--- alias: - C. Richard D'Amato - Dick D'Amato - Charles Richard D'Amato born: 1942-09-28 category: Intelligence & Government created: 2026-09-22 location: Annapolis, Maryland summary: Senate Appropriations Committee counsel under Robert Byrd who wrote the 1995 language moving Star Gate to the CIA, later a Maryland delegate and chairman of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. tags: - Person - RichardDAmato - Congress - SenateAppropriations - StarGate - USChinaCommission updated: 2026-09-22 --- Charles Richard D'Amato was born in Hackensack, [New Jersey](/places/new-jersey/), on September 28, 1942, took his degree in government at Cornell University in 1964 and a master's at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, taught government at the United States Naval Academy from 1968 to 1971, served in the USS King in the Pacific, and took a law degree at Georgetown University in 1980. He was legislative director to Representative James Jeffords from 1975 to 1978, legislative assistant and chief of staff to Senator Abraham Ribicoff to 1980, "staff director and counsel to U.S. Senate Majority Leader [Robert C. Byrd](/people/robert-byrd/)" from 1980 to 1987, "co-director of the Senate Arms Control Observer Group," and "chief democratic counsel, U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, 1988-98," where, in his own description, he was "lead staff on Foreign Policy, National Defense Intelligence and Trade." The committee's hearing volume on the fiscal 1998 defense appropriation lists him among the minority staff of the defense subcommittee under Byrd. Over twenty-five years in the Navy Reserve, retiring as a captain, his assignments included "attaché duty at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China on proliferation issues and military-to-military initiatives in March 1997" and the battle group staff of the USS Eisenhower in Desert Shield.[^1][^2][^3] ### Star Gate The CIA's papers on the transfer of the [Star Gate](/programs/stargate-project/) program in 1995 ([1995 transfer of Star Gate to the CIA](/events/1995-transfer-of-star-gate-to-the-cia/)) record that the Director of Congressional Affairs "described our approach to Mr. Richard D'Amato, the congressional staffer responsible for the language effecting the transfer, and Mr. D'Amato expressed concern about the DIA people, in particular the three remote viewers, during the period that the panel is conducting our review"; that on March 27, 1995, the CIA "briefed Richard D'Amato at Hart Senate Office bldg, on status of transfer; obtained agreement on previously submitted Terms of Reference"; and, in slides for the committee, that "CIA terms of reference requested that no resources be transferred until Blue Ribbon Panel completes directed review, SAC staffer agreed." His support for the program in the Senate is said to have been vital. [Edwin May](/people/edwin-may/) wrote to him in 1993 to complain that research reports sent to Fort Meade had never been read, and in 1995, dissatisfied with DIA's treatment of the project, he pressed for the transfer.[^4][^5] A statement he posted on his own website, headed "1980's Inquiry into Unidentified Aerial Crash in New Mexico," reads: "In the 1980's and 1990's, I served on the staff of the Senate Democratic Leader, Senator Robert C. Byrd, and my responsibilities involved helping manage the budgets of the Department of Defense and the National Foreign Intelligence Program... In this context, a senior Senate Committee chairman asked me to conduct a preliminary inquiry into allegations that came to his attention regarding unidentified aerial crashes in the 1940's in New Mexico. I met with a number of people who had made public statements on the matter. I reported my conclusion to the Senator that the basis for such allegations did not appear to merit any further Senate investigation. Beyond this inquiry on behalf of the Senator, I have no personal opinion on the matter and consider the inquiry to have been closed for over 20 years."[^1] ### Afterward By 1999, while a Democratic member of the Maryland House of Delegates for Annapolis (1999-2003, Appropriations Committee), he was "President of a consulting firm that represents American corporations on strategic planning and international trade matters" and a member of the Trade Deficit Review Commission. He "developed the legislation creating" the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in 2001 and sat on it from 2001 to 2007 and 2011 to 2012, as chairman in 2002-03 and 2004-05, "appointed to serve for four terms by Senate Democratic Leaders," with "top security clearances." He was later vice president of Synergics Energy, a wind-power developer, a partner in McKenzie Environmental Recycling, and a trustee or commissioner of the Historic Annapolis Foundation, the Coast Guard Foundation, Maryland's climate change commission and its prosecutor selection commission; his wife, Dorothy Walsh, was senior staff to Senator Bill Nelson.[^1][^2][^3] [^1]: D'Amato, C. Richard, resume, self-published at megalomediadesigns.com/dickdamatoresume.pdf, Wayback Machine capture of April 28, 2016; and "1980's Inquiry into Unidentified Aerial Crash in New Mexico," statement posted as an image on the same site, Wayback Machine capture of July 6, 2020 (on the site by April 2013). The resume dates the Fletcher degree to 1965 and adds "Harvard Law School, 1966"; the Maryland and commission biographies give 1967. [^2]: "C. Richard D'Amato, MSA SC 3520-2771," Archives of Maryland, Biographical Series, msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/002700/002771/html/2771bio.html; Maryland Manual On-Line, former members of the House of Delegates, msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/06hse/former/html/msa02771.html. [^3]: "C. Richard D'Amato," Trade Deficit Review Commission member biography, c. 1999-2000, govinfo.library.unt.edu/tdrc/members/damato.html. *Department of Defense Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1998,* hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, United States Senate, 105th Congress, S. Hrg. 105-340, Washington: GPO, 1998, front matter. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-105shrg39834/html/CHRG-105shrg39834.htm [^4]: Director of Research and Development, CIA, "Response to CDA on Stargate," CIA-RDP96-00791R000100040020-2; "Star Gate Transfer Chronology: 1995," CIA-RDP96-00791R000200190017-9; briefing slides for the Senate Appropriations Committee, May 22, 1995, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100050001-2. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. [^5]: The characterizations of his support, May's 1993 letter and the pressure for the transfer are those of Mörck, Nemo C. Review of *The Star Gate Archives, Volume 4,* *Journal of Scientific Exploration,* vol. 40, no. 1, Spring 2026, pp. 149-154, citing Smith, R. Jeffrey, "Senators kept psychic intelligence program alive, staff aides say," *Washington Post,* December 1, 1995, which was not seen.