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Trump Jets National Security Adviser From Pasadena Family Christmas to Mar-a-Lago for Advice Before Strike on Iranian General

Published on Monday, January 6, 2020 | 6:38 am
 
Pasadenan Robert C. O'Brien was sworn in as Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. by U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo on July 17, 2018. On Wednesday, O'Brien was elevated to national security adviser by President Trump. U.S. State Department photo

Bloomberg reports today that President Trump “summoned not his chief of staff or one of his Cabinet secretaries” but Pasadenan Robert O’Brien, his National Security Adviser, to Mar-a-Lago for consultations prior to giving the order for U.S. missiles to be fired at a top Iranian general last Thursday.

Bloomberg reported O’Brien was celebrating the holidays in Pasadena with his family at the time.

“A government jet was dispatched to fetch O’Brien and bring him to Palm Beach for the strike on Qassam Soleimani,” according to Bloomberg.

The Bloomberg story describes O’Brien as “a relatively new aide who has rapidly become indispensable to the president.”

It also said O’Brien briefed the President on Soleimani’s history and intelligence reports indicating he was planning attacks on Americans, and was present when military commanders informed Trump the strike was successful.

Last September, Trump named O’Brien as his new national security adviser, replacing John Bolton.

O’Brien, a former partner at the Los Angeles law firm Larson O’Brien, joined Trump’s administration earlier, in May 2018, and had served as the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs at the State Department.

He resides with his family in the Linda Vista area, where they moved from La Cañada Flintridge about two and a half years ago.

O’Brien received his bachelor’s degree in political science from UCLA where he graduated cum laude and was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, and his juris doctorate from UC Berkeley.

O’Brien joins two other Pasadenans who filled high presidential administration ranks in the past.

Harold Brown was President of Caltech when he was selected to become the United States Secretary of Defense by President Jimmy Carter. Brown served in that capacity from 1977 to 1981.

Verne Orr, also a West Pasadena resident, was appointed Secretary of the Air Force by President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Orr died in his Arroyo-area home in 2008.

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