Holder to Face Grilling Over Clinton Pardons

AG Nominee Will Have to Address Old Controversies of Clinton-Era Pardons

Maddy Sauer - ABC News - Jan. 14, 2009

Hillary Clinton may have received mostly cordial treatment in her confirmation hearing Tuesday, but Attorney General nominee Eric Holder may not be so lucky. At tomorrow's hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Republican senators will call witnesses who will testify on the 1999 clemency of members of a violent Puerto Rican Nationalist Group, setting the stage for what may become a grilling over Holder's actions when he was Deputy Attorney General overseeing pardon recommendations to President Bill Clinton.

Eric Holder could again face questions tomorrow over controversies such as the pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich and the prison sentence commutation of a cocaine dealer. Critics said the Justice Department's handling of the pardon process, under Holder, broke down in the waning days of the Clinton administration. Collapse

Holder could again face questions over controversies such as the pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich and the prison sentence commutation of a cocaine dealer. Critics said the Justice Department's handling of the pardon process, under Holder, broke down in the waning days of the Clinton administration.

The Los Angeles Times reported last week, based on previously undisclosed documents and new interviews, that Holder repeatedly pressed his subordinates at the Justice Department to drop objections to the 1999 clemency request of 16 members of two violent Puerto Rican nationalist groups. Clinton's decision to commute their sentences angered law enforcement officials and families of victims who said they were never consulted.

Joseph Connor, whose father Frank was killed in 1975 when members of the Puerto Rican nationalist group FALN (Armed Forces of National Liberation) bombed a New York restaurant, is expected to testify at the Holder confirmation hearing.

Also expected to testify is former FBI special agent Richard Hahn who investigated FALN.

Meanwhile, one of Holder's former critics as well as other former Bush officials have come out in support of his nomination. James Comey who led the investigation into Rich and later became Deputy Attorney General in the Bush administration wrote a letter of endorsement to the Senate Judiciary Committee saying Holder's errors in the Rich pardon process "may actually make him a better steward of the Department of Justice because he has learned a hard lesson about protecting the integrity of that great institution from political fixers."

Pardon Issue Could Embarass Holder

Two other deputies attorney general under Bush, Paul McNulty and Larry Thompson, have also endorsed Holder's nomination.

While the pardon issue is not expected to derail Holder's nomination, the questioning could prove embarrassing to Holder, who previously endured a Congressional skewering on the topic back at a 2001 hearing. Holder testified that he regretted not paying more attention to the pardon process as it unfolded, and failing to foresee possible controversy.