Eric Holder is the first African-American nominee for attorney general. His resume includes being the first black U.S. attorney, the Justice Department’s first black deputy attorney general, and the acting attorney general for 14 days at the end of the Clinton administration. The former attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, resigned amid probes into the department’s firing of nine U.S. attorneys.
Among the policy issues Holder will need to address are how to handle the remaining foreign terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and whether to issue new legal guidelines for interrogating and wiretapping such suspects. Holder has characterized the secret monitoring of communications of U.S. citizens and the use of questionable interrogation methods as “excessive and unlawful.”
Critics of Holder point to his support for presidential pardons for convicted tax evader Marc Rich and for terrorist Susan Rosenberg, who was convicted on explosives and weapons charges. Holder also refused to appoint an independent counsel to investigate President Clinton’s fundraising activities. Holder has since expressed regrets about his decision to recommend Rich’s pardon.
