Holder Gets Some Unexpected Support

By CQ Staff | December 22, 2008 10:00 PM | | Comments (0)

Facing questions about his role in a controversial 2001 pardon, Attorney General-designate Eric H. Holder Jr. is getting some unexpected support from across the aisle.

Former Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey, who was the prosecutor in the tax evasion case of commodities trader Marc Rich and later supervised a criminal investigation of his pardon that Holder approved, wrote a letter Dec. 19 endorsing Holder to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., and ranking Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.

Comey noted that Holder's role in the Rich pardon approved in the waning days of the Clinton administration "was a huge misjudgment, one for which he has, appropriately, paid dearly in reputation." Nevertheless, Comey wrote, "I hope very much he is confirmed." He suggested the experience could make Holder a better attorney general, "because he has learned a hard lesson about protecting the integrity of that great institution from political fixers."

Comey himself won bipartisan praise for his integrity after revealing at a 2007 hearing how he fought off an attempt in 2004 by then-White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales to get authorization for a secret wire tap program from then Attorney General John Ashcroft, who was hospitalized.

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have made clear they intend to quiz Holder about the pardon, along with every contentious episode from the Clinton administration that involved the department. Leahy agreed last week to postpone the start of Holder's confirmation hearings for one week in response to Republican requests for more time to prepare.

-- Seth Stern

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