Changes at the DOJ

Four people were named to top Department of Justice positions yesterday by the Obama administration. Included in these four positions is the Director of the Office of Legal Counsel, the controversial department responsible for attempting to legally justify several Bush administration policies, including detainee interrogation (torture) and warrantless wiretapping. The new head, Dawn Johnsen, has spoken out on numerous occasions against the Bush administration’s expansion of presidential power and authority. From the Washington Post:

Johnsen, who led the office in an interim capacity during the Clinton administration, has been outspoken about what she called overly expansive views of executive power that the Justice Department has adopted in recent years. In congressional testimony last spring, Johnsen said legal interpretations were "tainted by the administration's desired policy ends and overriding objective of expanding presidential power."

Conservatives signaled yesterday that Johnsen would face questions at her Senate confirmation hearing about her approach to national security and intelligence gathering.

Besides the Post, the NYT wrote on the development as well. The OLC is a very important and controversial department, and a pick like this seems to flow with President-elect Obama’s notion of “change.”

-- Dylan Blaylock

Comments

[Joe Bonni]

Maybe you should look how the career lawyers at DOJ civil division stonewall whistleblower cases. So scratch away at the party ideology surface and peer through the inner workings at DOJ. Then maybe you can become a real investigative organization.