Covington & Burling partner Eric Holder Jr – co-chair of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign – has made a career out of breaking barriers. Will he become the first African-American attorney general? Andrew Longstreth reports
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 is there to prep Fernando Aguirre, the chief executive of Chiquita Brands International, for an interview with US news show 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.
