Hillary Clinton got off easy. Attorney General-designate
Eric Holder is likely to have a rougher time tomorrow.
Reports
ABC News:
Hillary
Clinton may have received mostly cordial treatment in her
confirmation hearing Tuesday, but Attorney General nominee
Eric Holder may not be so lucky. At tomorrow's hearing
before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Republican senators will
call witnesses who will testify on the 1999 clemency of members
of a violent Puerto Rican Nationalist Group, setting the stage
for what may become a grilling over Holder's actions when he
was Deputy Attorney General overseeing
pardon recommendations to President Bill
Clinton.
Holder
could again face questions over controversies such as the
pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich and
the prison sentence commutation of a cocaine dealer. Critics
said the Justice Department's handling of the pardon process,
under Holder, broke down in the waning days of the Clinton
administration.
The Los Angeles Times reported last week, based on previously
undisclosed documents and new interviews, that
Holder repeatedly pressed his subordinates at the Justice
Department to drop objections to the 1999 clemency request of
16 members of two violent Puerto Rican nationalist groups.
Clinton's decision to commute their sentences angered law
enforcement officials and families of victims who said they
were never consulted.
Joseph Connor, whose father Frank was killed in 1975 when
members of the Puerto Rican nationalist group FALN (Armed
Forces of National Liberation) bombed a New York restaurant, is
expected to testify at the Holder confirmation hearing.
Also expected to testify is former FBI special agent Richard
Hahn who investigated FALN.
Holder has some Republican supporters who say that his earlier
mistakes will make him a better AG. Maybe. But the
issues deserve serious questioning, not the sort of group hug
that occurred at Hillary Clinton's hearing.
Alan Brooks| 1.15.09 @ 12:43AM
FALN were released from prison? they should be pounding rocks right now.
sidnee| 12.12.09 @ 11:42AM
jack wills
ugg new arrivals