After failing to criminally prosecute any of the financial firms responsible for the market collapse in 2008, former Attorney General Eric Holder is returning to Covington & Burling, a corporate law firm known for serving Wall Street clients.
The move completes one of the more troubling trips through the revolving door for a cabinet secretary. Holder worked at Covington from 2001 right up to being sworn in as attorney general in Feburary 2009. And Covington literally kept an office empty for him, awaiting his return.
The Covington & Burling client list has included four of the largest banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo. Lobbying records show that Wells Fargo is still a client of Covington. Covington recently represented Citigroup over a civil lawsuit relating to the bank’s role in Libor manipulation.
Covington was also deeply involved with a company known as MERS, which was later responsible for falsifying mortgage documents on an industrial scale. “Court records show that Covington, in the late 1990s, provided legal opinion letters needed to create MERS on behalf of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and several other large banks,” according to an investigation by Reuters.
The Department of Justice under Holder not only failed to pursue criminal prosecutions of the banks responsible for the mortage meltdown, but in fact de-prioritized investigations of mortgage fraud, making it the “lowest-ranked criminal threat,” according to an inspector general report.
For insiders, the Holder decision to return to Covington was never a mystery. Timothy Hester, the chairman of Covington, told the National Law Journal that Holder’s return to the firm had been “a project” of his ever since Holder left to the join the administration in 2009. When the firm moved to a new building last year, it kept an 11th-story corner office reserved for Holder.
James Garland, Holder’s former deputy chief of staff, who rejoined Covington in 2010, told the Law Journal that when Covington’s partners gathered to welcome Holder back four weeks ago, “He was so busy giving people hugs and shaking hands.”
As Covington prepared for Holder’s return, the firm continued to represent clients before the Department of Justice. For instance, Covington negotiated with the department on behalf of GlaxoSmithKline for a plea agreement in 2010.
Holder’s critics charge that he made a career out of institutionalizing “Too Big to Prosecute” rules within the department. In 1999, as a deputy attorney general, Holder authored a memo arguing that officials should consider the “collateral consequences” when prosecuting corporate crimes. In 2012, Holder’s enforcement chief, Lanny Breuer, admitted during a speech to the New York City Bar Association that the department may go easy on certain corporate criminals if they believe prosecutions may disrupt financial markets or cause layoffs. “In some cases, the health of an industry or the markets are a real factor,” Breuer said.
Rather than face accountability for their failures, the incentive structure of modern Washington is designed to reward both men. Breuer left the department in 2013 to rejoin Covington. Holder is set to become among the highest-earning partners at the firm, with compensation in the seven or eight figures.
(This post is from our blog: Unofficial Sources.)
Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty
We`re on jis ass and his turkey is cooked. It`ll be news by the end of the week. He won`t read it of course….he`ll be ‘under’!
Go count the number of people formerly working for him who have done the same. You will be shocked. Trust no one.
They should be putting this guy in a federal prison cell for Fast & Furious but of course not, he gets the nice digs at the nice firm. It’s how things work in the overflowing toilet bowl known as Washington DC
They left an office open for him. How appropriate. It was like he was on vacation which I guess he was. It was like he never left which I guess he didn’t. How symbolic of how Washington REALLY works. I bet Monsanto and Goldman Sachs do a lot of this too. They want their frontmen (and women) to know that there home is always waiting for them to return.
Bankster or Skankster?
Too big too jail seems to take on a totally new perspective now, doesn’t it?
Here in Alaska we had some close up experience with Eric Holder and his Department of Injustice in the Alaska Legislature-Bill Allen oil tax scandal.
His career began to define itself in the Mark Rich pardon under Bill Clinton. I am not surprised by his decisions to overlook the wall street crimes and move into a high paying position in Wall Street.
Obama, Holder and Lynch sell out of the People.
The serving the people doesn’t pay.
Not seven or eight figures anyway.
Doublethink, Doublethink wherefore art thou Doublethink?
“To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just as long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies – all this is indispensably necessary”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tgK6EuQz-w
Still think the current version of the Dem Party is a viable option, folks? Until there is serious campaign finance reform – which to my way of thinking means nothing less than public funded elections and laws prohibiting the revolving door of lawmakers to lucrative lobbying jobs, Democracy is doomed.
Please tell me whom among the Dem Party is pushing for public funded elections. Bernie Sanders is, but he only caucuses with them and is running as one for this election. Who among the Dem Party establishment is pushing to make what Holder and HALF of U.S. Senators (up 1,500% in the last 40 years) do upon retirement: become lobbyists – illegal?
Name for me at least one Dem on the federal level who is pushing for these laws – not just mentioning them.
There are a few, Alan Grayson is probably the best.
http://graysonforcongress.com/campaign-finance-reform
The appointment of Eric Holder to be AG , along w/Timmy Tax Cheat to be Secty, Treasury was a clear sign of Obama’s real agenda. Eric Holder conveniently “vetted” the pardon of Marc Rich in the last day of the Clinton Administration in exchange for a multi million dollar contribution to the Clinton Library from Denise Rich. Selling the pardon power of the Presidency…hard to believe how disgraceful that was…but nobody seemed to remember.
As you stand in front of a mirror and repeat something often and loud enough – even you will believe it. Right now that’s the problem – all our politicians have mirrors and they brainwash themselves.. The Austerity of Europe started with our banks and Wall Streets bundled mortgages made available by the republican “SUB-PRIME” mortgage rates sold by the banks ( don’t worry ) ( it will all work out – as your banker said – – the problem was / and / is whose pocket the money goes in.. You may say this is off point – but it isn’t …ALL CONCERNED -oh its only a little bite they’ll survive? When you work all week and put your hand out to get paid and get nothing?? You go to the bank and find the government has decided you have too much money and help themselves o 20-25 % That’s AUSTERITY
OUR banks want to play innocent – just like George Bush said “WE don’t TORTURE”. standing in front of a mirror – – are you stupid enough to believe it??? Takeover of the world’s financial markets – and the ability to even threaten Russia… Mr Holder & Mr Obama are gathering up marbles to protect themselves and their families…. T.P.P. will make them rich politically where ever they go – – – The people will once again be left holding the bag and paying the bills – – –
Eight figures? Well done, Mr. Holder
Well, you know, remember Arthur Andersen. But still, Holder took it — takes it — way, way too far
He got that e-mail, didn’t you, HOLDER? Yeahhhhhhh.
Maybe Lehman Brothers could have survived having all those CDOs containing subprime mortgages on their books if they had hired Covington & Burling?
I doubt though the decision to prosecute these banks was entirely Holder’s decision. I would think that would have been up to President Obama (but who knows?). Still, it would be nice to have laws on the books that stop the revolving door. You don’t want to have to wonder if the Attorney General’s decision to not prosecute the executives at the big banks was based on securing himself a fat paycheck when he leaves office.
I think Matt Taibbi has this Holder chap pretty well nailed. From DN:
AMY GOODMAN: And talk about Lanny Breuer, Eric Holder, where they come from, where they go back to.
MATT TAIBBI: So they both came from a law firm called Covington & Burling, which in the 2000s represented basically every single one of the too-big-to-fail banks. They were also involved in the setting up of the electronic mortgage registry, so they played an enormous role in the subprime mortgage crisis.
But here’s the key thing about the presence of these two people at the head of the attorney—of the Justice Department. Prosecutors, by and large—and I interviewed a lot of prosecutors for this book—they basically all have the same personality, the old-school prosecutors. They’re just—if you think of somebody like Eliot Spitzer, they’re all like bulldogs. They just want to get their—you know, get their target; by hook or crook, it doesn’t really matter. They have this ferocious aspect to their personalities. And it’s an admirable quality in a prosecutor. They’re all kind of the same, in a certain way. Cops are the same way. But in the 2000s, that kind of person started to be replaced in the regulatory system by a new kind of figure who tended to come from the corporate defense community. And their attitude was not, you know, get their target at all costs; it was more: “Let’s bring a bunch of people in a room and hammer out a solution where all the sides are going to end up walking out happy.” And that’s why we end up with settlements, like the $13 billion Chase settlement last year or the $1.9 billion HSBC settlement, instead of prosecutions.
I like Matt Taibbi’s writing. I was hoping he would find a home at First Look Media, but alas.
And this:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/eric-holder-wall-street-double-agent-comes-in-from-the-cold-20150708?page=4
Speaking of Eric Holder…
https://www.yahoo.com/politics/eric-holder-the-justice-department-could-strike-123393663066.html
Somehow, I doubt it.
Thanks for reminding me of the quote…the DOJ would never be allowed to make a plea bargain with Snowden…Snowden’s only hope to be away from Russia is a South American or a European country…”the necessary debate” referred to in the quote has yet to be finished because the troubling issues raised by Snowden keep on coming and coming…thank you Mr. Snowden and The Internet…
Fascist POS, what did you expect from anyone who is tight with Obama or the mainstream Dems. And I already have friends who are lamenting my upcoming Green vote because the Republicans are going to ruin the country. Some (a lot) will never learn.
Vote your enlightened self interest.
Just another part of Eric Holders egregious legacy. Letting the money changers skate. On another subject regarding former AG Holder when you think Hacking Team think about the Feds Dropping yet another Harris Corporation Stingray Suit. Think of US Marshalls swooping in to federalize state investigations or undermine public records requests.They (Harris or Hacking Teams US Customers) don’t want ANY of this to get to discovery in open court. Come to think of it neither would Fin Fisher or the host of other purveyors this type of hardware https://search.wikileaks.org/?q=spy+files 1 2 and 3.
Holder et al redefine the word shameless. I’d give up drinking to see even one of these degenerate scum sucking criminals hanging upside down from a lamp post. On fire. Unfortunately, America isn’t hungry enough yet. Give it a couple of years.
I will let it be known to any and all who read The Intercept, and any who go on to read the comments BTL, that I suspect that any commenter who writes garbage such as the following posted by hellfire: “hanging upside down from a lamp post. On fire,” is a plant of some type or another. That language is the same language that you will see the notorious FBI informants using as they set up someone to become the FBI’s next money producing “terrorist” prosecution case wherein the FBI is responsible for the beginning, middle and closing of a “terrorist plot.” It’s also the same language you’ll see and hear Informants and Plants using at protests.
It’s a criminal offense to out a cop.
Oh bullshit. FBI??????????? Hahahahahaha.. fucking spare me. Even Piketty has warned the elite that if things don’t change, the possibility exists for a revolution. Just what do you think happened in France, hmmmmm. My remark was made in the light that at some point, there exists a possibility that vigilante justice may explode across this country. So spare me your paranoia. I just happen to think these scumbags like Holder/Bruer deserve it. So fuck off.
Back at ya, mr hell. Didn’t call you “FBI,” by the way. Just was pointing out that your words are the same sort of laughable B movie script stupidity that those used by the FBI as scumbag informants use, earning big money for setting up people to fall for hack terror plots that the FBI creates in order to finance the FBI’s existence. I had figured that more than likely you’re just someone who is either taking low fee as a Cass Sunstein type dolt, or that you’re just posting your low-life language for free because, in your mind, it lifts your bottom scraping ego up a notch
Also, I’m not being “paranoid” because there is no way that I would ever consider taking up your chain yanking, self claimed tough guy ‘set ’em on fire’ language and verbalize or type something similar in agreement with it. Piketty, in describing his guarantee of how things have to and will change, has joked about pitch forks, but I don’t believe he has claimed anything like your trash talk of hanging and burning will come to pass. Revolution or Rebellion don’t need to include hanging people from lamp posts and setting them on fire. I’m on record here several times of noting that ‘Rebellion’ is the only way this system can be dismantled and rebuilt into something that doesn’t include the oligarchy owning us all. But Dick Cheney level of thinking and acting, such as your language presents you, has never been a part of my vocabulary for presenting how that could or should come about.
Hey, word of advice: next time use more question marks — because that’s really impressive!
word
The vast mob of Americans won’t do anything. Look to small cliques and cadres as depicted in movies like “The East” and “Assault on Wall Street.”
It takes strong medicine to move Bubba Americanus, something like a NASCAR crash or Deflate-Gate.
His devotion to the rule of law, the bill of rights, and our constitutional democracy notwithstanding.
And yet unwavering faith remains that a presidential candidate could arise from this muck filled swamp of corruption to convert and redeem the Democratic Party, purging it of its anti-social character.
There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
–Brutus
It should be noted that this was the only financial crisis in U.S. in recent history (say since the Great Depression) where DOJ didn’t prosecute high level officials of financial institutions involved with creating the financial crisis of 2008 (and it would normally be alot of high level people – those who remember the S&L crisis or 2000 Tech Bubble pop will be familiar with that).
Great article Lee, thank you. Mr. Holder’s choices on prosecution of the high level players in the financial crisis never made sense to me before, but now they do. Once you make political considerations a large part of whether you should prosecute criminal activity of the Rich and the Powerful (Corporations or Citizens) then you’re back to Banana Republic justice.
This is institutional terrorism, turning those who claim we’re the wolves into loaners. Perfectly tuned, pitch me a fork. These porkers aren’t done. Not fat enough, ladies.