Holder testimony on pardon questioned

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By Jerry Seper

Attorney General-designate Eric H. Holder Jr. told Congress under oath that he had "only a passing familiarity" with the criminal case against billionaire Marc Rich before President Clinton pardoned the fugitive financier in 2001- testimony that is now raising concerns among lawmakers reviewing Mr. Holder's nomination.

Correspondence with the Justice Department and testimony secured by Congress from other witnesses show that 15 months before the pardon, Mr. Holder met privately with Mr. Rich's attorney and received a presentation about what Mr. Rich's defense believed were flaws in the government's case.

Mr. Holder, then serving as the No. 2 official in the Clinton Justice Department, later took the rare step of contacting federal prosecutors handling Mr. Rich's case in New York and, according to his own testimony, tried to "facilitate" a meeting with the defense.

"We never pressured anybody to have the meeting; the call was for the Southern District of New York to make," he said. The prosecutors refused the request, in part because Mr. Rich had been a fugitive for 16 years and had taken no steps to turn himself in.

The Republican lawmaker who investigated the controversial Rich pardon told The Washington Times that evidence documenting the 1999 contacts conflicts with Mr. Holder's testimony and that he has forwarded information he has on the subject to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will examine President-elect Barack Obama's choice for attorney general.

Mr. Holder "certainly had more than a passing familiarity with this case," said Rep. Dan Burton, Indiana Republican, who oversaw the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee when it investigated the Rich pardon in 2001.

"I know human beings are fallible and they make mistakes, but making statements that are not accurate while under oath before a congressional committee goes beyond the pale," he said. "Sure as the dickens, he was not straight with our committee."

Mr. Holder and the Obama transition team did not respond to repeated e-mails and telephone calls for comment.

During his House testimony, Mr. Holder said his actions in the Rich case were "consistent with my duties and responsibilities as deputy attorney general," although in hindsight he said he wished he had "done some things differently" with regard to the matter.

"Specifically, I wish that I had assured that the Department of Justice was more fully informed and involved in this pardon process," he said, adding that the Justice Department, Mr. Clinton and the American public, "in the cause of justice, would have been better served if the case had been handled through the normal channels."