News
May 23, 2017Former U.S. Inspector General of the Intelligence Community Joins Local Law Firm as Partner
Tully Rinckey PLLC is pleased to announce that I. Charles “Chuck” McCullough III, Esq. has joined the firm’s Washington, DC office as Partner.
In his most recent position as Inspector General (IG) for the Intelligence Community, Chuck was responsible for ensuring the highest levels of diplomacy, discretion and judgement across the Intelligence Community through his leadership and oversight. Chuck was nominated for this position by President Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate in 2011. Reporting directly to the former Director of National Intelligence, Hon. General James R. Clapper, it was Chuck’s responsibility to oversee professionals responsible for audits, inspections, investigations and special reviews within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and throughout the Intelligence Community. Among his accomplishments were issuing reports involving cyber threat information sharing and information sharing within the Intelligence Community related to the Boston Marathon bombing, as well as overseeing a government-wide implementation of a Presidential Directive protecting whistleblowers from retaliation.
As a Partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office, Chuck will be the primary attorney to handle security clearance representation matters for federal employees nationwide; including high-ranking government officials and Department of Defense contractors. He will guide clients applying for and renewing confidential, secret and top secret clearance in addition to representing clients facing security clearance denials, revocations and suspensions.
More specifically, Chuck has the ability to assist defense contractors with obtaining facility clearances and consult with corporations on national security legal matters through pre-clearance counseling, preparation for interrogatories and investigative interviews. Chuck represents clients at post-denial hearings before government entities such as the Defense Office of Hearing and Appeals (DOHA), the Department of Defense, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and all other federal courts and government agencies.
Prior to his appointment as IG, Chuck dedicated the past two decades to public service in the Federal Government; serving in multiple leadership positions in law enforcement, legal and intelligence capacities. Chuck is a former Deputy Inspector General for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and spent eight years as the Assistant Inspector General for Investigations at the National Security Agency/Central Security Service. He was also formerly the Senior Counsel for Law Enforcement and Intelligence at the U.S. Treasury Department. When Chuck worked as a Special Agent of the FBI, where he handled foreign counterintelligence, counterterrorism, narcotics, violent and white-collar crime, he also served as a legal instructor and as a member of FBI Pittsburgh’s Special Weapons and Tactics team (SWAT). As a member of a SWAT team, Chuck received specialized weapons and tactical training and participated in high-risk law enforcement operations.
Chuck earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Kentucky and obtained his juris doctorate from the Dickinson School of Law at Pennsylvania State University.
