Monday, July 09, 2012

Disciplinary Complaint Filed Against Holder

It may be the only justice U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder gets for lying to Congress and refusing to turn over documents subpoenaed by Congress in connection with its investigation of Fast & Furious, the scandalous operation under which our own government deliberately placed thousands of high-powered weapons into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels--guns that have been used to kill hundreds, including a federal border patrol agent. Naturally, the Obama Justice Department won't prosecute Holder after he was found in civil and criminal contempt of Congress. The bloggers who first uncovered Fast & Furious, Mike Vanderboegh and David Codrea, filed a formal complaint with the Washington, D.C. Office of Bar Counsel alleging that Holder committed professional misconduct in his dealings with Congress.

Holder worked for the Clinton Justice Department before becoming Obama's Attorney General. His most memorable work in the Clinton Justice Department was approving the pardon President Clinton granted to tax fugitive Marc Rich in the waning hours of his administration. Rich was the biggest tax cheat in the history of the U.S. Even the liberal commentators agreed that Holder's role in approving the Rich pardon should have disqualified him from becoming Attorney General. Holder's former boss, President Clinton, was never held to account in a court of law for committing obstruction of justice and perjury during the independent counsel's investigation of him. Instead, it was left to the Arkansas Supreme Court to suspend his law license, which it did for a period of five years. The special prosecutor's office gave Clinton the plea agreement under which he agreed to pay a $250,000 fine and have his law license suspended for five years in exchange for not pursuing criminal charges against him. A suspension of Holder's law license is likely the only justice that will ever be meted out to him. As those of us who practice law have come to understand, the rules are not equally applied. The little people face the full brunt of the law for their transgressions, while the politically-connected always manage to skate with a mere slap on the hand.

1 comment:

Mike Kole said...

Did you see this article today in CNN, where Denise Rich, ex-wife of Marc Rich, has renounced her US Citizenship? http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/10/politics/denise-rich-citizenship/index.html?hpt=hp_t2