graphic by twolf
Hot off the presses, Tom Hamburger and Josh Meyer at the LA Times have an exclusive on new information detailing Obama Attorney General nominee Eric Holder’s involvement in the ugly and controversial clemency grants given to members of the violent Puerto Rican terrorist groups FALN and Los Macheteros.
"I remember this well, because it was such a big deal to consider clemency for a group of people convicted of such heinous crimes," said Adams, the agency’s top pardon lawyer from 1997 until 2008. He said he told Holder of his "strong opposition to any clemency in several internal memos and a draft report recommending denial" and in at least one face-to-face meeting. But each time Holder wasn’t satisfied, Adams said.
The 16 members of the FALN (the Spanish acronym for Armed Forces of National Liberation) and Los Macheteros had been convicted in Chicago and Hartford variously of bank robbery, possession of explosives and participating in a seditious conspiracy. Overall, the two groups had been linked by the FBI to more than 130 bombings, several armed robberies, six slayings and hundreds of injuries.
The entire Justice Department was vehemently against Holder’s inexplicable determination to force the clemencies against all reason and factual considerations. One has to wonder exactly what was motivating Holder’s shameful refusal to back up his prosecutors and case agents (probably one of the reasons Holder has never been a favorite of line level DOJ personnel).
Holder stiffed prosecutors, FBI case agents and victims:
* He reminded Holder that Holder had in previous cases given "considerable weight" to the recommendations of federal prosecutors, and that any clemencies would "contravene the strong negative recommendation of two United States attorneys."
* Adams also warned that the convicts’ release would undermine at least four pending prosecutions and investigations of FALN members, and hamper FBI efforts to apprehend some of their co-conspirators and recover millions in bank money stolen by the FALN.
* Adams warned that the groups’ victims had not been notified.
Read the entire article, it is devastating. But, really, it is not that shocking in the least if your examine Eric Holder’s history; he is always willing to push for a cause in the name of political or financial opportunism. As the instant example shows, he will even sell out his own troops in the Justice Department instead of having their back like an appropriate leader. The same bad example set in other previously discussed instances of Holder’s questionable history (see: here, here, here, here and here).
The words of a victim who lost his father to the FALN sum up the Holder conundrum perfectly:
"Eric Holder has been nominated for the top law enforcement position in the country, yet, if this is true, he supported and pushed for the release of terrorists," said Joseph F. Connor, whose father, Frank, was killed in the FALN bombing of New York City’s Fraunces Tavern on Jan. 24, 1975. "How can he reconcile that?
As a parting shot, to add insult to injury, guess who Obama has drafted to be their designated shill to soft sell the remarkably disconcerting new revelations against their prized nominee Eric Holder?? Yep, that’s right, Alberto Gonzales’ attorney:
George Terwilliger, who served as deputy attorney general under President George H. W. Bush and was asked by the Obama transition team to comment, said that although he disagreed with the FALN clemency, Holder’s conduct in the case was appropriate.
Well, that sure ought to reassure one and all. A Bush family toady, currently shilling for the most disgraceful Attorney General in the nation’s history, whose foul stench still fills the air, is the guy Team Obama has picked to front for the new questionable choice to lead the beleaguered Department of Justice. Brilliant.