If Senate Republicans want to make a fuss about Eric Holder in the confirmation hearings early next year they have a ready-made issue. The likely next attorney-general, who would be the first African-American to hold that post, was the lawyer who gave Bill Clinton the controversial “neutral leaning to favourable” advice on whether to pardon Marc Rich, a fugitive from justice, in the dying days of the Clinton administration.

Senior Republicans, including Arlen Specter, who is on the Senate judiciary committee, have already signaled they would question Mr Holder over the Rich pardon. Meanwhile, left-wing groups were raising questions on Wednesday about Mr Holder’s subsequent role in private law practice in getting big corporations off the hook, including Chiquita Brands International, which the Justice Department was investigating for paying protection money to right-wing death squads in Colombia.