Paul Sperry Tears Into Obama Wingman Eric Holder After Former AG Calls Him a “Loser” and Tells Him to “Shut the Hell Up” for His Reporting on Justice Dept.
Investigative reporter Paul Sperry responded Thursday to former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder calling him a loser and telling him to “shut the hell up” after Sperry reported on the Democrat Party leanings of the Justice Department attorney who signed off on the non-prosecution of former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe for repeatedly lying to the FBI in a leak investigation. Among several points Sperry made, one key one is that Holder works at the same prestigious D.C. law firm as the father of the DOJ attorney.
Sperry had reported on Tuesday about Assistant U.S. Attorney Molly Gaston, “BREAKING: Molly Gaston, the asst US Attorney who signed letter to McCabe’s lawyer informing McCabe she was closing criminal case against him, is Democrat who’s given thousands to Dems including Obama & who once worked for Dem side of House Oversight & whose mother worked for WaPo”
BREAKING: Molly Gaston, the asst US Attorney who signed letter to McCabe’s lawyer informing McCabe she was closing criminal case against him, is Democrat who’s given thousands to Dems including Obama & who once worked for Dem side of House Oversight & whose mother worked for WaPo
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) February 18, 2020
Indeed, a search of the FEC database shows contributions by Molly Gaston of the Justice Department to Barack Obama, as well as other Democrat causes before her tenure at DOJ.
Holder responded to Sperry’s fact based reporting on Wednesday with an angry over the top tweet, “Why don’t you shut the hell up. Your bias is showing. I bet you’ve never been a prosecutor or have any idea how DOJ works. People like you-who want to use the justice system for political reasons-are both dangerous and ignorant. The case was-like you-an obvious loser.”
Why don’t you shut the hell up. Your bias is showing. I bet you’ve never been a prosecutor or have any idea how DOJ works. People like you-who want to use the justice system for political reasons-are both dangerous and ignorant. The case was-like you-an obvious loser. https://t.co/MdOq8u78Yy
— Eric Holder (@EricHolder) February 19, 2020
But what may have been truly bothering Holder is that the day before Sperry had called him out as leader of the anti-Trump cabal at DOJ, “Former AG Eric Holder rallies the cabal of DOJ holdovers to continue to resist, thwart, sabotage, leak on AG Barr and Trump …”
former AG Eric Holder rallies the cabal of DOJ holdovers to continue to resist, thwart, sabotage, leak on AG Barr and Trump … https://t.co/5sZHhouRC7
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) February 18, 2020
Thursday night, Sperry tore into Holder in a series of tweets.
“Turns out Eric Holder works with the father of the AUSA who signed the McCabe get-of-jail-free card. Her father and Holder are partners at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington”
Turns out Eric Holder works with the father of the AUSA who signed the McCabe get-of-jail-free card. Her father and Holder are partners at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington https://t.co/F5lFSJ8tPq
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) February 21, 2020
“Talk about no firewall between the attorney general and president — Holder was Obama’s wingman and their wives were BFFs, all united in the same racialist agenda.”
Talk about no firewall between the attorney general and president — Holder was Obama’s wingman and their wives were BFFs, all united in the same racialist agenda.
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) February 21, 2020
“Eric Holder completely politicized DOJ so he has a lot of gall weighing in on this issue”
Eric Holder completely politicized DOJ so he has a lot of gall weighing in on this issue
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) February 21, 2020
A 2014 Politico profile of Holder reported the close relationships between Barack Obama and Holder, Michelle Obama and Holder’s wife Sharon Malone and between Obama, Holder and Valerie Jarrett.
Obama, aides quickly noticed, liked having Holder around; he was funny in a low-key way, and didn’t demand much of the put-upon candidate’s time. In March 2008, Obama made a point of inviting him to his high-stakes speech on race in Philadelphia. To Holder’s annoyance, a keyed-up Obama started talking about the NBA playoffs, then asked his friend whether his pants looked OK. “Focus! Focus! Focus!” Holder counseled, according to a person who was backstage.
It took a while for Obama and Holder to become buddies, but the relationship between their wives developed more quickly. In an interview with my Politico colleague Todd S. Purdum for a profile of Michelle Obama that was never published, Sharon Malone described a bond based on the shared struggle to succeed in an elite white world without losing a sense of one’s origins. “We are both first-generation, college-made-good, Harvard-educated people,” Malone said. “Our parents have told us and other African-Americans for generations: Whenever you get into an environment, you always have that responsibility [to say], ‘You can’t mess up because everybody’s looking at you.’”
The matchmaker who had brought the two couples together was the ever-present Jarrett, who played the role of big sister for the Obamas in Chicago, and had her own searing early experiences with racial prejudice. Jarrett’s father, James Bowman, a renowned pathologist who pioneered the study of endemic genetic diseases, had been denied an officer’s commission in World War II because he was black, and he was subjected to demeaning treatment when he integrated a program at a prominent Chicago hospital in the 1960s. On his first day, administrators there asked Bowman to walk in through the back door to minimize any possible backlash. But Bowman refused, entering through the front door to find the hallway lined with black employees there to applaud him, according to Jarrett’s telling.
Holder’s own bond with Jarrett was cemented in 2007 when the two hosted weekly conference calls with other black leaders on behalf of the Obama campaign; the two would email each other during the endless calls, trading gossip about the participants or flagging important points. Back in D.C., they would often meet up for drinks at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel (Jarrett loved the fries on the bar menu), sealing an alliance that would prove important to both over the next few years. Soon, other aides would be calling the threesome of Obama, Jarrett and Holder the “iron triangle.”
No response by Holder on Twitter was apparent as of publication of this article.
