Attorney General Eric Holder bids goodbye to Justice Department employees as he leaves the Justice Department in Washington, Friday, April 24, 2015, for the last time as attorney general. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Carrie Johnson, NPR

 
(NPR.com) — “Hey,” the attorney general said as he walked into his final meeting with senior staffers Friday morning. “Let’s do this one last time.”

After more than six years running the Justice Department, Eric Holder took a seat at his polished wooden table and prepared to close the door on an institution where he’d spent countless hours since September 1976.

Holder, the first African-American to serve as U.S. attorney general, had a famously rocky relationship with Republicans in Congress, who held him in contempt a few years ago for refusing to turn over documents in a gun trafficking scandal along the Southwest border. But on his last day on the job, inside his ornate fifth floor conference room, even those scuffles became a source of humor.

“I will certainly miss your turning to me in the midst of hearings and giving me that look of, ‘why am I here and how can you get me out of here?'” Legislative Affairs Chief Peter Kadzik said.

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