President-elect Barack Obama has decided to nominate Eric Holder as attorney general, according to a source close to the Obama-Biden transition team.
On Tuesday, the source said that Obama recently offered Holder the position, and that he had accepted. No one on the transition team has publicly confirmed the pick, and Holder would still need to undergo a formal "vetting" review by the Obama transition team to finalize the selection.
Holder, 57, was deputy attorney general during the Clinton administration and more recently, he has been a prominent attorney at the Washington, D.C., law firm of Covington and Burling. If confirmed, Holder would be the country's first African-American attorney general.
Holder has been a close friend and prominent adviser to Obama throughout the campaign, helping him to lead the search for a vice presidential candidate.
With more than 55 Democrats in the Senate, Holder's confirmation seems likely, though there may be some concern about the role he played in the 2001 pardon of fugitive Marc Rich by Clinton at the end of his presidency.
Holder helped vet the pardon and said he was "neutral, leaning towards favorable." He later publicly apologized and said had he given the issue more attention, he would have cautioned against a pardon.
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