In another memo, written the same day, Adams cautioned Holder's chief of staff, Kevin Ohlson, that Holder was risking a political firestorm by even considering granting some of the commutations. "A leak of the proposed report," he wrote, "would be disastrous." Neither memo was obtained from Adams. Soon Ohlson told him to draft the options memo, Adams said in a recent interview.
"Contrary to what was bandied about on Capitol Hill at the time, the options paper was not my idea at all," Adams says. "I prepared it because it was conveyed to me by Holder's chief of staff that Eric wanted it."
Ultimately, the Justice Department forwarded the revised options memo to the White House, drawing criticism from Senate Republicans who said it broke department policy by not giving a yes or no recommendation.
After the clemency grant was announced, 11 members of the nationalist group were released from federal prison; one served an additional five years on unrelated charges; two who had been previously released had their fines reduced; and two others remained in prison, refusing to participate in the deal that required them to renounce violence.
Some of Adams' concerns were borne out. Before their release, the Senate Judiciary Committee concluded, none of the prisoners was pressed to provide information on the whereabouts of stolen funds or fugitive co-conspirators -- one of whom was later killed in a shootout with federal agents.
Republican senators have already pledged to question Holder about his role in Clinton's infamous last-day-in- office pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich, whose ex-wife had given campaign donations to Clinton and his presidential library.
But some law enforcement officials and relatives of FALN victims say the FALN commutations are even more troublesome.
"This is an outrage. There is no better word for it, in my view," said Rick Hahn, a former FBI agent who spent more than 13 years investigating the FALN, when told of the new details about Holder's role.
The son of one bombing victim agrees.
"Eric Holder has been nominated for the top law enforcement position in the country, yet, if this is true, he supported and pushed for the release of terrorists," said Joseph F. Connor, whose father, Frank, was killed in the FALN bombing of New York City's Fraunces Tavern on Jan. 24, 1975. "How can he reconcile that? Why would he push for something so dangerous?"
--
josh.meyer@latimes.com
tom.hamburger@latimes.com
--
Peter Wallsten in the Washington Bureau contributed to this report.
