The day after the Pennsylvania Democratic primary, Eric Holder, Jr., is working from Covington & Burling‘s elegant new Manhattan offices inside the year-old New York Times Building. He’s there to prep Fernando Aguirre, the CEO of Chiquita Brands International, Inc., for an interview with 60 Minutes, which will be broadcasting a segment on the company’s past involvement with Colombian right-wing paramilitary forces. Last March, Holder helped Chiquita secure a slap-on-the-wrist plea deal to charges that it had paid off the terrorists.
But before the Aguirre meeting, Holder has to place a call to Warren Ballentine, a nationally syndicated African American radio talk show host, who wants to discuss last night’s primary results. While Holder waits in an empty office on the forty-third floor for Ballentine to wrap up his conversation with Harvard Law School professor Charles Ogletree, the station plays a 1970s soul song by the O’Jays, followed by a message from Reverend Al Sharpton encouraging listeners to vote in the upcoming presidential election.
