The Senate on Tuesday approved the nomination of Virginia Seitz as the head of the Office of Legal Counsel, making her the first Senate-endorsed Assistant Attorney General to hold the post since 2004.
The Senate also confirmed Lisa Monaco as the Assistant Attorney General for the National Security division.
Seitz, whom Obama nominated January, will be the first Assistant Attorney General endorsed by the Senate to lead the OLC since Jack Goldsmith stepped down after disagreeing with George W. Bush administration officials about the administration’s aggressive post-Sept. 11 national security policies. Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Caroline Krass currently heads the office.
She is Obama’s second nominee for the post. His first nominee, Dawn Johnsen, withdrew in April 2010 after more than a year of Republican criticism about her aversion to the Bush administration’s national security policies and her pro abortion-rights views.
The OLC gives legal advice to the president and other administration officials on various issues, including national security matters. The office was at the center of the bitter dispute over the use of harsh interrogation methods against terrorism suspects, methods critics called torture.
Seitz, like Johnsen, is a member of the American Constitution Society, a left-leaning legal group. She also clerked for Justice William Brennan, who was a member of the Supreme Court’s liberal wing. Seitz is married to acting Deputy Solicitor General Roy McLeese.
She has been a partner at the law firm of Sidley Austin LLP since 1998.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) criticized Republicans for having stalled on the Seitz confirmation. “I have seen the crocodile tears of some over the last few days as they lament the lack of an Office of Legal Counsel opinion on how the War Powers Act applied to the NATO-led operation in Libya,” he said in a statement. It is Senate Republicans who are responsible for having delayed and blocked the Office of Legal Counsel from having its Assistant Attorney General in place. ”
Monaco, whom Obama tapped in March, has been the Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General under Cole since January. She previously held several posts within the DOJ since 1998, including a stint as a top adviser to FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Monaco will succeed David Kris, who resigned as the National Security Division Assistant Attorney General in March to join the private sector. Todd Hinnen currently is heading the division on an acting basis.
She will be the fourth permanent National Security Division Assistant Attorney General if confirmed by the Senate. The National Security Division was created in 2006.
