In 1999, Eric Holder helped arrange Bill Clinton pardons for 16 unrepentant members of FALN who had been convicted of “a variety of charges that included conspiracy, sedition, violation of the Hobbes Act (extortion by force, violence or fear), armed robbery and illegal possession of weapons and explosives — including large quantities of C-4 plastic explosive, dynamite and huge caches of ammunition.”
More and more Americans are discovering that the Obama Administration’s definition of transparency is more Clintonian and semantic than it is honest and encouraging.
The latest embarrassment for the Obama White House is the discovery that Attorney General Eric Holder has been less than forthcoming about his activities prior to being appointed U.S. Attorney General.
Justice Department officials have admitted that when members of the U.S. Senate — including Judiciary Committee members — were considering the nomination of Eric Holder as President Obama’s attorney general last year, he failed to disclose all of the legal briefs he had written or signed from his time in private practice especially those briefs that are pertinent to his current positions and views during the so-called war on terrorism.
“Holder has now decided to be open and transparent with the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding his lapse remembering to turn over copies of his legal filings, including Amicus briefs on behalf of detained terrorists and enemy combatants,” said Mike Baker, political strategist and private practice attorney.
“Holder also used the oldest trick in the book: he made his official statement on a Friday afternoon during a busy news cycle,” Baker said.
“As part of Holder’s confirmation process, a list of legal briefs to the committee was turned over to senate staffers,” he said. And the list turned over to the Senate Judiciary Committee did not include filings in about seven cases.
The issue of Holder’s past legal papers came up after some Republicans asked why lawyers who had previously done legal work for terror detainees now had jobs in the Justice Department, something President Barack Obama successfully avoided discussing, and something conveniently overlooked by a Justice Department now saturated with Holder colleagues whose work records show they defended terrorism suspects and ‘Gitmo’ detainees.
Attorney General Eric Holder didn’t tell the Senate Judiciary Committee about at least six Supreme Court Amicus briefs he prepared or supported, his office acknowledged in a letter Friday, including two urging the Court to reject the Bush administration’s attempt to try Jose Padilla as an enemy combatant.
“It has come to our attention that some but not all briefs submitted to the Supreme Court by or on behalf of Attorney General Holder as counselor Amicus were supplied to the Committee in the course of his confirmation process last year. We regret the omission,” Assistant Attorney General Ronald Welch wrote to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy. Sen. Leahy, who has his own problems with honesty dating back to the days of the cold war, has not indicated his committee will take any action against Justice Department executives and attorneys.
For example, Attorney General Eric Holder didn’t tell the Senate Judiciary Committee about at least six Supreme Court amicus briefs he prepared or supported, his office acknowledged in a letter Friday, including two urging the Court to reject the Bush administration’s attempt to try Jose Padilla as an enemy combatant.
While Holder and Obama can count on the support and loyalty of the majority of Senators and congressmen, some conservative lawmakers are not ignoring the AG’s suspected duplicitous behavior
“I am deeply concerned by Attorney General Holder’s failure to disclose to the Judiciary Committee his third-party brief in support of Jose Padilla’s Supreme Court case,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions, the committee’s top Republican. ” Not only was the Attorney General required to provide the brief as part of his confirmation but the opinions expressed in it go to the heart of his responsibilities in matters of national security. This is an extremely serious matter and the attorney general will have to address it.”
Attorney General Holder’s decision to prosecute murderous, fanatical terrorists