Federal Judge Rejects Justice Department’s Executive Privilege Claim in Withholding Fast and Furious Docs

[WestVirginiaRebel]

The Blaze:

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has rejected the Justice Department’s claim of executive privilege used to withhold documents tied to the Fast and Furious “gun-walking” scandal from release to a congressional committee.

 

House Republicans subpoenaed thousands of emails related to the operation and sued in federal court to obtain them.

 

In her decision on Tuesday, Judge Amy Berman Jackson rejected the department’s blanket assertion of executive privilege, saying much of the withheld information had already been disclosed through other channels.

 

The ruling is the latest development in a years-long legal fight over the botched effort by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to track guns across the Southwest border.

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Gun running doesn't apply.

[Valin]

El Chapo found with Fast and Furious .50 caliber as exec-privilege claim quashed
Ed Morrissey
January 20, 2016

Remember Operation Fast and Furious? The scandal over the ATF’s botched straw-man sting has long hung over the Department of Justice and the Obama administration, thanks in large part to a bogus claim of executive privilege over the communications relating to the operation. Thousands of weapons went across the border into Mexico without sufficient tracking capabilities to retrieve them, and they wound up in the hands of the cartels. Hundreds have been found at murder scenes in Mexico, and at least one Border Patrol agent (Brian Terry) has been killed with Fast and Furious weapons.

Just how far did those weapons go? Fox News reports that they went all the way to the top of the cartels:

A .50-caliber rifle found at Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s hideout in Mexico was funneled through the gun-smuggling investigation known as Fast and Furious, sources confirmed Tuesday to Fox News.

A .50-caliber is a massive rifle that can stop a car, or as it was intended, take down a helicopter. …

When agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives checked serial numbers of the eight weapons found in his possession, they found one of the two .50-caliber weapons traced back to the ATF program, sources said.

Federal officials told Fox News they are not sure how many of the weapons seized from Guzman’s house actually originated in the U.S. and where they were purchased, but are investigating.

Out of the roughly 2,000 weapons sold through Fast and Furious, 34 were .50 caliber rifles that can take down a helicopter, according to officials.

 

 

(Snip)

[Draggingtree]

‘Fast and Furious’ rifle capable of taking down helicopter found in ‘El Chapo’ cache

By DrJohn No Comments

 

Wed, Jan, 20th, 2016

19 views

 

A .50-caliber rifle found at Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s hideout in Mexico was funneled through the gun-smuggling investigation known as Fast and Furious, sources confirmed Tuesday to Fox News.

http://www.floppingaces.net/most-wanted/fast-and-furious-rifle-capable-of-taking-down-helicopter-found-in-el-chapo-cache/

[Draggingtree]

The Constitution and Executive Privilege

by Mark Rozell|11 Comments

What does Executive privilege protect?

Executive privilege is the constitutional principle that permits the president and high-level executive branch officers to withhold information from Congress, the courts, and ultimately the public. This presidential power is controversial because it is nowhere mentioned in the U.S. Constitution. That fact has led some scholars (Berger 1974; Prakash, 1999) to suggest that executive privilege does not exist and that the congressional power of inquiry is absolute. There is no doubt that presidents and their staffs have secrecy needs and that these decision makers must be able to deliberate in private without fear that every utterance may be made public. But many observers question whether presidents have the right to withhold documents and testimony in the face of congressional investigations or judicial proceedings.

 

Executive privilege is an implied presidential power that is recognized by the courts, most famously in the U.S. v. Nixon (1974) Supreme Court case. There are generally four areas that an executive branch claim of privilege is based: 1) presidential communications privilege; 2) deliberative process privilege; 3) national security, foreign relations or military affairs, and 4) an ongoing law enforcement investigation. In the current controversy over congressional access to Department of Justice documents pertaining to the Fast & Furious scandal investigation, the president and Attorney General Eric Holder are relying on the deliberative process privilege and also the ongoing law enforcement investigation defense.

http://www.libertylawsite.org/2012/07/12/the-constitution-and-executive-privilege/