GUNWALKER: Contempt vote scheduled concerning AG Eric Holder

[bsteadman]

Contempt vote scheduled. Now we find out what Boehner, Romney and the GOP leadership are made of. A cheeky bit of hubris on CBS' part.

Sipsey Street Irregulars
Mike Vanderboegh
6/11/2012

Excerpt:

House committee schedules contempt vote against Holder.

CBS News has learned the House Oversight Committee will vote next week on whether to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. It's the fourth time in 30 years that Congress has launched a contempt action against an executive branch member.

This time, the dispute stems from Holder failing to turn over documents subpoenaed on October 12, 2011 in the Fast and Furious "gunwalking" investigation.

The Justice Department has maintained it has cooperated fully with the congressional investigation, turning over tens of thousands of documents and having Holder testify to Congress on the topic at least eight times.

However, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., says the Justice Department has refused to turn over tens of thousands of pages of documents. Those include materials created after Feb. 4, 2011, when the Justice Department wrote a letter to Congress saying no gunwalking had occurred. The Justice Department later retracted the denial.

"The Obama Administration has not asserted Executive Privilege or any other valid privilege over these materials and it is unacceptable that the Department of Justice refuses to produce them. These documents pertain to Operation Fast and Furious, the claims of whistleblowers, and why it took the Department nearly a year to retract false denials of reckless tactics," Issa wrote in an announcement of the vote to be released shortly. It will reveal the vote is scheduled for Wednesday, June 20.

Issa says the Justice Department can still put a stop to the contempt process at any time by turning over the subpoenaed documents.

If the House Oversight Committee approves the contempt citation, the matter would likely be scheduled for a full House vote.

For several weeks, there has been closed-door discussions and debate among House Republicans as to whether to move forward with contempt. Some have expressed concern that it could distract from the Republican's focus on the economy in this election year.

Led by Republicans Senator Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Issa, Congress' investigation into Fast and Furious is now in its second year. In the ATF operation, agents allowed thousands of weapons to "walk" into the hands of Mexican drug cartels in the hope it would somehow help ATF take down a major cartel. Some of the weapons were used in the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry at the hands of illegal immigrants crossing into Arizona. Mexican press reports say hundreds of Mexicans have died at the hands of the trafficked weapons. The story was exposed nationally for the first time by CBS News in February 2011.

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[bsteadman]

House Moves to Hold Holder in Contempt on Fast and Furious

Newsmax
6/11/2012

Excerpt:

"The House of Representatives is moving forward with proceedings to hold Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress — a major escalation in the separation-of-powers battle over “Fast and Furious,” the Obama administration’s botched gun-walking operation.

Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, says Congress needs to examine records regarding the Justice Department's conduct following public disclosures in early 2011 that hundreds of guns illicitly purchased at gun shops on the U.S. side of the border wound up in Mexico, many of them at crime scenes.

The hearing is scheduled for June 20.

"The Justice Department is out of excuses," House Speaker John Boehner said Monday. "Congress has given Attorney General Holder more than enough time to fully cooperate with its investigation into Fast and Furious," the name of the flawed law enforcement operation.

Issa said Congress has an obligation "to investigate unanswered questions about attempts to smear whistleblowers, failures by Justice Department officials to be truthful and candid with the congressional investigation and the reasons for the significant delay in acknowledging reckless conduct in Operation Fast and Furious."

The Justice Department says many of the documents deal with open criminal investigations and prosecutions - matters relating to sensitive law enforcement activities that cannot be disclosed.

Both Holder and President Obama have acknowledged the operation was wrong. But they said the operation was handled entirely by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives employees, with little oversight at the Justice Department.

Issa, though, wants to know specifically who in the Justice Department knew of the operation’s tactics. He has obtained sealed affidavits supporting wiretaps that he says indicate top Justice officials knew the tactics.

His committee issued a subpoena for documents in October, and Issa said Monday that the Justice Department still is withholding information in violation of that.

“Specifically, the Justice Department has refused to turn over critical documents on the grounds that they show internal Department deliberations and were created after February 4, 2011 — the date Justice issued a false denial to Congress. Contempt will focus on the failure to provide these post February 4th documents,” Issa said.

Issa said the Justice Department hasn’t asserted any valid reasons to withhold information.

Last week, Holder told another House panel he would be willing to sit down with Boehner, Issa and other House Republican leaders to try to work out a solution.

This would be the first time the Obama administration has faced contempt of Congress proceedings."
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http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Fas...mo_code=F270-1

[bsteadman]

Issa: 31 Democrats Will Vote To Condemn Holder

BuzzFeed
Zeke Miller
6/2012

Excerpt:

"House Committee and Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa told BuzzFeed today that he expects 31 Democrats will join Congressional Republicans in finding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over documents relating to a botched gun-running investigation.

Issa, who has risen to national prominence as the point of the Republican spear in investigating alleged Obama administration wrongdoing, called for a committee vote on contempt next week in advance of a full House vote on Holder's conduct in the so-called "Fast and Furious" operation, in which a federal agent was allegedly killed with a gun the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms allowed to be trafficked.

"The real question is, we’re opening up the data that we have to all the members, so as they start reading specifics of what we know was known and was hidden from Congress, and what we’d like to know and been denied, how many of the Democrats will vote with us," Issa said after speaking at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York. "I expect we’ll have about 31 Democrats with us."

Issa said under normal circumstances he'd expect the vote to pressure Holder to turn over the documents, but that now he's hoping the president intercedes on Congress' behalf.

"After Thursday’s hearing with the Attorney General, no, I don’t expect it, but I would hope that the president would second-guess the man that he says he has full faith and confidence in, and tell him that it’s time to deliver reasonable documents," Issa said.

Issa compared the growing scandal to Iran Contra and Watergate, saying the cover-up is far worse than the "dumb" operation.

"This is like Iran Contra, like Watergate, and other embarrassments over the years," Issa said. "The major embarrassment is the delay in being honest and open about it. It’s not about something really dumb got done. Dumb things happen in government. But when the GSA did dumb things, once it became public we saw a pretty quick change, certainly Secret Service we saw an even quicker change."
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http://www.buzzfeed.com/zekejmiller/...with-us-on-hol