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Serving under President Barack Obama, Eric Holder was the first African-American attorney general of the United States.

Eric Holder was born on January 21, 1951 in New York City. He attended Columbia Law School. Holder was an associate judge of the D.C. Superior Court under President Reagan; U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., then deputy attorney general under Clinton; and for Obama, Holder was senior legal advisor to his presidential campaign, later becoming the first African-American Attorney General in history. He announced his forthcoming resignation in September of 2014, succeeded in 2015 by Loretta Lynch.

Judge, lawyer, political advisor. Born Eric Himpton Holder, Jr. on January 2, 1951, to parents Eric and Miriam Holder in New York City. His mother was a telephone operator and his father was a real estate broker. His parents both held strong ties to Barbados; previously his father had emigrated from Saint Joseph, and his mother's family emigrated from Saint Philip. The eldest of two brothers, Holder grew up in the predominantly black neighborhood of East Elmhurst, Queens.

Holder attended a public school in his neighborhood until the fourth grade, when he was selected to participate in a program for intellectually gifted children. The school consisted of predominantly white students, which Holder says forced him to keep his "foot in both worlds." This only became more apparent when it came time to attend high school. While his friends at home chose to attend public schools in Queens, Holder's white schoolmates were taking an exam to enter the city's most elite institutions. Holder got into the prestigious Stuyvesant High School, an hour-and-a-half commute from his home, which pulled him even farther away from his neighborhood friends and community.

Holder says he concentrated mainly on his studies in high school, and felt overwhelmed by the rigorous academic demands placed on him at Stuyvesant. But the young man stayed well rounded; he was selected as the captain of the basketball team, and in 1969 he earned his high school diploma, as well as a Regents Scholarship.

That same year, Holder entered college at Columbia University. He played freshman basketball, attended shows at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, spent Saturdays mentoring local kids, and became active in civil rights. He received his bachelor's degree in American history from Columbia University in 1973. In 1974, he began attending Columbia Law School while also clerking for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Department of Justice's Criminal Division.

In 1976, Holder earned his law degree, and the Department of Justice gave him a job as part of the attorney general's honors program. He was assigned to the newly formed Public Integrity Section, which investigated and prosecuted official corruption on the local, state and federal levels.

In 1988, Holder was nominated by former President Ronald Reagan to become an associate judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. During this time he presided over hundreds of civil and criminal trials. Holder was then nominated by President Bill Clinton to serve as the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. in 1993. He was the first African American to hold the position. During his four-year term, he created a domestic violence unit, a community prosecution project and a program for restricting gun laws.

In 1997, Holder made history yet again when President Clinton nominated him to be the deputy attorney general. Holder was quickly confirmed several months later by a unanimous vote in the Senate. He was the first African American elected to the position as well as the highest-ranking black person in law enforcement in the history of the United States at that time.

As deputy attorney general, Holder developed and issued the "Holder Memorandum," which spelled out the guidelines for the criminal prosecution of corporations. He also developed rules for the regulation of health care, and assembled a task force that determined how to investigate criminal investigations of high-ranking federal employees.

At the president's request, Holder created the organization, Lawyers for One America. The group was designed to bring greater diversity to the law profession and increase pro bono work among the nation's lawyers. Holder also briefly served under President George W. Bush as Acting Attorney General, during the pending confirmation of Attorney General John Ashcroft.

After serving in this position for four years, Holder joined the private sector to work at the law firm Covington and Burling LLC, in 2001. He represented clients such as the National Football League during its investigation of quarterback Michael Vick, and the negotiation of an agreement with the Justice Department for Chiquita Brands International.

In addition to his normal workload, Holder serves on a number of philanthropic boards, including the Columbia University board, the Save the Children Foundation, and Concerned Black Men, a group that seeks to help troubled youth in D.C. He has also been nationally recognized for his work in law; he was featured in the 2007 edition of The Best Lawyers in America, and in 2008 he was named by The National Law Journal as one of "The Most 50 Influential Minority Lawyers in America" as well as by Legal Times for being one of the "Greatest Washington Lawyers of the Past 30 Years."

In late 2007, Holder joined Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign as a senior legal advisor, and later served as one of three members on Obama's vice-presidential selection committee. Holder was appointed and confirmed as the 82nd U.S. attorney general in 2009, making him the first African-American attorney general in history.

With a tenure marked by civil rights work and calls to speak more openly about racial discrimination in the U.S., Holder also faced major controversy over the case of missing documents in relation to Operation Fast and Furious, which focused on tracking the sales of arms among Mexican drug cartels.

In August of 2014, Holder visited Ferguson, Missouri in the wake of the shooting death of an unarmed African-American male by police officer Darren Wilson, with differing accounts of the incident. With waves of protests and both a police and national guard presence, Holder launched a Justice Department inquiry into the killing, ultimatelycorroborating Wilson's account of what happenedruling and declaring that he had not committed any civil rights violations. However, after reviewingFerguson's overall policing practices,the Justice Department found rampant constitutional violations that included unwarranted use of force and arrests of a population under duress, with racist slurs and images found in official governmental emails as well.

On September 25, 2014, the Justice Dept. announced that Holder would be resigning from his position, with an exit from his post having been in the works. Loretta Lynch succeeded Holder as attorney general in spring of the following year.

Holder is married to obstetrician Sharon Malone. The couple has three children: Maya, Brooke and Eric. They reside in Washington, D.C.

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Eric Holder - Legal Professional - Biography

Its hard for any rational person to make the argument against disbanding this Mueller special counsel. For many reasons. First of all, it is clear that there was no collusion. Mueller has been looking into it for months and months and we have absolutely nothing. Second of all, the investigation has been hopelessly compromised. We now know that Mueller had people on his team who not only hate Trump but appear to have been actively working against Trump since 2016 from their positions of power.

Many have called on Trump to remove Mueller which he has the right to do.

However, not everyone thinks thats a good idea.

Remember Eric Holder? Obamas disgraced attorney general who was held in contempt for refusing to hand over documents from the Fast and Furious scandal? Yeah, that guy just threatened Trump over canning Mueller.

What a clown.

Anyone who has actually looked into whats going on knows that the Mueller investigation has been severely compromised and these are not BS attacks.

From Breitbart:

He and other Trump critics argue that Republicans are trying to remove Mueller the closer he gets to the presidents inner circle. However, they have ignored significant revelations in recent days showing that certain members of his team high-ranking FBI officials not only loathed Trumpbut discussed a path to stop his election.

I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andys office that theres no way [Trump] gets elected but Im afraid we cant take that risk, senior FBI official Peter Strzok texted August 15, 2016, to senior FBI official Lisa Page, with whom he was having an extramarital affair. Its like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before youre 40, he added. The messages were released by the Justice Department to journalists on Tuesday.

Its so strange watching all these Obama officials run around pretending their opinions matter. If the American people wanted Obama in office still they would have voted for Hillary. If anything, Trumps election was a repudiation of Obama. And yet, heres Eric Holder acting like hes the moral authority in this country.

If youre wondering what Eric Holder has been doing, hes being paid a ton of money by California taxpayers to fight against Trump.

From Washington Times:

Former Obama Attorney General Eric Holders law firm is reportedly bringing in $25,000 a month in California taxpayers money for legal counsel about countering the Trump administration.

In January the Democrat-dominated California state legislature hired Mr. Holders and his firm, Covington & Burling, to assist with legal challenges over everything from immigration to environmental policies, Fox NewsreportedThursday.

Judicial Watch, a conservative legal watchdog group, disclosed the arrangement after receiving the relevant documents in a freedom of information request, said Fox.

The new records show California state legislators are wasting tax dollars to bankroll another corrupt politician Eric Holder under the pretense of attacking the Trump administration, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement.

H/T BizPac Review

[Note: This post was written by Andrew Mark Miller]

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Obama AG Eric Holder Issues Direct Warning to Trump Admin ...

Eric Holder, who served as the attorney general for most of the Obama administration, received a stern rebuking on Friday after he warned the GOP not to go after special counsel Robert Mueller.

It all began when Holder tweeted this:

Republicans in Congress are becoming ever-more weary of Muellers investigation, which is probing Russias interference in the 2016 election and how the Trump campaign played a role in that, especially now that evidence is surfacing that the probe may be compromised.

Several investigators on Muellers team have been accused of political bias. First, it was revealed senior FBI agent Peter Strzok had exchanged anti-Trump, pro-Clinton text messages with an FBI lawyer whom he was having an extra-marital affair. Then it was revealed that two other investigators, including senior Department of Justice official Andrew Weissmann, were potentially compromised politically.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was forced to defend Mueller and his investigation this week during a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee. Many of the committees members were unequivocal about the apparent bias.

The public trust in this whole thing is gone. It seems to me there are two things you can do: You can disband the Mueller special prosecutor, and you can do what weve all called for and appoint a second special counsel to look into this, Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said.

Holders tweet garnered a lot of attention, including nearly 35,000 retweets, more than 75,000 likes and more than 17,000 responses.

It even caught the attention of Kris Paronto, one of the heroes of the Benghazi attack.

He responded:

Enough said.

Parontos response also received a lot of attention, including thousands of retweets, tens of thousands of likes and more than a thousand responses.

Read the rest here:
Eric Holder warns GOP not to go after Mueller with BS ...

Donald Trump is pursuing dangerous policies on crime that ignore a growing bipartisan consensus on criminal justice reform, former attorney general Eric Holder said on Wednesday at a summit in Washington.

Holder, the USs first black attorney general, joined police chiefs, elected officials and other advocates at the National Law Enforcement Summit on Crime in pressing Trump and his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, on recent actions by the administration that have amounted to a return to the tough-on-crime tactics of the 1990s.

They are not tough on crime, they are not smart on crime, Holder said.

The Trump administrations decision to reinstate policies such as mandatory minimums for non-violent drug crimes, he added, was disappointing, dispiriting and ultimately dangerous.

This administration has revealed their lack of judgment, Holder said, [that] will take this nation back to a discredited past.

With Sessions at its helm, the justice department has taken several steps to roll back Obama-era initiatives that were designed to address racial bias in the criminal justice system.

In May, the attorney general announced a new directive that encouraged stricter mandatory minimum sentences by ordering federal prosecutors to charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense.

Sessions also rescinded an order from Barack Obama that directed the justice department to reduce the use of private prisons. The Obama administration had sought to phase out private prisons, arguing at the time that the facilities were less safe and more costly.

Other reversals under the Trump administration have included lifting Obama-era restrictions on providing police departments with military gear, the use of which drew widespread criticism during the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, following the killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, by a white police officer. Law enforcement officials have also been provided with renewed authority to seize assets from suspects even if they have not been convicted of a crime, marking a return to controversial civil forfeiture policies that have been banned in some states.

Holder said such moves were ideologically motivated, while framing the moment as a flashpoint in the debate over criminal justice reform and racial profiling.

I believe our country is at a crossroads, Holder said. We run the risk of igniting another drug war that will fill our jails.

The former attorney generals views were echoed by conservatives at the event, such as Mark Holden, the senior vice-president and general counsel of Koch Industries. The billionaire Koch brothers, who remain Republican mega-donors, have been vocal proponents of criminal justice and policing reform.

On Capitol Hill, Republicans and Democrats have similarly forged rare collaborations on legislation that would lower mandatory minimums for low-level drug crimes, promote community policing and target recidivism by investing in education and re-entry programs for former offenders.

While Holden held back from openly criticizing the Trump administration, he reinforced the message that what was being done away with were bipartisan priorities.

We are hopeful the administration will listen, he said. Its a moral case, its a constitutional case.

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Eric Holder calls Trump administration's crime policies ...

Attorney General Eric Holder speaks during a Sept. 4 news conference at the Justice Department in Washington. Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP hide caption

Attorney General Eric Holder speaks during a Sept. 4 news conference at the Justice Department in Washington.

This post was last updated at 4:44 p.m. ET.

Eric Holder Jr., the nation's first black U.S. attorney general, will resign his post after a tumultuous tenure marked by civil rights advances, national security threats, reforms to the criminal justice system and 5 1/2 years of fights with Republicans in Congress.

President Obama said on Thursday that Holder, 63, intends to leave the Justice Department as soon as his successor is confirmed, a process that could run through 2014 and even into next year. A former U.S. government official says Holder has been increasingly "adamant" about his desire to leave soon. Holder and President Obama discussed his departure several times and finalized things in a long meeting over Labor Day weekend at the White House.

Holder already is one of the longest-serving members of the Obama Cabinet and currently ranks as the fourth-longest tenured AG in history. Hundreds of employees waited in lines, stacked three rows deep, in early February 2009 to witness his return to the Justice Department, where he previously worked as a young corruption prosecutor and as deputy attorney general the second in command during the Clinton administration.

But some of that early glow faded in part due to the politicized nature of the job and in part because of Holder's own rhetoric, such as a 2009 Black History Month speech where he said the country was "a nation of cowards" when it comes to discussions about racial tension.

Five years later, violence erupted between police and protesters in Ferguson, Mo., after a white policeman killed an unarmed black 18-year-old. And this time, the White House dispatched Holder to speak his piece, in effect jump-starting that conversation and helping to settle nerves in the frayed community.

Another huge controversy over his decision to try the Sept. 11 plotters in a New York courthouse in the shadow of the twin towers of the World Trade Center prompted venomous reaction from lawmakers, New York City officials and some victims' families.

Under pressure that threatened his job and his legacy, the attorney general reversed his decision and instead sent the cases to military court where they continue to languish even as Osama bin Laden's son-in-law and other terrorism defendants are serving life sentences in maximum-security prisons on American soil.

Holder most wants to be remembered for his record on civil rights: refusing to defend a law that defined marriage as between one man and one woman; suing North Carolina and Texas over voting restrictions that disproportionately affect minorities and the elderly; launching 20 investigations of abuses by local police departments; and using his bully pulpit to lobby Congress to reduce prison sentences for nonviolent drug crimes. Many of those sentences disproportionately hurt minority communities.

And then there's his relationship with Congress. From the day Holder's nomination was announced, Republicans led by Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., signaled that he would be a political lightning rod.

The attorney general's portfolio, which spans sensitive law enforcement cases and hot-button social issues including marijuana and gay marriage, didn't help. But even longtime aides say Holder didn't do enough to help himself by shrugging off preparations and moot sessions before congressional appearances and speaking off the cuff and obliquely.

Things hit a crisis point when the GOP-led House voted him in contempt for refusing to hand over documents about a gun trafficking scandal known as Fast and Furious. That represented the first time an attorney general had ever been rebuked that way, but still Holder held on to his job.

In the end, the decision to leave was Holder's alone two sources told NPR that the White House would have been happy to have him stay a full eight years and to avoid what could be a contentious nomination fight for his successor.

The attorney general told DOJ staff the news this morning and called civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., and Ethel Kennedy, the widow of former AG Robert F. Kennedy.

The sources say a leading candidate for the 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.

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.

The friends say Holder is also considering donating his papers to a university in Washington, D.C., or his native New York, where he could establish a civil rights center to work more on law enforcement interactions with communities of color and host public forums on those issues.

Even though the attorney general has his eyes on the door, the two sources say several more policy and enforcement initiatives are underway and could be announced soon.

For instance, Holder sent a memo to U.S. attorneys Wednesday urging them not to use sentencing enhancements known as "851" tools to gain leverage in plea negotiations with defendants in essence, threatening defendants into avoiding trial with huge amounts of prison time. The practice has been criticized by U.S. District Judge John Gleeson in Brooklyn and other jurists.

Holder is also expected to notify federal prosecutors in coming days that the Justice Department will no longer require defendants who plead guilty to waive their rights to appeal based on ineffective lawyering. Many U.S. attorneys now forgo that practice, but not all.

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.

Update at 4:44 p.m. ET. An Emotional Goodbye:

In an emotional ceremony at the White House on Thursday, President Obama said that saying goodbye to Holder was "bittersweet."

He described the attorney general as having a "deep, abiding commitment to equal justice under the law," and to taking steps that further guarantee everyone's right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

In his own speech, Holder fought back tears. He said beyond having a strong working relationship with Obama, "I am proud to call you a friend."

Holder said Obama's administration has "done much to make real the promise of our democracy."

Stepping down now, he said, means the end of his public service. But it doesn't mean he'll stop working.

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Eric Holder To Step Down As Attorney General - npr.org