WASHINGTON (AP) — After six years on the job, Attorney General Eric Holder is resigning. The White House says President Barack Obama plans to announce the departure later today.
White House officials say Obama has not made a final decision on a replacement for Holder — the nation’s first black attorney general — who was one of the most progressive voices in his Cabinet.
A Justice Department official says Holder finalized his plans in a meeting with the president over the Labor Day weekend.
Holder, a former judge and prosecutor, took office in early 2009 as the government grappled with the worst financial crisis in decades, and amid debate over the handling of captured terrorism suspects. Those issues helped shape his tenure as the country’s top law enforcement official.
He also took on questions of racial fairness, working to improve police relations with minorities, enforce civil rights laws and remove disparities in sentencing.
Most recently he became the Obama administration’s point man in the federal response to the police shooting last month of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. He enlisted a team of criminal justice researchers to study possible racial bias in law enforcement.
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171-v-31-(Mark Smith, AP White House correspondent)–Attorney General Eric Holder is about to step down. AP White House Correspondent Mark Smith reports. (25 Sep 2014)
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149-v-24-(David Melendy, AP correspondent)–A White House official says the nation’s top law enforcement official is leaving. AP correspondent David Melendy reports. (25 Sep 2014)
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APPHOTO WX105: FILE – In this Sept. 16, 2014 file photo, Attorney General Eric Holder speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the Justice Department in Washington. Holder is resigning after serving as head of the Justice Department for six years. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) (16 Sep 2014)
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