BREAKING NEWS: United States Attorney General Eric Holder to RESIGN after nearly six years

Story by MSNBC
Written by Zachary Roth
Video by CNN

Attorney General Eric Holder will announce Thursday his plans to leave office after nearly six years, a Justice Department official tells NBC News. The announcement will come at a formal White House event.

The Attorney General has agreed to remain in his post until the confirmation of his successor.

Holder, 63, has led the Justice Department since the start of the Obama administration in 2009. During that time, he has prioritized civil and voting rights and criminal justice reform, earning effusive praise from civil rights activists, but has also frequently clashed with Republican lawmakers.

“He has meant so much to the civil rights community and to our country,” Judith Browne Dianis, a co-director of the Advancement Project, said. “This attorney general has not only talked the talk, but he’s walked the walk on civil rights.”

The first African-American attorney general of the United States, Holder made a statement at the outset of his tenure when, in a 2009 speech for Black History Month, he called the U.S. “a nation of cowards” for what he saw as its failure to talk honestly about race. The line drew a furious reaction from conservatives.

Holder also sought to have Khaled Sheikh Mohammed and other 9/11 architects tried through the civilian justice system, including bringing them to New York for the trial. The administration ultimately backed down amid opposition from Republicans.

And last year, the House voted to hold Holder in contempt when he refused to turn over documents relating to an investigation into DoJ program to counter gun trafficking. Democrats denounced the probe as a witch-hunt.

Last month, Holder made a high-profile trip to Ferguson, Missouri to help calm tensions after the police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen, and to assure residents that the federal government will aggressively investigate the killing.

And he has aggressively used the Voting Rights Act to protect access to the ballot for racial minorities, bringing lawsuits against voting restrictions in Texas and North Carolina, and supporting cases in Ohio and Wisconsin.

Holder has disappointed some progressives for his reluctance to file criminal charges against individual banking executives who helped cause the 2008 financial crisis.

Holder had served as deputy attorney general—the No. 2 post in the department—during the Clinton administration.

Holder told The New Yorker magazine for a story published in February that he planned to step down this year. But the process of confirming his successor could last into next year.