Obama picks four former Clinton officials for Justice Department
David Ogden, Elena Kagan, Tom Perelli and Dawn Johnsen were tapped. The confirmation hearing for attorney general nominee Eric H. Holder Jr. is set for Jan. 15.
Reporting from Washington — President-elect Barack Obama has named four former Clinton administration officials as part of his new team at the Justice Department, including David Ogden as deputy attorney general and Harvard Law School dean Elena Kagan as solicitor general, the administration's lawyer before the Supreme Court.
Kagan, the first female dean at Harvard Law, reportedly met Obama when the two worked on the University of Chicago Law School faculty in the 1990s. Ogden is heading Obama's Justice Department transition team, and his deputy on the team, Tom Perelli, was tapped today to be associate attorney general. Obama also nominated Dawn Johnsen to be assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel.
There was no mention of whether Obama and his nominee for attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., intend to replace those heading the key posts at the Justice Department's civil, criminal and national security divisions that oversee most of its high-profile prosecutions.
"These individuals bring the integrity, depth of experience and tenacity that the Department of Justice demands in these uncertain times," Obama said in a statement released by the transition team in Chicago. "I have the fullest confidence that they will ensure that the Department of Justice once again fulfills its highest purpose: to uphold the Constitution and protect the American people. I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead."
Holder's confirmation hearing is set for Jan. 15 before the Senate Judiciary Committee. And though there were early indications that he would be confirmed swiftly and with little if any opposition, Holder has more recently come under fire for his role in some controversial pardons and commutations of prison sentences issued by then-President Bill Clinton.
"The new attorney general, the department and the nation will be well-served by this leadership team," Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement about Obama's picks.
"Just as senators on both sides of the aisle moved quickly in the last Congress to confirm nominees for the top positions at the Justice Department that were emptied by scandals, the Judiciary Committee will move forward promptly with confirmation proceedings for these nominees, beginning with Mr. Holder's hearing on Jan. 15," Leahy said. "The need to have the new leadership team at the department up and running without delay could not be greater in light of the department's vital missions and the unprecedented politicization that has weakened morale throughout the department and dealt a blow to the country's confidence in the nation's top law enforcement agency."
