Eric Holder

Eric Holder
Official portrait, 2009
82nd United States Attorney General
In office February 3, 2009 – April 27, 2015
President	Barack Obama
Deputy	David W. Ogden James M. Cole Sally Yates
Preceded by	Michael Mukasey
Succeeded by	Loretta Lynch
Acting January 20, 2001 – February 2, 2001
President	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Janet Reno
Succeeded by	John Ashcroft
29th United States Deputy Attorney General
In office June 13, 1997 – February 2, 2001
President	Bill Clinton George W. Bush
Preceded by	Jamie Gorelick
Succeeded by	Larry Thompson
United States Attorney for the District of Columbia
In office January 20, 1993 – June 13, 1997
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	John Ramsey Johnson
Succeeded by	Mary Lou Leary
Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia
In office 1988–1993
Nominated by	Ronald Reagan
Preceded by	Virginia Riley
Succeeded by	Judith Bartnoff
Personal details
Born	Eric Himpton Holder Jr. (1951-01-21) January 21, 1951 (age 73) New York City, New York, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Sharon Malone ​ (m. 1990)​
Children	3
Education	Columbia University (BA, JD)
Signature
Eric Holder's voice Eric Holder comments on voter ID laws in Wisconsin Recorded October 16, 2014

Eric Himpton Holder Jr. (born January 21, 1951) is an American lawyer who served as the 82nd United States attorney general from 2009 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, Holder was the first African American to hold the position.^[1]

Born in New York City to a middle-class family of Barbadian origin, Holder graduated from Stuyvesant High School, Columbia College, and Columbia Law School. Following law school, he worked for the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice for twelve years. He next 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 and subsequently U.S. deputy attorney general.

Holder prosecuted cases involving government corruption.^[2] While U.S. attorney, he prosecuted congressman Dan Rostenkowski for corruption charges related to his role in the Congressional Post Office scandal. Following the Clinton administration, he worked at Covington & Burling, representing the firm's multinational corporate clients in litigation. Holder was senior legal advisor to Barack Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign and one of three members of his vice-presidential selection committee. Holder was a close ally and confidante of Obama's and was selected as his first attorney general.

Holder became the first sitting attorney general to be held in contempt of Congress during an investigation of the Operation Fast and Furious ATF gunwalking scandal. The Justice Department's inspector general under Obama refused to prosecute him and later cleared him of the charges. After he was succeeded as attorney general by Loretta Lynch in April 2015, Holder returned to Covington & Burling, where he continues to practice corporate litigation, and is also involved with efforts at gerrymandering reform through the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.