Shame on Eric Holder, Wall Street's Attorney General

[rhett o rick]

Shame on Eric Holder, Wall Street's Attorney General Thursday, 23 July 2015 00:00 By Clara Herzberg, Truthout | Op-Ed

"Well, well, well. Eric Holder is returning to his cushy job at Covington & Burling where he reportedly pulled in $2.5 million the last year he was there. "

Can you say "The revolving door of government corruption?"

"Holder had just spent six years in Washington handing out slaps on the wrist to financial institutions that claimed they were "too big to fail" while secretly receiving government assistance. His help almost certainly amounted to billions of dollars of aid to Wall Street. Now he's trotting back on his high horse to go collect millions for his top position in the firm."

"But let's look for a moment at Eric Holder's record during his tenure as Wall Street's attorney general: He never got a single conviction for any crimes that spawned the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Instead, Holder employed some creative lawmaking and created the idea of "collateral consequences," wherein the state could look for alternatives to prosecuting firms if the results were too much "collateral damage." UBS and HSBC were caught manipulating interest rates and laundering money, respectively, and met with no criminal legal action as a result."

While Mr. Holder never got a single conviction against the banksters that crashed our economy and cost the middle and lower classes trillions, we did get some convictions by busting medical marijuana dispensaries in states where dispensing medical marijuana was legal. What a sad legacy for an Attorney General labeled a Democrat who is now headed back to Wall Street to reap his rewards.

Complete article: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/32025-shame-on-eric-holder-wall-street-s-attorney-general

[Vincardog]

1. The very best lack of law enforcement money can buy.

[snot]

2. K&R'd. Wish I could do more –

wish more DU'er's understood the importance of financial info.

[daleanime]

3. K&R.....

[jberryhill]

4. He has no business being a lawyer

Who does he think he is?

Clearly he should go farm asparagus.

The next attorney general:

1. Should not be a lawyer, and

2. Should not take up law practice after they leave office.

[Indydem]

5. Exactly!

How dare BHO appoint a well-respected attorney to the position of AG!

How dare Eric Holder fails to prosecute people for laws that don't exist!

How dare he leave after 6 years of being called every horrible name on earth by the right wing noise machine!

How dare he return to the private sector lawyering!!!

Asparagus farming it is!

[rhett o rick]

23. How dare BHO appoint a fox to guard the hen house. I am guessing that if a Republicon

had done this, you wouldn't like it. But since Holder is labeled a Democrat, he can get away with literal corruption. He used his position to protect his Wall Street friends and then goes back to work for them for millions. Wall Street made billions, maybe trillions off of corruption and Holder looked the other way. And now he will get his kickback. The Right-Wing noise machine may have called him names but the Oligarchs loved him. He literally did nothing to control Wall Street. But he did throw medical marijuana dispensers in prison. Do you approve of the government/private sector revolving door?

[FlatBaroque]

40. laws that don't exist

What a fuckin riot

[Armstead]

9. There is practicing law and then there is practicing law

There are plenty of opportunities to practice law, make a good living, and not be enmeshed in defending the Oligarchy.

[jberryhill]

12. Yeah, he should do DUI's and slip and falls

[Armstead]

14. You sound like a Reublican go after "Trial Lawyers"

and there are many variations beside that and Big Time corporate law/lobbyists

[former9thward]

47. There are plenty of qualified judges and law professors

who could do the job. Choosing a lawyer from a high profile law firm is bound to cause conflicts concerning enforcement of financial issues.

[hifiguy]

50. THIS

And whatever happened to teaching after doing a stint in government?

Professors at top-tier law schools make very good money, if not the millions the egos and greed of some people demand.

[msanthrope]

54. most judges have worked in high profile law firms.....

So have a lot of professors.

[jberryhill]

55. So, a US federal judge...

...should give up a lifetime appointment to take another job which ends in a few years at the same salary?

Explain how this works... how do they get their judicial position back after it's over?

You can't just leave a bench, go off and do something, and go back to it. So, you still have the question of what this person is going to do after the AG gig ends.

Law professors, incidentally, earn significant income in consulting work for private parties.

[former9thward]

58. So it is impossible for a law prof or judge to become DOJ chief?

Federal judges leave their jobs for other things all the time. I am willing to bet big most federal judges below the SC would love to be DOJ boss. I doubt anyone would have to do a fundraiser for them after their term was over. Law profs doing some part time consulting is far, far different than a senior partner at a high profile law firm whose clients are mainly wall street companies. But I suspect you know that ....

[L0oniX]

6. If only Enron had waited a few years they too could have been bailed out and scot free.

No offence toward Scot. Hey ...even Neal Bush could have gotten bailed out if Silverado had existed in 2008. http://www.rationalrevolution.net/war/bush_family_and_the_s.htm

[Octafish]

7. Revolving Door is right.

Neil Barofsky Gave Us The Best Explanation For Washington's Dysfunction We've Ever Heard

Linette Lopez
Business Insider, Aug. 1, 2012, 2:57 PM

Neil Barofsky was the Inspector General for TARP, and just wrote a book about his time in D.C. called Bailout: An Insider Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street.

SNIP...

Bottom line: Barofsky said the incentive structure in our nation's capitol is all wrong. There's a revolving door between bureaucrats in Washington and Wall Street banks, and politicians just want to keep their jobs.

For regulators it's something like this:

[font color="green"]"You can play ball and good things can happen to you get a big pot of gold at the end of the Wall Street rainbow or you can do your job be aggressive and face personal ruin...We really need to rethink how we govern and how regulate," Barofsky said.[/font color]


CONTINUED... http://www.businessinsider.com/neil-barofsky-2012-8

[George II]

8. Most people who leave the private sector to serve their country return...

....to the jobs they had when they leave government.

[Armstead]

10. And that's why politicians should not look to the same old Cronies to fill positions

[yourout]

11. The real question is....

He left the private sector to serve who?

[rhett o rick]

24. Maybe so, but Eric Holder didn't serve "his country" he served the Wall Street Gangsters and

they will reward him handsomely. Wealth inequality will kill our Democracy, if it hasn't already, and Eric Holder did his part to continue the growing wealth inequality.

[Babel_17]

13. Convictions don't matter: What is important

is that the individuals responsible, and the industry itself, learned their lesson. The American people see that and have the consolation that though both their personal finances, and that of the nation, took a devastating hit, the rule of law persevered. After nearly a decade of state and federal cooperation, and the appointment of several special prosecutors, and the Justice Department heading task forces assigned to the matter, we are now able to say we got to the bottom of matter.

Once the immunity deals were cut with the underlings everything came into sharp focus. It's amazing how out in the open everything was done. Truly a target rich environment for the squadrons of investigators tasked with getting to the bottom of things and identifying the culprits.

It was a lot of work, and expensive, but now of course the money is flowing in the other direction as the historic fines and restitution to investors and pension funds kicks in. We can now watch with some sense of satisfaction and pride as laws are passed undoing the senseless deregulation of the past.

They truly are a testament to our nation's best minds who labored to craft these comprehensive bills. And kudos to congress as these bills sail through the respective legislative bodies.

The crash was so very costly, and on a very human level, and that deepens all our satisfaction as we look to our future, and the future of the children, and know that we did our part in ensuring it doesn't happen again.

Now we can concentrate on doing something for all the victims of pension funds that couldn't make it over the hump and had to cannibalize themselves during the downturn. With the economy on safe footing we can try to undo the great harm to those starting out their careers, and those too close to the end of theirs.



Edit: Since I'm not sure I'll ask; would this post be better with the sarcasm tag?

Edit 2: Got feedback, adding the sarcasm tag, leaving the first edit so as to keep the context for the reply.

[Armstead]

15. Yes it could use a sarcasm tag. You're too close to what some people say

[Babel_17]

17. Thank you (nt)

[sendero]

16. Shame on Barak Obama..

... for appointing him. And many others.

[Fred Sanders]

18. Shame on those that would troll yet another black man Democratic Party leader doing all he could in the face of

bitter, obstructionist, illogical, hateful and racist opposition. Unprecedented resistance from an opposition party gone insane, that we all now see as nothing more than a fascist coup attempt.

Is everyone suffering from amnesia and no sense of context in America, just to pretend to feel outraged? Is outrage always the goal of any critique?

"Holder never got a single conviction...." Is the same old, worn out an tired canard about Obama also failing to be The Perfect Black Man in Power, and therefore a complete failure, obviously.

Illogical to the point of absurdity.

[Enthusiast]

21. Criticism of Holder has nothing to do with his race.

[Fred Sanders]

29. Accepted. What about amnesia?

[Babel_17]

22. The DOJ had a blank check

The DOJ had a blank check to go after those responsible for the financial collapse. The DOJ needed to use its discretion in to how far it used that. That's what I'm critiquing.

[Fred Sanders]

28. If by "blank cheque" you mean "Black Magic JuJu Sticks", to hell with burden and standard of proof, then I agree.

[Babel_17]

35. Obama to Bankers: I'm Standing 'Between You and the Pitchforks'

http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/04/obama-to-banker.html

Apparently President Obama understood the mood of the public perfectly well. And that mood is what gives the political opportunity for the DOJ to act. And that's assuming a DOJ that even needs such an opportunity before it will act. All that was actually needed was the will. The criminality of the financial collapse was a target rich environment. I've yet to meet even the most strident of Republicans who will deny the massive culpability behind the financial collapse. Though a few such Republicans will argue that a lot of it was somehow technically legal (or at least virtually impossible to prove otherwise).

ABC News’ Matthew Jaffe reports: When President Obama welcomed the chief executives from 13 of the nation's biggest banks to the White House last Friday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs billed it as a “good, productive, and frank” conversation.

As first reported by Politico's Eamon Javers, and confirmed by ABC News with industry sources, some bankers gave explanations for the industry's high salaries, such as "competing for talent on an international market."

But, President Obama cut them off.

"My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks," the president told them.

[Fred Sanders]

36. If Politico reporters are reporting a single sentence of Obama verbatim it must be true??

Have you seen the thread today about Politico?

And who does not like a little metaphor in speech, agreed there is that danger of being taken out of context, but obviously Obama does not give a fuck what political news hacks think or say, and neither do I.

[Babel_17]

37. "confirmed by ABC News with industry sources" was in my link

http://www.newsweek.com/why-cant-obama-bring-wall-street-justice-65009

Obama came into office vowing to end business as usual, and, in the gray post-crash dawn of 2009, nowhere did a reckoning with justice seem more due than in the financial sector. The public was shaken, and angry, and Wall Street seemed oblivious to its own culpability, defending extravagant pay bonuses even while accepting a taxpayer bailout. Obama channeled this anger, and employed its rhetoric, blaming the worldwide economic collapse on "the reckless speculation of bankers." Two months into his presidency, Obama summoned the titans of finance to the White House, where he told them, "My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks."

Just google the phrase and you'll see lots of confirmation.

I think President Obama said what we were all thinking and the context was eminently obvious. Who could forget the shock and anger of the public after the financial collapse?

Edit: added the quote

[rhett o rick]

44. Instead of trying desperately to discredit those that present evidence against Holder,

why don't you make a case for him. Show us how he got tough with Wall Street.

Eric Holder epitomizes the corruption of the "revolving door" of industry to regulator to industry.

[rhett o rick]

26. How desparate are those that see any criticism of Holder as racism. He did all he could to

help the banksters and gangsters during the worst economic crisis of modern time. He prosecuted no one for their violations of laws on the books intended to prevent the trillion dollar extortion. He did nothing to prevent the same extortion in the future. He did nothing for Main Street except persecute medical marijuana dispensers. He did nothing to stop the crimes of Wall Street.

In your post you said nothing of substance to counter the charge of Holder giving his Wall Street friends special treatment. You just threw the "racist card". Racism is a huge problem in this country and you do the cause against it great disservice when you shout racism over every criticism of someone like Holder.

[mindwalker_i]

31. It's similar to saying that any criticism of Hillary is because she's female

"Quick Robin, deploy the bat SQUIRREL!"

[zeemike]

32. I find that mildly amusing.

When black people are routinely gunned down by cops in the streets and he did nothing about it for 6 years...what happened in Ferguson?...nothing...what happened to Bundy? nothing.
Can you blame that on the racist opposition too?

There is some serious cognitive dissidence going on here.

[Fred Sanders]

33. Ditto - serious cognitive dissonance (sic)...and massive amnesia.

[rhett o rick]

45. I agree with the cognitive dissonance but would add authoritarian worship. nm

[lark]

43. Wrong.

Obama did NOT do the best he could, regardless of his race. Yes, his race is responsible for some of the truly stupid stuff like birtherism and Kenyan Mooslim, but it's not why he appointed an all Wall St. financial team that did nothing to stop their former peers from ripping off the system. Obama didn't go after Cheney Bush for some of the worst crimes ever committed by a president in office - lying us into the Iraq war, covering up 9/11 and never letting the true story out. Bankers are found committing actual crimes, Holder lets every one of them off with a slap on the wrist. The only thing he goes after are the states where marijuana is legal.

[heaven05]

19. true

he's a political hypocrite of the worst kind, poisonous, toxic to the middle and lower classes he helped screw out of trillions, I'm one that lost a lot in that crash and toxic economy of GWB........Holder didn't do a damn thing, even in civil/voting rights he was a total fucking failure

[Enthusiast]

20. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch! Someone on Redditt claimed that

the bank tellers were responsible for the money laundering. I'm serious.

[Babel_17]

25. A link from the comments section

http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/going_easy_on_holders_wall_str.php

[rhett o rick]

41. Thank you. Some great quotes there. nm

[Hoyt]

27. Actually Holder tried and failed prosecuting individuals. He did win a number of cases against

institutions that resulted in billions of dollars in fines.

". . . . . .Early on, the Justice Department tried two Bear Stearns portfolio managers whose hedge fund — stuffed with mortgage-backed securities — collapsed. The two men were found innocent. That verdict seems to have sent a chill through prosecutors, making them reluctant to go after others. . . . . . ."

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/30/opinion/joe-nocera-the-hole-in-holders-legacy.html?_r=0

http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/didnt-eric-holder-go-bankers

[ConservativeDemocrat]

38. Every once in a while on the DU, one finds a nugget of truth

Hidden among the emotional ignorant hyperpartisan dross.

Thank you. This helps my understanding of what was going on tremendously.

"I think part of people's frustrations, part of my frustration, was a lot of practices that should not have been allowed weren't necessarily against the law, but they had a huge destructive impact. And that's why it was important for us to put in place financial rules that protect the American people from reckless decision-making and irresponsible behavior."

- President Obama on Occupy

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[dreamnightwind]

56. Or not

William Black, who prosecuted the S & L crisis, has spoken extensively about the rampant criminality of the more recent crisis, debunking the "it was all legal" excuse. Black got many convictions in the S & L crisis, and said he would have gotten many in this one, too, had he been in such a position. He claims the will to do so wasn't there. I suppose now you'll claim Black doesn't know what he's talking about.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

57. I'm always interested in new information

Do you have a link?

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[dreamnightwind]

59. Sorry I had missed your reply, here is some info

I don't have any concise definitive place to steer you, I've heard Black speak about this many times, usually on Moyers or The Real News or Democracy Now, IIRC.

I googled a little for you, if you're interested, he really does give an informed window into the lie of "it was all legal so we couldn't prosecute", and he actually did prosecute and convict many after the 80's S & L scandal, so he knows of what he speaks.

This is a long read, personally I didn't have time for all of it, if you're into it though this has a lot of info in it:
http://www.rooseveltinstitute.org/new-roosevelt/interview-bill-black-great-global-bank-robbery-part-1

Here's an easier read, less specifics of course, it will give you some idea where he is coming from:
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12433

Here's a 25 minute interview of him by Bill Moyers. You can watch it, or peruse the full transcript. Plenty of specifics.

http://billmoyers.com/episode/too-big-to-jail/

[treestar]

51. Wow so the oP didn't even try to find out

Whether there had been prosecutions or not!

[Comrade Grumpy]

30. I will give him credit for his work on sentencing reform and drug policy.

He and Obama have begun to reverse the harsh sentencing juggernaut of the dug war. That's huge progress.

And he's been pretty good on marijuana overall, despite some stupid dispensary busts. He and Obama have largely gotten out of the way of medical marijuana and legal weed. They didn't have to do that. A Republican president may well have tried to shut it all down.

[rhett o rick]

39. I would love to see some sources for the information that he and Obama reformed

drug sentencing. It's not that I don't believe you but it would have been recently.

And this, " He and Obama have largely gotten out of the way of medical marijuana and legal weed." When did they start? It wasn't that long ago, the DoJ was raiding medical marijuana dispensaries in Calif, a state where it was legal and sending the proprietors to prison for 20 years.

His priorities were against the 99% and in favor of the 1%.

[Babel_17]

34. Andrew Ross Sorkin: Pulling Back the Curtain on Fraud Inquiries

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/pulling-back-the-curtain-on-fraud-inquiries/

In all, Mr. Holder said his new task force had brought cases against 343 criminal defendants and 189 civil defendants for fraud schemes that harmed more than 120,000 victims throughout the country, involving more than $8 billion in estimated losses.

It all sounded quite important, and the program’s slogan is pretty catchy. But after you get past the pandering sound bites, a question comes to mind: is anyone in the corner offices of Wall Street’s biggest firms or corporate America’s biggest companies paying any attention to Mr. Holder’s “strong message”?

Of course not. (I actually called some chief executives after Mr. Holder’s news conference, and not one had heard of Operation Broken Trust.)

That’s because in the two years since the peak of the financial crisis, the government has not brought one criminal case against a big-time corporate official of any sort.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Ross_Sorkin

Andrew Ross Sorkin (born February 19, 1977) is a Gerald Loeb Award-winning American journalist and author. He is a financial columnist for The New York Times and a co-anchor of CNBC's Squawk Box. He is also the founder and editor of DealBook, a financial news service published by The New York Times. He wrote the bestselling book Too Big to Fail (2009) and co-produced a movie adaptation of the book for HBO Films (2011).

[lark]

42. Wall Streeets lawyer, hand picked by Obama to protect what mattered the most to him.

The rich bankers and Wall St. types that totally fucked the economy of the world.

[Scuba]

46. In his defense, Holder did prosecute several state-licensed MMJ growers.

[hifiguy]

48. In terms of rank, rancid, open corruption,

Holder ranks with Nixon's collection of jailbird Attorneys General.

A disgrace to the office.

[mmonk]

49. Definitely an epic fail. The DOJ has been a do nothing agency since 2008.

[rhett o rick]

52. "Holder leaves office having been far outclassed by the Bush administration even in prosecuting

corporate criminals, despite overseeing the aftermath of one of the biggest orgies of financial corruption in history."

http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/going_easy_on_holders_wall_str.php

[mmonk]

53. What made Bush's DOJ bad had to do more with executive power.

Something that still hasn't been corrected or addressed to this day.

[rhett o rick]

61. Yes. It's interesting that the Bush/Cheney handlers carved out such power

for the executive but Obama some how can't or won't use it. I think the same handlers that helped Bush/Cheney are also "helping" Obama.

I hope I am wrong, but I believe that even if Sen Sanders gets the presidency, he will be told in no uncertain terms what his limitations are. The NSA/CIA Black State control the presidency and this country.

[KoKo]

60. ....! Good Read...

Thanks!

http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/going_easy_on_holders_wall_str.php