Deputy Attorney General: Eric H. Holder Jr.

Eric H. Holder Jr. was the 29th Deputy Attorney General of the United States. He served as the Department’s second-ranking official from July 1997 to January 2001.

Mr. Holder was the first African American to become Deputy Attorney General. Under his direction, the Department developed guidelines for criminal prosecution of corporations (the so-called “Holder Memorandum”) and issued rules on the use of the False Claims Act in civil health care matters. A task force he formed created regulations on appointing special counsels to investigate allegations involving senior federal officials. Mr. Holder prioritized enforcement efforts in health care fraud, computer crimes, and software piracy, and launched the Children Exposed to Violence Initiative. He also worked to expand nationwide the concept of community prosecution. 

In 1993, President William J. Clinton nominated Mr. Holder to the position of U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. He served there for nearly four years and was the first African American to hold that post. As U.S. Attorney, Mr. Holder created a unit to better handle domestic violence cases, implemented a community prosecution project, supported renewed enforcement emphasis on hate crimes, developed a broad strategy to improve agency handling of child abuse cases, launched a community outreach program, revived the Victim/Witness Assistance Program, and created an initiative to better impede criminals’ access to firearms.

President Ronald Reagan nominated Mr. Holder in 1988 as Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. He sat on the bench until 1993.

Mr. Holder joined the Department through Attorney General’s Honors Program and was assigned initially to the newly formed Public Integrity Section.

A native of New York, Mr. Holder majored in History at Columbia College, graduating in 1973. He then attended Columbia Law School, from which he graduated in 1976. While in law school, he clerked at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Department’s Criminal Division.