Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) is warring with Attorney General Eric Holder over potential conflicts of interest in the Department of Justice over the handling of terrorist detainees. In a recent letter to Grassley, Holder admitted that nine Obama Justice Department appointees represented or advocated for terrorist detainees before joining the department. Holder acknowledged only two by name — principal deputy solicitor general Neal Katyal, a former attorney for Osama bin Laden’s driver, and Jennifer Daskal, a former detainee advocate at Human Rights Watch.

In an interview with National Review Online, Grassley fumed. Holder’s letter, he said, which was sent in response to a request Grassley made last November, leaves much unanswered. “The country has the right to know what the predilections of people in the Justice Department are toward terrorism, especially if they’re giving constitutional rights to terrorists,” he says. “They’re going to regret hiding names. I don’t know why they’re hiding, unless they have something to hide.”

“To me, this is a case of our own public servants or political appointees having an agenda of their own instead of being concerned with the national security of the United States,” Grassley says. “This letter creates a lot of suspicion about conflicts of interest, and it’s out of character for an administration that promised transparency. If I was in the majority, this would demand a hearing or an investigation.” He adds that all attorneys who have been involved with terrorist detainee cases before joining the department should reveal themselves, or be revealed by Holder, and recuse themselves from any case involving terrorists and national security.

Calling Holder’s response simultaneously “obnoxious” and “ludicrous,” Grassley concludes that “without the names and details, we have a reason to question what’s really going on here.”