Obama names 4 Justice Department choices

WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama tapped the Clinton administration again for four key Justice Department nominees announced Monday.

Obama nominated Dawn Johnsen, to lead the Office of Legal Counsel, which found itself embroiled in controversy for its legal defense of practices some organizations said bordered on torture, The New York Times reported Monday. Now a professor at Indiana University law school, Johnson served on an acting basis as head of the legal counsel office for former President Bill Clinton from 1997-98.

David Ogden, a partner at the Washington law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, was nominated as deputy attorney general, the No. 2 position at the Justice Department which oversees daily operations. Ogden, also an official in the Clinton Justice Department, has led the Obama transition team at the Justice Department since the election, the Times said.

Obama tapped Elena Kagan, dean of the Harvard Law School, as his choice for solicitor general, who, among other duties, argues the administration's positions on critical issues before the U.S. Supreme Court. During the Clinton administration, Kagan was a White House associate legal counsel from 1995-96.

Tom Perrelli, managing partner of the Washington office of the law firm of Jenner & Block, will be nominated as associate attorney general, the Times reported. He was counsel to former Attorney General Janet Reno during the Clinton administration and also worked on the Obama transition for the Justice Department.

The four nominees all require Senate confirmation. Eric H. Holder Jr., is Obama's attorney general-designate. Holder's confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to begin Jan. 15.