'For people to conclude that BP is the focus of this investigation might not be correct,' Attorney General Eric Holder told CBS. Holder: Spill probe not confined to BP

ASPEN, Colo. — Attorney General Eric Holder signaled here that the Justice Department may be conducting a sweeping criminal investigation into the Gulf Coast oil spill, saying that its suspected targets may cover more than just BP.

"There are a variety of entities and a variety of people who are the subjects of that investigation," Holder told CBS' Bob Schieffer at the Aspen Ideas Festival. "For people to conclude that BP is the focus of this investigation might not be correct."


Holder said he wouldn't go "any further" when Schieffer asked if it might be correct to assume BP could still be the main target, and he "wouldn't put a timetable" on when any indictments might come down.

Holder announced last month that the Justice Department had launched criminal and civil probes into the disaster, just as President Barack Obama made a "solemn pledge" to "bring those responsible to justice on behalf of the victims of this catastrophe and the people of the Gulf region" if laws were broken.

On Thursday, Holder said the investigation was "ongoing," adding that federal officials were reviewing documents, collecting evidence and interviewing witnesses in both of the probes. He added that there has been a "certain commonality of the way oil companies had been operating" in the Gulf when asked if BP was doing anything different than others in the industry – though he didn't go into specifics.

Speaking here before an audience of several hundred at a taping of this Sunday’s "Face the Nation," Holder dove into a number of other thorny subjects as well.

Holder said "it's not true at all" that politics had anything to do with the lawsuit the Justice Department filed this week against the tough Arizona immigration law, saying it ran "inconsistent" with the Constitution because it's a federal responsibility to ensure there isn't a "patchwork" of state immigration laws. He said the government concluded that the pre-emption argument gave them a stronger legal case than concerns the administration has that the Arizona law could lead to racial profiling.

Holder said closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility remains a "priority" for the administration, despite its failure to meet its self-imposed deadline of doing so by January of 2010. He faulted "politics" and Congress for not providing funding to allow the government to move forward with alternative prison sites, like one being discussed in Thomson, Ill.

He said that there hasn't been a decision on where to hold the trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged 9/11 mastermind. Holder said he still favors a trial in civilian court, adding that there is a "real question" as to whether prosecutors can seek the death penalty in a military tribunal.

And he credited federal investigators for breaking up the Russian spy ring, saying, "We have broken up a pretty substantial network."