Leadership • Senior Staff • Senior Advisors • Board of Advisors

Senior Staff: Hugh N. (Rusty) Johnston

Hugh N. (Rusty) Johnston
Senior Advisor for National Defense and Homeland Security Programs

Rusty Johnston is Senior Advisor for National Defense and Homeland Security Programs at American Defense International, Inc.  Mr. Johnston recently joined ADI after retiring from the House Armed Services Committee, U.S. House of Representatives where he served as the Deputy Staff Director and the General Counsel from 2001 to 2007.

In those roles, he was responsible for the overall management and scheduling of legislative activities including the annual National Defense Authorization Act. In addition to his management responsibilities he maintained portfolio responsibility for several Navy, maritime, and Sealift accounts, as well as the Department of Defense’s Counter Narcotics programs. He was also directly involved with the formulation of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and legislation related to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. As the Committee’s General Counsel, Mr. Johnston was responsible for organizing and coordinating the text and logistics for all legislation handled by the committee, including subcommittee markups, full committee markups, filing of bills and reports, and floor action. He also served as the principle Committee contact with all outside House Standing Committees, the House Parlimentarian, the House Legislative Counsel, the House of Representatives’ General Counsel, and the Committee on Standards (Ethics). Mr. Johnston held Top Secret/SCI/Q/SAP level security clearances granted by the Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Department of Energy.

Rusty first joined the House Armed Services Committee (then named the Committee on National Security) in 1995 as the Majority Counsel. In that role he served as a professional staff member on the Military Procurement Subcommittee with primary responsibility for the annual budget authorization for the U.S. Department of Energy accounts in the area of nuclear weapons, environmental remediation, naval reactors, and nonproliferation.

In addition to significant experience serving in senior staff positions in the House of Representatives, Mr. Johnston also served as Majority Counsel on the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, United States Senate where he was responsible for the committee’s legislative proposals in the Environmental and Maritime areas. In that role, he was also responsible for the annual budget authorization for the United States Coast Guard. Mr. Johnston has extensive experience in Superfund legislation.

Beyond his almost 18 years on Capitol Hill, Rusty also served as a Trial Attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. In that position, Mr. Johnston was responsible for the defense and prosecution of cases in Federal District Courts on behalf of the United States, At DOJ, he maintained a case load of 15 to 20 cases. He has significant trial and negotiating experience with government/defense contract issues, and Clean Water Act, CERCLA environmental issues. He received a Department of Justice Commendation for the successful defense of a multi-million dollar wrongful death/indemnity action involving a major defense contractor.

Mr. Johnston served five years on active duty in the United States Coast Guard, in both operational and legal billets.  As a Lieutenant in the Claims and Litigation Division, Office of the Chief Counsel, Washington, D.C., he was the nominee for the Department of Transportation’s Most Outstanding Attorney Award for the collection of $3.6 million in the ARGO MERCHANT and CORINTHOS/QUEENY oil spills.  Mr. Johnston has a Juris Doctor Degree from the School of Law, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia and is a member of the Virginia State Bar.