Eric H. Holder Jr. Biography

Mr. Holder, was born in New York City the Bronx and grew up in East Elmhurst.

A child of a middle class family, his father emigrated from Barbados when he was about 12 joined the Army during World War II and was in the real estate industry. His mother was a telephone operator and secretary to an Episcopal priest. Until he was 10 years old he attended public schools there, then, in the fourth grade, he was selected to participate in a program for intellectually gifted kids. Holder's score was good enough to get him into Stuyvesant High an hour and a half commute away in Manhattan, graduating in 1969 he earned a Regents Scholarship.

In 1969 Holder entered college at Columbia, majored in American History, and graduated in 1973. Mr. Holder then attended Columbia Law School. While in law school, working for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. after his first year and the U.S. Department of Justice after his second 1974 and 1975, respectively. He graduated in 1976.

After graduating from Columbia Law School, Eric moved to Washington, DC and began his career of by joining the Department of Justice as part of the Attorney General's Honors Program. He was assigned to the Public Integrity Section in 1976 and was to investigate and prosecute official corruption on the local, state and federal levels. Mr. Holder participated in a number of prosecutions and appeals involving such defendants as the Treasurer of the state of Florida, the Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, a local judge in Philadelphia, an Assistant United States Attorney in New York City, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a "capo" in an organized crime family in Pennsylvania.

In 1988, Mr. Holder was nominated by President Reagan to become an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. He was confirmed by the Senate and his investiture occurred in October of that year. Over the next five years, Judge Holder presided over civil and criminal trials and matters. Many of the trials involved homicides and other crimes of violence.

In 1993, President Clinton nominated Mr. Holder to become the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. Mr. Holder was confirmed in October of that year and served as the head of the largest U.S. Attorney's Office in the nation for nearly four years. As U.S. Attorney, Mr. Holder created a Domestic Violence Unit, implemented a community prosecution pilot project to work with residents and local government agencies, supported enforcement on hate crimes, a strategy to improve the manner in which agencies handle cases involving the abuse of children, community outreach program to connect the U.S. Attorney's Office with the citizens, and "Operation Ceasefire," an initiative designed to reduce violent crime.

On April 14, 1997, President Clinton nominated Mr. Holder to be the Deputy Attorney General. As Deputy Attorney General, Mr. Holder was responsible for the supervision of the day-to-day operation of the Department of Justice. As Deputy Attorney General Mr. Holder was at that time the highest-ranking black person in law enforcement in the history of the United States. Deputy Attorney General Holder was active in the organization Concerned Black Men, which seeks to help the youth of the District of Columbia with the problems they face.

Mr. Holder supervised the Department's litigating, enforcement, and administrative components in both civil and criminal matters. The Department developed and issued guidelines on the criminal prosecution of corporations and issued guidelines on the use of the False Claims Act in civil health care matters. A task force developed the regulation concerning the appointment of special counsels to investigate allegations involving high-level federal officials. He began the Department's Children Exposed to Violence Initiative and made Department priorities enforcement efforts in health care fraud, computer crimes and software piracy. At the request of the President, Lawyers for One America a multi-agency, public/private partnership designed to diversify the legal profession and to increase the amount of pro bono work done by the nation's attorneys.

In 1998 Mr. Holder had been considered a possible challenger to Washington's mayor, Marion S. Barry Jr.

On January 19, 2001, the last full day of the Clinton administration, a pardon application for a commodities trader named Marc Rich was not the most pressing issue, Holder believed the application had such a small shot at being granted. When the White House asked for his view on the pardon he gave it: "neutral leaning towards favorable."

The decision turned out to be a costly one for Holder. On Jan. 20, President Clinton issued 140 pardons, including one for Rich -- whose ex-wife turned out to have donated large amounts of money to the Clinton Presidential Library while Clinton was in office. Critics claimed that Rich's freedom had been bought.

For the first time in his career, Holder faced an assault on his reputation and integrity.

Later in 2001 Holder joined the firm of Covington and Burling as a litigation partner handling civil and criminal cases, domestic and international advisory matters and internal corporate investigations. A partner in the law firm Holder has had many high-profile clients, including the National Football League in its investigation of dog-fighting charges against Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick.

Eric Himpton Holder, Jr. Born: 21, January 1951 Queens, NY. Covington & Burling LLP, Partner eholder@cov.com or Download V-card, Covington & Burling LLP 1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20004-2401, Tel: 202.662.5372

Mr. Holder is a litigation partner who handles, among other matters, civil and criminal cases, domestic and international advisory matters and internal corporate investigations.

Holder argued in 2002 that detainees in the "war on terror" are not technically entitled to protection under the Geneva Conventions.

In a CNN interview in 2004, Holder was critical of the Bush Justice Department's use of the Patriot Act, saying it had been enforced in less-than-transparent way.

In late 2007, Holder joined Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign as a senior legal advisor. He served on Obama's vice presidential selection committee. In June 2008, Holder was considered to be a leading candidate for Attorney General under an Obama Administration. On November 18, 2008, President-elect Barack Obama selected Eric Holder as his Attorney General. His nomination approved by the U.S. Senate, he was be the first African-American to head the Justice Department.

Mr. Holder's community activities include philanthropic boards including, Columbia University, the Meyer Foundation, Save the Children, and his long time membership in the organization Concerned Black Men, a group that seeks to help the youth of the District of Columbia with problems ranging from teenage pregnancy to sub-par academic achievement. He has received numerous awards and honorary degrees and is featured in The Best Lawyers in America 2007. Mr. Holder was profiled in the June 2008 issue of The American Lawyer and was recognized as one of "The Most 50 Influential Minority Lawyers in America" by The National Law Journal. He has also been identified by Legal Times as one of the "Greatest Washington Lawyers of the Past 30 Years."

He has also served on the board of MCI prior to and during its merger with Verizon. Mr. Holder was a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission Ad Hoc Advisory Group that examined, and made recommendations to revise, the organizational sentencing guidelines and was Chairman of Eastman Kodak's External Diversity Advisory Panel.

In 1989, Holder met his wife to be, Sharon Malone, at a fundraiser for Concerned Black Men and the Coalition of 100 Black Women. Mr. Holder lives in Washington, DC with his wife, Dr. Sharon Malone an obstetrician-gynecologist and a graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Medical School and their three children, Maya, Brooke and Eric.

TEXT RESOURCES:

• 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Eric Holder
• Prosecutor No Stranger To Corruption in Politics
• Making History With Obama
• Breakout Moderator Biography
• Covington & Burling LLP, Biographies, Eric H. Holder Jr.
• Eric H. Holder, Jr.
• USDOJ: Deputy Attorney General: Bio
• Eric Holder - Wikipedia
• The HistoryMakers® Video Oral History Interview with Eric H. Holder, Jr.
• Obama picks Caroline Kennedy, Holder, Johnson to lead VP search
• Nominee Confirmed For Deputy Position At the Justice Dept.
• Eric H. Holder Jr., Attorney General - Council on Foreign Relations

President Bush Hosts Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy PODCAST VIDEO

President George W. Bush delivers his remarks following the conclusion of the Summit with Financial Markets and the World Economy Leaders Saturday, Nov. 15, 2008, at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. President Bush stated in his remarks, "The United States, in the midst of this financial crisis, will not abandon our commitments to people in the developing world." White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian

President Bush Hosts Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy FULL STREAMING VIDEO National Building Museum Washington, D.C. In Focus: Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy and Fact Sheet: Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy 2:11 P.M. EST PODCAST OF THIS ARTICLE PRESIDENT BUSH: Welcome. Good afternoon. We just had a very productive summit meeting. Thinking about three weeks ago, when I was talking to President Sarkozy and Barroso at Camp David -- some of you were there -- I don't think we could have predicted then how productive and how successful this meeting would have been.

The first decision I had to make was who was coming to the meeting. And obviously I decided that we ought to have the G20 nations, as opposed to the G8 or the G13. But once you make the decision to have the G20, then the fundamental question is, with that many nations, from six different continents, who all represent different stages of economic development -- would it be possible to reach agreements, and not only agreements, would it be possible to reach agreements that were substantive? And I'm pleased to report the answer to that question was, absolutely.

One of the things we did, we spent time talking about the actions that we have taken. The United States has taken some extraordinary measures. Those of you who have followed my career know that I'm a free market person -- until you're told that if you don't take decisive measures then it's conceivable that our country could go into a depression greater than the Great Depression’s. So my administration has taken significant measures to deal with a credit crisis. And then we worked with Congress to deal with the credit crisis, as well.

We're beginning to see some positive results. One of the things people around the table were interested in is, are you beginning to see the results of your actions? And our credit markets are beginning to thaw, having been severely frozen; businesses are beginning to get access to short-term credit. It's going to take more time for the measures we have put in place to take hold. No question about that. As a matter of fact, we just started, for example, on the $700 billion fund to start getting money out to our banks. So it's going to take more time.

But I was pleased to tell the folks around the table that the significant actions we've taken are beginning to work. All of us committed to continue to work on pro-growth economic policies. It's phrased different ways -- fiscal plans -- but the whole point was, was that we recognize that, on the one hand, there's been a severe credit crisis, and on the other hand, our economies are being hit very hard. And so there was a common understanding that all of us should promote pro-growth economic policy.

We also talked about broader reforms -- so in other words, the discussions were focused on today and what we're doing about it, but what are we going to do to make sure it doesn't happen tomorrow.

One of the key achievements was to establish certain principles and take certain actions for adapting our financial systems to the realities of the 21st century. Part of the regulatory structures that are in place were 20th century regulatory structures. And obviously, you know, the financial industry went way beyond them. And the question is, how do we establish good regulatory structure without destroying the incentive to innovate, without destroying the marketplace.

Our nations agree that we must make the markets -- the financial markets more transparent and accountable. Transparency is very important so that investors and regulators are able to know the truth -- considered improving accounting rules, so that investors can understand the true value of the assets they purchase. We agree that we need to improve our regulations and to ensure that markets, firms, and financial products are subject to proper regulation and oversight.

For example, credit default swaps -- financial products that ensure against potential losses -- should be processed through centralized clearinghouses. That's a significant reform. Heretofore, the credit default swaps were traded in over-the-counter, unregulated markets.

Yesterday the Working Group on Financial Markets, which is -- which is obviously associated with the White House, announced an initiative to create these kinds of clearing houses. And I know that other nations are working on them as well. This process will help expedite credit default swaps and other types of instruments not being traded in unregulated, over-the-counter markets.

By bringing greater stability to this important sector, we will help with liquidity, but also mitigate risk.

Third, we agreed that we must enhance the integrity of the financial markets. For example, authorities in every nation should take a fresh look at the rules governing market manipulation and fraud to make sure that investors in all our countries are properly protected. We agree that we must strengthen cooperation among the world's financial authorities. There was a lot of discussion about the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, for example.

Leading nations should make regulations consistent. As well, we should reform the international financial institutions. Again, these institutions have been very important -- the World Bank, IMF -- but they were based on an economic order of 1944. And so to better -- we agreed that to better reflect the realities of today's global economy, both IMF and World Bank should modernize their governance structures. They ought to consider extending greater voting power and representation to developing nations, particularly those who have increased their contributions to the institutions.

All this is an important first step -- in other words, this is a beginning of a series of meetings. People say, well, why don't you have one meeting and, you know, call it Bretton Woods II. Well, Bretton Woods I took two years to prepare. I don't know what you want to call this one, but whatever name comes from this meeting, it took three weeks to prepare. And so it makes sense to come out of here with a firm action plan -- which we have.

It also makes sense to say to people that there is more work to be done and there will be further meetings, sending a clear signal that a meeting is not going to solve the world's problems. A meeting will help begin a process so that we can say over time that we will have a regulatory structure in place that will make this less likely to happen in the future.

And so we've directed our finance ministers to work with other experts and consult with officials in other economies and then report back to the leaders with detailed recommendations. Whatever we do, whatever reforms are recommended, we need to be guided by this simple fact: that the best way to solve our problems and solve the people's problems is for there to be economic growth. And the surest path to that growth is free market capitalism.

Leaders at this summit agreed on some other matters of importance. One is to reject protectionism and refrain from erecting new trade barriers. This is a very important part of this summit. The temptation in times of economic stress will be to say, oh, trade isn't worth it, let's just throw up protective barriers. And yet that attitude was rejected, thankfully. And matter of fact, not only rejected, there is a determined effort to see if we can't complete the modalities for Doha by the end of December.

One of the things I stressed as well is that the United States, in the midst of this financial crisis, will not abandon our commitments to people in the developing world; that the HIV/AIDS initiative, known as PEPFAR, will remain strong and vibrant; that our deep desire to significantly reduce malaria deaths in countries on the continent of Africa will not be diminished; that our obligation to help feed the hungry will not stop; that in the midst of all this turmoil and financial crisis, we will meet our obligations. These obligations are in our national security interests and our economic security interests and they in -- are in our moral interests.

And so I will tell you that I thought this was a very successful summit. And they're going to meet again. I keep saying "they" because some of you may not have heard yet, but I am retiring. But I told the leaders this: that President-Elect Obama's transition team has been fully briefed on what we intended to do here at this meeting. I told them that we will work tirelessly to make sure the transition between my administration and his administration is seamless. And I told them that I hope he succeeds, that it's good for our country that people see a peaceful transfer of power. And I hope it was good for them to hear that even though we're from different political parties, that I believe it's in our country's interest that he succeed.

So I want to thank you for giving me a chance to come and visit with you. Thanks for covering this summit. Goodbye.

END 2:23 P.M. EST

For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary November 15, 2008