page_title: John Ashcroft
section_title: Attorney General of Missouri
hierarchical_section_title: John Ashcroft / Political career / Attorney General of Missouri
caption_attribution_description: English: President Ronald Reagan, Joe Lieberman, and John Ashcroft,
context_page_description: John David Ashcroft is an American lawyer, songwriter and former politician who served as the 79th U.S. Attorney General, in the George W. Bush Administration. He later founded The Ashcroft Group, a Washington D.C. lobbying firm.
  Ashcroft previously served as Attorney General of Missouri, and as the 50th Governor of Missouri, having been elected for two consecutive terms in succession, and he also served as a U.S. Senator from Missouri. He had early appointments in Missouri state government and was mentored by John Danforth. He has written several books about politics and ethics. Since 2011 he sits on the board of directors for the
  private military company Academi, has been a member of the Federalist Society, and is a professor at the Regent University School of Law, a conservative Christian institution affiliated with televangelist Pat Robertson.
  His son, Jay Ashcroft, is also a politician, serving as Secretary of State of Missouri since January, 2017.
context_section_description: Missouri Attorney General John Danforth, who was then in his second term, hired Ashcroft as an Assistant State Attorney General. During his service, Ashcroft shared an office with Clarence Thomas, a future U.S. Supreme Court Supreme Court Justice. (In 2001, Thomas administered Ashcroft's oath of office as U.S. Attorney General.)
  In 1976, Danforth was elected to the U.S. Senate, and Ashcroft was elected to replace him as State Attorney General. He was sworn in on December 27, 1976.  In 1980, Ashcroft was re-elected with 64.5 percent of the vote, winning 96 of Missouri's 114 counties.
  In 1983, Ashcroft wrote the leading amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court Case Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., supporting the use of video cassette recorders for time shifting of television programs.
caption: Ashcroft with President Ronald Reagan in 1984
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