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U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is planning to step down, as soon as his successor is chosen, according to NPR.
Two sources told NPR that Holder has been “increasingly ‘adamant'” about wanting to step down as Attorney General and plans to once a successor is confirmed—a process that could stretch into early next year. President Barack Obama is scheduled to make a “personal announcement” about Holder’s resignation today at 4:30 p.m. in the State Dining Room, according to the White House.
Holder, the nation’s first black Attorney General, was nominated for the position by President Barack Obama, in 2009 and his position was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in a 17-2 vote several days later.
But the decision for Holder, one of the “longest serving members” of Obama’s cabinet and the “fourth longest tenured AG in history,” to step down isn’t entirely surprising. In an interview with ABC News over the summer, he said that his time as AG might be coming to an end: “But I think by the time I get to the end of this year, that’ll be a time for me to make a decision about whether I want to continue in my service as attorney general.”
Though Holder’s tenure as AG—which was been defined by his record on civil rights issues, including “refusing to defend a law that defined marriage as between one man and one woman”—has been heavily criticized by the right wing, NPR says that he wasn’t pressured to step down from the position:
In the end, the decision to leave was Holder’s alone — the two sources tell NPR the White House would have been happy to have him stay a full eight years and to avoid what could be a contentious nomination fight for his successor. Holder and President Obama discussed his departure several times and finalized things in a long meeting over Labor Day weekend at the White House.
As for who might replace him, NPR says that the “leading candidate” for his job is Solicitor General Don Verrilli:
The attorney general told staff the news at DOJ this morning and has called civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., and Ethel Kennedy, the widow of former AG Robert F. Kennedy.
The sources say a leading candidate for that job is Solicitor General Don Verrilli, the administration’s top representative to the Supreme Court and a lawyer whose judgment and discretion are prized in both DOJ and the White House.
NPR also reports that, while he’s made no decisions about what he’ll do after he steps down, his friends say they wouldn’t be surprised to see him return to his old law firm, Covington & Burling, where he represented corporate clients.
