Word: doj
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...that night of Jan. 14, Holder demonstrated the kind of apolitical open mind he was known for as a local judge and U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. Named to the DOJ's No. 2 job a year earlier, he served as the contact point for the sprawling independent-counsel probes commissioned by his boss, Janet Reno, into everything from an Arkansas land deal to the firing of the White House's travel office. So when Bennett asked for a meeting late the next day, Holder quickly acceded with an invitation to his office...
...Uncertain how to proceed, Starr decided to defer to the DOJ, prompting the Holder meeting, which took place at 6 p.m. on Jan. 15. The deputy AG sat in silence as he heard the allegations. He knew they had to be investigated quickly. The question was by whom. His own department, run by Clinton appointees, had an obvious conflict. A new independent counsel could be brought in, but not in time to gear up for the President's Jan. 17 deposition. He saw no alternative but to let Starr's office carry the ball. Reno formalized the decision...
...DOJ's top lawyers believed Holder made the right call legally - he had no real choice, given the facts presented by Starr's deputies. But Clinton aides were livid. After years of strained relations with Reno and the six independent-counsel probes she had initiated, Holder had been viewed as someone they could deal with. The deputy had successfully urged Reno not to launch a seventh probe into questionable fundraising practices by Clinton in his 1996 re-election campaign, resisting pressure from Congress and DOJ career lawyers. Holder, in fact, looked like he was being groomed...
...Holder seemed deflated by the criticism but determined to recover his reputation among Clintonites. He approved the DOJ's legal backing of a unique privilege that the Secret Service claimed early on to keep its agents from testifying before the grand jury about Lewinsky's visits to the Oval Office - a legal ploy that Holder privately acknowledged to Bennett was a long shot, and which was ultimately rejected by federal courts...
...office had leaked grand-jury information. When Starr announced plans for an internal investigation of the leaks, Holder advised him to stand down until the federal judge overseeing the case found merit in the complaint. But at the same time, Holder quietly called the judge and offered the DOJ's help in pending issues raised by the President's lawyers, which included the leaks question. When Starr learned about the unusual intervention, he saw it as a betrayal. (Holder has denied that he "ever encouraged the judge to move forward the matter involving alleged leaks to the Justice Department...