Richard William Painter (born October 3, 1961) is an American lawyer, professor, and political candidate. From 2005 to 2007 Painter was the chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration. He is the S. Walter Richey Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Minnesota, and since 2016 has served as vice-chair of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a government watchdog group.
A longtime Republican and self-described centrist, Painter announced that he would be a candidate for the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party endorsement in the 2022 Minnesota 1st congressional district special election to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Rep. Jim Hagedorn. Painter finished in a distant third in the primary, losing the nomination to businessman Jeffrey Ettinger, who ultimately lost the special election.
Painter previously ran for the 2018 Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party nomination for U.S. Senate, losing to recently appointed Senator Tina Smith in a primary.
Painter has been affiliated with the Campaign Legal Center, a group that is a frequent critic of the Trump administration. Throughout 2017 he was involved in the CREW lawsuit against Trump, CREW v. Trump. In March 2020, his book coauthored with Peter Golenbock, American Nero: The History of the Destruction of the Rule of Law, and Why Trump Is the Worst Offender, appeared.
