Attorney general pick Holder is anti-corruption crusader

The 57-year-old father of three, who if confirmed by the U.S. Senate would become Americas first black chief of the Justice Department, also has a history of breaking barriers and shares much in common with Obama.

But he could face tough questioning at his confirmation hearings over his role as the then deputy attorney general in the pardoning of fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich by former president Bill Clinton.

In the waning days of the Clinton administration in January 2001, the White House asked Holder for his view on a potential pardon, and he said he was "neutral leaning towards favorable."

Rich’s pardon became highly controversial as his wife was a large donor to the Clinton campaign, and critics accused him of buying his freedom.

Holder later came under fire for not raising enough questions about whether or not to pardon

Rich, but he was not implicated in any wrongdoing.

Enthusiastic about Obama’s bid for the presidency, Holder joined Obama’s campaign last year as a fundraiser and overall strategist.

Like Obama’s father, who came to the United States from Kenya, Holders father was an immigrant from Barbados.

Both Obama and Holder attended Columbia University and embarked on successful legal careers, while sharing a love for basketball and for public service.

But the pair did not meet until a dinner party in 2004, when they began chatting and found that they "just clicked," Holder told American Lawyer magazine.

"I think we share a world view," Holder told the magazine in June. Obama "is not defined by his race. He’s proud of it, cognizant of the pernicious effect that race has had in our history but not defined by it."

Holder was born in the Bronx section of New York City and was raised in a mainly black neighborhood, but attended the elite, and mostly white, Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan.

Relatives say he excelled at navigating both worlds, and continued to do so as a college student at Columbia, the Ivy league university where he majored in American history as an undergraduate and later earned his law degree in 1976.

He worked in the Public Integrity branch of the Justice Department in his early years as a lawyer, a newly created section that dealt with corruption by public officials in the years following the Watergate political scandals that led to president Richard Nixon’s resignation.

After distinguishing himself with nearly a decade of service, Holder was appointed in 1988 by president Ronald Reagan to the post of superior court judge in the nations capital.

He earned a reputation for being harsh on crime, and in 1993, he became the first African-American appointed as U.S. attorney in Washington.

Holder, who was named to the post by Clinton, did not let politics interfere with his crusade to stem corruption.

In his first major case in 1994 he was instrumental in convincing Congressman Dan Rostenkowski, a Democrat, to plead guilty to two counts of mail fraud.

He also pioneered a domestic violence unit and came up with a new program to put city prosecutors in charge of particular sections of the crime-ridden capital, which encouraged more contact with the community and better witness cooperation.

Holder was soon promoted again, this time to serve as deputy to attorney general Janet Reno in the Clinton administration. Again, he was the first African-American to serve in that slot.

After Clinton left office, Holder moved into private practice and presently is a partner in the law firm Covington and Burling. He currently lives in Washington with his wife Sharon, who works as an obstetrician, and their three children.