President elect Barack Obama’s choice for Attorney General is Eric Holder. Holder was the deputy attorney general under President Clinton and vetted Vice-Presidential candidates for Obama during the campaign. Although qualified for the position, he is yet another Clinton era appointee from the campaign of change.
The appointment also does not come with some controversy. There were two things that he was responsible for during the Clinton era that I am sure he would not like anyone to remember. The first is the pardon of Marc Rich. The second is the clemency offered to 16 former members of the FALN.
Marc Rich received a last minute pardon from President Clinton when he left office. Mr. Rich was charged with 51 counts of fraud, tax evasion, and illegally trading with Iran. He fled to Switzerland in 1983.
Along with the controversy of the pardon itself was how it was obtained. Holder worked with Jack Quinn, former counsel to President Clinton, who was helping Rich obtain the pardon. According to documents given to congress, Holder helped Quinn with the process and told him to send the pardon request directly to the White House because “the timing was good”. This way Mr. Rich bypassed the government’s rules for pardon applications. Mainly because he knew it would never get through because most in the justice department would not have approved it. In fact a congressional committee reported that Holder was a willing participant in the plan to keep the justice department from knowing about the Rich pardon. It was also reported that Holder did not do any independent research on the pardon and simply sent it through.
The second incident was the clemency offered to 16 former members of the FALN organization. This organization was responsible for 130 bombings that killed 6 and injured dozens more from 1974 to 1983.
Many were against this clemency to include the FBI, Bureau of Prisons and U.S. state attorneys. Even after the clemency was given, Attorney Janet Reno released a report to the Senate describing the FALN as an ongoing threat to national security. Holder was one of few to recommend the clemency and documents show that many of the memos on this case went directly to Holder and not to Janet Reno. Her role was described by a paper as minimal.
When asked by Congress why and how the decision was made, Eric Holder cited executive privilege. I find that odd since I read in a recent article that they were going to fight things such as the use of executive privilege. It is one of the many things that Obama has bashed Bush on and one of the many things he was supposed to change in Washington. I haven’t seen any thing to back up his promises in these first few appointments.
Eric Holder, the (kinda) new Attorney General.
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