So this guy was a high-powered corporate lawyer, huh? Just what the department needs!
"Holder's private practice an issue in AG hearings; Cabinet pick's work involved famous, infamous" by Eric Lichtblau, New York Times | January 11, 2009
WASHINGTON - Chiquita was facing the prospect of federal charges for paying protection money to Colombian terrorists to safeguard its banana crops, and the company needed help. It turned to Eric H. Holder Jr., an elite Washington lawyer well versed in the ways of the Justice Department.
Related: U.S. Reactivates Colombian Death Squads
"We were in an extraordinarily difficult position," James E. Thompson, the general counsel for Chiquita, recalled in an interview last week. As a former prosecutor, Holder "carries a level of credibility with him, and that's a valuable commodity," he said.
Translation: he's under corporate control.
Holder, now President-elect Barack Obama's pick for attorney general, made his name publicly during a quarter-century in government service, first as a corruption prosecutor, then as a judge, and finally as the second-ranking official in the Clinton Justice Department. But it is as a power lawyer in Washington over the last eight years that Holder, 57, has made his wealth, as well as a reputation as a legal fixer for clients in crisis....
Great.
When the National Football League was facing a legal and public-relations disaster in 2007 over a dog-fighting scandal involving Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, it turned to Holder to help navigate the maelstrom. The pharmaceutical giant
Holder's brief association with Blagojevich has drawn scrutiny from Republicans, who are waging a more spirited campaign against Holder's nomination than many had anticipated. Until now, most of the scrutiny has focused on controversies during the nominee's time as deputy attorney general at the end of the Clinton administration, particularly his role in the pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich.
Rich (a Jew, btw) only contentious because he sold stuff to Iran.
In responding to written questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee, Holder made no mention of a 2004 announcement in which Blagojevich introduced him as a "special investigator" under a $300,000 contract with the state....
Yup, Bill Richardson and the rest do just what Blago does, and yet he's in the fryer (because he told BofA to fuck off).
Related:
"Holder was among the relatively few Democrats who argued that the Geneva Conventions should not apply to terrorism suspects"
