Attorney General
Age: 58
Details: A friend of and campaign co-chair for Obama, Holder is the first black attorney general, with a glittering resume as one of the nation's leading African-American lawyers. He was a Justice Department trial prosecutor of corrupt officials, a D.C. Superior Court judge, a U.S. attorney and President Clinton's deputy attorney general from 1997 to 2001. After that he became a highly paid partner at Covington & Burling, a big Washington law firm. Holder was attacked by Republicans during confirmation hearings for his testimony that “waterboarding is torture” and his admitted bad judgment in going along with Clinton's pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich. But he won confirmation by a comfortable 75-21.
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