"JIM LEHRER: Who did you consult while making this decision?
ERIC HOLDER: I talked to the prosecutors in the Justice Department, prosecutors from the Department of Defense, people on the staff here at the Justice Department, people at Defense, a whole variety of people, who shared ideas, thoughts, gave cautionary ideas as well, and, using all of that, came up with the decision that we announced just earlier today.
JIM LEHRER: Did you run it by President Obama?
ERIC HOLDER: Just informed him of the decision.
He's a person who believes that a president's supposed to have hands off with his Justice Department. He's a good lawyer. And there are times when I would like to involve him maybe a little more, but his view is that, in those things that are in the province of the attorney general, all he needs to be is informed.
JIM LEHRER: So, you just told him what your decision was; you didn't say, "What do you think about it, Mr. President?"
ERIC HOLDER: Nope. Told him last night -- or had relayed to him what I was going to do last night while he was on Air Force One on his way to Asia.
JIM LEHRER: Did you talk to anybody outside the government?
ERIC HOLDER: I talked to my wife...
JIM LEHRER: Yes? OK.
ERIC HOLDER: ... about what she thought. And I actually talked to my brother, who's a retired Port Authority police officer who served...
JIM LEHRER: Oh, is that right? Yes.
ERIC HOLDER: ... in New York, New Jersey, and who lost friends and colleagues on 9/11 in the towers, and talked to them about what -- was it appropriate to bring it in New York, the symbolic significance of it, the possibility of getting a good and fair detached jury."
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