Drawing on senior career and political roles at the White House and the Department of Justice (DOJ) across three presidential administrations, Devin DeBacker advises clients at the intersection of national security, geopolitical risk, regulatory oversight, and complex commercial transactions and technology.
Devin’s practice spans the full range of investment- and transaction-based national security reviews and related regimes, including the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS); Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Team Telecom reviews of telecommunications infrastructure, equipment, and services; the DOJ’s Data Security Program; the Department of Commerce’s Information and Communications Technology and Services (ICTS) program and related supply-chain authorities; the Department of the Treasury’s Outbound Investment Security Program; and emerging and novel uses of economic national security tools such as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Defense Production Act (DPA).
From 2019 to 2026, Devin held senior roles in national security and international trade and investment in the White House and DOJ. As Associate Counsel and Special Assistant to the President in the first Trump Administration, he advised the President’s most senior aides and other White House and agency leaders on presidential actions, policies, agency regulations and actions, and other matters involving economic national security, including foreign investment, tariffs and other trade actions, cybersecurity and data privacy, and national-security controls on technology, manufacturing, and supply chains under IEEPA, the DPA, and other authorities. Later in the administration, he served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel, where he advised the White House, DOJ leadership, and other Executive Branch lawyers and policymakers on significant regulatory, statutory, and constitutional issues involving national security, economic and trade sanctions, telecommunications, cybersecurity, and presidential authorities.
From 2022 to 2026, Devin was the Chief of the Foreign Investment Review Section in DOJ’s National Security Division, ultimately serving as the Department’s most senior career official for transactional national security matters. In that capacity, he led the Department’s regulatory national security work involving global business, investment, trade, and technology, including in more than 1,600 CFIUS reviews and over 250 Team Telecom matters while chairing Team Telecom on behalf of the Attorney General. In addition, he oversaw compliance and enforcement for more than 200 national security agreements and multiple presidential prohibitions, including several CFIUS penalties, the first FCC penalties for Team Telecom violations, the government’s first affirmative lawsuit to enforce a Presidential divestment order, and CFIUS’s intervention in multiple bankruptcy proceedings. As the lead career DOJ national security official on broader investment and transactional matters, Devin also worked closely with other agencies in the development and implementation of emerging national security authorities, including ICTS, outbound investment rules, the Federal Acquisition Security Council, the Department of Defense’s 1260H List and Section 889 authority, the BIOSECURE Act, and the Federal Trade Commission’s Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act (PADFAA).
At the outset of the second Trump Administration, Devin also served as interim head of the National Security Division — the highest-ranking national security official at DOJ. He led the Division’s nearly 400 personnel during the presidential transition and helped shape early administration priorities on China, Iran, trade, foreign investment, sanctions, and export controls.
His government service was recognized by Justice Department leadership for his “exceptional EQ” in navigating “the policy dynamics within the Department, White House, and interagency,” as well as for his leadership in “spearheading some of the most significant policy initiatives” in national security that have shaped the regulatory landscape that businesses now face.
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