Edmund Janniger

The son of Robert A. Schwartz and Camila Krysicka, both university professors and physicians. Janniger initially wanted to become a physician, but decided to engage in politics.[3]

Janniger has worked with long-time family friend[4] Antoni Macierewicz for 6 months[5] (some reports state 3 years), initially as his assistant and later as trainee deputy manager in his parliamentary office.[6][7][8] In the run-up to the 2015 Polish parliamentary election, Janniger held a post of deputy campaign manager for Law and Justice in the 10th Electoral District where Macierewicz was the party's lead candidate.[9][10] Grzegorz Rzeczkowski described Janniger as Macierewicz's "inseparable adviser, spin-doctor and defender."[11]

On 16 November 2015, within hours of Macierewicz's appointment as Minister of National Defence, Janniger was appointed as his adviser.[12][13] His responsibilities included "managing the minister's online presence".[14] The appointment of such a relatively young person to the post met with support of the media controlled by the goverment and with criticism from those aligned with the opposition.[15]

He held the post officially until 8 December 2015, when he returned to the United States[16] to focus on Institute of Global Affairs, a short-lived club he had established[5] presented by some goverment controlled media as a think tank.[17][18] In June 2016, however, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna called the actuality of the reported departure into question[19] and in October 2016, investigative journalist Tomasz Piątek of Gazeta Wyborcza found out that Janniger, despite living in the US, was still being employed and paid by the Ministry of National Defence which was considered as an act of wrongful public money spending.[20]

In his 2017 book, Piątek scrutinized Janniger's ties and considered them unusual as it was also suspected that Janniger's relations with Macierewicz was of another nature.[21]

Janniger was dubbed as the Altar Boy (Polish: ministrant, wordplay with minister) of National Defence by some journalists due to his involvement with controversial faith leaders and far-right politicians.[22]