Holder defends lawyers for terror detainees

[March 20, 2010]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attorney General Eric Holder is defending lawyers who represent unpopular clients like terror suspects. Holder says such attorneys are patriots who deserve respect.

Holder was answering critics who questioned the values of lawyers who once worked on behalf of detainees and are now at the Justice Department. He spoke Friday to a group of private lawyers who provide free legal representation to the poor and others.

The attorney general praised lawyers who defend unpopular clients, although he did not specifically mention terror suspects.

The broadside against Justice lawyers who defended detainees came from a conservative GOP group. But the group's attack has been widely criticized in the legal community - even by some fellow Republicans - as undercutting basic principles of fairness in the legal system.

[Associated Press]

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