The Washington Post offers up this very interesting story on the White House’s initial insistence in 2003 that John Yoo would become the head of DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel. Marty Lederman adds some fascinating details about White House involvement in later OLC picks over at Balkinization.
One very minor correction: The Post states that Adam Ciongoli was “a onetime Supreme Court law clerk” in 2003, but I believe he clerked afterwards, in OT2005. I’m guessing Ciongoli is the first person to serve as a law clerk after he was seriously considered as a nominee to head the Office of Legal Counsel.