White House Rejected Clement to Lead Office of Legal Counsel, Backed Yoo

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White House Rejected Clement to Lead Office of Legal Counsel, Backed Yoo

Posted Jul 17, 2008, 04:49 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

In 2003 then-Attorney General John Ashcroft recommended five candidates to head the Office of Legal Counsel, and administration officials rejected all of them, the Washington Post reports.

Among the rejected candidates were Paul Clement, who later became solicitor general, and Brett Kavanaugh, now a federal appeals judge, the story says.

Chief of staff Andrew Card and White House counsel Alberto Gonzales instead backed John Yoo, the deputy assistant attorney general in the office who wrote the so-called torture memos authorizing harsh interrogation techniques of suspected terrorists, according to the Post account.

Ashcroft refused and a compromise was reached: The office would be led by Jack Goldsmith, a Defense Department lawyer who had taught at the University of Chicago Law School. He apparently did not meet White House expectations since he later withdrew the controversial memos.

Ashcroft is expected to testify about the incident today in a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.

Other rejected candidates were Adam Ciongoli; Office of Legal Counsel deputy M. Edward Whelan III; and Daniel Levin, who later became acting chief of the Office of Legal Counsel.

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