Department of Justice - Obama Presidency Oral History Back Department of Justice Index / Organizations Transcripts Don Verrilli ...at some point, serving in the Justice Department in particular. It was a dream of min... ...DC, to have, of working in the Justice Department . I became a very early supporter o... ...attorney general, the number two in the Department of Justice [DOJ], David Ogden, was a close an... ...two in the Department of Justice [ DOJ ], David Ogden, was a close an... ...is the chief operating officer of the Justice Department and really, in many ways, on ... ...of the state-secrets privilege by the Department of Justice . That had been an issue in the 200... ...and some career folks, even, in the Department of Justice and in the Department of Defense... ...someone who had wanted to go into the Department of Justice , who is finally there, and you'r... ...it. I had had a wonderful experience at DOJ , and I would have been happy to sta... ...was the associate attorney general at DOJ , was the principal person negotiatin... ...some on that issue even when I was in DOJ in 2009, thinking about the structur... ...and Consumer Protection Act]. The DOJ had weighed in on the structure of tha... ...that law and specifics of that law, as DOJ would for any important law, and I wa... ...of 2010, was to be the liaison with the Department of Justice on the defense of the Affordable Car... ...need to focus on the defense. The Department of Justice , of course, was leading the defense... ...don't do that work. The lawyers in the Department of Justice do. But because this was such ... ...well, and being in communication with DOJ about it. And that ended up being m... ...and dealing with the leadership at DOJ . Probably, in retrospect, the mos... ...early on, probably April of 2010, the DOJ lawyers working on the matter came ove... ...whether it was constitutional. But the DOJ lawyers also recommended that we have ... ...to include the tax-power argument. The Department of Justice recommends that we do so. Here's why... ...wasn't true at all. The lawyers at the Justice Department were very thoughtful about it righ... ...who are really serious thinkers in the Department of Justice , people whose views I really, reall... ...jammed full of people, lawyers from the Department of Justice , from the Treasury Department, fro... ...the Obama administration and the Justice Department was out on a bit of limb, because th... ...not to defend DOMA. Normally, the Justice Department defends the constitutionality o... ...to make. We debated it within the Department of Justice very vigorously, and there was a lot o... ...practices with the government, with the Department of Justice , was a key, key feature of that law... Show more... Cecilia Muñoz ...in the sofa cushions at HHS and at DOJ [Department of Justice] to provide som... ...the sofa cushions at HHS and at DOJ [ Department of Justice ] to provide some representation, bu... ...Policing is local. There are things the Justice Department can do. The Justice Department can su... ...the Justice Department can do. The Justice Department can sue in egregious civil right... ...and what are the resources that DOJ makes available, and what does HHS hav... ...there? What is HUD doing there? What is DOJ doing there? We discovered, among othe... ...We discovered, among other things, that DOJ had an initiative to buil... ...but they hadn't coordinated on what DOJ was—the good work DOJ wanted to do i... Show more... James Cole ...2015. He had previously worked in the Department of Justice [DOJ] from 1979 until 1992 and serve... ...worked in the Department of Justice [ DOJ ] from 1979 until 1992 and served a... ...that drew you back into the Department of Justice ? It was a phone call that I got on... ...were you eager to rejoin the Department of Justice ? How did that fit in the point in you... ...I had spent thirteen years in the Department of Justice prior to going into private practice... ...the right approach to the job of the Justice Department . I had not really sought to go int... ...to work on those issues from within the Justice Department . We'll get into all of that in just ... ...in state government, comes to the Justice Department . And it usually comes to the Justic... ...Department. And it usually comes to the Justice Department broken and needs to be dealt with in ... ...it was nothing compared to running the Justice Department , and in many respects dealing wit... ...the meantime, you are working with the Justice Department to get ready for the hearing. You'r... ...of the different divisions within the Justice Department , getting briefed by them as to what'... ...for the hearing. People at the Justice Department play the role of the most antagonisti... ...and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department for committing fraud in some insuranc... ...pretty much exclusively dealt with the Department of Justice . So the minute I was nominated, I ha... ...stop any cases and any contact with the Department of Justice . So I didn't have a great deal to d... ...the terrorist review project that the Justice Department had done before I came into office. An... ...Chambliss and his chief of staff at the Justice Department , and we're talking about anothe... ...that's due to come up for the Justice Department —and now the Senate is Republican... ...young-puppy prosecutors together in the Justice Department in a very newly formed section calle... ...see each other at reunions for the Justice Department section. We kept in touch on a fairl... ...was good in working with Eric at the Justice Department is that we had known each other for ... ...from politics in many, many ways at the Justice Department . So it was great fun to be able t... ...to tackle a problem that people at the Justice Department had been trying to tackle for years... ...started to make their peace with the Justice Department . The project really ended up being th... ...connected with your tenure in the Justice Department is marijuana law— [Laughs] —an... ...are ill and their caregivers, that the Justice Department is taking the position that it's no... ...policy move. This wasn't just a Justice Department move. So we presented it first in a... ...affect the work that you were doing at DOJ ? It did progress very, very fast... ...like this, how does that change the DOJ 's role? Does it mean that the DOJ kin... ...the DOJ's role? Does it mean that the DOJ kind of steps back and lets othe... ...is, what do you do with them? And what DOJ was doing at this point was acting in ... ...but it's very much a part of the Justice Department 's role in that because the prosecuto... ...and it was very much the role of the Justice Department , but not the traditional role. Wh... ...Bureau of Prisons was one-third of the Justice Department 's budget. The Justice Department'... ...of the Justice Department's budget. The Justice Department 's total budget was twenty-seve... ...of an overarching initiative for the Justice Department . How did that—first of all, what wa... ...is not going to be prosecuted by our Justice Department ever. But somebody who is in a positio... Show more... Vanita Gupta ...of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice from October 2014 to the end of th... ...predominant for the country and for the Justice Department [DOJ]. But I came in wanting to buil... ...and for the Justice Department [ DOJ ]. But I came in wanting to build thos... ...weeks later. To then be invited into a Justice Department that really saw its role as pushin... ...happening, again, in the backdrop. The Justice Department announced that it was opening a... ...of a confirmation hearing. And the Justice Department originally was going to announce th... ...the hallway that was lined with all DOJ employees. There's this amazing phot... ...confirmed, on her very first day at the Justice Department , was with me and Ron Davis. Freddi... ...Attorney General Lynch oversaw a Justice Department at a time—policing issues were to... ...issues were top focus for the Justice Department throughout my whole two-and-a-hal... ...I was really honored to be at a Justice Department that was as diverse and as female as i... ...do you think it meant for the Justice Department to have so many women in prominen... ...throughout it? It was a change. The Justice Department can feel like this austere place. It'... ...these components at the Justice Department . But I think it was a really bi... ...deal. It was a very racially diverse Justice Department , especially compared to now. Th... ...especially compared to now. The Justice Department in the Trump era is—from all that I'v... ...was a big deal. And it was new for the Justice Department to be as diverse as it was when I wa... ...which is sort of your baptism into the DOJ . Where was the investigation when yo... ...profound. So the investigation that the Justice Department did was groundbreaking in Ferguson... ...typically uncovered or discussed in DOJ reports. But that in this instance—i... ...it was a big deal. I remember when the Justice Department —we oversaw this investigation, and w... ...of poverty as advocates, but the Justice Department had never spoken to these issues. S... ...was also kind of strange for the Justice Department —but it was because it became thi... ...felt really validated that the Justice Department was acknowledging these longstandin... ...after these investigations, the Justice Department negotiates a consent decree with th... ...So, an investigation—what happens, the Justice Department will often get a series of complaint... ...requests to investigate—I say we. The Justice Department gets a lot more requests to investigat... ...There is no other entity like the Justice Department that can do this work. In the Obam... ...work. In the Obama administration, the Justice Department opened twenty-five of these, and had b... ...So, before I went into the Justice Department , but I think right after I wa... ...was stuff that had not happened at the Justice Department , or at the Civil Rights Division. I... ...issues—there's a limit to how much the Justice Department can do. But I will say, I would sa... ...of the Office of Legislative Affairs at DOJ . He allowed us to use his space to d... ...day. But it was important that the Justice Department show its presence in the city after th... ...of this new [Trump] administration, the Justice Department tried to get out of the consent decree... ...is one of twelve sections at the Justice Department . They are driving the decisions aroun... ...as a result. The voting section of the Justice Department was really a reflection of the Votin... ...registration, early voting. And the Justice Department in those two states, for example, use... ...much—the other form was more that the Justice Department would become aware of these changes... ...What does that look like? Well, the Justice Department is always asked for its views o... ...Congress. It's supposed to insulate Justice Department professionals from overly politica... ...to opine, officially, about what the Justice Department 's views were on any particula... ...after the Shelby County decision. The Justice Department supported those in the Obama era. W... ...Obviously, I was wearing the hat of the Justice Department , different than being an ACL... ...obviously, when I was at the Justice Department , there had been a reversal of th... ...with voting, you don't want to have the Justice Department be viewed as partisan or political, an... ...reengage support for these issues. The Justice Department already had weighed in in support o... ...legal jurisprudence. To feel like the Justice Department was on the right side of history, an... ...just felt so proud to be a part of the Justice Department , and proud to be a part of the Unite... ...really opened the door to the Justice Department being able to try to protect the right... ...felt groundbreaking or felt new for the Justice Department . Do you think that that is connecte... ...the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department . But I think that they really—thes... ...in Congress, in the White House, in the Justice Department —despite these fits and starts, an... ...to have somebody with my profile at the Justice Department . Most folks in these very high-leve... ...say, I felt like I was a part of the Justice Department at a time when the work of the Civi... Show more... Sharon Block ...a lawyer, your vetting lawyer from the Justice Department [DOJ], who asks you the mos... ...lawyer from the Justice Department [ DOJ ], who asks you the most unbelievabl... ...lawyer from the Justice Department , in the midst of this long interview... ...lawyer from the Justice Department —I'm in the middle of this interview... ...the time to call me. And then I went to DOJ ; he was still cleaning out his offic... ...still cleaning out his office in the Justice Department . I went to see him in his office a... ...I went to see him in his office at the Justice Department , and we had a wonderful—he's s... Show more... Janet Napolitano ...side, I worked extensively with DOJ [Department of Justice], FBI, and the... ...side, I worked extensively with DOJ [ Department of Justice ], FBI, and then the CIA, DO... ...is the relationship you had to the Department of Justice and to Eric Holder. Just in doing th... ...in. What did it look like to work with DOJ over the course of your tenure a... ...clarity in many areas between DHS and DOJ . And when I say DOJ, I include th... ...between DHS and DOJ. And when I say DOJ , I include the FBI. So one area wher... ...priorities. It's the reason why the Department of Justice doesn't do bad-check cases; it doe... ...we found a problem, then we would go to DOJ and seek prosecution of the employers... ...cases—which are managed by the Department of Justice , by the way, not DHS. We only found ... ...from the Office of Legal Counsel at DOJ that the program as we conceived it wa... ...obviously, the response was led by the Department of Justice . But I had several conversations wit... ...Treasury, or we should move ICE over to DOJ , or abolish ICE altogether. And I jus... Show more... Tommy Vietor ...to me; he did White House Council– or Department of Justice –related issues, and thank God tha... Ben LaBolt ...So I was assigned to dealing with the Justice Department , and the White House Counsel's Office... ...actions bubbling up out of the Justice Department that didn't seem like they aligned o... ...there a particular reason why DOJ [Department of Justice] and trade, an... ...there a particular reason why DOJ [ Department of Justice ] and trade, and energy, and th... ...I had before and everybody knows that DOJ and White House Counsel are the folk... ...sorts of issues with those portfolios. DOJ was working through a very importan... ...through in close coordination with DOJ . But DOJ's also a difficult agency t... ...in close coordination with DOJ. But DOJ 's also a difficult agency to deal wit... ...remember one of the issues coming up at DOJ in the early days or early months o... ...DOMA [Defense of Marriage Act] and how DOJ was making its arguments. Was somethin... ...between the White House and the DOJ arguments? It definitely was an... ...duty to defend and the fact that the Justice Department had the obligation to defend the law o... ...on your lap because of your work with DOJ or how did those end up in your— I... Show more... Daryl Johnson ...of a product. ATF would; FBI would; the Justice Department . People like that. Interestin... Load more Transcripts Related Topics go to the Transition Transition go to the Elections and Campaigns Elections and Campaigns go to the Arts and Humanities Arts and Humanities go to the Immigration Immigration go to the Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa