In this March 3, 1997 file photo, the then-U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Eric Holder, is seen shown in his Washington office. (AP Photo/J.Scott Applewhite, File)
(CNSNews.com) – At a news conference Wednesday on Capitol Hill, Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) and representatives of various civil rights organizations, including the National Council of La Raza, NAACP, and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, appealed for the swift confirmation of Eric Holder, President-elect Barack Obama’s pick for attorney general.
 
But Holder’s critics say his record shows a lack of legal judgment and, according to a 2002 report by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, then-Deputy Attorney General Holder used his position to advance the pardon of fugitive Marc Rich and further his own political career.
 
The 1,260 page report, “Justice Undone: Clemency Decisions in the Clinton White House,” includes the investigation into Holder’s role in Rich’s pardon.
 
This excerpt from the report details what happened after Rich was pardoned on Jan. 20, 2000, on the last day of Bill Clinton’s presidency. Jack Quinn was Rich’s attorney, who was referred to Rich’s legal team by Holder:


Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)
Holder has offered evolving accounts of his congratulatory remarks to Jack Quinn. At first, Holder’s supporters informed the press that his comments to Quinn were ‘‘sarcastic, not congratulatory.”  Then, when questioned about this matter at the Committee’s hearing, Holder denied making the comments at all.
 
Given the fact that Quinn took notes and sent an e-mail contemporaneously with the conversation with Holder, and that Holder has offered conflicting accounts of the conversation, it appears that Holder has not offered an honest explanation, and that he did indeed make the congratulatory comments to Quinn. Such comments support the Committee’s conclusion that Eric Holder was sympathetic to the Marc Rich pardon or was willing, through his own inaction, to see the pardon granted so as not to interfere with his other interests.
 
It is also worth noting that Holder, who had himself sought Quinn’s support for his appointment as Attorney General if Vice President Gore won the presidency, continued to seek Quinn’s support for finding employment for his underlings, even after the Rich pardon had been granted.
 
At the press conference, the speakers lauded Holder, his record, and his “moral leadership,” which they said will allow him to repair the damage done to the Department of Justice by the Bush administration.
 
“I had the privilege of serving under Chairman (Patrick) Leahy (D-Vt.) on the judiciary committee as we looked into the damage and the destruction that was wrought by the Bush administration on that department,” Whitehouse said.
 
“Whether it was an act of spectacular folly and ignorance or whether it was done deliberately in order to bring the department under political control, the result is the same – a damaged institution, a compromised reputation, challenged integrity, and sadly diminished morale. And now we have the chance to bring in someone who can put this department right,” he added.
 
“He makes decisions based on the law and nothing else,” Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Council on Civil Rights, said of Holder at the press conference.
 
When asked by CNSNews.com about the controversy surrounding Holder’s role in the Rich pardon, Henderson dismissed it.
 
“Eric Holder had the obligation to evaluate (the Rich pardon request), which he did,” said Henderson. “I think the question of whether his advice was consistent with the state of the law, you can over-evaluate. But I think from my perspective, that it, in and of itself, does not cast disparage on his independence.”
 
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform report showed that Quinn delivered the pardon request directly to the White House, and neither Holder nor the DOJ counsel reviewed or evaluated it:


Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Council on Civil Rights (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)
Jack Quinn and Eric Holder Cut the Justice Department
Out of the Process

By late November 2000, the Marc Rich pardon petition had been prepared and was ready to be filed with the White House. Rather than go immediately to the White House, Jack Quinn first turned to Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder. Holder had worked with Quinn during the previous year to try to force the Southern District of New York to sit down and meet with Quinn about settling the charges against Rich. During that process, Holder became more familiar with the Marc Rich case, to the extent he was aware of the charges against Rich, and the fact that Rich was a fugitive from justice.
 
Despite these facts, Holder had a basically sympathetic view of the Rich case. Holder believed that the prosecutors in New York should meet with Quinn, despite the fact that Rich was a fugitive and that prosecutors from the SDNY had already had a number of unproductive negotiations with Rich’s lawyers. In fact, Holder told Quinn the refusal of the prosecutors to meet was ‘‘ridiculous,’’  that ‘‘we’re all sympathetic,’’ and the ‘‘equities [are] on your side.’’  By taking this position with Quinn, Holder had already sent the message to Quinn that he had a favorable view of the Marc Rich case, despite the firmly entrenched position that his own agency had taken for the preceding seventeen years.
 
As Marc Rich’s lawyers prepared to file the pardon petition, Eric Holder provided pivotal assistance to their effort. Holder encouraged Jack Quinn to seek the pardon and helped Quinn cut the Justice Department out of the process of reviewing Rich’s pardon petition. Ordinarily, the Justice Department has a key role in reviewing
pardon petitions and providing a recommendation to the President as to whether each petition should be granted.
 
However, Eric Holder abdicated his responsibilities as the Deputy Attorney General and took actions that ensured the Justice Department would have no meaningful input on the Rich and Green pardons. This was the first of two actions taken by Holder at the Justice Department’s expense. After first succeeding in keeping the career prosecutors at the Justice Department from having any input in the Rich pardon, Holder informed the White House on the last day of the Clinton Administration that he was ‘‘neutral, leaning towards favorable’’ on the Rich and Green pardons. Together, these actions had a dramatic impact on ensuring that the pardons were ultimately granted.
 
Whitehouse, who worked with Holder when Whitehouse was Rhode Island’s attorney general, said he thinks Holder has the right qualifications for the top DOJ job.
 
“I saw over and over again the temperament, intelligence, judgment and independence that are essential for an attorney general,” Whitehouse said.
 
But Hans Von Spakovsky, visiting legal scholar at the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, said Holder’s confirmation hearing may prove contentious.
 
“He will have to answer some deep-felt questions,” Von Spakovsky told CNSNews.com, including his role in the case of Elian Gonzalez, the seven-year-old Cuban boy who escaped to the United States by boat with his mother, who drowned.
 
In 2000, a swat team from the U.S. Border Patrol stormed the home of the boy’s relatives in Florida and returned the boy to his father in Communist Cuba.
 
“He was (at the DOJ) when that occurred and he was involved,” Von Spakovsky said. “He should be asked about that.”
 
Another controversy during Holder's 1999 to 2001 tenure at the DOJ, reported by CNSNews.com in November, was the petitions for clemency granted to 16 members of a Puerto Rican Marxist terrorist group, the Armed Forces of National Liberation, or FALN.