David Priess
Twitter: @DavidPriess Bluesky: @davidpriess.bsky.social
Dr. David Priess is a writer and speaker on intelligence and national security, Global Head of Training & Education for Emergent Risk International, and a senior fellow at the Schar School’s Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security.
Priess served at the CIA as an intelligence officer, a manager, and a daily intelligence briefer during the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. During the Bush administration, he personally delivered the President’s Daily Brief for more than a year to Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller and occasionally into the White House. He has previously been a visiting professor at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, the Publisher of Lawfare and Chief Operating Officer of the Lawfare Institute, and a trainer of senior intelligence officers and managers.
He has written two books about the US presidency. The first, The President’s Book of Secrets, relates how US intelligence officials brief the commander in chief on the most sensitive information in the world. For this, he became the first author to interview, for one book, every living former President, Vice President, and CIA director from previous administrations. His second book is How To Get Rid of a President: History’s Guide To Removing Unpopular, Unable, or Unfit Chief Executives. Covering American political history from the Constitutional Convention through the election of Donald Trump, it stands as the definitive survey of how presidents have left office.
Priess has appeared often in broadcast media like CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, the BCC, and NPR to discuss the presidency, national security, and intelligence issues. He has written for outlets including the Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, War on the Rocks, Lawfare, the Daily Beast, Politico, the Cipher Brief, The Bulwark, and the Houston Chronicle.
He holds a BA from Illinois Wesleyan University and an MA and a PhD in political science from Duke University.
John Sipher
Bluesky: @johnsipher.bsky.social
John Sipher is a former CIA senior operations officer who served 28 years at the Agency and is a senior fellow at the Schar School’s Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and the co-founder of Spycraft Entertainment, a production firm providing content and talent to the entertainment industry.
Sipher is a foreign policy, intelligence, and national security expert. His articles have been published in the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, Politico, Foreign Affairs, Newsweek, Slate, Lawfare, and Just Security, among others. He regularly appears on the PBS NewsHour, CNN, NPR, MSNBC, BBC and speaks to corporate, academic, and governmental groups. He serves as a senior adviser to the Lincoln Project, the Steady State, and the Council on American Security.
In 2014, Sipher retired from a 28-year career at the Central Intelligence Agency’s National Clandestine Service. At the time of his retirement, he was a member of the CIA’s Senior Intelligence Service, the leadership team that guides CIA activities globally. Sipher served multiple overseas tours as chief of station and deputy chief of station in Europe, Asia, and in high-threat environments. He has significant experience working with foreign and domestic partners to solve national security challenges. Sipher also served as a lead instructor in the CIA’s clandestine training school and was a regular lecturer at the CIA’s leadership development program. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal.
Sipher is from Cortland, New York, and graduated from Hobart College and has a Master’s in international affairs from Columbia University.