By Keith Perine, CQ Staff

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. signaled Wednesday that the Justice Department is reluctant to examine allegations of illegal treatment of detainees imprisoned around the world during the Bush administration.

In a wide-ranging session with reporters at the Justice Department, Holder also said the Obama administration eventually could decide to prosecute some detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in U.S. courts, and to release some of them on U.S. soil.

The clamor for a Justice Department probe into allegations of detainee torture has intensified this week after the New York Review of Books published excerpts of a 2007 report by the International Committee of the Red Cross that contained interviews with detainees who claimed they had been tortured.

“We will let the law and the facts take us to wherever we go,” Holder said. But he added that the administration does not want to criminalize policy differences.

Holder said the department is “mindful” of recent news accounts. But when asked whether there was a formal Justice Department investigation, Holder said, “I wouldn’t say that.”

Holder Meets With EU Officials

The attorney general said the administration’s effort to decide what to do with the detainees continues. He met recently with European Union officials as part of a bid to get EU countries to accept some of them.

Holder said the administration would share as much information about each detainee with the European Union as it could without compromising national security or intelligence sources and methods.

The administration is weighing whether to try some of the detainees in regular federal court, by military court-martial, or by a modified military commission process, he said.

Holder plans to travel to Mexico next month as part of the administration’s ongoing effort to help the Mexican government fight rampant drug-related crime.

But Holder did not repeat his earlier call for Congress to reinstate a federal ban on assault weapons in order to help Mexico fight armed drug dealers. He had sparked a firestorm of criticism from gun-rights advocates after he said, in response to a question at an earlier press conference, that it would be a good idea to renew the ban.

Sixty-five House Democrats, led by Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas, wrote Holder to object to his recent comments on the assault weapons ban.

Holder said the administration needs to enforce the laws on the books and keep working with Mexican officials.