The top lawyer in Vice President JD Vance’s office is departing for the private sector after a year when he was a key player in the White House deal to save TikTok and other initiatives.
Sean Cooksey will leave his post as counsel to the vice president to join BGR Group, a lobbying and public affairs firm, a person familiar with the move told NBC News.
Cooksey, a longtime GOP lawyer and former Federal Election Commission chair, was an original hire for Vance’s office and had planned to stay in the job for only about a year. He also has held senior roles with Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Josh Hawley, R-Mo.
“Sean Cooksey has been a force to be reckoned with in our office and I’m grateful for the tireless work ethic he brought to the job every day,” Vance said in a statement. “We put a number of seriously challenging problems on Sean’s desk, but he was undaunted by anything we asked him to do. We wish him nothing but the best.”
Cooksey was Vance’s behind-the-scenes point person after President Donald Trump put Vance in charge of finding an agreement to keep TikTok online in the U.S. Cooksey’s efforts helped land a deal that placed the popular short-form video platform under the control of a joint venture backed by American investors and aimed at ending years of scrutiny over TikTok’s Chinese ownership.
“Sean Cooksey stood at the forefront of advancing American innovation under President Trump,” said Michael Kratsios, assistant to the president and director of the Office of Science and Technology. “As Counsel to Vice President JD Vance, he proved indispensable during landmark efforts including the successful TikTok negotiations. I deeply value his partnership in driving American leadership in technology.”
More recently, Cooksey worked on forming the Justice Department's Division for National Fraud Enforcement. Vance last month announced the creation of an assistant attorney general position to tackle fraud investigations — a response to ongoing probes of alleged misuse of welfare funds in Minnesota. Trump last week nominated federal prosecutor Colin McDonald for the job.
Cooksey also was involved in last year’s negotiations between the U.S. and the United Kingdom over British officials’ demand to access Apple users’ encrypted data. The U.K. backed off the demand following pressure from U.S. officials.
“It has been an honor to serve in the greatest presidential administration of my lifetime,” Cooksey said in a statement Thursday. “President Trump and Vice President Vance are delivering every day on their massive electoral mandate to bring prosperity, security, and strength to America, and I look forward to supporting those efforts from this new role.”
