Eric Holder Biography

Summary

"Eric Himpton Holder, Jr." (born January 21, 1951), is a former Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, United States Attorney and Deputy Attorney General of the United States. He is currently a senior legal advisor to President-elect Barack Obama, a position he also held in Obama's campaign. He was one of three members of Obama's vice-presidential selection committee.

In mid-November 2008, Obama reportedly asked Holder to serve as the United States Attorney General in the incoming Obama Administration. If nominated and approved, he will be the first African-American Attorney General of the United States.

Biography

Eric H. Holder, Jr. was born on January 21, 1951 in the The Bronx borough of New York City, to parents with roots in Barbados; Holder's father, Eric Himpton Holder, Sr. (1905 - 1970) was born in Saint Joseph, arrived in the United States at the age of 11, and eventually served in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. He later became a real estate broker. His mother, Miriam, was born in New Jersey while his maternal grandparents were immigrants from Saint Philip, Barbados. Holder grew up in Queens and attended public school until the age of 10. When entering the 4th grade he was selected to participate in a program for intellectually-gifted students. He went on to attend Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan and attended Columbia University, where he played freshman basketball and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in American history in 1973. Holder got his law degree from Columbia Law School, graduating in 1976. He worked for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund during his first summer and the United States Attorney during his second summer.

Holder is married to Sharon Malone, an obstetrician; the couple have three children. Malone's sister was Vivian Malone Jones, famous for her part in integrating the University of Alabama.

Career

After graduating from law school, Holder joined the U.S. Justice Department's new Public Integrity Section during an interval lasting from 1976 to 1988. During his time there, he assisted in the prosecution of Democratic Congressman John Jenrette for bribery discovered in the Abscam sting operation. In 1988, then-President Ronald Reagan appointed Holder to serve on the Bench as a Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Holder stepped down from the bench in 1993 to accept an appointment for U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia from President Bill Clinton. He was the first African-American U.S. Attorney in that office. At the beginning of his tenure, he oversaw the conclusion of the corruption case against Dan Rostenkowski, part of the Congressional Post Office Scandal. He was a U.S. Attorney until his elevation to Deputy Attorney General in 1997.

Deputy Attorney General

In 1997, upon the spring retirement of Jamie Gorelick, Clinton nominated Holder to be the next Deputy Attorney General under Janet Reno. Holder was quickly confirmed several months later in the Senate by a unanimous vote. During his confirmation hearing, Holder's opposition to the death penalty was questioned, but he pledged his intention to cooperate with the current laws and Attorney General Janet Reno, saying, 'I am not a proponent of the death penalty, but I will enforce the law as this Congress gives it to us.' Holder was the first African-American to serve in that position. Holder briefly served as Acting Attorney General under President George W. Bush, until the Senate confirmed Bush's nominee, John Ashcroft.

As Deputy Attorney General, Holder advised Reno about how far to go in the Justice Department's use of the Independent Counsel statute. Ultimately, Reno made the fateful decision to permit Kenneth Starr to expand his investigation into the Lewinsky affair, indirectly leading to Clinton's impeachment.

In his final days with the Clinton administration, Holder was an involved with President Clinton's last-minute pardon of fugitive and Democratic contributor Marc Rich. Between November 2000 and January 2001 Jack Quinn, Rich's lawyer and former White House Counsel from 1995-96, had been contacting Holder, testing the waters for the political viability of a presidential pardon. After presenting his case to Holder in a November phone call and a last minute January 17th letter, Quinn arranged a phone call between the White House and Holder, asking the Deputy Attorney General to share his opinion on the Rich pardon. Ultimately, Holder gave a 'neutral, leaning towards favorable' opinion of the pardon to Clinton.

During his February testimonies before the House Government Reform Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee, Holder argued his phone call was not intended as a formal Justice Department blessing of the pardon, saying, 'my interaction with the White House, I did not view as a recommendation. Because... I didn't have the ability to look at all the materials that had been vetted through the way we normally vet materials.' He also did not believe his opinion would be interpreted as a go-ahead for the pardon. 'What I said to the White House counsel ultimately was that I was neutral on this because I didn't have a factual basis to make a determination as to whether or not Mr. Quinn's contentions were in fact accurate, whether or not there had been a change in the law, a change in the applicable Justice Department regulations, and whether or not that was something that would justify the extraordinary grant of a pardon.' An investigation championed by House Government Reform Committee chairman Rep. Dan Burton concluded, in a 2003 report covering 177 Clinton pardons, that Holder had played a significant role in facilitating the Rich pardon, first by recommending the well-connected Jack Quinn to Marc Rich legal representatives, and by eventually delivering a 'neutral leaning favorable' opinion of the twilight pardon to the President from a position of authority.

Private practice

Since 2001, Holder has worked as an attorney at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C., representing clients such as Merck and the National Football League. He represented the NFL during its dog fighting investigation against Michael Vick.

In 2004, Holder helped negotiate an agreement with the Justice Department for Chiquita Brands International in a case that involved Chiquita's payment of 'protection money' to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, a group on the U.S. government's list of terrorist organizations. In the agreement, Chiquita's officials pleaded guilty and paid a fine of $25 million. Holder represents Chiquita in the civil action that grew out of this criminal case.

While "D.C." v. "Heller" was being heard by the Supreme Court in 2008, Holder joined the Reno-led amicus brief, which urged the Supreme Court to uphold Washington, D.C.'s handgun ban and said the Department of Justice from Franklin Roosevelt through Bill Clinton had always believed that the Second Amendment does not protect the rights of individuals to own guns for personal use. Holder said that overturning the 1976 law 'opens the door to more people having more access to guns and putting guns on the streets.'

Nomination for the office of Attorney General

In late 2007, Holder joined then-United States Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign as a senior legal advisor. He served on Obama's vice presidential selection committee. On November 18, 2008, Michael Isikoff of "Newsweek" reported that Holder has been asked to serve as United States Attorney General by President-elect Obama and has accepted the offer, pending a formal vetting process. If he is nominated and the Senate confirms him, he will be the first African-American Attorney General.

Holder's political views are broadly in line with Obama's. Holder favors closing the controversial Guantanamo Bay detention camp. He is opposed to the Bush Administration's implementation of the Patriot Act, saying it is 'bad ultimately for law enforcement and will cost us the support of the American people.' He has been critical of US torture policy and the NSA warrantless surveillance program, calling the Bush administration's 'disrespect for the rule of law ... not only wrong, it is destructive in our struggle against terrorism.'