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| Justice Nominee Greased Skids of Marc Rich Pardon |
| 2008-11-20 |
| Change you can believe in! The former prosecutor whom President-elect Barack Obama wants to run the Justice Department bypassed the agency's career lawyers during one of the most controversial final decisions made by President Clinton in January 2001 — the pardon of billionaire fugitive financier Marc Rich, congressional records show. Eric H. Holder Jr., then the deputy attorney general, worked with former White House Counsel Jack Quinn to ensure that department officials — particularly federal prosecutors in New York who handled the Rich case — "did not have the opportunity to express an opinion on the Rich pardon before it was granted," the Republican-led House Government Reform Committee concluded in a 467-page report in 2002. The committee's evidence included an e-mail in which Mr. Holder told Mr. Quinn to "go straight" to the White House and that the "timing is good" for Mr. Rich's request for a pardon. Normally, pardon requests are reviewed by career prosecutors before a recommendation is forwarded to the White House. |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #6 He was also deeply involved in the legalized kidnapping of Elian Gonzales from his relatives' home. He told Tim Russert beforehand that they were not planning to use armed force in the middle of the night. When the agents broke into the house, armed to the teeth, he told Russert that they had showed up at 5 am, so it wasn't the middle of the night. |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2008-11-20 20:17 |
| #5 One must not also forget Holder was the "architect" of the terrorists FALN commutations as well. |
| Posted by: illeagle 2008-11-20 10:50 |
| #4 My most starling revelation (even beyond 9/11) was when my US Embassy colleague in Bern phoned me on New Years Day to advise that Marc Rich was pardoned. Indefensible. |
| Posted by: Hammerhead 2008-11-20 09:48 |
| #3 Holder working hand-in-hand with the ACLU and various Washington legal firms will secure the release the Bush administration political prisoners from GITMO. They will then turn their efforts toward the release the hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised who lanquish in Federal and State Penitentiary Systems. "Free at last! Free at last! Thank Obama we are free at last!" |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-11-20 09:42 |
| #2 The Pubs, if they're smart (hah) would make some nice TV by grilling this guy in the confirmation hearings. Start off with, "Mr. Holder, please explain to the committee your involvement in the Rich pardon", and go from there. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2008-11-20 09:36 |
| #1 The era of post-partisan politics commences. |
| Posted by: WilliamMarcyTweed 2008-11-20 08:18 |