Daniel J. Jones
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Daniel J. Jones is an American former
United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...
investigator who served as the senior staff lead in the investigation into the CIA's use of torture in the wake of the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
. Jones is the founder and president of Advance Democracy, Inc. (ADI), a nonpartisan, non-profit organization that conducts public interest investigations around the world that promote "accountability, transparency, and good governance", according to its description. Jones is also the founder of The Penn Quarter Group, a research and investigative advisory headquartered in Washington, DC. Jones previously worked as an investigator for the Senate and the
Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
(FBI). As a staff member of the
U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (sometimes referred to as the Intelligence Committee or SSCI) is dedicated to overseeing the United States Intelligence Community—the agencies and bureaus of the federal government of ...
, he led several prominent investigations, including the
Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture The Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program is a report compiled by the bipartisan United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) about the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)'s Detent ...
, also known as The Torture Report. Jones was a fellow at the
Carr Center for Human Rights Policy Carr Center for Human Rights Policy is a research center at Harvard Kennedy School founded in 1999. The center's scholars address issues related to human rights, including human security, global governance and civil society, economic justice, and ...
at
Harvard Kennedy School The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
from 2017 to 2019.


Early life and education

Jones is originally from
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. He earned a
Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
degree from
Elizabethtown College Elizabethtown College (informally E-town) is a private college in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. History Founding and early years Founded in 1899, Elizabethtown College is one of many higher learning institutions founded in the 19th century by ...
in
Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania Elizabethtown (Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Betzischteddel'') is a borough in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located southeast of Harrisburg, the state capital. Small factories existed at the turn of the 20th century when the popu ...
, a
Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
in teaching from
Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
in
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
, and a
Master of Public Policy The Master of Public Policy (MPP), is one of several public policy degrees. An MPP is a master's-level professional degree that provides training in policy analysis and program evaluation at public policy schools. The MPP program places a focus o ...
from
Harvard Kennedy School The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
.


Career

After college, he worked as a middle school teacher with Teach For America, an
AmeriCorps AmeriCorps (officially the Corporation for National and Community Service or CNCS) is an independent agency of the United States government that engages more than five million Americans in service through a variety of stipended volunteer work prog ...
national service program. Jones spent four years with the
Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
before joining the
United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (sometimes referred to as the Intelligence Committee or SSCI) is dedicated to overseeing the United States Intelligence Community—the agencies and bureaus of the federal government of ...
under the leadership of its then-Chairman, Senator
Jay Rockefeller John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV (born June 18, 1937) is a retired American politician who served as a United States senator from West Virginia (1985–2015). He was first elected to the Senate in 1984, while in office as governor of West Virg ...
. Jones subsequently worked for Senator
Dianne Feinstein Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein ( ; born Dianne Emiel Goldman; June 22, 1933) is an American politician who serves as the senior United States senator from California, a seat she has held since 1992. A member of the Democratic Party, she was ...
when she became chair of the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He is on the board of advocates for
Human Rights First Human Rights First (formerly known as the Lawyers Committee for International Human Rights) is a nonpartisan, 501(c)(3), international human rights organization based in New York City and Washington, D.C. In 2004, Human Rights First started its " ...
and currently leads his own research and investigative consultancy, the Penn Quarter Group, and a non-profit organization, Advance Democracy, Inc. He was a fellow at the
Carr Center for Human Rights Policy Carr Center for Human Rights Policy is a research center at Harvard Kennedy School founded in 1999. The center's scholars address issues related to human rights, including human security, global governance and civil society, economic justice, and ...
from 2017 to 2019.


Torture report

Jones was the lead investigator and author of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Committee Report of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program, the largest investigation in U.S. Senate history. According to ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
,'' Jones worked alongside Alissa Starzak, a former CIA lawyer, who then left the committee in 2011, on an initial investigation into the CIA's destruction of interrogation videotapes. Based on more than 6.3 million pages of classified documents, the investigation was described by the ''
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 Un ...
'' as the "most extensive review of U.S. intelligence-gathering tactics in generations..." Jones departed the Committee shortly after the completion of the report, and Senator
Dianne Feinstein Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein ( ; born Dianne Emiel Goldman; June 22, 1933) is an American politician who serves as the senior United States senator from California, a seat she has held since 1992. A member of the Democratic Party, she was ...
praised Jones for his "indefatigable work on the Intelligence Committee staff" upon his departure. Jones' investigative work on the
Senate Intelligence Committee The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (sometimes referred to as the Intelligence Committee or SSCI) is dedicated to overseeing the United States Intelligence Community—the agencies and bureaus of the federal government of ...
was detailed in a three-part series in ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' in September 2016. In 2019, his work was the subject of a major motion picture, '' The Report,'' where he is portrayed by
Adam Driver Adam Douglas Driver (born November 19, 1983) is an American actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including nominations for two Academy Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards and a Tony Award; making him one of few performers nominated ...
. In addition to the film, an audiobook of the Executive Summary of the Senate's Torture Report, read by the cast of the film, was released in 2019. Also a podcast featuring interviews with key individuals has been published.


Personal life

During Jones' participation in the
Americorps AmeriCorps (officially the Corporation for National and Community Service or CNCS) is an independent agency of the United States government that engages more than five million Americans in service through a variety of stipended volunteer work prog ...
program Teach For America, he was named to ''People Magazine'''s 100 most eligible bachelors.


References


External links


Biography
at
Carr Center for Human Rights Policy Carr Center for Human Rights Policy is a research center at Harvard Kennedy School founded in 1999. The center's scholars address issues related to human rights, including human security, global governance and civil society, economic justice, and ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Daniel J. Date of birth missing (living people) Living people Elizabethtown College alumni Harvard Kennedy School alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni Teach For America alumni Year of birth missing (living people)