Holder resigns, Senate battle looms over replacement
Attorney General Eric Holder announced his resignation Thursday, signaling an end to his six turbulent years in office and setting the stage for a potentially bruising confirmation battle in the Senate over his eventual replacement.
“We could not be more grateful for everything that you’ve done, not just for me and the administration but for our country,” President Obama said at the White House, with Holder at his side.
Obama cited Holder’s record on corruption, terrorism and revising unfair sentencing guidelines. He suggested Holder’s biggest accomplishment may have been “reinvigorating and restoring” what Holder has called the Justice Department’s “conscience,” the Civil Rights Division.
Holder called the job the “greatest honor of my professional life” and thanked Obama for sticking with him – despite repeated Republican calls for him to step down.
“In good times and in bad, in things personal and in things professional, you have been there for me,” Holder said.
Holder has served as one of the biggest lightning rods in the administration for conservatives, and his departure sparked a quick round of speculation about potential successors, including Preet Bharara, the high-profile U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, California Attorney General Kamala Harris and Jenny Durkan, a former U.S. attorney in Washington state.
Holder faced criticism for failing to aggressively prosecute Wall Street, but Bharara has led the charge in recent years against Swiss banks that were helping American citizens skirt U.S. tax laws, prosecuting Swiss bankers and forcing the banks to turn over lists of account holders.
Verrilli, who is the administration’s leading advocate before the United States Supreme Court, has been panned for weak oratory skills. But he delivered one of the administration’s biggest wins, defending Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act before the Supreme Court.
Harris, a politically ambitious 49-year-old, has periodically seen her name floated for an Obama administration appointment. The Human Rights Campaign is championing Durkan, the first openly gay U.S. attorney to be appointed by a president and confirmed by the Senate.
Holder agreed to remain in his post until a successor is confirmed, a process that could prove exceedingly divisive, particularly if Democrats lose control of the Senate in the November elections.
Holder defied persistent calls for his resignation from conservative critics, but he talked to Obama about leaving “on multiple occasions in recent months,” said a senior Justice Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity as a matter of policy. Holder finalized his plans in an hour-long conversation with Obama at the White House residence over the Labor Day weekend.
Now 63, Holder would be the third-longest-serving attorney general in U.S. history if he remains in office into December. A White House statement noted he’s currently the fourth-longest person to hold the position.
He is one of only three Cabinet members from Obama’s original team – the others are Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Education Secretary Arne Duncan – still serving in the post to which he was first named.
This story was originally published September 25, 2014 at 10:48 PM with the headline "Holder resigns, Senate battle looms over replacement."