Powerhouse attorney Robert B. Barnett, known for representing the Obamas and Clintons, dies

The Associated Press
September 26, 2025, 4:25 PM


Robert Barnett stands in his office Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2000, in Washington. Barnett, who has coached Democrats is almost every major televised debate since 1976, helped prepare vice presidential candidate Sen. Joseph Lieberman and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton for their debates in the 2000 campaign. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)(ASSOCIATED PRESS/PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS

NEW YORK (AP) — Robert B. Barnett, a powerhouse Washington attorney who became a fixture in the political and publishing worlds as the literary representative for Barack and Michelle Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton and dozens of other leaders, has died at age 79.

One of Barnett’s partners at Williams & Connolly, Michael F. O’Connor, told The Associated Press that he died Thursday night at Sibley Memorial Hospital of an “undisclosed illness.” Additional details were not immediately available.

“He was a dear friend, a trusted advisor, and a wise, faithful, and steadfast guide to the publishing and entertainment worlds,” the Clintons said in a statement Friday.

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