Civil and Human Rights Coalition Condemns House Committee Vote on Attorney General Holder

Washington, D.C. – Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement as the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee prepared to vote on recommending to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. Henderson recently spoke out on ‘Hardball with Chris Matthews’ on the subject and published an op-ed in the Grio:

“Today’s expected vote is a politically driven abuse of congressional power.

Attorney General Holder has gone above and beyond the precedent of previous attorneys general in seeking to work with Chairman Issa and the committee on this investigation. But the chairman seems more interested in gamesmanship than oversight or justice.

We in the civil and human rights movement believe that the attorney general has made an incredible commitment to defending our nation’s laws on behalf of all Americans. He has championed the right to vote, defended the Affordable Care Act, protected homeowners from predatory lending, defended the federal government from state overreach on immigration laws, backed the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, and helped to reduce the disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentencing.

The House of Representatives has never voted to hold a sitting attorney general in contempt of Congress for protecting the documents like those sought by the committee. To do so now would distract the entire Justice Department from its core mission of enforcing our nation’s laws.

Attorney General Holder is an exemplary public servant – and this reckless and wrong-headed vote doesn’t change that.”

Wade Henderson is the president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its 200-plus member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.