John Patrick Schmitz (born April 19, 1955) is an American attorney and political advisor who served as Deputy White House Counsel to President George H. W. Bush (1989–1993), and Deputy Counsel to Vice President Bush during the Reagan Administration (1987–1989). Schmitz clerked for Antonin Scalia at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (1983–1984). Fluent in German, Schmitz has worked extensively on German-American issues both in government, and since 1993, in private practice in Washington, D.C. and Berlin. Early life and education Schmitz was born April 19, 1955. His father, Republican politician John G. Schmitz, later became a member of the House of Representatives, and ran for president as a member of the far-right American Independent Party. His brother, Joseph Schmitz, served as Inspector General of the Department of Defense from 2002 to 2005, and played a role in the attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Schmitz' sister, Mary Kay Letourneau, pleaded guilty in 1997 to two counts of felony second-degree rape of a child, who at the time had been her sixth-grade student. Schmitz graduated from Georgetown Preparatory School in 1972. He then earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Georgetown University. While at Georgetown, Schmitz worked for U.S. Congressmen Goodloe E. Byron (1977) and Charles W. Sandman, Jr. (1973–1975). He received a Master of Science in economics at the California Institute of Technology in 1978. Schmitz was a research fellow to Professors John Ferejohn and Morris Fiorina at the Caltech Environmental Quality Lab. In 1981, he graduated from Stanford Law School, where he wrote for the Stanford Law Review and was a founding member of the Stanford Foundation for Law and Economic Policy. Career Early legal career After law school, he worked in the U.S. Justice Department as Special Assistant to William Baxter, Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust. In 1983 and 1984, he clerked for Antonin Scalia at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Before joining the Reagan Administration, Schmitz was an associate at Wilmer, Cutler, and Pickering LLP. In 1984, Schmitz was awarded a Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship in Germany where he worked with Matthias Wissmann in the German Bundestag and the Office of General Counsel, Robert Bosch GmbH. George H. W. Bush Administration Schmitz served as Deputy White House Counsel to George H. W. Bush (1989–1993), and earlier as Deputy Counsel to Vice President Bush during