Department of Justice - Obama Presidency Oral History Back Department of Justice Index / Organizations Transcripts Neil Eggleston ...the Iran-Contra affair in the Justice Department . In this interview, we will not b... ...conceived of your relationship with the Department of Justice . Because from the outside, it look... ...between the White House counsel and the Department of Justice , but they're also clearly ver... ...the work that you were doing and the DOJ look like? I knew, and had known... ...White House officials from calling DOJ officials without the approval of th... ...[Lynch] and Sally [Yates] that the Department of Justice is independent in prosecutions an... ...they're somewhat independent from the Justice Department . Because the Solicitor General'... ...you would ordinarily ascribe to the Department of Justice and the Office of Legal Counsel, in ... ...you think it's just wrong that the Department of Justice is involved in this? Don't they jus... ...subpoena had been sent for records. The Department of Justice had turned over, basically, the record... ...There was a time, I think, when the Department of Justice sent a letter to Congress, basicall... ...documents that related to how did the Department of Justice deal with the congressiona... ...back from him, but it comes back to the Department of Justice that they don't agree. Then, I gues... ...Congress gets them is because the Department of Justice had waived the privilege. That's ... ...limit the scope of their request. The Department of Justice is giving back emails they wrote wher... Show more... Eric Holder ...the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice [DOJ]. I am speaking to Mr. Holde... ...Section of the Department of Justice [ DOJ ]. I am speaking to Mr. Holder toda... ...and Public Integrity Section at the DOJ when you were first starting you... ...Law School in 1976. I had worked at the Justice Department after my second year. I did som... ...year. I did some clerkship at the Justice Department and decided that I was going to move t... ...like as a city. I wanted to work at the Justice Department . But the plan was to be there fo... ...thought was, given my experience at the Justice Department and the shape that the Justic... ...Department and the shape that the Justice Department was in after the Bush years, and give... ...in criminal justice reform, how the Justice Department should be independent of the Whit... ...you faced as you went into the Justice Department as attorney general. But you had becom... ...the challenges were coming into the Justice Department in early 2009. I served in th... ...in early 2009. I served in the Justice Department as a line lawyer at the Publi... ...professional life was spent largely at DOJ . And it pained me to see what ha... ...to get back to the way in which the Justice Department that I was raised in—we wanted to ge... ...raising morale and revitalizing the DOJ ? Well, see, I had the advantage o... ...in as, basically, a cub lawyer at the Justice Department . So there were little things that ... ...speech was given, and I met with the DOJ press corps. They were peppering m... ...policies that we put in place at the Justice Department , supported by the president, because ... ...form up working groups within the Justice Department to come up with ways in which you thin... ...a healthy dialogue that goes on at the Justice Department . Then representatives from the Justic... ...Then representatives from the Justice Department are meeting with people at the Whit... ...there's a legislative component in the Justice Department —going up to the Hill to see what is i... ...department. There were people in the Department of Justice who were not necessarily in favor o... ...approached your relationship and the DOJ 's relationship with law enforcement... ...in the relationships between the DOJ and law enforcement? Yeah, we brough... ...Used the power that we had as the Justice Department from the civil rights laws to forc... ...degrees, some hated them. If the Justice Department comes knocking at your door and says... ...monitor, federal court supervision, Justice Department investigators, Civil Rights Division... ...Oriented Policing Services] in the Justice Department . That was, I thought, something tha... ...of that which happened in the Holder Justice Department , the Obama administration. And yet ... ...always say I just want all the folks at DOJ to be good prosecutors, fai... ...did you, as attorney general, and the Department of Justice respond to those new changes aroun... ...give a big speech there about how the Justice Department on my watch was going to make th... ...I gave a big speech to announce, this Justice Department , among other things, this is going t... ...line would be that long. How did the Justice Department respond to those kinds of vote... ...Was there a response that the DOJ enacted or could enact? Yes. W... ...of the Voting Rights Act for this Justice Department to still be engaged in the fight fo... ...what was going to happen. You take the Justice Department not off the field, but certainly mak... ...make it more difficult for the Justice Department to participate in protecting votin... ...the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice . I am once again speaking to Mr... ...the National Security Division at the Justice Department , meetings at the White House, meeting... ...It was fundamentally different than the Justice Department I had left from the Clinton years... ...left from the Clinton years, where the Justice Department wasn't necessarily a player when i... ...together a group led by people at the Justice Department , but involving the intelligenc... ...proceedings—as we predicted in the Justice Department , they are confronting novel issues i... ...were ultimately national security or Justice Department —criminal justice issues—was extremel... ...issued a writ of habeas corpus, and the DOJ had pushed back on that. Once th... ...lawyers in the Civil Division of the Justice Department , the National Security Division of th... ...the National Security Division of the Justice Department . I personally got involved in thos... ...I had to make as attorney general. The Justice Department had to pass on a legality of propose... ...were not targets of the strikes. The Justice Department , basically, was the last ones to say... ...as a result of the go-ahead that the Justice Department gave. It wasn't my determination. ... ...that we had to deal with at the Justice Department , and we presented our cases in court... ...inconsistent with the way in which a Justice Department should conduct itself, an attorne... ...on in the Obama administration the DOJ defending the Defense of Marriage Ac... ...talk about how that evolved within the DOJ ? There is a tradition within th... ...a statute passed by Congress, the Justice Department should advance that argument. Early on... ...of the case, as it came before the Justice Department —that was what in fact we did. W... ...floor. People weighed in, and the Justice Department was essentially split between should w... ...those moments when you talk about the Justice Department taking a lot of heat, what is that lik... ...do you navigate those moments when the DOJ really is in the spotlight in th... ...that are being taken either at the Justice Department or at you personally. But the realit... ...LGBTQ rights and protections that the DOJ had to navigate. How did you thin... ...to the extent that I could, put this Justice Department , this attorney general, and thi... ...like messaging to other members of the DOJ that this is the direction that we'r... ...This is my job. I'm the head of the Justice Department . I've heard you. This is the decisio... ...to us by different divisions within the Justice Department , different US attorney's offices, wh... ...in which we reformulated the internal Justice Department procedures, that had not been looked a... ...since you had experience working in the Justice Department in the '90s, and then coming back an... ...much had technology changed the way the Justice Department worked? Oh, fundamentally changed... ...You've got to remember. I leave the Justice Department at the end of the Clinto... ...on the electronic side, but the Department of Justice itself, in terms of how we communicate... ...ways in which people lower down in the Justice Department had counterparts at these companies... ...the challenge when you came into the Justice Department during the financial crisis, and th... ...did that debate look like within the Justice Department ? We came into office in 2009 in th... ...There was this mantra about the Holder Justice Department —we said banks were too big to fail an... ...the way that you've talked about the Department of Justice is that it is in a broader historica... ...decisions then? You don't go to the Justice Department and become a member of a monastery. Yo... ...a monastery. You can't think that the Justice Department is a nice building in between Ninth an... ...to those principles that guide the Justice Department at its best, which is following th... ...actor. That's not an appropriate use of Justice Department power. But you can't be so blind, o... ...secretaries, which is not to exalt the Justice Department or the attorney general, or to diminis... ...It's a different position. And the Justice Department is a different Cabinet-leve... ...who are particularly focused on the Justice Department ? How did your day-to-day lif... ...echelons of their targeting, was the Justice Department and Attorney General Eric Holder Tha... ...Operation Fast and Furious, but how the Justice Department was going to react to congressiona... ...nothing to do with any cover-up by the Justice Department , nothing about the substance o... ...the Republicans in the House and the Justice Department , was that pretty normal for when ther... ...start necessarily with me and with my Justice Department . I certainly saw Janet Reno, when ... ...I was an employee of the United States Department of Justice . For that reason I didn't necessaril... ...every day from my house to get to the Justice Department , and which now, in front of tha... ...that a properly functioning Justice Department had to have with the White House. H... ...had to, in fact, be independent of the Justice Department . But not so independent that it los... ...that he would get the most out of his Justice Department if he kept us appropriatel... ...to defend DOMA. I thought that was a Justice Department equity. That was something that th... ...making by the attorney general, by the Justice Department , not by any more political actor. ... ...between the White House and the Justice Department —I'm obviously not unbiased, but ... ...the future, and for the ways in which a Justice Department should interact with the White House... ...and including things that we did at the Justice Department . I don't know if we mentioned thi... ...not only in interacting with the Justice Department but the dignity that he brought to th... Show more... Jennifer Palmieri ...then Kevin Lewis, who had worked at the Justice Department , went on to work for the White House... Alan Bersin ...Enforcement] to coordinate with the Justice Department and the National Security Council [NSC... ...CBP and the Border Patrol, was in the Department of Justice [DOJ] . With nine-eleven you had ... ...was in the Department of Justice [ DOJ ] . With nine-eleven you had a merge... ...inspectors that were from INS from the Department of Justice in white shirts. You had investigator... ...extent that we saw not only DHS and the Department of Justice but also the Pentagon become deepl... ...CBP operations or other operations of DOJ , the FBI or the DEA or ATF [Bureau o... Show more... Brittany Packnett ...time, Eric Holder, did come. Some other DOJ [Department of Justice] administratio... ...Eric Holder, did come. Some other DOJ [ Department of Justice ] administration officials, and thos... ...we were very clear that we wanted the Department of Justice to recognize this as the systemi... ...and practice investigations out of the DOJ , which we did. I think that peopl... ...Oriented Policing Services] in the Department of Justice . So literally the office that create... ...report was swiftly taken off of the DOJ website under the nex... Show more... Josh Earnest ...Bureau of Investigation] and the Department of Justice and Apple about whether or not the... Paulette Aniskoff ...can we do? Where else can we push? The Department of Justice [DOJ] had some areas that we felt lik... ...we push? The Department of Justice [ DOJ ] had some areas that we felt lik... ...Some of them were through the Department of Justice . There are also some things that w... ...to make sure that Homeland Security and DOJ , and any other Cabinet agency tha... Marielena Hincapié ...ultimately, the Obama administration Department of Justice did provide trafficking visas to fiv... ...We worked really closely with the Department of Justice . At the time, it was Attorney Genera... ...Obama administration, particularly the Department of Justice , to, right from the get-go... ...see that it was their role as the Department of Justice to fight back these stat... ...caused on communities, was great. The Department of Justice under the Obama administratio... ...the Obama administration, to call the Department of Justice and say, “Hey, we need access t... Show more... Load more Transcripts Related Topics go to the Democrats Democrats go to the Russia Russia go to the Agriculture Agriculture go to the Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa go to the Labor Labor