Representatives of liberal organizations including MoveOn.org, Democrats.com and the American Civil Liberties Union were in the hearing room seeking to cajole Holder and other administration officials to appoint a special prosecutor to press charges against Bush administration officials.

CNN: AG Holder hit from both sides over Bush-era memos

He was previously deputy legal advisor to the NSA from 2002 to 2004, and a senior CIA officer and federal prosecutor in the Clinton Administration.

NPR: Invoking the State Secrets Privilege

He was chosen as special prosecutor last August by Deputy Chief Administration Judge Fern Fisher after Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes recused himself because Lopez, as Brooklyn Democratic chairman, supported Hynes politically.

WSJ: Prosecutor was GOP pick for NY attorney general

We're well reminded of the Obama people who today express doubts about a special prosecutor but sang a very different song when Bush administration folks were the target.

WSJ: McGurn: Eric Holder's Politics of Contempt

That led to a position as federal prosecutor in Fairbanks, then a job for the Interior Department in the Eisenhower administration, where he was involved in the push for Alaska's statehood.

NPR: Facing Indictment, Sen. Stevens Claims Innocence

His home-made bombs targeted the prosecutor's office, the city government headquarters, and the food and drug administration.

ECONOMIST: Unrest in China

At the beginning of his administration, he ignored the recommendation of his search committee and picked Robert McGuire, a former federal prosecutor, to be his first police commissioner.

CNN: Koch a friend and force to the end

Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed special prosecutor more than three years ago to find out who leaked the information to a journalist that the wife of an Administration critic worked at the CIA. Fitzgerald quickly learned the identity of the source.

FORBES: Magazine Article