Eric Holder to Be Obama's New Sheriff?

Posted by Staff, Huffington Post at 1:04 PM on November 18, 2008.

"President-elect Obama has decided to tap Eric Holder as his attorney general, putting the veteran Washington lawyer in place to become the first African-American to head the Justice Department, according to two legal sources close to the presidential transition," Newsweek's Michael Isikoff reports.

Holder, who served as deputy attorney general during the Clinton administration, still has to undergo a formal "vetting" review by the Obama transition team before the selection is final and is publicly announced, said one of the sources, who asked not to be identified talking about the transition process. But in the discussions over the past few days, Obama offered Holder the job and he accepted, the source said. The announcement is not likely until after Obama announces his choices to lead the Treasury and State departments.

Holder, 57, has been on Obama's "short list" for attorney general from the outset. A partner at the D.C. law firm of Covington & Burling, Holder served as co-chief (along with Caroline Kennedy) of Obama's vice-presidential selection process. He also actively campaigned for Obama throughout the year and grew personally close to the president-elect. Holder has not returned a call seeking comment; the Obama transition team did not respond to e-mail messages.

The American Lawyer looks at Obama and Holder's relationship:

Given Holder's social circle, it was perhaps inevitable that soon after Barack Obama became the lone African-American in the U.S. Senate, they would meet. In 2004 Holder was invited to a small dinner party hosted by Ann Walker Marchant, a niece of Vernon Jordan and a former Clinton administration White House aide. The gathering was planned to welcome Obama to Washington. Obama and Holder, seated next to one another, found that they had a lot in common. The two men, both tall and thin, each had immigrant fathers, went to Ivy Leagues schools (both attended Columbia College as undergraduates), played basketball, and, of course, believed passionately in public service. "We just clicked," says Holder matter-of-factly.

 

Holder says he immediately sensed Obama's talent. And despite the 10 years that separated them, he found someone who thought similarly about race. "I think we share a worldview," he says. "[Obama] is not defined by his race. He's proud of it, cognizant of the pernicious effect that race has had in our history but not defined by it."

The two kept in touch sporadically over the next couple of years. On occasion, Obama's Senate staffers asked Holder for his opinion on crime policy issues. Holder also co-hosted a fundraiser for an Obama political action committee. Then, during the spring of 2007, a few months after Obama announced he was running for president, he called Holder to ask him formally to join the campaign.

"I said, 'Come on, you don't have to sell me on this,'" recalls Holder. "I'm in."

Some more details about Holder from the American Bar Association Journal:

Holder and Obama have been friends since they hit it off at a dinner party in 2004. He is the consummate Washington insider -- a familiar fixture in the Clinton administration, but well-known to Republican administrations as well. Best known as a prosecutor, Holder was fresh out of law school when he was assigned to the newly formed public integrity section of the Justice Department. There, he helped prosecute several high-profile defendants, including a judge, a diplomat, an assistant U.S. attorney and a leading organized crime figure.

 

 

 

President Reagan nominated him to a D.C. judgeship and he was later tapped by President Clinton to serve as D.C.'s U.S. attorney. In 1997, Clinton elevated him to the No. 2 job in the Justice Department, and he briefly served as acting attorney general in the Bush administration while nominee John Ashcroft was being confirmed. In 1999, Holder helped convince Republi­cans to scrap independent counsel investigations, successfully arguing before Congress that wrongdoing by public officials can, and should, be handled by the Justice Depart­ment. And should he be tapped as the nation's chief law enforcement official, Republicans may ask him to revisit that.

The basic facts on Holder, from the Washington Post:

Credentials: Former judge, D.C. Superior Court; former deputy attorney general in the Justice Department; former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

What he offers: Holder has extensive experience in the criminal justice system and with civil court disputes. He staunchly backed community policing programs to reduce violent crime and raised morale within the Justice Department during his tenure. Holder served as a co-chairman of the Obama presidential campaign.

Vetting: Holder took flak in 2001 for failing to object to a last-minute pardon request for fugitive Marc Rich, whose ex-wife is a prolific Democratic Party donor, when others in the Clinton administration pushed through the petition during its last hours in office.

Tagged as: obama, washington dc, doj, attorney general, eric holder