Issa Threatens Contempt Proceeding Against Holder If Justice Fails To Comply With Fast And Furious Subpoenas

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

The head of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is threatening to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress if he fails to comply with congressional subpoenas for documents.

Holder has until Feb. 9 to comply.

In a four-page letter to Holder, Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., claims the Department of Justice has "misrepresented facts and misled Congress," which began its investigation of Operation Fast and Furious one year ago.

Issa claims Holder's "actions lead us to conclude that the department is actively engaged in a cover-up" because it refuses to comply with previous subpoenas.

"If the department continues to obstruct the congressional inquiry by not providing documents and information, this committee will have no alternative but to move forward with proceedings to hold you in contempt of Congress," Issa warned in the letter.

Issa claims the the Justice Department has stonewalled the congressional investigation of the gun-running scandal that sent some 2,000 weapons to the Mexican cartels with the assistance of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

He wrote that Holder has only provided Congress with 6,000 pages of documents while providing some 80,000 to the Department's inspector general, which Holder requested investigate last year.

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Eric Holder, where art thou?

[Valin]

@WestVirginiaRebel

 

 

 

The Bus Stops Here

Michael Walsh

1/21/12

 

The tick-tock, as we say in Hollywood, is about to run down for Eric Holder, fast and furious. From my New York Post column today:

 

It’s not the crime, it’s the coverup, goes the old Washington cliché. In the case of the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal, it’s both.

(Snip)

 

(Snip)

 

As the Holder–Issa caged death match continues this week, the outcome can no longer be in doubt. One way or the other, Holder is going to have to go, if only to save his boss’s hide. Given the new evidence — released at the White House’s orders — Holder has been aware of the “gunwalking” program at least since Border Patrol agent Brian Terry’s death in December 2010, and probably since its inception the year before.

 

In an administration filled with them, Holder is an especially unlovely character, a second-rate intellect wrapped inside a third-rate temperament. Whiny, petulant, accusatory, obfuscatory, unhelpful, and deceitful, he never convincingly defends himself but instead reflexively accuses his critics of racism – truly, the last refuge of a liberal scoundrel – and never should have been brought back to the Justice Department after his disgraceful service in the Clinton administration regarding the Marc Rich pardon.

 

 

But now here he is, up to his eyeballs in the Fast and Furious scandal. One by one, his facilitating subordinates in this blatant scheme to criminalize law-abiding American gun dealers have fallen away, including the former Democratic golden boy Dennis Burke, who as U.S. Attorney in Phoenix supervised the operation, and former acting head of the ATF Kenneth Melson, who was bum-shuffled into the wholly imaginary gig of “advisor on forensic science” in order to buy his silence. Just last week, a Burke functionary named Patrick Cunningham defenestrated himself, bureaucratically speaking, by pleading the Fifth to avoid giving a deposition to Issa’s investigators and abruptly returning to his first love, the tax-paying private sector. Next in line: Assistant AG Lanny Breuer.

 

(Snip)

 

Marc Rich, Lanny Breuer...it's old home week.

[Casino67]

This one is going to be fun. Shades of Watergate eh? The cover up is the killer. Obama's downfall?

We can only hope.

[Valin]

This one is going to be fun. Shades of Watergate eh? The cover up is the killer. Obama's downfall?

We can only hope.

 

Do we know who thought up this brain storm? Along the way did anyone say.."Wait a minute guys, we might want to rethink this, retool this, and maybe let the Mexican government know what's going on so the guns can actually be traced once they cross the border." I can't blame the Mexican government for being just a tad put off by this.

[Valin]

Townhall: Democrats Fully Engaged in Fast and Furious Coverup

Katie Pavlich

12/31/12

 

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are officially trying to cover for Attorney General Eric Holder just before he testifies on Thursday about Operation Fast and Furious, with anti-Second Amendment Ranking Member Elijah Cummings leading the way. Last night, Cummings released a 95 page waste of paper and taxpayer money report, alleging that top Justice Department officials did not authorize the program, despite evidence showing otherwise. The report tries to pin the blame back on a few "rogue" managers in the ATF Phoenix Field Division. This is the same argument we've heard since the beginning of the scandal: it was a local operation, nobody important knew anything.

 

(Snip)

 

First, Deputy Attorney General of the Criminal Division Lanny Breuer (the number two man in DOJ), approved wiretaps for Operation Fast and Furious. Wiretap applications require excruciating detail about a case to be presented before approval. Wiretaps are considered the most intrusive tool law enforcement can use. Breuer, who read through the wiretap applications, knew details of the strategy used in Fast and Furious, letting guns walk into Mexico without alerting Mexican authorities, yet he approved it anyway. New emails released last Friday in a late night document dump, show Attorney General Eric Holder was briefed about Brian Terry's death just hours after he was murdered in the early morning hours on December 15, 2010. Later in the day, Holder's deputy chief of staff at the time Monty Wilkinson, was told directly by former Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke that the guns found at the murder scene were part of Operation Fast and Furious. According to the report, Wilkinson doesn't "recall" that email, despite replying to it with, "Call you tomorrow." Burke, who resigned from his position as U.S. Attorney in August, was in "complete agreement" with former ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Division Bill Newell about Fast and Furious tactics according to a January 8, 2010 briefing memo.

 

If Wilkinson's "I don't recall," argument sounds familiar, there's a reason why. On May 3, 2011, Attorney General Eric Holder testifed before the House Judicary Committee that he had only known about Fast and Furious, "for a couple of weeks." Five months later, memos addressed directly to Holder surfaced, with details and discussion about the program. In defense, Holder said he didn't read the memos and that his staff didn't inform him of their content.

 

(Snip)

 

It gets better

[Valin]

Holder says no one punished 'yet' during testimony on controversial 'Fast and Furious' operation

2/2/12

 

DEVELOPING: No one has been punished "yet," Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday in a contentious hearing on the role of the Justice Department in "Operation Fast and Furious," about which Holder insisted once more he only heard about in the winter of 2011.

 

The hearing comes after House committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., asserted that top Justice officials are covering up events surrounding the flawed gun-smuggling probe.

 

(Snip)

 

Holder told the committee, "I’m not sure exactly how I found out about the term, 'Fast and Furious.' " He testified that he never authorized the controversial tactics employed in the operation.

 

(Snip)

 

 

 

[Valin]

Constitutional crisis coming down the road. Issa just upped the game.

[Valin]

[clearvision]

Thanks for the updates.

[Valin]

The Greatest Hits 2/2/12

[SrWoodchuck]

The Greatest Hits 2/2/12

Thanks, @Valin!

 

It's great to see the "Peoples" House of representatives questioning this AG. I think Chaffetz [ut] has always been on point & sharp, but I really liked Buerkle [NY] for the way she handled her time & the fact that she brought accountability for Agent Terry's death, right up to Holders chin.

 

Quite a smug bast**d that AG Holder is....and it's refreshing to see one of our Republic's "checks & balances" used to leave him with his mouth full of his own twisted rhetoric.