Eric Holder Resigns, Will Likely Go Back to Representing Banks at Covington and Burling
As we speak, Chuck Schumer is probably yelling into a phone trying to get President Obama to nominate Wall Street’s US Attorney Preet Bharara to succeed Eric Holder as Attorney General. “Barahck,” Schumer is probably yelling, “I can get Mitch to agree to push Preet through in the Lame Duck.”
That’s because Holder has just announced his resignation, pending confirmation of his successor.
The three most interesting details in Carrie Johnson’s scoop on Holder’s resignation are that he is likely to return to Covington and Burling, where — like former Criminal Division Chief Lanny Breuer before him — he will represent banks as they craft sweetheart deals with DOJ.
Friends and former colleagues say Holder has made no decisions about his next professional perch, but they say it would be no surprise if he returned to the law firm Covington & Burling, where he spent years representing corporate clients.
Nice to know a guy can still profit off of 6 years of overlooking rampant bank crime.
Johnson also reported that Holder plans to push through racial profiling guidelines that will protect African Americans but not Muslims.
Long-awaited racial profiling guidelines for federal agents will be released soon, too. Those guidelines will make clear that sexual orientation, ethnicity and religion are not legitimate bases for law enforcement suspicion, but controversial mapping of certain communities — including Muslim Americans — would still be allowed for national security investigations, one of the sources said.
That will soil the one real bright spot of Holder’s tenure at DOJ, his fight for civil rights.
Finally, Johnson reported that Don Verrilli — the guy who seemed to, but did not quite — lose the ObamaCare fight is the leading candidate to replace Holder.
The sources say a leading candidate for that job is Solicitor General Don Verrilli, the administration’s top representative to the Supreme Court and a lawyer whose judgment and discretion are prized in both DOJ and the White House.
By “judgement and discretion,” I wonder whether Johnson’s sources are referring to Verrilli’s stubbornness in not correcting the lies he told SCOTUS (wittingly or unwittingly) about DOJ’s implementation of FISA Amendments Act in the Amnesty v. Clapper case. By claiming, falsely, that DOJ gives defendants notice that they’ve been caught using Section 702, Verrilli successfully beat back the Justices’ concerns that no one would ever have standing to challenge these laws.
For what it’s worth, I think people are vastly overestimating the time it will take to replace Holder. After all, Republicans are on the record that they believe Holder to be contemptuous of Congress. While the House GOP that is suing him don’t actually get a vote on his replacement, surely they’ll convince their proxy Ted Cruz to represent their contempt.
Thus, for the right candidate, I suspect confirmation will happen quickly, just as Caroline Krass got confirmed in a landslide when the costs of leaving Robert Eatinger — who referred CIA’s overseers to DOJ for investigation — in place as Acting CIA General Counsel became clear.
I’m just not convinced Verrilli is that guy. And while Preet did lead the investigation into Alberto Gonzales’ politicization of the US Attorneys when he worked for Schumer, surely the GOP cares more about his diligent efforts to not investigate the banks in the interim.
The ‘Revolving Door’ needs to be eliminated. It’s a malignancy.
Maybe someone can create a ‘ribbon’ for that cancer.
Holder himself will write his own epitaph: “At least he wasn’t Mukasey”.
.
I just smiled when I thought a little bit about all those bullshit beat-sweeteners about Preet as the “Most Feared Man on Wall Street”. Those articles will make it pretty hard for Schumer to get his wish, even though Preet has been Wall Street’s last line of defense against real charges, making him the perfect candidate to replace Holder heading the Department Formerly Known as Justice.
Would you have been able to do better, reporting to (and beholden to) Obama? Pray tell.
the replacement will be someone like holder, a doj alumnus, willing to look the other way as doj prosecutors employ their skills at cheating in court, giving the lash of anti-terrorism laws to muslim-americans, and terrifying the whistleblowers and journalists who could reveal incompetence, corruption, and unconstitutional government behavior.
Eric Holder, the worst AG since Ebenezer Hoar (no I’m not making that name up)
Now he can be an honest
corporatecorp-rat attorney again, instead of having to pretend the 99% matter.Just to get ready for his replacement, I’m brainstorming the worst possible picks I can think of. So far I have:
Ken Cuccinelli
Jay Nixon
Pat Quinn
Rahm Emanuel
John Yoo
Going to go out on a limb and say that the replacement will not be named until after the election. That provides it as a consolation prize to prominent losers. If the polls are correct, Allison Grimes might be available. If not then Mitch McConnell; that should slick slide through confirmation.
Call me nitpicky, but I think the headline should read:
“Holder Resigns, Will Likely Continue Representing Banks Back at Covington and Burling”
The guy did nothing good. No criminal justice reform, no voting rights work, nothing at all.
Timing is everything, it’s said. With that in mind, I wonder if Holder’s announcement merely serendipitous given this news:
I’m going to whack NPR for dropping this story now as a fucking Friday news dump. Really, NPR? Are you beholden to the banksters, too? You couldn’t drop this on Monday?
the expert on bank fraud, william black, shows us what a lying lawyer covering up for his banking clients while in public office, attorney genel holder was:
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/9/eric-holder-resignationjusticefinancialcrisisfraud.html
Interesting timing of his announcement with the in-depth investigative report on TAL/ProPub about the Segarra tapes. I agree Rayne.