There are apparently deep divisions within the administration about the Justice Department’s handling of the William Jefferson search warrant. Today, a well-connected former administration official told NRO that when Attorney General Alberto Gonzales made the final decision to seek a warrant and search Jefferson’s office, he pointedly did not include Solicitor General Paul Clement and attorneys from the department’s Office of Legal Counsel in the decision-making process. Those lawyers, the former official says, would be precisely the people who might have raised objections to the proposal to seek a warrant and search Jefferson’s office. This afternoon, a Justice Department spokesman had no comment, saying department officials “have declined to discuss the internal deliberations involved in this particular case.”