Holder: New AG Unlikely Before New Year

The confirmation hearings for a new U.S. attorney general are unlikely to be held until well into the new year, current AG Eric Holder said. “My hope would be that the Senate would take up that nomination in about the same way mine was, so that by early February, we’d have a new attorney general,” Holder said at The Atlantic’s Washington Ideas Forum this week. When he announced plans to retire, Holder said he would wait for his replacement to be finalized before leaving his post. Holding off on the nomination is seen as a way to keep it from being embroiled in election-season politics, the White House said earlier this month.