Update: Judiciary Panel Votes To Support Holder's Nomination As Attorney General

January 28, 2009 11:56 a.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Wednesday to move the nomination of Attorney General-designee Eric Holder forward to the full Senate. After Republican concerns about his role in the presidential pardon of a convicted commodities trader and clemency for members of a terror group, Holder may be confirmed as early as Thursday.

By a 17-2 vote, the Senate panel recommended Holder's nomination. Sens. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and John Cornyn (R-TX) cast the two dissenting votes.

Cornyn, chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, was also one of two lawmakers who had voted against Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's confirmation vote.

The committee's endorsement of Holder came a day after Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), ranking Republican in the panel, dropped his opposition against the Attorney General-designee.

"I think that Mr. Holder is entitled to the benefit of the doubt in the context of the excellent record that he has and those recommendations weighed against the issues which were of concern to me," Specter had said in a statement. "At no time did I challenge Mr. Holder's integrity. It was a question of judgment and a question of independence and all factors considered, as I say, I decided to vote for him."

Specter added that he came to a decision in great part due to the "weighty" recommendations of former FBI director Louis Freeh, James Comey, who deputy attorney general under former President George H. W. Bush, and former Transportation Sec. William Coleman.

The GOP leader had met privately with Holder last Thursday, a day after the Judiciary panel was to vote on his confirmation. That vote was postponed, upon a request from Republicans, for a week. It was the second request for a delay in proceedings from Republicans, they had pushed to move the confirmation hearing for Holder from Jan. 8 to a week later.

As deputy attorney general from 1997 to 2001, Holder approved former President Bill Clinton's 2001 pardon of Marc Rich, a commodities trader convicted of 65 counts of tax evasion and illegal arms deals with Iran during the hostage crisis. He has repeatedly expressed regret over his participation in the pardon.

Holder, who received his doctorate in law from Columbia Law School, was also involved in Clinton's decision to grant clemency to 16 members of the FALN, or the Armed Forces of National Liberation, a Puerto Rico-based paramilitary group that is considered by the United States as a terrorist organization.

The 57-year-old former judge, who has pledged to assess the "damage" caused by the politicized hiring practices in the Justice Department if he is confirmed, was nominated by Ronald Reagan in 1988 as associate judge of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. He also served briefly as acting attorney general under President George W. Bush during the confirmation of the nomination of former Attorney General John Ashcroft.