U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday he’s resigning after leading the Justice Department for six years.
Among the accomplishment during his tenure he has touted is the Justice Department’s role in the aftermath of the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
Here’s Holder’s own account:
“The [Justice ] Department is working to hold accountable those responsible for the Deepwater Horizon Disaster.
“The Department is committed to holding accountable those who violated the law in connection with the April 20, 2010, Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history.
“In November 2012, the department reached the largest criminal resolution in U.S. history with BP. BP pleaded guilty to 11 felony manslaughter charges, environmental crimes, and obstruction of Congress and was sentenced to pay $4 billion in criminal fines and penalties.
“In January 2013, Transocean Deepwater Inc. agreed to plead guilty to violating the Clean Water Act and to pay a total of $1.4 billion in civil and criminal fines and penalties, for its conduct in relation to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, including a record-setting $1 billion to resolve Clean Water Act civil claims.
“In February 2012, the department announced an agreement with MOEX, which will pay $70 million in civil penalties to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Water Act and will spend at least $20 million to facilitate land acquisition projects in several Gulf States that will preserve and protect in perpetuity habitat and resources important to water quality.
“Testimony is complete in the first and second phases of the civil trial against BP and other defendants. Those phases will determine the causes, quantity, and degrees of legal fault for the spill. The Department, in concert with the appropriate client agencies (including EPA, Coast Guard, NOAA, DOI, and USDA) is preparing for the next phase of trial, which is an assessment of a Clean Water Act civil penalty against Defendants BP and Anadarko. That trial phase is scheduled to begin on January 20, 2015.”
