Breaking: House Panel Votes to Hold Attorney General in Contempt (UPDATED)
UPDATE:
An eye-opening account of the real Fast and Furious scandal
“A Fortune investigation reveals that the ATF never intentionally allowed guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. How the world came to believe just the opposite is a tale of rivalry, murder, and political bloodlust.”
Please read all about it here
UPDATE:
The Hill reports that House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) predicted today, Sunday, that Republicans and Democrats would vote to find Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress this week.
“I believe they will, both Republicans and Democrats will vote that,” Issa said on Fox News Sunday. “There are a number of Democrats, 31, who wrote to the administration asking them to be forthcoming. Many of them will stay with us now that the administration has not been.”
It should be noted that no Democrats on his committee voted with Republicans to hold Holder in contempt.
Holder still claims that the contempt charge could be avoided if Obama and Holder “would simply start producing the documents they know they could produce to us that are not by any means going to be covered by executive privilege…”
Additionally, according to the Hill, Issa said in a separate interview on ABC that “If those documents say what Eric Holder says they say, we might, in fact, dismiss contempt in — in either case,” and Issa conceded that he does not have evidence White House officials had prior knowledge of a cover-up of mistakes in the Fast and Furious gun-tracking program, contradicting Boehner’s statement that “The decision to invoke executive privilege is an admission that White House officials were involved in decisions that mislead the Congress and have covered-up the truth”.
Read more here
====
As has been reported here and here, developments on the Congressional investigation of Operation “Fast and Furious” have been have been occurring in a similar manner.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has now voted — along party lines — 23 to 17 to hold Attorney General Eric H. Holder in contempt for failing to share documents related to the operation. The move makes Holder the first member of Obama’s Cabinet held in contempt by a congressional committee and comes just hours after President Obama asserted executive privilege over related documents.
According to the Washington Post, “The panel’s actions will be reported to the full House, where Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and GOP leaders are expected to schedule a floor vote soon. If passed by the full House, the matter would then move to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Ronald C. Machen Jr., who is an employee of the Justice Department.”
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer accused Republicans Wednesday of orchestrating a “taxpayer-funded election-year fishing expedition.”
“Given the economic challenges facing the country,” Pfeiffer said in a statement, “we believe that House Republicans should work with the rest of Congress and the president to create more jobs, not more political theater.”
Executive privilege has been invoked throughout U.S. history by presidential administrations to preserve the confidentiality of information in the face of legislative inquiries.
The privilege is qualified, not absolute, and can be overturned in courts. But disputes over access to information rarely reach the courts and are most often resolved through political negotiations, according to the Congressional Research Service.
During the Committee’s debate, Committee Democrats were very critical of Issa’s decision to move forward with the contempt charges, including calling the hearing “a kangaroo court” and denouncing personal attacks on the President and on the Attorney General.
“We’ve been holding the attorney general to an impossible standard,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat, and added:
You accused him of a ‘cover-up’ for protecting documents he was prohibited by law from producing. You claimed that he ‘obstructed’ the committee’s work by complying with federal statutes passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the president …And earlier this month, you went on national television and called the attorney general — our nation’s chief law enforcement officer — a liar.
Republicans on the Committee claim that the investigation is a legitimate and serious issue, an investigation the committee is charged to perform.
Read more here
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The witch hunt is now so broad and “furious” that it is easy to dismiss these charges as …witch hunting.
1.Start with a selection of facts.
2.Add spin
3.Broadcast result repeatedly.
If he is guilty, the witch hunters have already sent this to the garbage bin.
‘mercia 2012: who cares about process when we have emotions.
Who votes for these people? I can’t start to describe contempt Issa, Boehner and the rest of them must have for the President. It’s beyond sick. They would rather destroy the country the except a black man in the White House.
“taxpayer-funded election-year fishing expedition.”
Exactly.
Well at the very least this proves some pundits wrong. The prediction I heard was that the Republicans in Congress were determined to accomplish absolutely nothing between now and the election.
Looks like they found a hobby horse to ride after all.
This investigation has been suspect from the beginning because it does appear that Holder has tried to cooperate and has turned over 7500 pages of documents. Another observation I have is that Holder has been a target of the right since his nomination– they are trying to manufacture a scandal and put him in the center of it.
Contempt of Congress?
It has been awhile, but the last i heard only 13% of the American people had a favorable rating of the Congress….
But i guess “Contempt of Congress” is much more important to these guys than the 87% contempt for congress based on what they are doing for the American people?
“But I guess “Contempt of Congress” is much more important to these guys than the 87% contempt for Congress based on what they are doing for the American people?”
Good one OS
“31, who wrote to the administration asking them to be forthcoming. Many of them will stay with us now that the administration has not been”
he is either delusional or lying.
either way, he is sure enjoying the spotlight.
So Fast and Furious is like the burglary of the DNC offices, right? No big deal worth bothering to investigate. The word that I think best describes the actions of our current president and his attorney general is “Nixonian.” Lord Acton was correct about the nature of power. Why should we expect Obama and Holder to be any different from Nixon and Mitchell?
More GOP idiocy from the party that specializes in it. Could it be any more obvious???
If this is such a witch hunt, and if AG Holder is being so open and forthcoming, then why do we not yet know the purpose of Fast and Furious?
The U.S.A. instructed that the guns be sold, then the U.S.A. did not attempt to track the guns. DID. NOT. ATTEMPT. Fast and Furious was not a failed gun tracking program. Rather, the program was never designed to track the guns; thus, naturally, there was never any attempt to track the guns.
Therefore, what was the intended purpose of the program? Why do we not yet know the simplest and most important thing: what was the purpose of the program?
If this is such a witch hunt, and if AG Holder is being so open and forthcoming, then why do we not yet know the identity of the person who ultimately authorized the program? If we knew who this person was, then that person could educate us as to the purpose of the program. Two birds with one stone. Why do we not yet know the identity of this person?
To defend AG Holder, one must pretend that AG Holder has not failed to answer the very most basic questions about the program. AG Holder defenders must lie to themselves. Scathing and scorning and damning language does not obviate that AG Holder has not answered the most basic questions about the program.
Re the contempt citation
It is limited to AG Holder’s failure to produce internal emails which discuss how the DOJ + Obama Administration would respond to the DOJ’s public disclosure that it had blatantly misled Issa’s committee.
The thing to know: a whistle blower from inside the Obama Administration has given pertinent and damning emails to Issa. Issa subsequently subpoenaed those very emails from Holder. Holder refused to produce the emails. Subsequently, Issa produced a very limited contempt citation: the citation is specifically focused on Holder’s failure to produce that specific information about DOJ + Obama Administration’s discussions of how to respond to the DOJ’s admitting it had misled Issa’s committee.
Regarding the frequent citation of 7500 proffered documents? First, that is nothing: it is common, in big litigation, for a hundreds of thousands of documents to be produced. More importantly, it would not matter if Holder produced millions of documents: Holder is refusing to produce the specific targeted documents which are damning to him, and which Issa is specifically requesting.
If you guys want to damn someone for playing politics, damn the committee Democrats who voted against censuring an AG for what is obvious and blatant contempt of Congress. Committee Democrats thus choose politics over doing their jobs of oversight, and choose politics over justice.
LOL
The Wingnut crickets have no problem that the program started under W, yet Obamama ended the program after the Brian Terry death.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATF_gunwalking_scandal
Rudi it’s not the program it’s the cover up that is being investigated.
False.
You do not know whether or not I have a problem w/the program under GWB. I do not even know. I did not know about the program under GWB. Secondly, I am currently under the impression that the program under GWB was intended to track guns. Fast and Furious, under Obama, was never intended to track guns. If GWB ran a program of gun sales to the most violent outlaws in the Americas, and if GWB did not even track those guns, then I would have been angry.
If GWB’s program had resulted in the deaths of 300 Mexicans, then I would have been angry. If GWB’s program had resulted in the deaths of Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata, then I would have been angry.
But, based on the information I have seen: GWB’s program did not do those things. GWB’s program tracked guns. Obama’s program, Fast and Furious, resulted in those atrocities.
Also, Straw Man.
If GWB had refused to state the purpose of a gun program, had refused to say who ultimately approved the program, had falsely told Congress that his administration was unaware of the program, and had refused to provide internal memos about how to respond to a Congressional committee vis a vis the public disclosure of having lied to that Congressional committee, then I would have been angry.
…
Also, do you know who dislikes the Fast and Furious program, dislikes AG Holder’s response to it, and believes the Executive Priviledge claim is bogus? The leftist hero of a low rated Comedy Central show: Jon Stewart. Maybe Jon Stewart is a “Wingnut cricket” in disguise.
“Rudi it’s not the program it’s the cover up that is being investigated”
Issa conceded that he does not have evidence White House officials had prior knowledge of a cover-up of mistakes in the Fast and Furious gun-tracking program, contradicting Boehner’s statement that “The decision to invoke executive privilege is an admission that White House officials were involved in decisions that mislead the Congress and have covered-up the truth”.
“If GWB’s program had resulted in the deaths of 300 Mexicans, then I would have been angry. If GWB’s program had resulted in the deaths of Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata, then I would have been angry. ”
Have you ever heard of a “program” that resulted in the deaths of more than 4,000 of our young men and women?
So the purpose to bringing this up is what? The committee held Holder in contempt because he refused to turn over documents. What one politician says about the white house shielding him has nothing to do with that action or it’s legitimacy and put out there like you just did seems to be a smokescreen to hide the real issue.
How about one thread where GB and his “evil” wars are not invoked? And this has what to do with what? GD! You’re hijacking your own thread to try and keep from discussing the topic of your thread!
Could someone explain how ignoring Issa is a cover up. Now $ billions gone missing in Iraq and Afghanistan is no problem…
Funny what a Google search of news turns up. A search of “fast and furious” yields: About 47,700,000 results (0.21 seconds)
Fox cover up
While the same search taking out “Newsmax” and “Fox” yields: About 26,900 results (0.10 seconds)
No Fox or Newsmax
Do you have any idea what the contempt ruling was for? Holder made statements to the committee about Fast and Furious that were false. That is a fact. Noe Issa and the committee are trying to find out if those falsehoods were intentional or not. Holder is refusing to turn over evidence that would allow them to do so.
How about one thread where GB and his “evil” wars are not invoked? And this has what to do with what? GD! You’re hijacking your own thread to try and keep from discussing the topic of your thread!
1. I’ll write in my thread what I feel is relevant. You are welcome to read it, ignore it or, as you have, gripe about it.
2. The reader’s comment that you are interjecting yourself in brought up GWB and was:
“If GWB’s program had resulted in the deaths of 300 Mexicans, then I would have been angry. If GWB’s program had resulted in the deaths of Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata, then I would have been angry. ”
Fast and Furious regrettably and unintentionally resulted in the deaths of two U.S. border patrol agents and perhaps 300 Mexicans.
GWB’s totally unnecessary war — based on false pretenses — resulted in the deaths of more than 4,000 American troops and tens of thousands innocent Iraqis.
You may disagree with me, and continue to complain about it, but I will bring that up whenever I feel it is appropriate,
Good day!
I will ignore the bile and smoke, EEllis.
“GWB’s totally unnecessary war — based on false pretenses — resulted in the deaths of more than 4,000 American troops and tens of thousands Iraqis.
Opinion not fact as you well know from all the arguing that goes on every time it’s brought up”
What is opinion? The 4,000 dead troops, or that the war was launched under false pretenses and was totally unnecessary.
If the latter is opinion, please present the “facts” to the contrary. You’ll find very soon that more than half of the American people feel that the war was unnecessary, wrong and based on false pretenses — but, as you will say, “that’s just opinion.” Here’s your chance to present the facts, EEllis
Just keep comments to topic of post and all will be well.
thanks
archangel/dr.e
There seems to be a lot of noise and distracctions on this issue. As others have said Issa’s requests are limited to two areas – one is the circumstances regarding the February 4th letter from Ronald Weich which the DOJ later admitted was false, and the second is whether any whistleblowers faced retribution from the DOJ.
I will say there is some ridiculous stuff coming from the right including the suggestion this was some kind of master gun control plan of Obama’s, and I have no doubt much of this is politically motivated. When you tune out all the rhetoric though and look at Issa’s two requests, they don’t seem that unreasonable. Submitting false information to congress is a crime. Maybe it was an honest mistake on the DOJ’s part but I think congress has a right to satisfy themselves that was the case.
I’m not sure the GOP even considers this investigation particularly timely or advantageous to the campaign, since many would prefer to focus on Obama’s record on jobs and the economy.
Jon Stewart played a video of Issa saying that he believes that the Obama admin purposely allowed the weapons to fall into the wrong hands so he could pass gun control laws after whatever bloodbath they would cause.
talk about an unreasonable opinion…Issa is trying to score political points…period.