Eric Holder

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Biography

Eric Himpton Holder Jr. was born in the Bronx in 1951 and graduated from Stuyvesant High School, Columbia College, and Columbia Law School. He spent twelve years in the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section before Ronald Reagan nominated him to the District of Columbia Superior Court in 1988. Under Bill Clinton he served as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and then as Deputy Attorney General (1997-2001). In that role he gave a “neutral, leaning favorable” assessment of the pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich, which Clinton granted in the final hours of his presidency; a later congressional report concluded Holder “deliberately cut the rest of the Justice Department out of the process” to help Rich’s attorney obtain it.

After leaving government in 2001, Holder joined Covington & Burling, where he spent eight years representing major corporations and Wall Street banks — the firm’s client list included Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo. He earned $2.1 million in partner compensation in 2008 and was set to receive roughly a $3.14 million payout on departing for government service (ABA Journal, 2009). The firm kept an office reserved for his return throughout his six years as Attorney General.

Confirmed 75-21 in February 2009, Holder became the first African-American Attorney General and one of the longest-serving in U.S. history. His DOJ secured no criminal convictions of Wall Street executives for conduct tied to the 2008 financial crisis. In September 2012, career prosecutors in the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section, including chief Jennifer Shasky, formally recommended criminally prosecuting HSBC over money laundering for Mexican drug cartels and sanctions violations; Holder declined, and HSBC instead settled for $1.9 billion in December 2012 with no executives charged. A 2016 House Financial Services Committee report found that Holder “misled Congress concerning DOJ’s reasons for not bringing a criminal prosecution against HSBC.” In March 2013 Senate Judiciary Committee testimony, Holder said the size of some institutions made it “difficult for us to prosecute them” without “a negative impact on the national economy” — remarks widely characterized as a “too big to jail” doctrine. In 2012 he became the first sitting cabinet member held in contempt of Congress, over Operation Fast and Furious documents.

Holder returned to Covington & Burling in July 2015, rejoining the firm that represents many of the institutions his DOJ declined to prosecute. Journalist Matt Taibbi called the move “probably the single biggest example of the revolving door that we’ve ever had.” His former Criminal Division chief, Lanny Breuer — who acknowledged on PBS Frontline in 2013 that the DOJ weighed the “collateral consequences” of indicting large banks — likewise came from and returned to Covington.

Sources

1. “Office of the Attorney General: Eric H. Holder, Jr.” — U.S. Department of Justice — https://www.justice.gov/ag/bio/attorney-general-eric-h-holder-jr
2. “Eric H. Holder (2009-2015)” — Miller Center, University of Virginia — https://millercenter.org/president/obama/essays/holder-2009-attorney-general
3. “AG Nominee Holder Would Get $3M Partner Payout from Covington” — ABA Journal — 2009 — https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/ag_nominee_holder_would_get_3m_partner_payout_from_covington
4. “Eric Holder returns to Covington & Burling” — Politico — 2015 — https://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/eric-holder-covington-burling-119675
5. “Holder’s DoJ Overruled Advice to Prosecute HSBC, Report Says” — Bloomberg — July 11, 2016 — https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-11/holder-s-doj-overruled-advice-to-prosecute-hsbc-report-says
6. “Too Big to Jail: Internal Treasury Documents Reveal Why Justice Department Did Not Prosecute HSBC” — U.S. House Committee on Financial Services — July 2016 — https://financialservices.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=400908