David Cohen Discusses Role of CIA in National Security

David Cohen, Deputy Director of the CIA, visited the law school on March 7, 2016. Over the course of the day Mr. Cohen spoke at two law school classes and participated in a lunchtime event open to the entire law school community. Cohen discussed the role of the CIA in the national security and intelligence communities, and described some of the agency’s more recent reform initiatives. He also spoke to a small group of students interested in national security over breakfast, where he shared insights from his career trajectory and reflections on his work at the Treasury combatting the threat posed by illicit financial networks.

Cohen began his tenure as Deputy Director of the CIA in February 2015. Previously, he served as Treasury’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, a position he was confirmed to in 2011. As Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Cohen led the Treasury Department’s policy, enforcement, regulatory, and intelligence functions that were aimed at identifying and disrupting the lines of financial support to international terrorist organizations, proliferators of weapons of mass destruction, narcotics traffickers, and other illicit actors posing a threat to our national security. He was also responsible for overseeing the Department’s efforts to combat money laundering and financial crimes.

Cohen received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1989 and his B.A., magna cum laude, from Cornell University in 1985.