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Justice candidate Holder guided Rich pardon

As Clinton adviser, he bypassed career lawyers

By Jerry Seper (Contact) | Thursday, November 20, 2008

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The former prosecutor whom President-elect Barack Obama wants to run the Justice Department bypassed the agency's career lawyers during one of the most controversial final decisions made by President Clinton in January 2001 — the pardon of billionaire fugitive financier Marc Rich, congressional records show.

Eric H. Holder Jr., then the deputy attorney general, worked with former White House Counsel Jack Quinn to ensure that department officials — particularly federal prosecutors in New York who handled the Rich case — "did not have the opportunity to express an opinion on the Rich pardon before it was granted," the Republican-led House Government Reform Committee concluded in a 467-page report in 2002.

The committee's evidence included an e-mail in which Mr. Holder told Mr. Quinn to "go straight" to the White House and that the "timing is good" for Mr. Rich's request for a pardon. Normally, pardon requests are reviewed by career prosecutors before a recommendation is forwarded to the White House.

Mr. Quinn responded in a typewritten note to Mr. Holder, just 10 days before Mr. Clinton issued the pardon, "Your saying positive things, I'm told, would make this happen. Thanks for your consideration."

Mr. Holder was not available for comment on Wednesday. But he told lawmakers during the investigation that he thought he had done nothing wrong.

If Mr. Obama forwards Mr. Holder's name for confirmation as the first black attorney general, the Rich pardon is likely to come up among lawmakers already concerned that Justice Department career lawyers were bypassed or subject to political pressure during the Bush administration.

Debate returns

The House committee, which finished its investigation in 2002, concluded from its interviews and the documents that Mr. Holder helped bypassed the normal procedure for pardons in Mr. Rich's case. The report was approved by Republicans, led by Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana, over the objections of Democrats.

"The evidence amassed by the committee indicates that Holder advised Quinn to file the Rich pardon petition with the White House and leave the Justice Department out of the process," the report said.