Ezra Cohen-Watnick

In May 2020, Cohen-Watnick was appointed as deputy assistant secretary of defense for counternarcotics and global threats.

In April 2018, he rejoined the Trump administration in the Department of Justice, advising Attorney General Sessions on counterterrorism and counterintelligence.

Cohen-Watnick underwent training at Camp Peary (commonly known as "The Farm"), where he was trained by the Central Intelligence Agency. He was assigned to Afghanistan, with a GS-13 rank. He was temporarily assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency Headquarters in 2014. Cohen-Watnick left the DIA for the NSC on 20 January 2017.

Cohen-Watnick was brought into the United States National Security Council by Michael T. Flynn, the former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and President Donald Trump's first National Security Advisor. He was named the NSC's Senior Director for Intelligence Programs. This directorship was intermittently held by detailed CIA officers. Like Cohen-Watnick, the immediate preceding Senior Director from the Obama Administration was a political appointee. Some viewed Cohen-Watnick's appointment as a sign of Trump's mistrust of the CIA. Following Flynn's resignation in February 2017, the new National Security Advisor, H. R. McMaster, attempted to remove Cohen-Watnick, but he was overruled by Trump. McMaster attempted to replace Cohen-Watnick with CIA official Linda Weissgold, the author of the infamous Benghazi talking points and member of the "Benghazi dream team", a group of intelligence community analysts assembled to counter the Congressional investigation into the Benghazi Affair.

It is alleged that Cohen-Watnick inadvertently identified reports suggesting that members of Trump's campaign team had been subjected to incidental surveillance by the United States intelligence community, as part of an unrelated review of privacy procedures. This information was passed on to Chairman of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Devin Nunes by Assistant White House Counsel Michael Ellis. In April 2017 the Associated Press quoted a U.S. official as saying that although Cohen-Watnick had access to those kinds of intelligence materials, he did not play a role in helping Nunes gain access to the documents. According to a U.S. official, Cohen-Watnick was not involved in showing the material to Nunes, did not clear Nunes onto the White House grounds, did not review the material with Nunes, and was not even aware that the material was going to be shared with Chairman Nunes.

The White House announced Cohen-Watnick's dismissal on August 2, 2017, following policy disagreements with National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster over Afghanistan, Iran, and Intelligence Oversight. According to The Washington Post, Cohen-Watnick resigned following a power shift under McMaster. Upon Cohen-Watnick's departure, the White House commented that "General McMaster appreciates the good work accomplished in the NSC's Intelligence directorate under Ezra Cohen's leadership... General McMaster is confident that Ezra will make many further significant contributions to national security in another position in the administration."

In late September 2017, Cohen-Watnick was reportedly succeeded by Michael Barry.

In May 2017, Cohen-Watnick and the FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence reportedly advocated for strong law enforcement actions against Chinese government officials conducting operations targeting Chinese dissidents and asylum seekers inside the United States, against objections from Acting Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton. Cohen-Watnick reportedly charged Thornton with "improperly hindering law-enforcement efforts to address China’s repeated violations of U.S. sovereignty and law."

On December 25, 2017, The Washington Post reported that in the weeks before Trump’s inauguration, Brett Holmgren, Cohen-Watnick's predecessor in the Obama White House, briefed Cohen-Watnick on the actions the Obama Administration had taken to counter Russian active measures. Once in the job, Cohen-Watnick sent out memos identifying counterintelligence threats, including Russia’s, as his top priority, officials said. He convened regular meetings in the White House Situation Room at which he pressed counterintelligence officials in other government agencies, including the CIA, to finalize plans for Russia, including those left behind by the Obama team, according to officials in attendance. By spring, national security adviser H. R. McMaster, senior White House Russia adviser Fiona Hill and Cohen-Watnick began advocating measures to counter Russian disinformation using covert influence and cyber-operations, according to officials.

Cohen-Watnick is a member of the Union League of Philadelphia, a Republican-leaning Patriotic Society. He married Rebecca Miller in November 2016. His wife worked for Ketchum Inc., where as an intern she did public relations work for the Russian government.

Cohen-Watnick gained a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 2008 and then reportedly worked for the Office of Naval Intelligence after graduation. Before joining the White House, Cohen-Watnick worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), beginning in 2010, where he served in Miami, Haiti, Virginia and Afghanistan. Cohen-Watnick was accepted into the training program for the Defense Clandestine Service.

Ezra Asa Cohen-Watnick (born May 18, 1986) is an American government official. He serves as deputy assistant secretary of defense for counternarcotics and global threats, and he previously served as the national security adviser to the United States Attorney General and as a former Senior Director for Intelligence Programs for the United States National Security Council (NSC).