Joseph Edward Schmitz (born August 28, 1956) is an American lawyer, former inspector general of the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national sec ...

and a former executive with

Blackwater Worldwide Blackwater was an American private military company founded on December 26, 1996 by former Navy SEAL officer Erik Prince. It was renamed Xe Services in 2009 and known as Academi since 2011 after it was acquired by a group of private investors. ...

. After working as a watchdog at the Pentagon for three and a half years, Schmitz resigned to return to the private sector. Although allegations questioning his stewardship of the inspector general's office surfaced nine months after his resignation, he later claimed that a high-level review board, the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, cleared him of wrongdoing in 2006. He was named one of

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

's foreign policy advisors for his

2016 presidential campaign This national electoral calendar for 2016 lists the national/ federal elections held in 2016 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *7 January: Kiri ...

Biography

Schmitz was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of John G. Schmitz, former

California State Senator The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature, the lower house being the California State Assembly. The State Senate convenes, along with the State Assembly, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. ...

, member of the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

, and U.S. presidential candidate in 1972. Schmitz attended Catholic schools as a child, and

Georgetown Preparatory School Georgetown Preparatory School (also known as Georgetown Prep) is a Jesuit college-preparatory school in North Bethesda, Maryland for boys in ninth through twelfth grade. It has a 93-acre (380,000 square meters) campus. It is the only Jesuit boar ...

for high school, a time period in which his father also served in Congress. He holds a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

(1978) from the

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy ...

in Annapolis, Maryland, where he was on the wrestling team, and a Juris Doctor (1986) from Stanford University. His three siblings include: Mary Kay Letourneau, Jerome Schmitz, and John Schmitz. Upon graduation from the Naval Academy, Schmitz served in the U.S. Navy for approximately four years, including a stint as an exchange officer with the

German Navy The German Navy (, ) is the navy of Germany and part of the unified ''Bundeswehr'' (Federal Defense), the German Armed Forces. The German Navy was originally known as the ''Bundesmarine'' (Federal Navy) from 1956 to 1995, when ''Deutsche Mari ...

. After leaving active duty, Schmitz went to law school, and was in the Naval Reserve until 2001. He clerked with James L. Buckley, circuit judge for the D.C. Circuit Court, and was a special assistant to Attorney General

Edwin Meese III Edwin Meese III (born December 2, 1931) is an American attorney, law professor, author and member of the Republican Party who served in official capacities within the Ronald Reagan's gubernatorial administration (1967–1974), the Reagan pre ...

during the

Reagan Administration Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following a landslide victory over ...

. Schmitz entered the private sector in 1987, eventually joining the

Patton Boggs Squire Patton Boggs is an international law firm with 42 offices in 20 countries. It was formed in 2014 by the merger of multinational law firm Squire Sanders with Washington, D.C. based Patton Boggs. It is one of the 30 largest law firms in the ...

law firm in Washington, D.C. He was also an adjunct professor of law at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

in the 1990s, and founded his own firm, Joseph E. Schmitz, PLLC, in 2008. Schmitz is a member of the

Sovereign Military Order of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...

. He is a co-author of the book, ''Sharia: The Threat to America'' by the anti-Muslim

Center for Security Policy The Center for Security Policy (CSP) is a US far-right, anti-Muslim, Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The organization's founder and current president is Frank Gaffney Jr. who is known for promoting falsehoods about former U.S. President B ...

,''Sharia: The Threat To America''
Center for Security Policy
October 2010 and has been on the Advisory Board of the American Freedom Law Center, which is run by the anti-Muslim

David Yerushalmi David Yerushalmi (born 1956) is an American lawyer and political activist who is the driving counsel behind the anti-sharia movement in the United States. Along with Robert Muise, he is co-founder and senior counsel of the American Freedom Law Ce ...

. Schmitz has been described as an anti-Muslim activist and part of the

counter-jihad Counter-jihad, also spelled counterjihad and known as the counter-jihad movement, is a self-titled political current loosely consisting of authors, bloggers, think tanks, street movements and campaign organisations all linked by apocalyptic bel ...

movement by

Hope not Hate Hope not Hate (stylized as HOPE not hate) is an advocacy group based in the United Kingdom which campaigns against racism and fascism. It has also mounted campaigns against Islamic extremism and antisemitism. It is self-described as a "non-par ...

. As Inspector General, Schmitz investigated involvement of the U.S. military in the sex trade in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

, Bosnia, and

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

Inspector General of the Department of Defense

On June 18, 2001, Schmitz was nominated by President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

to act as the

Inspector General of the Department of Defense The Department of Defense Inspector General (DoDIG) is an independent, objective agency that provides oversight related to the programs and operations of the United States Department of Defense (DoD). DoD IG was created in 1982 as an amendment t ...

. His nomination was held up in the

Senate Armed Services Committee The Committee on Armed Services (sometimes abbreviated SASC for ''Senate Armed Services Committee'') is a committee of the United States Senate empowered with legislative oversight of the nation's military, including the Department of Def ...

for unknown reasons until March 21, 2002, when he was confirmed by the full Senate by

voice vote In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by responding vo ...

. One of his first actions as Inspector General was to hire controversial Republican operative L. Jean Lewis as his chief of staff."Pentagon Iraq War Intel 'Not Illegal': Questions About DoD Inspector General's Flawed Report"
Daily Kos
February 9, 2007 Various senior officials in the Defense Department stated that Schmitz had an enduring fascination with Baron

Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand von Steuben (born Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin Louis von Steuben; September 17, 1730 – November 28, 1794), also referred to as Baron von Steuben (), was a Prussian military officer who ...

, having personally redesigned the Defense Department Inspector General's seal to incorporate the Von Steuben family motto.T. Christian Miller, ''The Scrutinizer Finds Himself Under Scrutiny''
''Los Angeles Times''
September 25, 2005 Schmitz's association with the German journalist, Henning Von Steuben, the leader of the Von Steuben Family Association, attracted the criticism of Senator

Chuck Grassley Charles Ernest Grassley (born September 17, 1933) is an American politician serving as the president pro tempore emeritus of the United States Senate, and the senior United States senator from Iowa, having held the seat since 1981. In 2022, h ...

, who stated that Schmitz had "feted Von Steuben at an $800 meal allegedly paid for by public funds." In 2005, Schmitz canceled a planned $200,000 trip to Germany "to attend a ceremony at a Von Steuben statue," after Grassley questioned the expenditure.

Role in 2020 Presidential Election

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

reported that Schmitz sent a message to Representative

Jim Jordan James Daniel Jordan (born February 17, 1964) is an American politician currently serving in his ninth term in the U.S. House of Representatives as the representative for since 2007. A member of the Republican Party, he is a two-ti ...

describing the legal basis for Vice President Mike Pence to block certification of the 2020 election. On January 5, 2021, Jordan forwarded Schmitz’ message to White House Chief of Staff

Mark Meadows Mark Randall Meadows (born July 28, 1959) is an American politician who served as the 29th White House chief of staff from 2020 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as the U.S. representative for North Carolina's 11th c ...

."Jim Jordan sent one of the texts revealed by January 6 committee"

December 15, 2021

References

Literature

* Miller, T. Christian. (2006). ''Blood Money: Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed in Iraq''. New York: Little, Brown and Company. See pages 68–69. * Scahill, Jeremy. (2007). ''Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army''. New York: Nation Books. See Chapter Seventeen: "Joseph Schmitz: Christian Soldier."

External links

*
US: Pentagon's Top Watchdog Resigned Amid Claims of Stonewalling Inquiries
" T. Christian Miller,

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

, September 3, 2005 *
How Many More Mike Browns Are Out There?
" Mark Thompson,

Karen Tumulty Karen Tumulty (born December 1, 1955) is a political columnist for '' The Washington Post''. Before joining the ''Post'', Tumulty wrote for '' Time'' from October 1994 to April 2010. She was a Congressional Correspondent, as well as the National ...

, Time Magazine, October 3, 2005 *
No FBI Charges for Defense Official in Iraq Case
" T. Christian Miller, Los Angeles Times, October 15, 2005. *

" R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington Post, June 20, 2006 *
Donald Trump's Top Foreign Adviser, Joseph Schmitz, is a Former Blackwater Executive
" Democracy Now!, March 25, 2016 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schmitz, Joseph E. 1956 births Blackwater (company) people American businesspeople American critics of Islam American people of German descent American Roman Catholics Counter-jihad activists George W. Bush administration controversies Georgetown Preparatory School alumni Georgetown University faculty Knights of Malta Living people Lawyers from Milwaukee Military personnel from Milwaukee Stanford University alumni United States Department of Defense officials United States Naval Academy alumni United States Navy officers Wisconsin Republicans