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U.S. Attorney General Nominee Holder Earned Corruption Fighting Stripes in Pennsylvania

By David Badertscher, PLL

pfont size=2strongSource: /strongemCrime and Justice News, /emDecember 17, 2008./font/p#13; pfont size=2When Eric H. Holder Jr. first joined the U.S. Department of Justice in 1976, he was fresh out of Columbia Law School, assigned to a public-integrity unit and sent to earn his stripes battling corruption. So he came to Pennsylvania. Here, he racked up high-profile convictions - including a Scranton-area mob capo and a bribe-taking Philadelphia judge, the Philadelphia Inquirer says in a profile of the attorney general-designate. Despite making one error that earned him a stern critique from a federal judge, he quickly impressed savvy observers of the state's legal scene. /font/p#13; pfont size=2 'You were very comfortable with him,' said U.S. District Judge William J. Nealon, the longtime judge for whom Scranton's federal courthouse is named. 'He was very deferential and very professional. I would have predicted a brilliant future for him.' In 1988, after successfully prosecuting Court of Common Pleas Judge Herbert R. Cain Jr. for taking bribes, Holder said the court system in Philadelphia 'is filled [with corruption] to a degree that I've never seen in 11 years with the Justice Department.' He add, 'The system stinks.'  /font/p#13; pa href=http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001I0HzUilaevnW6i9eU3blUDxoBvmSIsbs8FN1Du3DDV6ofC8251g_aeesVNf_NpX7V1jHUGfeHA0M8xK4A7tglI5Ud5Sp-uTPFiIDrwjouJQE70bn62zn7IuNRIwqScrCKztBVg1XKSTok-53cyqDIIyFF0YYnVsVQWHm9QWwjWrOPdr8gBaq4Lw3_1oYSIX8arQG6D5EqzA= shape=rect color=#0000FF target=_blankfont size=2Philadelphia Inquirer/font/a/p

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on December 17, 2008 (boomark / email).