White House counsel Greg Craig says he'll resign; he'll be replaced by Democratic elections lawyer Bob Bauer. Greg Craig steps down

President Barack Obama announced on Friday that White House counsel Greg Craig will resign and named as his replacement Robert Bauer, a Democratic election lawyer who also has served as Obama’s personal lawyer.

Craig fell into disfavor with other top officials over his handling of Obama’s plan to close the Guantanamo Bay prison. The announcement, made in a written statement, came just hours after the president arrived in Japan for a weeklong trip to Asia.


The White House said Bauer, currently lead counsel to the Democratic National Committee, would take over by year’s end. In the statement, Obama praised Craig as a “close friend and trusted adviser who tackled many tough challenges as White House counsel.” He cited Craig’s work in helping to select Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, setting new ethics policies at the White House and crafting new legal policies regarding national security.

In a letter to the president, Craig said, “It has been a busy first year, and I feel very lucky to have been part of it.”

Neither man mentioned Gitmo. But Craig’s exit was announced on the same day that Attorney General Eric Holder will announce the U.S. is bringing five detainees from Guantanamo Bay — including self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — to New York City to stand trial.

Holder told reporters Friday he was surprised by Craig’s departure and said he should not shoulder all the blame for missteps in the Gitmo process.

“It was a surprise," Holder said. "Greg Craig is a great lawyer. He has, I think, contributed in a significant way to the success of this administration and I think to the success of the effort to close Guantanamo. Greg is a friend of mine and those who have tried to place on him, I think, an unfair proportion of the blame as to why things have not proceeded, perhaps as we've wanted, with respect to Guantanamo, that is simply unfair."

Supporters of the administration’s efforts to close Guantanamo said they were concerned that the timing of Craig’s departure could be interpreted as a signal that Obama is wavering in his commitment to closing the prison, which currently houses about 200 terror suspects. In recent weeks, officials have acknowledged that the administration is unlikely to meet Obama’s self-imposed deadline to shutter the facility by Jan. 22.

Craig’s critics said he failed to anticipate the wave of criticism in Congress, which led to a series of lopsided votes last spring against bringing any Guantanamo detainees to the U.S. While many observers said it was a mistake to ask Congress for $80 million to close Guantanamo before being ready to announce where the prisoners would go in the U.S. and how they would be tried, Craig’s allies said the notion that he decided such issues of legislative strategy by himself was preposterous.

“The policy on Guantanamo that Obama inherited was a complete mess — legally, practically, and every which way. Cleaning it up was never going to be easy or pretty, and it was always going to involve difficult choices. But the president identified it as an early priority, and he was fortunate to have Greg in there forcing people to make those choices,” Elissa Massimino of Human Rights First said early Friday. “The guy charged with getting that done is never going to be popular. But he has been effective. And eventually, when the 9/11 plotters are finally brought to justice in federal court, Greg will deserve a portion of the credit.”

According to officials, the White House took much of the Guantanamo portfolio away from Craig earlier this year, handing most policy issues to the National Security Council, legislative issues to Obama senior adviser Pete Rouse, and communications issues to deputy communications director Dan Pfeiffer.

Craig, 64, also faced criticism for delays in the vetting process and for the White House being blindsided by a Justice Department legal brief which caused outrage among many of Obama’s gay supporters.

Craig was also faulted for other law-related distractions for the White House, such as the release of Bush-era legal memos about interrogation of terror suspects and a decision, later reversed, to release photos of prisoners allegedly abused in U.S. custody overseas.

Craig’s impending departure was widely rumored for months, though through most of the summer aides dismissed the talk as a “parlor game.” In an interview last month, Craig steadfastly denied that he was on his way out.

"I have no plans to leave whatsoever," Craig told the National Law Journal on Oct. 12."The rumors that I'm about to leave are false. The reports that I'm about to leave are wrong. I have no plans to leave."

The news of Craig’s departure and Bauer’s selection came just days after other personnel reshuffles that may have been related. Last week, Craig’s deputy, Cassandra Butts, announced she was leaving for a legal post at an international development and debt relief agency. And earlier this week, the White House’s interim Communications Director Anita Dunn, who is Bauer’s wife, announced she was transitioning to a part-time, consultant role.

Obama said of Bauer, “Bob has served as a trusted counselor for many years to many elected officials and is known as a tough and widely respected advocate,” said Obama. “Bob is well-positioned to lead the counsel’s office as it addresses a wide variety of responsibilities, including managing the large amount of litigation the administration inherited, identifying judicial nominees for the federal courts, and assuring that White House officials continue to be held to the highest legal and ethical standards.As recently as late last month, Bauer had declined to say whether he was being vetted for the position as Obama’s top in-house lawyer.

Bauer this year assumed the position of lead counsel to the Democratic National Committee. He also continued to represent the Obama presidential campaign as it wound down its still considerable operations, as well as Obama and his family in personal matters, such as the federal investigation of disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and political matters stemming from Obama’s presidential campaign.

Bauer, a partner at the power law firm Perkins Coie, had long been a major player in campaign finance circles, but he transcended that wonky orbit during the presidential race, when he became a character in some key campaign story lines.

He explained Obama’s broken promise to participate in a public finance system by asserting that the lead lawyer for Republican John McCain was unwilling to negotiate the terms of such an arrangement (an account McCain’s lawyer flatly rejected). Bauer also famously ambushed a press conference call held by Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s campaign to challenge her campaign’s accusations that Obama supporters violated caucus rules.

Though Bauer is an unquestioned Obama insider, his legal track record and stances on the issues haven’t always jibed with Obama’s stances.

Obama has long cast himself as an advocate for reducing the role of special interest cash in politics. But Bauer until a few years ago had been a vocal critic of certain efforts to restrict political spending. In fact, a case he brought in 2005 on behalf of EMILY’s List recently resulted in a sweeping federal court ruling that experts predict could pave the way for a flood of new 527 spending that could target Obama in his 2012 reelection campaign.

In addition, while Obama has pledged to fix the public financing system as president, Bauer in a 2005 blog post suggested such effort could be futile because public “support is needed and not forthcoming."

Kenneth P. Vogel contributed to this story.