Eric Holder

Eric Himpton Holder, Jr. (born January 21, 1951) is an American lawyer and the current United States Attorney General. He is the first African-American to hold this position. Previously he has been a judge in Washington, D.C., United States Attorney, and Deputy Attorney General, appointed by both Republicans and Democrats. He is serving under President Barack Obama.

Early Life and Education

Eric Holder was born in the Bronx in New York City. His father was born in Barbados and emigrated to the United States at age 11. His mother was born in New Jersey to a family of immigrants from Barbados. He grew up in Queens, New York and attended Columbia University. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in American history in 1973. He enrolled in the Columbia Law School and earned his J.D. in 1976.

Early career

Upon graduation in 1976, Holder started work for the U.S. Justice Department and remained there until 1988. He was involved in the prosecution of various high-profile public officials of both parties for bribery and fraud, including former Governor Arch A. Moore, Jr. of West Virginia and former Rep. Dan Rostenkowski. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan appointed him as judge for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. He served in this capacity until 1993, when President Bill Clinton appointed him as U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia.

Attorney General

The Attorney General has a dual role, as the chief law enforcement official, and as a Presidential appointee presumably supportive of Administration positions. It is not at all unprecedented that an Attorney General may conclude that a Presidential directive needs to be delayed, interpreted, or even refused. During the Nixon Administration, Attorney General Elliott Richardson resigned rather than carry out the President's order to fire a Special Prosecutor (i.e., under the extant Special Prosecutor Act); the Deputy, William Ruckelshaus, stepped up and then refined.

During the George W. Bush Administration, John Ashcroft declined to agree to certain surveillance requests. He was hospitalized at the time, and had designated his deputy, James Comey, as Acting Attorney General. Comey also refused the order, brought to Ashcroft's hospital room by White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and Counsel to the President Alberto Gonzales; Comey, at Mrs. Ashcroft's request, was present, along FBI agents sent by Director Robert Mueller, who had ordered that the FBI agents were to prevent Comey from being removed from the room.

Appointment and confirmation

On December 1, 2008, President Barack Obama announced that he would appoint Holder as Attorney General. In light of persistent accusations of a politicized Justice Department under George W. Bush and his former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, reforms of the Justice Department were considered a high priority by the incoming Democratic administration.

The nomination of the first African-American Attorney General created some enthusiasm, but Holder's appointment was considered controversial by some Republicans. Before his confirmation, they questioned his behavior as Bill Clinton's Deputy Attorney General in pushing for the pardoning of Marc Rich, a fugitive from justice on the FBI's most wanted list, and the commutation of sentences for several Puerto Rican terrorists. He was confirmed by a 75-21 vote in the Senate on February 2, 2009.

Soon after taking office, he ordered a review of pending state secrets privilege applications by Federal prosecutors, although asked that it be applied in a case pending when he took office, Mohamed et al. v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc.. He indicated that the new administration might or might not adopt different policies, but there was a clear difference between Obama's campaign statements about maximal avoidance of state secrets, and Holder's recognition that haste can be dangerous in national security matters.

Dismissal of Ted Stevens prosecution

Early in his tenure Holder decided to dismiss the prosecution of Republican Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska who had been convicted in fall of 2008 on several felony charges of lying on senate disclosure forms. Shortly after Holder had taken office, a U.S. District Judge had held two prosecutors in the case in contempt of court for suppressing evidence favorable to the defense. More exculpatory evidence was discovered after Holder replaced the trial team. Holder then moved for a dismissal of the case, which effectively vacated Stevens' conviction.

Investigation of CIA illegalities

See also: Intelligence interrogation, U.S., review#Justice_Department

In January 2008, Michael Mukasey, Attorney General in the George W. Bush Administration, appointed John H. Durham, a registered Republican who is widely considered to be apolitical, to investigate possible CIA illegalities, including both destruction of evidence and improper interrogation. It was not clear if policymakers and legal advisers were within the scope of this investigation. Mukasey made the point that this assignment was not as a special prosecutor.

On August 24, 2009, Holder continued Durham's appointment as a general criminal investigator. In doing so, the Attorney General deviated from President Obama's view that no criminal investigations of his predecessor's policies should be undertaken. Holder commented that he was aware of the controversy that would (and was indeed) created by this move and , in view of new evidence that had come to light, he concluded that "given all of the information currently available, it is clear to me that this review is the only responsible course of action for me to take." The president ultimately supported the decision, underscoring the independence of the Justice Department in such matters.

Republican senators Jon Kyl, Christopher Bond and Jeff Sessions criticized Holder's decision as a partisan do-over for political reasons, since a 2004 CIA report on the matter had concluded that there was insufficient evidence to prove unlawful acts. Jennifer Rubin described the 2009 actions as political, in editorial coverage. However, this criticism ignores the fact that the investigation was reopened by Mukasey in 2008, before President Obama took office..

Mukasey, with former Director of Central Intelligence Michael Hayden, has criticized release of the Office of Legal Counsel opinions about interrogation of terror suspects. Hayden said it "was unnecessary as a legal matter, and is unsound as a matter of policy. Its effect will be to invite the kind of institutional timidity and fear of recrimination that weakened intelligence gathering in the past, and that we came sorely to regret on Sept. 11, 2001..." They also dispute that senior Congressional leaders were unaware of the interrogation methods.