BRIAN BENCZKOWSKI & LEE LOFTHUS
Senate Judiciary Committee U.S. Department of Justice
The Justice Department began preparing for a new president about a year ago this week. Then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey pledged that the first post-9/11 transition would be trouble-free, and he appointed Brian Benczkowski, his chief of staff, and Lee Lofthus, the assistant attorney general for administration, to make it so. From all accounts, they were successful. By early fall 2008, the Justice Department was meeting regularly with both campaigns, and in an unprecedented move it gave provisional security clearances to members of each campaign to reduce the learning curve whoever won the election. It helped, Lofthus said, that “the teams we met with were extraordinarily prepared and hyperorganized.” About five transition lawyers for Barack Obama were able to parachute into prepared office space days after his November victory. Once there, they negotiated with Bush appointees over access to sensitive material, including opinions from the Office of Legal Counsel. Benczkowski and Lofthus set up a process to keep them aware of any staff conflict. “It would quickly elevate to the leadership, so that we wouldn’t have midlevel people in protracted disagreements,” said Benczkowski, who is now with the Senate Judiciary Committee. Lofthus, the department’s chief financial officer, balanced preparing the annual budget with coordinating the transition. After all, “you have to keep your agency running,” he said. — David Ingram and Joe Palazzolo
