Eric Holder "More Deeply Involved" In Rich Pardon Than Supporters Acknowledge

New York Times:

WASHINGTON - In the much praised career of Eric H. Holder Jr., President-elect Barack Obama's choice to be attorney general, there is one notable blemish: Mr. Holder's complicated role in the 2001 pardon of Marc Rich, a billionaire financier who had fled the country rather than face federal tax evasion charges.

Mr. Holder's supporters portray him as having been a relatively uninvolved bystander caught in a Clinton-era controversy, the remarkable granting of a last-minute pardon by President Bill Clinton to a fugitive from justice. But interviews and an examination of Congressional records show that Mr. Holder, who at the time of the pardon was the deputy attorney general, was more deeply involved in the Rich pardon than his supporters acknowledge.

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Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[lovable]

HERE COME THE HANNITY/ LIMBAUGH/ OREILLY OPINIONS DOMINATING STORIES NOW . the way to put a stop to this is for the obama team to put the info out now. get ur seragates on the fox shows and after discussing and debating with orielly and hannity ask them were they as angry and worked up over alberto gonzales and the fired us attornies . as them why is there selective outrage. !!! challenge them and if the segmant ends up on the cutting room flour annouce that untl fox declares nnever to do that again u the administration will nver acknoledge them . just because hannity ask a question u can answer however u want .

[JulieSA]

Hey, you guys are in complete charge now. If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen. You can't just sit on the sidelines and carp anymore--you have to get out and lead, and take responsibility.

Media scrutiny is part of deal.

[amdezurik]

please check a calendar

[TN60]

The PRESS just have to get their knives out, don't they? It is Holder this time.

I frankly don't give a whit whether he helped Clinton pardon a criminal or not. It is Clinton's name on the pardon.

What I want is for him is to take a mighty broom and clean out the Justice Dept of all the neo-con, right wing, Liberty University nuts. He might want to hire an exorcist or burn incenses to clean it completely from the stench of the evil that has attached itself to the Hall of Justice.

Since Obama is a civil rights attorney, I'm sure he knows how to direct Holder.

Just get the job done!

[JulieSA]

Do you think the press shouldn't question our leaders, especially when we have one party rule now? Don't you think it's the most important part of their job to keep an eye on the government?

[TN60]

Where were the press calling for Bush/Cheney's impeachment ?

[Dupree]

Bill Clinton was the one that pardon Marc Rich and would have done it with or without Holden. The same identical outcome would have emerged regardless. I do not give anyone a free pass but I do measure and weigh them in light of my own humanity and try to stop short of being a hypocrite. If there were a list of this kind of behavior from Holden, I would not be so generous with forgiveness...but evidently this is the only mark on his record....can you say the same about your ownself as you examine your life?

[Dupree]

I never realized how much the press and media simply "stir up non-issue" and elevate them to mean something. How many years ago did this event took place? And can we at least seek to be fair and weigh all of his career in totality. I think we of reasonable minds can agree that it is much more slanted in the competent category than the error category. Can we all remember that we are human beings and that we have all made mistakes, succumbed to higher authorities and moved on and actually became a stronger and better person because we did indeed LEARNED from our mistakes. I am sick and tired of this childish desire to seek perfection in everyone and deny our own knowledge of the propensity to fall on occassions. It is what we do AFTER we fall....do we PICK OURSELVES UP or do we just get stuck in the errors we find ourselves in in life and trust me...just look in the mirror at your own life and see how many times YOU dropped the ball...and did you become better or worse as a result of being humbled?

[InfoWarriorNY]

Please refrain from any cwiticism of His Highness, the Lord Savior. It upthets me thooooo much

[TN60]

Get a friggin life !!

[InfoWarriorNY]

oh

ok

[GrainOSand]

Swimming with the sharks, running with the devil, trying to stay clean and fresh whilst I attempt to flow and float an agenda of honor and decency in a swamp -- environmental realities bringing me down, these are the realities of America’s political wasteland. Of Washington, Obama said, it is where good ideas go to die. Indeed Mr. Obama is correct, but he does not go far enough. He does not attach the proper amount of urgency to his observation or proclamation. If America as a country were to die and an autopsy were performed and an inquest held, it would most certainly come to light that the nation died due to a massive hemorrhage of morality, courage, and honesty and a metastasizing malignant tumor brought on by defects in DNA and carcinogenic exposure at a fatal level. The specific carcinogens of hate, corruption, greed, distorted ambition, selfishness, myopia, and hubris will be found to have been most devastating to the then dead America.

If Washington kills ideas, it surely kills people. How many generations of Americans have been born, survived a shortened and stricken life in America, all while Washington continued its sick Waltz of partisan and corrupt behavior? How many people have past governments failed due to compromise, capitulation, lack of integrity, and greedy self-interest playing out in the halls of congress and the rooms of the White House?

Holder must be bolder to shoulder the weight of cleanup required in law enforcement. He must transcend the swamp.

[schicklett3]

Good grief.... Who cares about the Rich Pardon?
Sheesh!!!

[junestag]

You don't have to care but a thinking person SHOULD care. Here's why: Holder's actions as acting attorney general show he has a problem saying 'no' to power. Alberto Gonzales also had that problem. We need our nation's top cop to be his own man. Holder, whatever his other qualifications (and he seems perfect in almost every way) does not deserve this job because of the Rich pardon.

[mouselion]

You are echoing Richard Cohen who writes exactly what you say today in the Washington Post.

There's still a lot we don't know about how and why Holder signed off on the pardon.
Better to wait and let the facts come in before passing judgment. The Nattering Nabobs will say all sorts of things before they're done with this.

But, you're right. You should care enough to be paying attention.

[FaceYourFears]

I do and I'm an Obama supporter.

[jdmccl]

What if Bush pardoned Wesley Snipes, its that ok also? Wesley only owed millions and Rich did far worse, stop crying about Scooter all you Hypocrites.

[dbdzen]

Marc Rich is the new Bill Ayers. This story is only running because Rudi Giulliani was the prosecutor involved in the case. There is no new imformation, zero, that it reveals. The only unique thing is that he's the easiest nominee pick that they can attack for something emotionally charged for the Republican base because it's all too obvious that attacking Hillary Clinton just won't fly.

Karl Rove also realizes, with a growing sense of foreboding, that Holder has experience with high profile Washington prosecutions and has reason to fear what's coming from the Siegelman mess. I expect that Holder will be surprisingly frank in his confirmation hearings. The bottom line is this, Bill Clinton, a lawyer, pardoned Rich and nobody in the world had the power to stop it if that's what he wanted to do. Joe Biden did the homework behind the scenes and Holder will be confirmed amid an Ayers-like faux media drama.

[junestag]

Interesting. You sound like FOX news.

[eclecticbf]

I am just sick over this appointment. This is one post where there is an abundence of talent but Obama gives us the SOS. Yeah that KoolAide I drank has got me down and I brought so much of it I can't afford to go to a doctor now.

[Charmed]

Why do you rightwing hannity followers try to act like you ever supported Obama.

[DC]

This is a side non-issue, for sure.

But while we are at it --Rich, a convict at large, never ever should have been pardoned and the US Government had no business allowing foreign governments to influence the decision. What other countries put forth to support the pardon never should have even been considered. The whole thing was corrupt and rotten, while so many convicted innocents do sit in jail.

Rich bought his pardon. Our Government can, indeed, be bought off. It is no less corrupt than that, for example, of the Western Congo.

[BethinIllinois]

I frankly don't know how I feel about Holder and his role in the Rich pardon. But if you think it never should have happened, why is it a side issue? Holder was deeply involved in something you feel is terribly wrong -- but you're giving him a pass? If the result was corrupt and rotten (and I tend to agree with you), then why put the person who had a lot of influence on that decision in a position of enormous power?

[IowaKid]

And just how would you handle it then?????????????

[nogimmicks]

Crooks.. definitely crooks. OK, let us keep forgiving Obama his wonderful "picks". I guess somebody else chooses for him or "advises" him (strongly).

[buddhistMonkey]

I've got two words for ya: "Scooter Libby."

Enough said.

[Judyisacutie]

Oh please. This guy is cleaner than a Mustang's spinners on a Sunday afternoon in East San Jose.

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

This is the same story the NYTs did as an Op-Ed when Holder was mentioned as a possible AG. No new details about Holder just more spin from the right wingers they interviewed.

[Bettysdad]

The people that complain the loudest about the Marc Rich pardon couldn't explain what he did.

Everyone knows what Scooter Libby did. As well as an entire administration of thugs.