Topic: Kyle Sampson

D. Kyle Sampson (born in Cedar City, Utah) was the Chief of Staff and Counselor of United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. He resigned on March 12, 2007, amid the controversy surrounding the firing of eight United States Attorneys in 2006. In October 2007, Sampson joined the law firm of Hunton & Williams LLP as a partner in the firm's food and drug practice, where his practice focuses on FDA regulatory and enforcement matters.

As a young man, Sampson served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints among Hmong refugees who had emigrated from Laos to Minnesota. After graduating from Brigham Young University in 1993, Sampson earned a law degree with honors from The University of Chicago Law School in 1996, serving as Articles Editor on the law review. He clerked for Judge Karen J. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and then joined the Salt Lake City law firm of Parr Waddoups Brown Gee & Loveless.

From 1999 to 2001 Sampson served as Counsel to Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) on the Senate Judiciary Committee. After the 2000 election, Sampson "drew on a friendship he had built in law school with Elizabeth Cheney, the daughter of the vice president, to land a job making personnel decisions in the early days of the Bush administration." Later he worked under Alberto Gonzales as Associate Counsel to the President. From there, he served as Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, and then, in 2003, became Counselor to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft. In 2005, he was promoted to be Chief of Staff and Counselor to Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales (who was sworn in as Attorney General on February 14, 2005). Sampson was "a trusted political advisor" to both Ashcroft and Gonzales.