The mysterious oppo researcher working in the White House lawyer’s office

The following article by Nancy Cook was posted on the Politico website February 11, 2018:

Michael Roman, best known as a shadowy operative who oversaw a research unit for the Koch network, now occupies an unusual and undefined role in the Trump administration.

Past administrations have also employed people with opposition research and investigative experience. But such dirt-digging operatives have typically not been installed inside the White House counsel’s office. Credit: Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images

Few people in or close to the White House have any idea what Michael Roman does all day.

Officially, Roman works as a special assistant to the president and director of special projects and research, a vague title that reveals almost nothing. He earns $115,000 a year for this work, according to White House salary records, and keeps an office inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

He reports to White House counsel Don McGahn, who represented the conservative Koch network as a lawyer during the period when Roman was working for the Kochs’ Freedom Partners group as head of research — a $269,000-a-year job that involved tracking the activities of Democratic political organizers and donors. Continue reading “The mysterious oppo researcher working in the White House lawyer’s office”