That’s what I hear. Ohlson is director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review and a long-time, trusted aide to Eric Holder. He was Holder’s chief of staff when Holder was Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton administration, and worked with him at the US Attorney’s office in DC. As deputy director of the EOIR in 2005, Ohlson was on the receiving end of Kyle Sampson and Monica Goodling’s efforts to politicize appointments of immigration judges.

“I expressed carefully, diplomatically to Kyle Sampson … the fact that I felt as if these immigration judge positions were not being filled on a timely basis,” Ohlson told DOJ IG/OPR investigators, according to this report. He repeatedly protested decisions not to advertise IJ vacancies, which were instead being reserved for Republican candidates recommended by members of Congress and the White House. One candidate suggested by a Republican member of Congress used profanity during an interview and, when asked his greatest weakness, responded: “Blondes.” The candidate’s interview “causes us to question whether he possesses the appropriate judicial temperament and demenanor to serve as an immigration judge,” Ohlson wrote in a Dec. 7, 2005 email to Jan Williams, Goodling’s predecessor as White House liaison to DOJ.

At another point, it was Ohlson who was being screened for loyalty, the IG/OPR report said. In 2007, when EOIR Director Kevin Rooney was retiring, and Ohlson was being considered for his job, Goodling contacted Associate Attorney General David Margolis. “As to your friend Kevin Ohlson, can you tell us whether he’s a D or an R?” Goodling asked. Margolis said he told Goodling that Ohlson was a career DOJ employee, but that he may have been more “politically attuned” to Republicans, according to the IG/OPR report.

DOJ released this report today into the mayhem caused by Brad Schlozman in the Civil Rights Division, which he once headed. The report by the IG and Office of Professional Responsibility was completed in July 2008. Evidence of Schlozman’s law-breaking was sent to the US Attorney for District of Columbia to review for potential prosecution. According to the report, the US attorney’s office declined to prosecute (what a surprise!) on Jan. 9, and so now DOJ is free to release the report.

It’s pretty juicy reading. Schlozman refered to liberal applicants for positions as “mold spores,” “commies” and “crazy pinkos.” The investigators concluded Schlozman “improperly” considered political and ideological affliations in hiring. And (sound familiar?) Schlozman actually lied to Congress about it, the report concludes. My goodness! Schlozman and his radioactive one-time ally in the division, Hans von Spakovsky, both declined to speak with investigators.

Says the report: “His violations of the merit system principles set forth in the Civil Service Reform Act, federal regulations and Department policy, and his subsequent false statements to Congress, render him unsuitable for public service.”

UPDATE: Heres’ coverage from the LA Times, New York Times and Washington Post.

The rise of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) in the Obama administration has been widely noted. ACS is the liberal antidote to the long-influential Federalist Society; Monica Goodling and her gang blackballed applicants to the prestigious Summer Law Intern Program (SLIP) who cited ACS affiliations.

But what’s been overlooked is how activist and outspoken many of the Obama DOJ transition team members have been – often in ACS forums – about the Bush DOJ’s frequent disregard for the law. Law professor Dawn Johnsen, a former Acting Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel and Obama DOJ transition team “leader,” wrote a hard-hitting paper in 2007 called “All the President’s Lawyers: How to Avoid Another ‘Torture Opinion’ Debacle. “Presidential lawyers must be prepared to resign in the extraordinary event the President persists in acting unlawfully,” she wrote.

Here’s Johnsen in her own words: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8-FrzhHT_w&feature=channel]

Georgetown law professor Martin Lederman and Duke law professor Christopher Schroeder — both Obama DOJ transition team members — have also been publicly outspoken. (For more details, see my post on my friend Al Lengel’s federal law enforcement site, Tickle the Wire.) And of course, ACS executive director Lisa Brown will be Obama’s White House staff secretary. But Obama is a political animal through and through; it remains to be seen whether he’ll satisfy liberal bloggers and activists screaming for blood, including prosecution of any government officials involved with illegal practices such as torture.

UPDATE: As expected, Dawn Johnsen was tapped to head of the Office of Legal Counsel Monday.

This Washington Independent piece highlights the controveersy of career DOJ staff (who are supposed to be non-political) hired during the Bush administration to carry out a conservative ideological agenda. But it doesn’t name names. Who are they? Send tips to mainjustice@gmail.com