Eric Holder: podcast appearances and interviews

Eric Himpton Holder Jr. is an American lawyer who served as the 82nd United States attorney general from 2009 to 2015. He is a member of the Democratic Party and was the first African American to hold the position. Born in New York City to a middle-class family of Bajan origin, Holder graduated from Stuyvesant High School, Columbia College, and Columbia Law School. After completing law school, he worked for the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice for twelve years. He later served as a judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia before being appointed by President Bill Clinton as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. Subsequently, he was named U.S. deputy attorney general. During his career as a prosecutor, Holder handled cases involving government corruption, including prosecuting congressman Dan Rostenkowski for corruption related to the Congressional Post Office scandal. Following his tenure in the Clinton administration, he worked at Covington & Burling, representing multinational corporate clients in litigation. Holder also served as senior legal advisor to Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign and was a member of the vice-presidential selection committee. As attorney general, he was notably the first sitting attorney general to be held in contempt of Congress during an investigation of the Operation Fast and Furious scandal; the Department of Justice's inspector general later cleared him of these charges. After leaving office in April 2015, Holder returned to Covington & Burling, where he practices corporate litigation and actively engages in efforts to reform gerrymandering through the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.