Holder’s five defining moments

Eric Holder has been a lightning rod for criticism during his six years as President Obama’s attorney general.

The nation’s first black attorney general, he’s also the first person to hold that office and be held in contempt by the House.

{mosads}Holder battled House Republicans on voting rights, gun control, the “Fast and Furious” gun-tracking program and the administration’s tapping of newsroom phone lines as part of an aggressive effort to stamp out national security leaks.

He was often a hero for the left, which praised his work on civil rights.

Here’s a look at five moments that defined his tenure at the Department of Justice.

A civil trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammad

Holder provoked a storm of protest when he announced in 2009 that he planned to try the man considered the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, in civilian court in Manhattan.

He also drew support from some Democrats and the American Civil Liberties Union for what they said was a move to uphold the law.

The move caused a political headache for the White House and led Republicans to argue Holder was too independent an attorney general.

“It’s like there are two administrations, the Obama administration and the Holder administration,” Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) said at the time about Holder’s decision.

Holder reversed his decision in 2011, citing Congress’s restrictions on moving detainees from Guantánamo Bay to the U.S., one roadblock in the administration’s effort to close the prison there. 

The reversal showed the limits of Obama’s ability to turn back the policies of the war on terror.

‘Fast and Furious’ contempt vote

Holder repeatedly clashed with House Republicans over the botched “Fast and Furious” program, which allowed guns to be sold to smugglers in an effort to track them.

Holder said in 2011 that he took “decisive action” when he learned about the program earlier that year.

House Republicans eventually decided to hold him in contempt for his refusal to turn over certain documents demanded by a GOP subpoena. Only two Republicans opposed the vote when it was taken in 2012.

Enmity over the program remains between the GOP and Holder.

“By needlessly injecting politics into law enforcement, Attorney General Holder’s legacy has eroded more confidence in our legal system than any attorney general before him,” House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who will be linked to the attorney general in history, said Thursday of Holder’s resignation.

Holder, in response to the contempt vote, said many Republicans were following “truly absurd conspiracy theories.”

Ferguson and race

When Ferguson, Mo., erupted in protests after a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black 18-year-old, Obama sent Holder to the scene.

It was a familiar role for Holder, who was often the administration figure saying things about race that would be difficult for the president to say.

In 2009, he called the U.S. “a nation of cowards” when it comes to discussing race.

Holder launched a federal investigation into the killing of the teenager, Michael Brown, and a separate civil rights investigation into the Ferguson police department. Those probes may continue after Holder leaves his office.

Drug sentences

Holder has spoken out against U.S. imprisonment rates and taken steps to reduce sentences for nonviolent drug offenders. He linked these steps to “shameful” racial disparities in imprisonment.

In August 2013, he announced that the Justice Department would seek to avoid handing out charges that carry long mandatory minimum sentences to nonviolent offenders.

And in March, he endorsed a proposal before the sentencing commission to reduce the sentences of 70 percent of drug offenders by an average of a year. 

Drones

Holder has drawn flak from civil liberties advocates for defending the country’s ability to kill American citizens if they are deemed to be terrorist threats. The drone killing of American Anwar al-Awlaki is at the center of the controversy.

“‘Due process’ and ‘judicial process’ are not one and the same, particularly when it comes to national security,” Holder said in 2012, arguing that the government did not first need permission from a court before carrying out the killings.

He added of U.S. citizens abroad plotting attacks: “United States citizenship alone does not make such individuals immune from being targeted.”