 2012 presidential campaign. Grenell is the first openly gay
person to work as a spokesperson for a Republican presidential candidate. [25][26]
Grenell was a signatory to a 2013 amicus curiae brief submitted to the Supreme
Court in support of same-sex marriage during the Hollingsworth v. Perry case.[27]
In 2016, Grenell's consulting firm accepted more than $100,000 from the Magyar
Foundation of North America to provide public relations support for the Hungarian
government of Viktor Orbán. Grenell did not disclose this payment under the Foreign
Agents Registration Act (FARA) prior to his work in the Trump administration.[28]
Days after Grenell's appointment as DNI, CNN reported that his personal website
had—until 2018—touted consulting work he had done for clients in Iran, China,
Kazakhstan and other countries.[29]
Ambassador to Germany[edit]
Grenell (left) with Berlin Governing Mayor Michael Müller in 2018
In September 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Grenell to become
the United States Ambassador to Germany.[30] After a significant delay,
the Senate confirmed Grenell 56–42 on April 26, 2018.[31][32] Grenell was sworn in by
Vice President Mike Pence on May 3, 2018,[33] making him the highest-ranking openly
gay Ambassador.[34] Grenell was also under consideration for the posts of U.S.
Ambassador to NATO and United States Ambassador to the United Nations.[35][36]
Grenell presented his credentials to the President of Germany on May 8, 2018.
[37]
 Within hours of taking office, Grenell offended German diplomats and business
leaders when he tweeted that "German companies doing business in Iran should
wind down operations immediately."[38] The tweet was widely perceived as a threat,
with the Foreign Minister of Luxembourg, Jean Asselborn, commenting that "This
man was accredited as ambassador only yesterday. To give German businesses
such orders … that’s just not how you can treat your allies.” [39] The leader of
Germany's Social Democratic Party stated that Grenell "does appear to need some
tutoring" in the "fine art of diplomacy", while the Left Party urged the Merkel
government to summon Grenell to explain his comments. [39]
Grenell stirred controversy in June 2018 by telling Breitbart News, "I absolutely want
to empower other conservatives throughout Europe, other leaders." [40] This comment
was described as a breach of diplomatic protocol and a breach of Article 14 of
the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which requires ambassadors to be
politically neutral in the domestic politics of the countries where they serve. [2]
[40]
 Prominent German politicians called for Grenell's dismissal. [41][42][43][44] Martin Schulz,
former leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, said, "What this man is
doing is unheard of in international diplomacy. If a German ambassador were to say
in Washington that he is there to boost the Democrats, he would have been kicked
out immediately."[41]

Ambassador photo

Grenell was a regular contributor on Fox News's Tucker Carlson Tonight during the

first few months of his ambassadorship in Germany. In November 2018, he
appeared on the show and repeated his criticism of Angela Merkel's immigration
policies. Grenell compared Merkel unfavorably to the recently elected Chancellor of
Austria Sebastian Kurz, who (according to Grenell) "won in a very big way" because
of his strict stance on immigration. The magazine Der Spiegel called these remarks a
"thinly veiled call for a change of government in Berlin". [2] Grenell's perceived
interference in German politics drew criticism from several high-ranking German
politicians. In March 2019, Wolfgang Kubicki, Vice President of the Bundestag and
deputy chairman of the Free Democratic Party, charged Grenell with acting "like a
high commissioner of an occupying power" and called for Grenell to be expelled from
Germany.[45][46]
In December 2018, during the affair surrounding Der Spiegel journalist Claas
Relotius, Grenell wrote to the magazine, complained about an anti-American
institutional bias, and asked for an independent investigation. [47][48][49] In January 2019,
Grenell told Handelsblatt that European companies participating in the construction
of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline are "always in danger, because sanctions are
always possible". U.S. administrations had long opposed the Russian-backed Nord
Stream 2, a pipeline for delivering natural gas from Russia to Germany.[50] Grenell
also threatened to sanction German companies involved in the construction of the
Nord Stream 2.[51]
Der Spiegel published a profile of Grenell on January 11, 2019, using interviews with
30 “American and German diplomats, cabinet members, lawmakers, high-ranking
officials, lobbyists and think tank experts". The magazine wrote that "almost all of
these sources paint an unflattering portrait of the ambassador, one remarkably
similar to Donald Trump, the man who sent him to Berlin. A majority of them describe
Grenell as a vain, narcissistic person who dishes out aggressively, but can barely
handle criticism." The profile claimed that Grenell was politically isolated in Berlin
because of his alleged association with the far-right Alternative for Germany Party,
causing the leaders of the mainstream German parties—including the Chancellor
herself—to avoid contact with him; while Grenell had pressed German
parliamentarians to invite him to their districts, most had declined. [2] The sources
claimed that Grenell knew little "about Germany and Europe, that he ignores most of
the dossiers his colleagues at the embassy write for him, and that his knowledge of
the subject matter is superficial".[2][52]
In the fall of 2018, Grenell played a key diplomatic role in planning the arrest of
Julian Assange by providing backchannel assurances to Ecuador that Assange
would not face the death penalty in the United States.[53] In February 2019, it was
announced that Grenell was leading the Trump administration's newly formed effort
to promote the decriminalization of homosexuality in nations in which homosexuality
was illegal.[54] In January 2020, Lev Parnas told The Daily Beast that he was told to
ask Grenell for advance notice if the DOJ were to move to extradite indicted
Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash.[55][56] Among other actions as ambassador, Grenell
pressured Germany to take a tougher stance against Iran and Hezbollah.[57]
Following his appointment as Acting Director of National Intelligence, Grenell has
said he would resign as ambassador once a full-time DNI was confirmed. [58][59][60] On
May 25, 2020, after John Ratcliffe was confirmed, Grenell confirmed he would resign
as ambassador in the coming weeks.[61][62][63] He formally resigned on June 1, 2020.[64][65]
[66]
Special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace
negotiations[edit]

Milun Trivunac, State Secretary of the Ministry of Economy of Serbia (sitting left),

Richard Grenell, Special US Presidential Envoy for Serbia and Kosovo Peace Negotiations (standing right),
Eset Berisha, Director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Kosovo (sitting right)

In October 2019, Trump named Grenell a special envoy for Serbia and Kosovo
peace negotiations.[67] He continued serving part-time as special envoy after his
resignation as ambassador, working from the White House. [68][69][70] After months of
diplomatic talks, on January 20, 2020, Grenell facilitated negotiations between
Serbia and Kosovo[a] where the two nations agreed to restore flights between their
capitals for the first time in more than two decades. [71][72] A June 27, 2020 peace
summit between the two sides was arranged to take place in Washington D.C., but
was canceled due to the potential indictment of Hashim Thaçi on war crimes.[73][74]
Grenell organized a new summit, located at the White House, for September 3 and
4, 2020. Grenell, along with his friend Robert C. O'Brien, cohosted the talks. On
September 4, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Kosovo Prime
Minister Avdullah Hoti signed the Kosovo and Serbia economic agreements.[75][76] The
signing ceremony took place in the Oval Office at the White House in the presence
of US President Donald Trump on September 4, 2020.[76] In September 2020 Grenell
traveled to Kosovo to receive the Presidential Medal of Merits from President Thaçi.
His tenure ended with the Trump presidency.