marcia: Bauer to Step Down as White House Counsel

2011年6月3日星期五

Bauer to Step Down as White House Counsel

By JACKIE CALMES

The White House counsel, Robert F. Bauer, will return to private practice at the end of June and resume his role as lawyer for the Democratic Party and Mr. Obama?s re-election campaign, President Obama announced on Thursday. Mr. Bauer will replaced by the deputy presidential counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler.

?Bob was a critical member of the White House team,? Mr. Obama said in a statement. ?He has exceptional judgment, wisdom and intellect, and he will continue to be one of my close advisers.?

Mr. Bauer, who will go back to the law firm Perkins Coie, will also be Mr. Obama?s personal lawyer. A low-key, highly discreet political insider, Mr. Bauer as general counsel had wide-ranging legal responsibilities and was a central figure in Mr. Obama?s decision to nominate two women, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, to the Supreme Court. His wife, Anita Dunn, also worked in the White House as communications director but left to return to her Democratic consulting firm. Mr. Bauer is considered an authority on campaign finance law.

Ms. Ruemmler became Mr. Bauer?s deputy in January 2010, after serving for the first year of the Obama administration at the Justice Department, as the principal associate deputy attorney general. She was an associate White House counsel for the last year of the Clinton administration.

?Kathy is an outstanding lawyer with impeccable judgment,? Mr. Obama said.

Before joining the Obama administration, she was a private lawyer for two years and a federal prosecutor for six years, playing a lead role in the government?s successful prosecution of former Enron executives for financial fraud.