Former Attorney General Eric Holder remains a controversial figure for civil libertarians and other groups after his tenure in the Clinton and Obama Administrations. He is one of the principle authors of the “Kill List” policy under which President Barack Obama claimed the right to kill any American without a charge or trial if he unilaterally determined that they are a national security risk. Despite the view of some of us that Holder deserved to be fired over his abusive investigation of journalists, he will now be given the prestigious Thurgood Marshall Award from the ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice on Aug. 4 during the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago.
The Thurgood Marshall Award honors contributions by members of the legal profession to the advancement of civil rights, civil liberties and human rights in the United States. It is the inclusion of civil liberties and human rights that are troubling in this award. Holder clearly did accomplish much on civil rights. However, the award brushes over his more controversial actions in these other areas.
Holder’s role in the Kill List policy, the targeting of journalists, and withholding information from Congress are among a variety of actions that remains deeply troubling for many. Then there is Holder’s involvement in Clinton’s abuse of his pardon power in the infamous pardoning of Democratic donor Marc Rich as well as his own half brother.
Holder’s record is not a subject for celebration for many, but the ABA deemed him to be worthy of a distinction for his contribution to, among other things, civil liberties. Holder’s “contributions” cost civil liberties dearly in this country. If the ABA is to give him this award, it could at least spare civil libertarians and journalists the reference to civil liberties.
ABA stinks. They should refocus on helping lawyers practice law and stay away from left wing causes or they may lose what few members they have left
This is a professionally produced video. Split screens display the words of Holder’s DOJ on one side with text from Federal law on the other half, clearly demonstrating the abject lies Holder invented to insure Goldman Sachs CEO avoided very hard prison time for several felonies causing the 2008 world depression.
If you want to know exactly and positively why and how the DOJ bloodless coup kept banksters out of prison (remember the Kenyan’s words “I’m all that’s between you and the pitchforks) than watch this gorgeous 45 minute video. If you want to leave on the blinders on and believe the Kenyan cares about the little people, avoid this video at all costs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHgbRYgpGGs
Here’s the short version:
Lie #1: Holder said the law requires the government to prove felony intent. All the law requires is to prove GS lied, was dishonest, when they hugely insured their batch of bad home loans, which loans they marketed as Class AAA to investors.
Lie #2: Holder said the law REQUIRED him to consider potential negative financial effects if he tossed the banksters in prison. Federal law ALLOWS the government to consider the above, not REQUIRES.
Goldman Sachs CEO avoided very hard prison time for several felonies causing the 2008 world depression.
This is nuts. The most problematic firms in the financial sector were Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and AIG. Lloyd Blankfein wasn’t running any of them. Goldman Sachs wasn’t engaged in mortgage lending. They were doing a great deal of proprietary trading. The worst they could have done was to peddle shizzy CDOs to their retail brokerage clients, but that’s just going to cause a small population of wealthy people to lose money on an investment; that’s not going to cause a depression. People who are in the market lose money on particular investments all the time.
As for other firms, some people are bound and determined to not understand that bad business decisions are not crimes.
6 minutes of the video (08:00 to 15:00) absolutely confirms how wrong is your post. “Most problematic” has zero bearing whether GS and Lloyd Blankfein committed several major felonies, which they most positively did.
To whit: the Senate Criminal Complaint filed (the video displays the cover sheet) 4/10/2010, which ended in GS paying the then-largest ever SEC fine of $550B. The Senate criminal referral comprised 640 pages, 2900+ foot notes, of which 260 pages featured GS.
This confirms you are naïve, a liar, a GS or DOJ troll, or combination thereof.
GS packaged and sold “RMBS” comprising Subprime Residential Mortgage Backed Securities. Your claim that GS was not “engaged in mortgage lending” is a straw man. I did not make such claim.
GS packaged and sold the above described Securities to investors, describing them as AAA, and rightly claiming even GS had purchased a share in the Securities. GS wrongly and illegally and feloniously hid that GS purchased $330 of failure payouts for each $1 they invested ($6M invested for $2B failure payout). This is a felony, as the video proves with photo copy of the law, which REQUIRES ONLY TO PROVE DISHONESTY AND OMITS ANY INTENT, THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT THE DOJ AND THE KENYAN AND YOU CLAIM.
Further, absolutely the opposite of your last sentence is true. Your last sentence is blatantly and egregiously false. It is a felony crime to do exactly what Lloyd Blankfein and GS did: they knew beyond a shadow of a doubt their RMBS would fail, they bet $330 to $1 odds it would fail, while they claimed the RMBS were a “AAA” investment to buyers. The definition of the felony is dishonesty, to lie about the product one is selling. The law specifically claims that the “sophistication” of the buyer is totally irrelevant.
Edit: GS paid $550M fine, not $550B.
David Benson owes me eight citations (one from the OED) and the source of a quotation, after six weeks and needs to cite all his work from now on. – just get me my citations. Tempus fugits.
Paul C Schulte is Making Stuff Up still.
Shameful but not surprising.
All roads lead to Obama.
Eric Holder Road:
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The ABA demonstrates its political bias and utter dearth of credibility.
Eric Holder has committed crimes of high office.
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On June 20, 2012, the Oversight Committee voted 23–17 along party lines to hold Holder in contempt of Congress for not releasing documents the committee had requested
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Resolution proposing articles of impeachment
On November 14, 2013, Representative Pete Olson (R-TX), along with 19 Republicans, introduced a resolution proposing Articles of Impeachment against Holder. The Articles cited Holder for his alleged role in Operation Fast and Furious, refusal to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court, failing to prosecute anyone involved in the IRS targeting of groups based on name and political theme, and for allegedly perjuring himself by stating that he had no knowledge of any potential prosecution of members of the media for disclosure of classified material. As of June 2014, there were 26 co-sponsors to the bill.
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Resignation
Holder announced his resignation on September 25, 2014, citing personal reasons. He remained in office until the Senate confirmed his successor, Loretta Lynch.
I imagine Sessions will receive awards as well –
Sessions’ reward is impeachment for abuse of power, corruption, malicious dereliction and gross negligence.
Half the 7th Floor has been fired, reassigned or “let go” as all await potential prosecution.
and Jeff still has no clue; they should already be in prison; the entire Obama Gang.