The NY Times reports that Gregory Craig Resigns as White House Counsel.
Craig has been a real liability to the Whitehouse-- a man who has defended some pretty unpleasant people, and the man who is blamed for crafting or failing to craft legal policies regarding Guantanamo that have led to the president having failed to keep his campaign promise.
And Eric Holder is as, this is written, holding a press conference announcing that five Guantanamo prisoners will be tried in a NY federal court, asking for the death Penalty. (Ironic that NY state does not have a death penalty for criminals convicted in state courts.)
Image of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed from Wikipedia,
photo by International Committee of the Red Cross
This is good news that AG Eric Holder has made some movement happen regarding Guantanamo. He says he is "confident we will be confident in the prosecution of these cases." This movement, combined with replacement of the Whitehouse counsel, could be a sign that Obama is moving to fulfill his campaign promises.
Holder reports that they are reviewing whether cases will be brought to federal or military courts.
Defending criticism by rep King and others about bringing the prisoners to NY, Holder says that NY has a history of doing things like this, that they have a "hardened system."
Holder is still, in the eyes of this writer, on the road to becoming the worst AG in history, because of his failure to remove extremely partisan DOJ attorneys appointed by George Bush-- attorneys who are known to have engaged in gross prosecutorial misconduct in prosecuting Don Siegelman, Cyril Wecht and many others.
Holder says that this decision to try the five Guantanamo prisoners in NY has been his hardest decision so far. I guess it's easy to decide not to fire the despicable attorneys in the DOJ. Eric Holder-- worst AG in history-- but it's still not too late to change his legacy.