Adam Lovinger

Adam Lovinger holds a doctorate in law and is a professor at Georgetown University, worked in the Office of Net Assessment as a strategist. His position within the specialized think tank required a top-level security clearance.

According to his Georgetown profile, Lovinger’s responsibilities include “net assessments and competitive strategies developed for the Secretary of Defense on strategic competition in the Indian Ocean region, the Persian Gulf, and sub-Saharan Africa.”

Lovinger had grown increasingly concerned over the ONA’s use of outside contractors, due in part to the “problem of cronyism” and a growing “revolving door policy” that resulted from ONA analysts leaving to join the better-paid ranks of private contractors. The Office of Net Assessment, came under attack by the Washington Tines for wasting money on "research projects" in August 2016.

In September 2016 Lovinger wrote the first in a series of emails to ONA’s new director, James H. Baker, who had recently been appointed by Obama’s Defense Secretary. From Lovinger’s September email:

"On the issue of quality, more than once I have heard our contractor studies labeled ‘derivative,’ ‘college-level’ and based heavily on secondary sources. One of our contractor studies was literally cut and pasted from a World Bank report that I just happened to have read the week before reading the contractor study itself. Even the font was the same.”

The contractor being referenced was Long Term Strategy Group (LTSG), whose president is Jacqueline Newmyer. Chelsea Clinton and Newmyer were at each other’s weddings, and in 2011 Chelsea referred to Newmyer as her “best friend.” According to USAspending.gov, LTSG has received approximately $14 million in contracts since 2007. In a 2015 article by Bill Gertz of the Washington Free Beacon, it was reported that in 2009, Hillary Clinton had arranged meetings between Newmyer and Pentagon officials that involved contracting discussions.