After an especially trying week — even by his standards — Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. is attempting to repair his frayed ties to news organizations and fending off renewed demand from Congress for his head. As one veteran Washington lawyer put it, the U.S. Department of Justice had gone into “a defensive crouch.”
Holder took the unusual step of reaching out to meet with major media outlets last week, to quell outrage over the handling of leak investigations involving news reporters. Several rejected the invitation because the conversation would be off the record. Meanwhile, the Justice Department took the rare step of responding publicly to a letter from top House Republicans who questioned whether Holder had lied to Congress.
