US Attorney General Eric Holder took office pledging a sharp shift away from the last administration’s policies, but an apparent change of heart in the White House could see the top lawyer leave his job.
Holder, 59, is the first black American to hold the top legal post, and was generally regarded with bipartisan respect when he took office.
But a series of gaffes, fights with both Republicans and Democrats and apparent disagreements with the White House have left Holder looking increasingly embattled.
He came under renewed fire on Tuesday when he told lawmakers that Osama bin Laden would not be captured alive, and that US officials would read legal rights to the al-Qaeda leader’s corpse.
The ridicule and attacks that followed are only the latest blows Holder has faced in the 14 months since he took office pledging to reverse the worst “war on terror” legal abuses sanctioned by former president George W. Bush’s administration.
Ultra-conservative activists have questioned Holder’s ethics and even his patriotism over his decision to hire lawyers who defended terror suspects to Justice Department posts.
He has also raised the ire of Republicans by seeking to investigate CIA practices during the “war on terror,” even over White House opposition.
Last week, Republicans also reproached him for having failed to inform them during his nomination hearings that he had supported a lawsuit challenging the legality of Bush-era policies on detention.
But the attorney general also faces political attacks from the opposite end of the political spectrum, with left-leaning lawmakers and activists angered by his decision not to penalize Bush administration lawyers for justifying the use of harsh interrogations techniques.
They are also outraged that the Justice Department has agreed to continue prosecuting some terror suspects before the military tribunals set up by the Bush administration.
But the final straw for Holder may be the increasing distance between him and Obama on national security issues.
The White House has relented on its original insistence on prosecuting five men accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks before a civilian court in New York City.
Strongly defended by Holder, the plan was intended in part as a symbolic gesture to showcase how differently Obama is dealing with this prickly subject than his predecessor.
Holder has refused to back away from the plan even as reports suggest the White House is set to agree to prosecute the five men before a military court in return for Republican support for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.
“I think if the president overrules him on what should be done with the detainees, I think he should resign,” said Yale Law School professor Eugene Fidell.
“I think a disagreement on a matter as profound as this is the type of thing that people can conscientiously resign about … If you consider that you’re not getting anywhere and that the matter is important enough, then you leave,” Fidell said.
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