White House Lawyer in Trouble for Doing His Job

Posted on Oct 21, 2009

White House / Pete Souza

White House counsel Greg Craig (second from left) sits in on an Oval Office meeting with the president.

The gossipy schoolchildren who make up Washington’s power elite have sunk their claws into White House counsel Greg Craig. The president’s top lawyer has had one of the toughest jobs in the building—reversing George W. Bush’s torture policies, finding a Supreme Court justice and vetting some of the nation’s most complex legislation—and he has the scars to prove it.  —PZS

The New York Times:

Mr. Craig was handed one of the most difficult portfolios at the White House. He drafted executive orders banning torture and ordering Guantánamo closed within a year. Over the objections of the Central Intelligence Agency, he recommended the release of Justice Department memos describing harsh interrogations. And he was at the center of the White House decision to reverse itself and withhold photographs of detainee abuse.

Mr. Craig took flak for those decisions, criticized for not doing more to build consensus within the administration or prepare the political ground in Congress. And the prospect of closing Guantánamo by the one-year deadline he helped set has proved more difficult than anticipated and now appears unlikely to be met.

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