Eric Holder was NFL Lobbyist for firm that helped attach UIGEA

May 4th, 2011

Prior to being Attorney General for the United States, Eric Holder was a lobbyist for Covington & Burling and represented the NFL. Besides Caesars Entertainment Group, the NFL was online poker’s biggest enemy. Here is background from Washington Post:

A recent lobbyist for the National Football League who now works at the White House is playing a controversial role in the Bush administration’s last-minute effort to implement a ban on many forms of Internet gambling before the end of the president’s term, according to congressional and administration sources.

William Wichterman, who with others at the Covington & Burling law firm earned $2.8 million lobbying for the NFL against Internet gaming and on other matters from 2004 through March, is working on the gambling restrictions in the White House Office of Public Liaison, White House spokesman Dana Perino confirmed yesterday.

“He appropriately sought and received clearance from ethics officers to be able to work on this rule,” Perino said, adding, “I know our ethics officers to be professionals who know the law and the guidelines inside out.” She said last night that she could not immediately reach the officers to learn their reasoning in this case.

Eric Holder specifically was retained by the National Football League to represent them for Michael Vick – read this from Wall Street Journal:

Meanwhile, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (not a lawyer) appointed Eric Holder to oversee the NFL’s review of the dogfighting charges against Vick. Holder (pictured, right) is a former deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration and now a partner at D.C.’s Covington & Burling, the league’s outside counsel. Paul Tagliabue, the NFL’s longtime commissioner, is a former Covington partner.

Paul Tagliabue was a partner at Covington & Burling and was Eric Holder’s superior. William Wichterman, Martin Gold (Marty Gold), Jeff Miller, Paul Tagliabue, and Eric Holder have all represented the NFL at the firm Covington & Burling. Wichterman and the NFL were under investigation: From Jim Makos site
The NFL was under investigation in November for having lobbied against internet gambling. William Wichterman had been brought into question after he disclosed his “potential conflict of interest” in influencing the Bush administration to enforce more regulations with the UIGEA.

Paul Tagliabue was also commissioner of the National Football League and roommates with Lamar Alexander senator in Tennessee where Bill Frist was a Senator.

Bernie Parrish is the most outspoken critic of Eric Holder and warned of the conflict of interests before the appointment by Obama. See his article here:
Eric Holder Covington & Burling lawfirm partner and frequent employee of the NFL has been named Attorney General. Pres Elect Barrack Obama is assembling a branch of jock sniffers who are waiting to do the bidding of their professional sports idols and celebrities. In what amounts to another qid pro quo Obama made a deal with Holder to name him Attorney General if Holder could deliver Pittsburgh Steeler’s owner Dan Rooney’s endorsement and financial backing. Holder delivered Rooney through his NFL connection through his Covington & Burling ties. But there is more since Aon Consulting/Aon Corporation owner by Chicago Bears owners Patrick Ryan and Andrew McKenna are in danger of being prosecuted for conflicts of interest for also being actuary through Aon for being their employees NFL Player Retirement Plan’s costing those employees $100 of millions of dollars with cooked actuarial analysis that lowered their own and the other NFL owners employer contributions to that plan.

Retired NFL players complaints about this illegal cooked employer employee retirement plan relationship to the DOJ and the DOL have been stone walled by Bush appointees with both those federal agencies. President Bush’s first cousin Jim Pierce is Managing Director of Aon Corporation. Holder’s lawfirm Covington & Burling has already been retained and are implementing this Holder, Attorney General circumvention of federal law white collar crime defense of Aon. Coincidentally Holder’s specialty at Covington & Burling is defending high profile white collar criminals like Merck or Chiquita Banana or the NFL or Aon Corporation.

I’m preparing Part 3 of my series of articles on why the DOJ illegally seized the top 3 online poker domains. After watching Eric Holder make comments about online poker to the oversight committee, I felt it necessary to put this article about the NFL and Eric Holder out before part 2 was done. By commenting on the “appropriateness” of the seizures he violated ethics. He cannot be involved or oversee the matter regarding online poker or gambling in any way since he worked as a lobbyist representing the NFL.

Read more about the Domain Seizures here:
Domain Seizures PART 1

Domain Seizures Addendum