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Attorney General Eric Holder will announce his resignation after six years of service, a Justice Department source says. VPC
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder delivers a keynote speech at New York University's law school, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014, in New York. According to Holder, the Justice Department expects to end the current budget year next week with a federal prison population of roughly 215,000 inmates. The prison population has dropped in the last year by roughly 4,800, the first time in several decades that the inmate count has gone down, according to the Justice Department. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) ORG XMIT: NYJC103(Photo: Julio Cortez AP)
WASHINGTON — Eric Holder's resignation was his own decision, but President Obama accepted it "without putting up much of a fight" because of how long the attorney general had served, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Thursday.
A formal announcement of the resignation will come from the White House at 4:30 p.m. ET. Holder's resignation plans were first reported by National Public Radio.
Holder was an original member of Obama's cabinet, and one of the most controversial. He championed gay rights, voting rights and a rethinking of drug policies, but also clashed with the news media over leak investigations and congressional Republicans over probes into misconduct in the Obama administration.
Earnest acknowledged the controversy, saying the attorney general had "confronted a large number of issues -- many of them very complicated, some of them maybe controversial." He said Holder has "certainly put in his time in a way that he can be proud of and a way that the country has appreciated."
Holder will stay on until his successor is named and confirmed by the Senate, Earnest said.
The attorney general had discussed his plans with Obama on multiple occasions in recent months, and made the final decision in an hour-long conversation with Obama at the White House over the Labor Day weekend, said a Justice Department source speaking on condition of anonymity to allow Holder to make the announcement.
Holder told top Justice Department staff and members of Congress of his plans Thursday morning.
Obama has not made a decision on who will replace him, Earnest said.
"I'm confident there are members of the president's team who have been thinking about who solid candidates might be," Earnest said. "I've not seen the list. I'm sure the president has his own ideas and there will be a formal process. This is a high priority position."
With the Nov, 4 elections deciding which party will control the Senate, Democrats want a quick process for confirming Holder's successor. New Senate rules pushed through by Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., would allow Democrats to sign off on whoever Obama names with a simple majority vote. But the Senate isn't scheduled to come back until Nov. 12.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told MSNBC that he wants to hold hearings "as quickly as possible" on Holder's successor. He said it would be irresponsible for Republicans to try and block a successor until after the elections.
But Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the ranking Republican on the committee, urged Obama to take his time. "Rather than rush a nominee through the Senate in a lame duck session, I hope the president will now take his time to nominate a qualified individual who can start fresh relationships with Congress," he said.
Holder, 63, has served the Obama administration for nearly six years — and has held the job of the nation's top law enforcement official longer than all but three of his predecessors. With his departure, only two of Obama's original cabinet members will remain: Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
He is the nation's first African-American attorney general.
He set a contentious tone early in his tenure. In a speech in his first month in office, he called America "a nation of cowards" on matters of race. The speech was widely criticized, but it established Holder as the Obama administration's leading voice on racial issues.
Civil rights groups praised his tenure, citing his work to reduce sentences for non-violent drug offenders, defend the Voting Rights Act and investigate police misconduct.
"There has been no greater ally in the fight for justice, civil rights, equal rights, and voting rights than Attorney General Holder," said civil rights advocate Myrlie Evers.
Holder can leave "with his head held high and with his record intact as one who has served this nation and served the civil rights community, broadly, very well," said Rev. Al Sharpton, an informal White House adviser and television commentator. He said he hoped Obama would consult civil rights leaders in naming Holder's successor "and we will be trying to arrange those conversations."
Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, compared what Holder did for gays and lesbians to what a predecessor did for African Americans.
"Some attorneys general wait for history, others make history happen," Griffin said. "He was our Robert F. Kennedy."
But Holder's legacy also includes controversy. He butted heads with House Republicans over his handling of controversies at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and at the Internal Revenue Service. He will leave office under a 2012 contempt of Congress resolution -- supported by 17 House Democrats -- for his refusal to turn over documents in the ATF's "Fast and Furious" gun-walking operation.
"Eric Holder is the most divisive U.S. Attorney General in modern history," said House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif. "Time and again, Eric Holder administered justice as the political activist he describes himself as instead of an unbiased law enforcement official."
He faced criticism from consumer advocates, too. He was accused of failing to prosecute bankers responsible for the 2008 mortgage meltdown -- and when he reached civil settlements with major Wall Street institutions, he often allowed them to write off the judgments as business expenses, said Michelle Surka of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
On Friday, Holder is scheduled to visit the U.S. Attorney's office in Scranton, Pa., where he had his first victory as a trial attorney for the Justice Department in the late 1970s. With the visit, he will have completed his goal of visiting all 93 U.S. Attorney's offices during his tenure as attorney general.
Holder has expressed no specific plans for retirement. But after visiting Ferguson, Mo., last month, he told friends and colleagues he wants to help rebuild trust between police and minority communities.
Contributing: David Jackson from the United Nations, Kevin Johnson from Wilmington, Del., Susan Davis, Richard J. Wolf and Greg Toppo from Washington. Follow @gregorykorte on Twitter.
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