House Republicans ultimately concluded that Holder and Quinn had worked together to cut the Justice Department out of the decision-making process. The Republicans cited evidence that included one cryptic e-mail from Quinn to an associate in which he quoted Holder as telling him to "go straight to wh. [White House]" in seeking the pardon.
Holder denied having said that. Whatever the case, Quinn succeeded in persuading Clinton to pardon Rich, essentially by cutting out of the loop the many officials at the Justice Department who probably would have vehemently opposed such a pardon.
Rich, a millionaire commodities broker, had fled the United States in 1983, one step ahead of a criminal indictment charging him with what one prosecutor described as "the biggest tax-fraud case in the history of the United States."
When a White House lawyer called Holder on the last day of the Clinton administration, Holder said he was "neutral, leaning toward favorable" about the pardon. Later, he said he was unaware of some aspects of Rich's background.
Clinton and his aides said Holder's input was a factor in the decision to pardon Rich, whose ex-wife, Denise, was a frequent visitor to the White House and a major donor to Democratic campaigns and to Clinton's presidential library.
In sworn testimony before Congress, Holder defended his conduct as completely ethical. He said he was swamped with other pressing matters on his last day in office, including preparations to take over as acting attorney general in the incoming Bush administration until John Ashcroft was sworn in.
But Holder said that he wished he had asked more questions about the Rich case, and that he would have been opposed to a pardon if he had obtained more information at the time.
"I wish there were things I would have done differently," he said.
Frances Townsend, another senior Justice Department official at the time, told The Times that Holder took all of the right steps to vet the request, including calling her and others to get their input.
"Eric was put in a difficult position by getting a phone call at the last minute, but handled it appropriately," said Townsend, who was more recently President Bush's top counter-terrorism and domestic security official.
The Republican staffer said that many senators and others on the Senate Judiciary Committee were puzzled and unhappy Wednesday over the fact that they had not been contacted by Obama transition team members to gauge their support for or opposition to Holder.
