Eric Holder: Clinton re-tread and Corrupt Scumbag

[scorpio]

Another Brief life sketch of a corrupt insider - Scorpio



Attorney General Eric Holder

Eric Holder is the first African-American to hold the position of Attorney General.  He was born in Queens, NY to parents of Barbados descent.  He graduated from Columbia and Columba Law School.  He has been a member of Concerned Black Men and worked for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.  Holder joined the U.S. Justice Department's newly formed Public Integrity Section in 1976 to 1988.  (The Public Integrity Section holds exclusive jurisdiction over prosecution of alleged criminal misconduct by federal judges, monitors the investigation and prosecution of election and conflict of interest crimes, and, since 1978, has supervised administration of the Independent Counsel provisions of the Ethics in Government Act.)

Holder recommended that Clinton grant clemency for 16 members of the Boricua Popular Army, (Also known as Los Macheteros ("the Machete Wielders") a Puerto Rican terrorist group.  The clemency was unusual because it was opposed by the FBI, the federal prosecutor and the victims.  Additionally, the Boricua Popular Army members were not required to repudiate their actions, and they were not asked to turn over a co-conspirator, one of the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, or the millions of dollars stolen by the group in a 1983 robbery of Wells Fargo in West Hartford, Connecticut.

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

In his final days with the Clinton administration, Holder was involved with Clinton's last-minute pardon of fugitive and Democratic contributor Marc Rich.  Holder advised Rich's attorney to circumvent standard procedures and to submit the pardon petition directly to the White House.  It has been said that Rich's pardon was actually a favor from Clinton to members of the Israeli government, for which Clinton hoped to gain progress in the peace talks between Israel and Palestine.

Between 1997 and 2004, Chiquita Brands International, paid $1.7 million to the Columbian terrorist group, United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, aka, the A.U.C., whose death squads destroyed unions, terrorized workers, and killed thousands of civilians. In an agreement, Chiquita's officials plead guilty and paid a fine of $25 million.  Holder represented Chiquita in the civil action that grew out of this criminal case.  

From 2001 until he became Attorney General, Holder worked as an attorney at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C.   He represented the NFL during its dog fighting investigation against Michael Vick shortly after he negotiated Chiquita's "slap on the wrist" plea deal.   He represented Merck against the U.S. and five states in a settlement involving allegations of Medicaid fraud.  Holder also represented the Swiss bank UBS AG which now stands accused of conspiracy and U.S. tax fraud.
In March 2004, he was hired by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to act as a special investigator to the Illinois Gaming Board, regarding concerns about alleged organized-crime links to the Rosemont casino's developer, who also had ties to Tony Rezko.  This post was to pay Holder and his firm up to $300,000. Holder, however, omitted that event from his 47-page response to a Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire. Holder signed the questionnaire five days after Blagojevich's arrest for allegedly putting Obama's U.S. Senate seat up for sale.  Holder was never hired.  "The concern was Holder had a bias to do whatever Blagojevich wanted, which was to give the casino to Rosemont," said Jim Wagner, who was a top Chicago FBI agent before he joined the Gaming Board.   A federal judge, James Zagel recently refused to approve a subpoena calling for President Obama to testify at the political corruption trial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

When questioned about weapons regulations during a news conference to announce the arrest of Mexican drug cartel members, Holder stated that the Obama administration would seek to re-institute the expired Assault Weapons Ban, which he strongly supports.  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 position of the Department of Justice was that the Second Amendment does not protect an individual right to keep and bear arms.
On April 1, 2009, Holder announced that he had ordered the dismissal of the indictment against former Senator Ted Stevens on corruption charges. Stevens had been found guilty, but hadn't been sentenced; Holder's action effectively vacated Stevens' conviction.

Holder gave a speech on race relations on February 18, 2009, during Black History Month, in which he called the United States "a nation of cowards" on racial issues. "Though race-related issues continue to occupy a significant portion of our political discussion and though there remain many unresolved racial issues in this nation, we average Americans simply do not talk enough with each other about race," he said.  Well, we're talking about it now!