Per Wiki:
Political party: Independent
Ayer graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts in History in 1971, with great distinction. In 1973, he graduated from Harvard University with a Master of Arts in American History, and received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1975.
He clerked for Judge Malcolm Richard Wilkey of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, followed by a year with Associate Justice William Rehnquist of the U.S. Supreme Court during the 1976 Term.
From 1977 to 1980, Ayer served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan nominated Ayer as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California, and he held that position from 1981 to 1986. From 1986 to 1988, he served as Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States, and as Deputy Attorney General from 1989 until May 1990, when he was succeeded by William Barr.
In a June 2019 Atlantic article entitled “Why Bill Barr Is So Dangerous,” Ayer wrote of Bill Barr, then the attorney general and Ayer’s successor as deputy attorney general in 1990, that “the primary effect of Barr’s conduct to date has indeed been to befuddle and mislead, and create a public misimpression, for those who have not read Mueller’s report, that [President Trump] may not have interfered with the investigation,” but that, “a careful review of Barr’s conduct suggests that his mission is far more grandiose that just misleading people about the facts,” adding, “in Barr’s view, the only check on gross misconduct by the president is impeachment, and the very idea of an independent or special counsel investigating the president is a constitutional anathema.”
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Ayer wrote a political opinion article for the Washington Post:
Comey’s Mistaken Quest for Transparency October 30, 2016
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Thornburgh Denies Shielding Aide : Justice Dept.: The attorney general says he didn’t try to hide the official’s failure of a lie detector test.
Los Angeles Times May 20, 1990
Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh on Sunday denied that he had tried to hide the fact that his chief personal aide had flunked a lie detector test during a sensitive department investigation.
“Absolutely not,” Thornburgh said when asked about the allegation of Deputy Atty. Gen. Donald B. Ayer, the department’s No. 2 official, who has turned in his resignation, effective on Friday.
“Mr. Ayer is sadly misinformed about the facts,” Thornburgh said.
“There was no evidence that tied any person on my staff to the unauthorized disclosure.” Thornburgh was referring to a leak of information during an investigation of alleged financial irregularities in the office of House Majority Whip William H. Gray III of Pennsylvania.
Later, in a statement issued Sunday, Thornburgh said he found it “unfortunate that Mr. Ayer has chosen to conduct himself in this manner with respect to his former colleagues.”
After he resigned, Ayer contended that he had been blocked from performing the deputy’s duties by Ross.
The statement released by the department did not deal directly with Ayer’s allegation that Thornburgh had tried to keep the leak investigation away from the department’s internal watchdog unit and, failing that, refused to follow the unit’s recommendation for further investigation.
Instead, the statement noted that Solicitor General Kenneth W. Starr’s review of the investigation concluded that there had been no reason for Thornburgh to remove himself from the case—as Ayer had unsuccessfully sought to persuade him to do.
The statement also noted that Thornburgh was acting within his discretion in deciding not to discipline anyone over the leak. The statement said that Starr also had considered the concerns of the department’s watchdog unit, which had called for further investigation and possible discipline.
Note: If I read this correctly, Thornburg was accusing Ayer of being the leaker, thus he resigned rather than being prosecuted. He was replaced by Barr.
Professor Ayer currently teaches a course in Supreme Court Advocacy at Georgetown University Law Center and Duke University Law School.
That's my understanding of it too. Good find.
Ayer is OK with Democrats being appointed to the federal bench.
Therefore, he's a Democrat.
Thanks.