Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism, Threat Prevention, and Law Enforcement Policy
Jeohn Salone Favors serves as the Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism, Threat Prevention, and Law Enforcement Policy at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In this capacity, he leads the DHS headquarters components responsible for policy development, strategic planning, and enterprise coordination of Department programs spanning counterterrorism and emerging threats, counternarcotics, global transportation security, screening and vetting, unmanned aircraft systems, transnational organized crime, human trafficking, child sexual exploitation and abuse, and targeted violence prevention. In addition, Mr. Favors is responsible for development and coordination of Department-wide law enforcement policies, including those aimed at ensuring the highest standards of performance, accountability, transparency, support, and training for the 80,000+ law enforcement officers serving across the homeland security enterprise—the largest federal law enforcement entity in the U.S. government.
Prior to joining DHS, Mr. Favors served as Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the U.S. Department of Justice. At DOJ, Mr. Favors shepherded criminal and counterintelligence investigations and enforcement related to domestic and international terrorism, espionage, foreign malign influence, transnational repression, nation-state cyber activity, sanctions evasion, export controls, and foreign investment security review. Before joining DOJ, Mr. Favors worked at the New York City law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz where he tried multibillion dollar cases before judge and jury, helped resolve other high-stakes corporate and commercial disputes, and provided pro bono criminal defense services to indigent clients. During law school, Mr. Favors worked as a public defender in Massachusetts state courts and served on the trial team that defended and won acquittal of a prominent professional athlete in a highly publicized murder trial.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Favors served domestically and internationally as a diplomat with the U.S. Department of State, as an operations officer with the Central Intelligence Agency’s Clandestine Service, and as a member of the National Security Council staff at the White House. During war zone and other hostile area deployments, Mr. Favors embedded with U.S. special operations forces to thwart terrorist plots against the homeland and to disrupt other top-tier counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and weapons proliferation threats. At the White House, he worked on Middle East and North Africa issues, and was a member of the small team of White House personnel tasked by President Obama to orchestrate and oversee the Obama-Biden administration’s then-secret, backchannel contacts and engagements with Iran, which ultimately culminated in the Iran nuclear deal. Years later, as a member of President-Elect Biden’s Transition Team, Mr. Favors co-led policy development and strategic planning for the incoming Biden-Harris administration’s readiness review of the U.S. Intelligence Community, the Intelligence Programs Directorate of the National Security Council, and the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board.
A native of rural South Louisiana, Mr. Favors began his career in public service as a volunteer Firefighter-EMT who deployed to New Orleans and helped rescue and evacuate hundreds of disaster victims from catastrophic flooding in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Mr. Favors holds a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.