The title senior administration official is a term used by the
American press to indicate the identity of a source while
retaining his or her anonymity. As the title is subjective, the reporter writing the article is allowed to decide if a source should be called one. Most reporters require the source to have "commissioned status". These include any Assistant to the President, Deputy Assistant to the President, and Special Assistant to the President (all of these people are members of the
Executive Office of the President
The Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP) comprises the offices and agencies that support the work of the president at the center of the executive branch of the United States federal government. The office consists o ...
). However, senior administration officials almost always have the rank of Assistant. Other people that can be classified using this title include the
Vice President
A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...
and Cabinet secretaries (occasionally deputies and undersecretaries as well). Sometimes officials request that they be identified using other titles to prevent anybody from determining their true identity.
Examples
*
Scooter Libby
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby (first name generally given as Irv, Irve or Irving; born August 22, 1950) is an American lawyer and former chief of staff to Vice President of the United States, Vice President Dick Cheney known for his high-profile indic ...
, former chief of staff to Vice President
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American former politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He has been called vice presidency o ...
, was referred to as a "former Hill staffer" by ''New York Times'' reporter
Judith Miller
Judith Miller (born January 2, 1948) is an American journalist and commentator who is known for writing about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program both before and after the 2003 invasion, but her writings were later discov ...
. The use of high-ranking, anonymous sources caused numerous scandals for the George W. Bush administration, most notably the
Plame Affair.
*On September 5, 2018, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' published an op-ed essay by an unnamed "senior official in the
Trump administration," who claimed to be part of "a quiet resistance within the administration of people choosing to put country first." The author was revealed on October 28, 2020 to be
Miles Taylor, who had served as chief of staff for Department of Homeland Security Secretary
Kirstjen Nielsen
Kirstjen Michele Nielsen (; born May 14, 1972) is an American attorney who served as United States Secretary of Homeland Security from 2017 to 2019. She is a former White House Deputy Chief of Staff, principal White House deputy chief of staff ...
.
See also
*
Cabinet of the United States
The Cabinet of the United States is the principal official advisory body to the president of the United States. The Cabinet generally meets with the president in Cabinet Room (White House), a room adjacent to the Oval Office in the West Wing of ...
References
External links
What's a Senior Administration Official? a November 18, 2005 article from ''
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...
''
{{Portal bar, Journalism, Politics, United States
Political terminology of the United States