Salon.com > Eric Holder

No one went to jail, so why is Wall Street so mad?

Mon, 07 May 2012 19:23:00 +0000

In Newsweek, Peter Boyer and Peter Schweizer explore the question of President Obama's Justice Department's failure to press any major criminal charges against Wall Street. We learn, distressingly, that "finance-fraud prosecutions by the Department of Justice are at 20-year lows." Ex-Countrywide whistle-blower Eileen Foster, to name one prominent critic of the Justice Department's inaction, is still urging the Justice Department to do something about her former colleagues, but to no avail. What's holding them back?

The big banks win again

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000

On Thursday, a group of well-connected and powerful men announced that the federal government and state attorneys general had agreed to a multibillion-dollar settlement of claims relating to falsified foreclosure documents. The image of former corporate lawyer-turned-Attorney General Eric Holder and Iowa official Tom Miller complimenting each other on their courage and bravery was a stark reminder of how little power foreclosure victims have in Washington. The terms of the settlement were still secret, but we saw hints of what is to come: The website set up to inform the public noted that homeowners may not know for up to three years whether they are eligible for help.

Rather than settling anything, this agreement is simply a continuation of the policy framework of both the Bush and the Obama administrations. So what, exactly, is that framework? It is, as Damon Silvers of the Congressional Oversight Panel, which monitored the bailouts, once put it, to preserve the capital structures of the largest banks. "We can either have a rational resolution to the foreclosure crisis or we can preserve the capital structure of the banks," said Silvers in October, 2010. "We can’t do both." Writing down debt that cannot be paid back -- the approach Franklin Roosevelt took -- is off the table, as it would jeopardize the equity keeping those banks afloat.

When a WikiLeaks lawyer runs into Eric Holder

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

"Slavery by Another Name," a documentary based on the 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas Blackmon, premiered this year at the Sundance Film Festival. The story was new to me: Between the Emancipation Proclamation and the beginning of World War II, tens of thousands of African-Americans were arrested on phony charges, slapped with massive fines they could not pay, and then sold into labor to some of the biggest industries in the country to work off their debt. I didn't expect to learn that slavery essentially continued for decades after the Civil War. And I also didn't expect – on vacation from my legal work advising WikiLeaks and Julian Assange -- to bump into Attorney General Eric Holder. Having spent the week before Christmas at Fort Meade, Md., attending the Pvt. Bradley Manning hearing – Manning is charged with passing classified material to WikiLeaks -- I knew what I had to ask him.

The NRA guns for Holder

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:30:00 +0000

While an apologetic Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. went before a Senate committee this week to talk about a failed gun-walking program, the National Rifle Association was gearing up its campaign to get Holder fired.

In a new, slick 1 minute and 55 second television ad flush with with Fox News footage, the NRA expressed outrage over the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm's gun-running operation known as Operation Fast and Furious. Under the supervision of ATF officials, the operation let guns get into the hands of criminals on both sides of the Mexican border. The NRA claimed Holder perjured himself before Congress and lied about what he knew about the operation and urged the White House to fire Holder. Holder has adamantly denied lying.

The NRA has homed in on Operation Fast and Furious in order to advance its agenda of undermining not just Holder but the president. The misguided operation, run by ATF officials reporting to the Justice Department, encouraged Arizona gun dealers to sell weapons to "straw purchasers," with the hopes of tracing the weapons to the Mexican cartels. ATF lost track of many of the guns, and some surfaced at crime scenes on both sides of the Mexican border, including one involving the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry last year in Arizona.

Should we release crack prisoners early?

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 18:01:00 +0000

For the last few decades, activists have been warning that the severe U.S. drug sentencing policies instituted in the '80s and '90s have disastrous human consequences, particularly for minority communities. Starting with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, the trend in federal U.S. sentencing policy was up, up and away: It established mandatory minimum sentences for all levels of drug offenses and, specifically, a 100-1 sentencing disparity between powder cocaine and crack cocaine offenses. This disparity is especially significant because 85 percent of federal prisoners sentenced for crack cocaine are black. The result has devastated African American communities across the United States. In the country that incarcerates the largest percentage of its population of any nation in the world, a majority of those prisoners -- 60 percent -- are racial minorities. Of the federal prisoners sentenced to prison terms for drugs, a whopping 75 percent are racial minorities. Some scholars have gone as far as to call the mass incarceration of African-American adults "the new Jim Crow."

Does the attorney general have the power to renew “The Wire”?

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 17:10:00 +0000

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was a big fan of HBO's gritty cop show, "The Wire." So much so that he's willing to use his political power to bring it back to life ... which is just what some corrupt politician would do on "The Wire," when you think about it. Man, I know everyone loved that show so much, but people really need to let it go already (says the person who is rewatching "Lost" on the one-year anniversary of its season finale).

When three of the former cast members -- Wendell Pierce, Sonja Sohn and Jim True-Frost -- stopped by the Justice Department to talk to him about protecting children from guns and violence (because these guys couldn't get any cooler), the attorney general couldn't help himself:

"I want to speak directly to Mr. Burns and Mr. Simon: Do another season of "The Wire'," Holder said, drawing laughter and applause from the audience. "That’s actually at a minimum. … If you don’t do a season, do a movie. We’ve done HBO movies, this is a series that deserves a movie. I want another season or I want a movie. I have a lot of power Mr. Burns and Mr. Simon."

The embarrassments of empire

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 19:01:00 +0000

This piece originally appeared on TomDispatch.

From Egypt to Pakistan, February 2011 will be remembered as a month unusually full of the embarrassments of empire. Americans were enthralled by a spectacle of liberty in which we felt we should somehow be playing a part. Here were popular movements toward self-government, which might once have looked to the United States as an exemplar, springing up all across North Africa and the Middle East. Why did they not look up to us now?

The answer became clearer with every equivocal word of the Obama administration, and every false step it took in trying to manage the crisis. A person suffers embarrassment when something true about himself emerges in spite of reasonable efforts to conceal it. It is the same with nations. Sovereign nations are abstract entities, of course -- they cannot have feelings as people do -- but there are times when they would blush if they could.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was weakened and finally brought down by nonviolent popular actions that started in Cairo and spread to Alexandria, Suez, and many other cities. At first, Mubarak took a dictator's prerogative and named his successor. Soon after, he changed his mind and declined to step down. At last, he gave in to the unrelenting demands of the people and pressure from the army.

Does Obama really mean it on DOMA?

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 23:24:00 +0000

The Obama administration announced on Wednesday that it is throwing in the towel on the legal fight to preserve the 15-year-old Defense of Marriage Act. In a statement, Attorney General Eric Holder said that the Justice Department now considers Section 3 of the DOMA -- which grants federal recognition only to marriages of members of opposite sexes -- unconstitutional. The decision came with two challenges to DOMA pending in federal court, Pederson v. OPM and Windsor v. United States.

We spoke with Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor and noted scholar of constitutional law, to find out what this says about Obama and what this means for the future of gay marriage.

What should we make of this decision -- and the timing of it?

The right responds to Obama decision on DOMA

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 21:30:00 +0000

As of 3:30 p.m. EST, there were seven separate posts on National Review Online's The Corner about the Justice Department's decision to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act. (For reference, the name "Koch" does not appear once on the blog's front page.) They are ... not thrilled, for the most part.

Daniel Foster posted first, with commentary-free link to the news itself and the full text of the Justice Department's letter to Congress.

"Marriage Law Foundation" director William C. Duncan was the first to weigh in with an opinion. He seems unhappy. "There is something about the marriage issue that provokes an 'any means necessary' approach from its proponents," he writes, which may be because its proponents consider it a fundamental civil rights issue.

He adds more "initial reactions," including: "The DOJ (and the president) are attempting to unilaterally amend the Constitution to add a sexual-orientation discrimination clause."

Obama administration keeps new policy on Miranda secret

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 20:15:00 +0000

The Obama administration has issued new guidance on use of the Miranda warning in interrogations of terrorism suspects, potentially chipping away at the rule that bars the government from using information in court if it was gathered before a suspect was informed of his right to remain silent and to an attorney.

But the Department of Justice is refusing to publicly release the guidance, with a spokesman describing it in an interview as an "internal document." So we don't know the administration's exact interpretation of Miranda, even though it may have significantly reshaped the way terrorism interrogations are conducted.

The Miranda warning, which was created by a 1966 Supreme Court decision of that name, requires that police interrogators inform a criminal suspect of his rights before an interrogation. If the police fail to do this, statements made during the interrogation are not admissible in court. The rule, which was designed to prevent coercive interrogations, is rooted in the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and the Constitution's due process clause.

Justice Department’s national security chief leaves

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 22:45:00 +0000

The assistant attorney general who has overseen some of the most significant terrorism investigations since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks is leaving the Justice Department.

Assistant Attorney General David Kris will become general counsel at a company founded by the retired chief strategist and top technology officer at Microsoft Corp., Nathan Myhrvold.

As head of Justice's national security division since March 2009, Kris supervised investigation of a plot by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula to send printer cartridge bombs to the U.S., the Times Square bombing attempt and the Christmas 2009 attempt in Detroit to blow up an airliner with explosives hidden in underwear.

Kris will work for Intellectual Ventures, a Bellevue, Wash., firm started by Myhrvold. The company says Myhrvold holds hundreds of patents and has many more pending.

Court probes WikiLeaks Twitter info

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 17:31:00 +0000

U.S. investigators have gone to court to demand the details of WikiLeaks' Twitter account, according to documents obtained Saturday, part of the criminal case which Washington is trying to build against the secret-spilling website.

WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange said he believed other American Internet companies such as Facebook and Google may also have been ordered to divulge information on himself and colleagues.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia issued a subpoena ordering Twitter Inc. to hand over private messages, billing information, telephone numbers and connection records of accounts run by Assange and others.

The subpoena also targeted Pfc. Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army intelligence analyst suspected of supplying the site with classified information; Birgitta Jonsdottir, an Icelandic parliamentarian and one-time WikiLeaks collaborator; and Dutch hacker Rop Gonggrijp and U.S. programmer Jacob Appelbaum, both of whom have worked with WikiLeaks in the past.

The subpoena, dated Dec. 14, asked for information dating back to November 1, 2009.

Assange blasted the U.S. move, saying it amounted to harassment, and vowed to fight it.

Issa demands Holder probe ACORN, other issues

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 19:11:00 +0000

The Republican's top House investigator has a suggestion for Attorney General Eric Holder: Step it up or step down.

California Rep. Darrell Issa (EYE'-suh) says Holder is hurting the Obama administration because the Justice Department isn't doing more to investigate several issues.

Issa -- who's set to lead the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee -- says the department hasn't done enough concerning the activities of the now-defunct community group ACORN, as well as a 2008 incident of alleged voter intimidation in Philadelphia involving the New Black Panther Party and those behind the WikiLeaks releases.

Issa tells "Fox News Sunday" that Holder should either stop hurting the administration or leave it.

Holder threatens WikiLeaks, again

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 18:51:00 +0000

Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters today that he is personally involved in the ongoing criminal probe of WikiLeaks and that he authorized "a number of things to be done so that we can get to the bottom of this and hold people accountable." But Holder offered little in the way of specifics about the American legal strategy in going after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

As legal experts told Salon and other outlets, prosecuting Assange under the Espionage Act of 1917, the primary law that has been cited as applying to this case -- may well be practically and legally impossible. It could also set a precedent that would be used in the future to go after other publishers of controversial information.

Holder today said the Espionage Act is not the only statute being looked at:

US att’y general: Probe seeking Afghan leak source

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:48:00 +0000

A Pentagon investigation will determine whether criminal charges will be filed in the leaking of Afghanistan war secrets, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday.

Holder, speaking to reporters during a visit to Egypt, said the Justice Department is working with the Pentagon-led investigation to determine the source of the leak.

"I deplore the release of classified information. It is not really in the national interest of the Unite States to have that kind of material leaked," Holder said.

"The Justice Department is working with the Department of Defense with regard to an investigation concerning who the source of that leak, or the source of those leaks might be," he said. "Whether there will be criminal charges brought will depend on how the investigation goes."

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Tuesday that the Defense Department has launched a "very robust investigation" into the leak of secret documents on the war in Afghanistan published Sunday by WikiLeaks, an online site.

The WikiLeaks material ranges from files documenting Afghan civilian deaths to evidence of U.S.-Pakistani distrust. President Barack Obama said he was concerned about the massive leak of sensitive documents, but the papers did not reveal any concerns that were not already part of the debate over the war.

Feds open criminal probe of Gulf oil spill

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 20:07:00 +0000

Attorney General Eric Holder says federal authorities have opened criminal and civil investigations into the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill.

Holder would not specify Tuesday which companies or individuals might be the targets of the probe. He says federal clean air and pollution laws give him the power to open the investigations.

Holder met with attorneys general from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Tuesday.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

PORT FOURCHON, La. (AP) -- BP lost billions more in market value Tuesday when shares dropped in the first trading day since the company failed yet again to plug the worst oil spill in U.S. history, as investors realized the best chance to stop the leak was months away and there was no end in sight to the cleanup.

As hurricane season began on the fragile Gulf Coast, BP settled in for the long-term, and President Barack Obama said the government was ready to step up its response and prosecute if any laws were broken.

U.S. upbeat about anti-terror accord with E.U.

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:35:50 +0000

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday he is confident an accord will be reached shortly with the European Union to relaunch a Bush-era data-sharing program the U.S. considers key to anti-terror investigations.

Holder said he and other U.S. officials would listen to the EU allies' concerns about the accord's effect on civil liberties during a one-day EU-U.S. ministerial meeting in Madrid on Friday focusing on counterterrorism cooperation.

"One of our goals during these meetings will be to outline the extensive privacy safeguards that we have put in place to govern the TFTP, Holder told reporters in Madrid, referring to the Terrorist Financing Tracking Program. "I'm actually confident that in a relatively short period of time the program will be up."

Holder was to meet with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Justice Minister Francisco Caamano and Interior chief Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba later Thursday.

On Friday, he will meet with the EU officials along with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Treasury Department officials. Vice President and EU Commissioner for Justice Vivian Reding and EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom also will be there.

FOIA in a Holder World: Cloudy with a chance of rain

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 23:15:00 +0000

A little over a year ago, Attorney General Eric Holder issued a memorandum requiring agencies to administer Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with a “clear presumption of openness.” This changed the playing field considerably, at least on paper. Under the prior Administration’s policy, agencies could disclose information only after “full and deliberate consideration of the institutional, commercial, and personal privacy interests that could be implicated.” By contrast, the current Administration told agencies to err on the side of disclosure even where an exemption applied and to consider partial disclosure if it could not make full disclosure of a record. The Holder memo explained that the DOJ would defend a denial of a FOIA request only if an agency “reasonably foresees that disclosure would harm an interest protected by a statutory exemption.” (The Ashcroft memo declared its commitment to defending FOIA denials unless they lacked a sound legal basis). At the time, FOIA guru Dan Metcalfe, impressed with President Obama’s “transformative” commitment to transparency, noted that the real issue was how agencies put the memo into practice.

GOP dusts off Bush playbook

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:10:00 +0000

There is something of a master narrative of the early Obama administration currently emerging into view, issue by issue. It goes like this: A given situation is in a disastrous state of disarray when the new president and his staff take the reins. A rough and unsteady policy consensus forms among area experts and crucial political actors about how to move forward. At this point, the administration starts pushing a course of action designed to hold the political center. Those to the president’s left are consistently disappointed, but only sometimes outraged. While many Republicans are initially responsive, the party’s more conservative arm rallies its grass-roots base against cooperation.

The GOP then, like Lucy in "Peanuts," yanks the football away: Party leaders denounce the centrist compromise as radical and dangerous, and employ procedural tactics to stall while building their case with the electorate. By this point in the process, the compromise stance begins to wilt in the face of hardening public opinion. The emboldened opposition intensifies its attacks, the administration retreats, and whichever disastrous situation is being debated -- the job market, say -- continues to deteriorate. The administration, appearing ineffectual and counterproductive, loses much of its remaining purchase on public opinion on this particular issue.

Attorney general to charge Christmas day bomber

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:34:00 +0000

Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday he made the decision to charge the Christmas Day terror suspect in the civilian system with no objection from all the other relevant departments of the government.

In a letter to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, the attorney general wrote that the FBI told its partners in the intelligence community on Christmas Day and again the next day that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab would be charged criminally.

Holder's letter was the latest volley in a vigorous counterattack by the Obama administration to Republican charges that the arrest and FBI interrogation of the Detroit suspect was a mistake that cost a chance to learn key information.