Word: holderness
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...high-stakes political-legal drama obscured Holder's role at the time, but details emerged in later reporting for a book, Truth at Any Cost, that I co-authored with Susan Schmidt. That account was based on interviews with Starr, his staff and senior Justice Department officials, including Holder - as is this article...
...That vague exchange launched a criminal investigation that resulted in Bill Clinton's impeachment and perhaps the most rigorous test of Holder's career. Nearly 11 years later, he is reported to be President-elect Barack Obama's first choice for Attorney General. Transition aides, and much Washington speculation, have focused on Holder's brief part in Clinton's controversial last-minute pardon of fugitive tycoon Marc Rich as a potential snare in confirmation hearings. But the behind-the-scenes role Holder played in the Monica Lewinsky probe - a 10-month Justice Department ordeal - offers a much fuller record...
...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...
...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 for the top job if Reno decided...