Lawyer Jamie Harpootlian of Columbia being vetted for State Department post: sources

John Monk
·3 min read

Columbia lawyer Jamie Harpootlian is being considered for a State Department job, multiple sources have told the State newspaper.

The sources, more than half a dozen legal and political professionals, said they have been contacted recently by investigators working for the State Department to check out Jamie Harpootlian for a top secret security clearance. The investigators did not say what post she is being vetted for.

“An ambassadorship is possible,” one source said.

The sources did not want to be identified because they are not authorized to speak and because the interviews are confidential.

One investigator is a man; the other is a woman, the sources said.

“I was told they wanted to interview about 25 people in three days,” said one source.

Such a background check is normal when people are being considered for a top Washington political appointee job. The backgrounding is done before the president nominates them. Background checks prepare all concerned for Senate hearings and security clearances.

Jamie Harpootlian did not respond to requests for comment. Her husband, State Sen. Dick Harpootlian, D-Richland, declined comment.

In response to a State newspaper query about Jamie Harpootlian, The State Department press office declined comment, saying in an email, “We do not have anything for you on this.”

There are many diplomatic posts in the State Department, but an ambassadorship is the most prestigious.

Many ambassador posts go to career State Department officials, but some go to top supporters and donors of a president.

The Harpootlians, a Columbia power couple, are active in state Democratic Party politics. For more than 30 years, Dick Harpootlian has for years been a loyal and active supporter of Biden, even going to Iowa to campaign in snowstorms for the former vice president.

In 2014, the Harpootlians held a $5,000-per-couple fundraiser for Biden, who was then preparing for a 2016 presidential run. Hillary Clinton won the Democratic nomination in that year and went on to lose to Donald Trump.

In May 2019, when few believed Biden was a serious contender, the Harpootlians held a fundraiser for him at their Wales Garden three-story home in Columbia. The event raised $115,000. Biden would go on to later raise hundreds of millions, but he needed that $115,000 then.

Jamie Harpootlian is currently “of counsel” in her husband’s law firm.

According to a 2007 New York Times announcement of their wedding, Jamie Harpootlian’s background includes being “a hearing officer for the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund. She graduated cum laude from Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Va., and received her law degree from Tulane. She is a daughter of Charles Robert Lindler of Columbia, S.C., and the late Margaret Elizabeth Little Lindler,” the article said.

If President Biden nominates Jamie Harpootlian for a State Department position, Biden will submit the name of the person to be appointed to the Senate for approval by first the Foreign Relations Committee and then by the full Senate. Approval by the full Senate is called “confirmation.” The appointee is then commissioned. After taking the oath of office, he or she enters on duty, according to a State Department fact sheet.

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