We can only imagine what scandal is brewing behind the scenes. For someone this high-up the Obama food chain to jump ship before the mid-term elections, means something very damaging for the White House may be coming down the pipeline… Eric Holder (photo, left) announced today [September 25] that he will be resigning as US Attorney General and head of the US Department of Justice. Holder says he’ll be staying on until a successor is confirmed. Holder, known as ‘Obama’s legal pit bull’, has served as attorney general since 2009, and is regarded as the President’s closest person friend in the administration.
With so much open law-breaking being done by the Federal government, and with much of it covered-up and contained by the Department of Justice, it’s anyone’s guess what has prompted Holder’s exit this week.
What’s forced Holder into early retirement? Perhaps it’s that the Ferguson, Missouri case may not go the way the DOJ wants and public fall-out will be too messy. His exit could also be part of a larger deal cut between the opposition and the White House involving a scandal threatening to explode.
From the beginning of Obama’s first term in 2009, Holder’s job was to protect the President from any legal recoiling, and to make any illegal actions appear legal on paper. The result has been a huge dent in the public’s confidence that the DOJ’s is able to dispense justice fairly and free of White House politics.
Holder took it upon himself to defend the Obama White House from a string of high-profile scandals, often at professional and personal expense. Holder was also the first Attorney General in US history to be held in contempt of Congress – for not complying with (ignoring) Congressional subpoenas relating to Fast and Furious. Many saw this as proof the Holder was running a cover-up – not the sort of behaviour one would expect from the head of any ‘Justice Department’.
Many believed that Holder’s involvement in covertly running thousands of illegal guns to Mexican criminals gangs through Operation Fast Furious would have been the scandal that broke the DOJ’s back, but the issue failed to gain enough traction to prompt a White House meltdown. In the end, Holder’s guns were used by criminal gangs to murder US border patrol and ICE agents, and wound an Arizona sheriff, along with untold more victims.
21WIRE’s Patrick Henningsen investigated Holder’s ‘Operation Fast and Furious’ back in 2012 while reporting for Infowars.com
Too Many Scandals
Then came Holder’s refusal to take any action over the IRS scandal. Here the White House was found to be directing the agency to target and harass conservative charities and groups. This abuse of power was roundly condemned, as was the destruction of email evidence by the IRS, and Lois Lerner’s incredible claim of broken and lost hard drives. IRS harassment was shown to deterring Republican donors from giving money to conservative organizations – which may have affected election results.
Holder also came under fire for his absence when the President went behind the back of Congress to negotiate a prisoner swap with the Taliban in Afghanistan, trading disgraced US soldier Bowe Bergdahl for no less than five Taliban operatives.
Then there were Holder’s direct involvement in targeting the free press in the US, where the DOJ were caught stealing telephone numbers of journalists during an East German-like raid on the offices of Associated Press (AP). Holder and the DOJ refused to police itself in this scandal, which delegitimized it in the eyes of many Americans.
In addition, Holder has been criticized for actively politicizing and stoking up racial tensions around nationally televised tragedies involving young African-American victims, like with the death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, and most recently with the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
Most recently, Holder and the DOJ was found missing in action, allowing President Obama – without any legal standing at all, to bypass Congress to launch an undeclared war against the country of Syria this week with US-led bombing raids in that country.
It could be one of the above which has prompted Holder escape from the DOJ, or it could be a completely new scandal which may emerge in the coming weeks or months.
Time will tell…
Holder is expected to move immediately into his new career as a partner in a high-profile Human Rights law firm.
Meanwhile, the White House remains exposed until Holder’s replacement is confirmed. The confirmation process could, in itself, develop into a whole other drama.
