Ares
20th June 2012, 08:05 AM
President Obama asserted executive privilege over documents related to the “Fast and Furious” operation Wednesday as a House panel moved to hold Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt after he failed to hand over documents related to a congressional inquiry into the scandal.
In a letter sent to Obama late Tuesday, Holder urged Obama to exert executive privilege, because sharing internal documents with lawmakers could "have significant, damaging consequences.”
Sharing the documents “would inhibit candor of such Executive Branch deliberations in the future and significantly impair the Executive Branch’s ability to respond independently and effectively to congressional oversight,” Holder wrote to Obama.
In response, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said at the start of Wednesday’s hearing that he learned of Obama’s decision early Wednesday and said the move “falls short of any reason to delay today’s proceedings.”
The attorney general met Tuesday night with leaders of the House oversight committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee in hopes of reaching an agreement that would have Justice hand over requested documents in exchange for the House panel dropping its plans to vote on contempt charges Wednesday.
If the House committee cites Holder for criminal contempt, it would open a process that would require House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) to schedule a floor vote. 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.
Holding an Executive Branch official in contempt of Congress is rare, having occurred just four other times in the last three decades.
Issa said he declined Holder’s offer and plans to move forward with a contempt motion.
“If we receive no documents we’ll go forward, if we receive documents we’ll evaluate them and we’ll take some time as is necessary in delay to be sure of the quality of these documents,” Issa told reporters after the 20-minute meeting.
Holder told reporters after the meeting that his offer still stands and that Justice has made available “an unprecedented number of documents.”
“I think the ball’s in their court. They rejected what I thought was an extraordinary offer on our part,” Holder said. “They have — I guess until they decide — they have the ability to change their minds.”
Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), ranking Democrat on the oversight panel, told CNN Wednesday morning that he expected the committee to hold a contempt vote.
“I expect that it will be a vote on party lines…. And I still believe that this is an effort to try to embarrass the president,” Cummings said.
The faceoff between Holder and the committee has emerged as the leading political sideshow to the carefully-orchestrated plans of House Republican leaders to keep focused on economic concerns in the months before the November elections by holding votes on bills designed to bolster job creation and reduce federal regulatory burdens.
Keeping to his disciplined strategy of speaking only about GOP economic plans and critiquing Obama’s economic record, Boehner ignored reporter questions Tuesday about whether he would schedule a full House vote on the contempt charges before the July 4th recess.
Issa scheduled the committee vote to hold Holder in contempt after concluding with Boehner and other GOP leaders in recent weeks that the Justice Department was withholding information sought as part of the committee’s investigation into the scandal. Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Issa co-signed a letter last month to Obama asking that Holder comply with the congressional requests for information.
Operation Fast and Furious was run out of the Phoenix division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives between 2009 and 2011, with the backing of the U.S. attorney in Phoenix. Federal agents targeting the Mexico-based Sinaloa drug cartel did not interdict more than 2,000 guns they suspected of being bought illegally, in the hope of later tracking them to the cartel. The ATF lost track of most of the firearms, some of which have been found at crime scenes in Mexico and the United States.
Two of the guns connected to the botched operation were found at the Arizona site where U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent Brian Terry was killed in December 2010.
As part of a congressional inquiry and a subpoena issued last year, Justice officials have given Issa’s committee 7,600 pages of Fast and Furious documents, but he has said that those documents represent a sliver of the 80,000-plus documents that officials have turned over to the DOJ inspector general, which is also investigating the gun operation.
In recent weeks, Issa narrowed his request to the internal Justice deliberations since early February 2011, when Grassley first began asking Justice about Fast and Furious. On Feb. 4, 2011, the Justice Department sent the committee a letter denying use of the gunwalking tactics used in Fast and Furious. Officials were later forced to retract the letter after whistleblowers came forward and said they had used those very tactics.
Issa also has asked Justice for all documents related to the treatment of the whistleblowers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fast-and-furious-scandal-obama-exerts-executive-privilege-house-panel-moves-forward-with-contempt-vote/2012/06/20/gJQAGImIqV_story_1.html
In a letter sent to Obama late Tuesday, Holder urged Obama to exert executive privilege, because sharing internal documents with lawmakers could "have significant, damaging consequences.”
Sharing the documents “would inhibit candor of such Executive Branch deliberations in the future and significantly impair the Executive Branch’s ability to respond independently and effectively to congressional oversight,” Holder wrote to Obama.
In response, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said at the start of Wednesday’s hearing that he learned of Obama’s decision early Wednesday and said the move “falls short of any reason to delay today’s proceedings.”
The attorney general met Tuesday night with leaders of the House oversight committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee in hopes of reaching an agreement that would have Justice hand over requested documents in exchange for the House panel dropping its plans to vote on contempt charges Wednesday.
If the House committee cites Holder for criminal contempt, it would open a process that would require House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) to schedule a floor vote. 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.
Holding an Executive Branch official in contempt of Congress is rare, having occurred just four other times in the last three decades.
Issa said he declined Holder’s offer and plans to move forward with a contempt motion.
“If we receive no documents we’ll go forward, if we receive documents we’ll evaluate them and we’ll take some time as is necessary in delay to be sure of the quality of these documents,” Issa told reporters after the 20-minute meeting.
Holder told reporters after the meeting that his offer still stands and that Justice has made available “an unprecedented number of documents.”
“I think the ball’s in their court. They rejected what I thought was an extraordinary offer on our part,” Holder said. “They have — I guess until they decide — they have the ability to change their minds.”
Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), ranking Democrat on the oversight panel, told CNN Wednesday morning that he expected the committee to hold a contempt vote.
“I expect that it will be a vote on party lines…. And I still believe that this is an effort to try to embarrass the president,” Cummings said.
The faceoff between Holder and the committee has emerged as the leading political sideshow to the carefully-orchestrated plans of House Republican leaders to keep focused on economic concerns in the months before the November elections by holding votes on bills designed to bolster job creation and reduce federal regulatory burdens.
Keeping to his disciplined strategy of speaking only about GOP economic plans and critiquing Obama’s economic record, Boehner ignored reporter questions Tuesday about whether he would schedule a full House vote on the contempt charges before the July 4th recess.
Issa scheduled the committee vote to hold Holder in contempt after concluding with Boehner and other GOP leaders in recent weeks that the Justice Department was withholding information sought as part of the committee’s investigation into the scandal. Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Issa co-signed a letter last month to Obama asking that Holder comply with the congressional requests for information.
Operation Fast and Furious was run out of the Phoenix division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives between 2009 and 2011, with the backing of the U.S. attorney in Phoenix. Federal agents targeting the Mexico-based Sinaloa drug cartel did not interdict more than 2,000 guns they suspected of being bought illegally, in the hope of later tracking them to the cartel. The ATF lost track of most of the firearms, some of which have been found at crime scenes in Mexico and the United States.
Two of the guns connected to the botched operation were found at the Arizona site where U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent Brian Terry was killed in December 2010.
As part of a congressional inquiry and a subpoena issued last year, Justice officials have given Issa’s committee 7,600 pages of Fast and Furious documents, but he has said that those documents represent a sliver of the 80,000-plus documents that officials have turned over to the DOJ inspector general, which is also investigating the gun operation.
In recent weeks, Issa narrowed his request to the internal Justice deliberations since early February 2011, when Grassley first began asking Justice about Fast and Furious. On Feb. 4, 2011, the Justice Department sent the committee a letter denying use of the gunwalking tactics used in Fast and Furious. Officials were later forced to retract the letter after whistleblowers came forward and said they had used those very tactics.
Issa also has asked Justice for all documents related to the treatment of the whistleblowers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fast-and-furious-scandal-obama-exerts-executive-privilege-house-panel-moves-forward-with-contempt-vote/2012/06/20/gJQAGImIqV_story_1.html