BREAKING: President Obama Turns Over Thousands of Fast and Furious Documents

[WildBillKelsoe]

Townhall.com ^ | April 8, 2016 | Katie Pavlich

Just moments before Attorney General Eric Holder was voted in contempt of Congress by Republicans and Democrats in June 2012 , President Obama asserted executive privilege over thousands of documents related to Operation Fast and Furious. Holder was held in contempt for stonewalling and failing to turn over the documents to the House Oversight Committee. Obama granted the executive privilege request despite claiming to have no knowledge about Operation Fast and Furious when it was active from 2009-2010.

Now after years of court battles and a federal judge striking down the executive privilege assertion, Obama has finally agreed turned them over. From POLITICO:

Four years after asserting executive privilege to block Congress from obtaining documents relating to a controversial federal gun trafficking investigation, President Barack Obama relented Friday, turning over to lawmakers thousands of pages of records that led to unusual House votes holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt in 2012.

Justice Department spokesman Patrick Rodenbush confirmed that the administration does not plan to appeal. He argued that Jackson's ruling validated Obama's initial claim of privilege.

“The Department of Justice is pleased that the district court ... continued to recognize that the deliberative process component of the executive privilege exists and was a valid basis for the Department to withhold certain documents when requested by the House in 2011. Although the Department disagrees with the district court's conclusion that the privilege was overcome in this particular case by disclosures and statements made in other contexts, the Department has decided not to appeal the court’s judgment and has provided a production of documents to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform," Rodenbush said in a statement.

“As we've long asserted, the Committee requires and is entitled to these documents. They are critical to the Committee’s efforts to complete meaningful oversight. The Committee has a duty to understand and shine light on what was happening inside DOJ during the time of this irresponsible operation. Yet DOJ has obstructed our investigative work for years," House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz issued in a statement. "Today, under court order, DOJ turned over some of the subpoenaed documents. The Committee, however, is entitled to the full range of documents for which it brought this lawsuit. Accordingly, we have appealed the District Court’s ruling in order to secure those additional documents.”

Operation Fast and Furious was an ATF and Department of Justice program that purposely allowed the sale and trafficking of thousands of weapons to violent Mexican drug cartels. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed by Mexican bandits in December 2010 and guns from the operation were found at the murder scene. When Sinaloa cartel leader El Chapo Guzman was captured last year, guns from the operation, including a .50 caliber rifle that was used to shoot at a police helicopter, were found in his hideout. Hundreds of Mexican citizens have been killed as a result of the program and thousands of guns are still missing and being used to carry out violent crimes in Mexico and potentially in the United States.....

You do know most any President worth being called President would have claimed executive privilege on principle alone?

Just like Nixon, huh?

 

[theDoctorisIn]

04/02/2014

Todd Jones, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives director, admitted to a House panel Wednesday that no one was fired as a result of the Fast and Furious scandal.

The Justice Department had called for the firing of William Newell, who was the special agent in charge of the operation, and a suspension for case agent Hope MacAllister. Newell was not fired and MacAllister was only reprimanded.



ATF director: No one fired for Fast and Furious

No one at the ATF was fired - but some of their bosses at the Justice Dept. were.

 

[jon_berzerk]

Townhall.com ^ | April 8, 2016 | Katie Pavlich

Just moments before Attorney General Eric Holder was voted in contempt of Congress by Republicans and Democrats in June 2012 , President Obama asserted executive privilege over thousands of documents related to Operation Fast and Furious. Holder was held in contempt for stonewalling and failing to turn over the documents to the House Oversight Committee. Obama granted the executive privilege request despite claiming to have no knowledge about Operation Fast and Furious when it was active from 2009-2010.

Now after years of court battles and a federal judge striking down the executive privilege assertion, Obama has finally agreed turned them over. From POLITICO:

Four years after asserting executive privilege to block Congress from obtaining documents relating to a controversial federal gun trafficking investigation, President Barack Obama relented Friday, turning over to lawmakers thousands of pages of records that led to unusual House votes holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt in 2012.

Justice Department spokesman Patrick Rodenbush confirmed that the administration does not plan to appeal. He argued that Jackson's ruling validated Obama's initial claim of privilege.

“The Department of Justice is pleased that the district court ... continued to recognize that the deliberative process component of the executive privilege exists and was a valid basis for the Department to withhold certain documents when requested by the House in 2011. Although the Department disagrees with the district court's conclusion that the privilege was overcome in this particular case by disclosures and statements made in other contexts, the Department has decided not to appeal the court’s judgment and has provided a production of documents to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform," Rodenbush said in a statement.

“As we've long asserted, the Committee requires and is entitled to these documents. They are critical to the Committee’s efforts to complete meaningful oversight. The Committee has a duty to understand and shine light on what was happening inside DOJ during the time of this irresponsible operation. Yet DOJ has obstructed our investigative work for years," House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz issued in a statement. "Today, under court order, DOJ turned over some of the subpoenaed documents. The Committee, however, is entitled to the full range of documents for which it brought this lawsuit. Accordingly, we have appealed the District Court’s ruling in order to secure those additional documents.”

Operation Fast and Furious was an ATF and Department of Justice program that purposely allowed the sale and trafficking of thousands of weapons to violent Mexican drug cartels. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed by Mexican bandits in December 2010 and guns from the operation were found at the murder scene. When Sinaloa cartel leader El Chapo Guzman was captured last year, guns from the operation, including a .50 caliber rifle that was used to shoot at a police helicopter, were found in his hideout. Hundreds of Mexican citizens have been killed as a result of the program and thousands of guns are still missing and being used to carry out violent crimes in Mexico and potentially in the United States.....

You do know most any President worth being called President would have claimed executive privilege on principle alone?

Just like Nixon, huh?

in order to call "executive privilege " the prezbo has to be in the "know"

in this case the prezbo claims he was not in the "know" about this illegal gun walking policy

hymmmmmm

 

[jon_berzerk]

04/02/2014

Todd Jones, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives director, admitted to a House panel Wednesday that no one was fired as a result of the Fast and Furious scandal.

The Justice Department had called for the firing of William Newell, who was the special agent in charge of the operation, and a suspension for case agent Hope MacAllister. Newell was not fired and MacAllister was only reprimanded.



ATF director: No one fired for Fast and Furious

No one at the ATF was fired - but some of their bosses at the Justice Dept. were.

no one was fired cant you read

 

[theDoctorisIn]

04/02/2014

Todd Jones, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives director, admitted to a House panel Wednesday that no one was fired as a result of the Fast and Furious scandal.

The Justice Department had called for the firing of William Newell, who was the special agent in charge of the operation, and a suspension for case agent Hope MacAllister. Newell was not fired and MacAllister was only reprimanded.



ATF director: No one fired for Fast and Furious

No one at the ATF was fired - but some of their bosses at the Justice Dept. were.

no one was fired cant you read

Your link doesn't change the fact that McMahon and Grindler were, in fact, "asked to resign" over F&F.

I don't know what McMahon is doing, but Gary Grindler is a lobbyist now. I've met him a few times.

 

[Martin Eden Mercury]

without question firearms that this administration gave to felons killed those people

wtf is wrong with you

Firearms don't kill people! People do.

 

[theDoctorisIn]

All of this is beside the point.

The "outrage" over Fast and Furious is so clearly pure partisanship that quibbling over who was fired is entirely irrelevant.

Fast and Furious was a fuck-up. They happen all the time. There was no "corruption" involved, no malicious intent. It was just a fuck-up - a completely retarded law enforcement operation - and it failed, horribly.

From my perspective, this is no different than the countless innocent people blown away by police serving no-knock warrents on the wrong house. It's a systematic fuck-up - a failure of the system - but there's no single person or group that can really be blamed for it.

 

[WildBillKelsoe]

04/02/2014

Todd Jones, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives director, admitted to a House panel Wednesday that no one was fired as a result of the Fast and Furious scandal.

The Justice Department had called for the firing of William Newell, who was the special agent in charge of the operation, and a suspension for case agent Hope MacAllister. Newell was not fired and MacAllister was only reprimanded.



ATF director: No one fired for Fast and Furious

No one at the ATF was fired - but some of their bosses at the Justice Dept. were.

no one was fired cant you read

Your link doesn't change the fact that McMahon and Grindler were, in fact, "asked to resign" over F&F.

I don't know what McMahon is doing, but Gary Grindler is a lobbyist now. I've met him a few times.

When were they asked to resign?

 

[Geaux4it]

not only did this administration give them to felons

the dealers doing the criminal check reported the felons

and the feds "waved" the sales through

Yeah, it's called an undercover operation.

That went bad and someone should be held accountable

-Geaux

People were held responsible. The people in charge of the operation have been fired.

Sacrificial lambs

I want Obama held accountable since he was going to use the gun walking news as proof of straw man buys. Then use that as justification to ban AR-15, SKS and M4 firearms. He got caught with his hand in the cookie jar

-Geaux

Did your crystal ball tell you that?

Or was it some gun fetishist blog?

No, because he and Holder got caught in a lie when they claimed the number of guns that were illegally exchanged when in fact they were not. It was all a lie... Just like a video

-Geaux

 

[theDoctorisIn]

04/02/2014

Todd Jones, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives director, admitted to a House panel Wednesday that no one was fired as a result of the Fast and Furious scandal.

The Justice Department had called for the firing of William Newell, who was the special agent in charge of the operation, and a suspension for case agent Hope MacAllister. Newell was not fired and MacAllister was only reprimanded.



ATF director: No one fired for Fast and Furious

No one at the ATF was fired - but some of their bosses at the Justice Dept. were.

no one was fired cant you read

Your link doesn't change the fact that McMahon and Grindler were, in fact, "asked to resign" over F&F.

I don't know what McMahon is doing, but Gary Grindler is a lobbyist now. I've met him a few times.

When were they asked to resign?

In 2012, after the OIG report came out.

 

[WildBillKelsoe]

All of this is beside the point.

The "outrage" over Fast and Furious is so clearly pure partisanship that quibbling over who was fired is entirely irrelevant.

Fast and Furious was a fuck-up. They happen all the time. There was no "corruption" involved, no malicious intent. It was just a fuck-up - a completely retarded law enforcement operation - and it failed, horribly.

From my perspective, this is no different than the countless innocent people blown away by police serving no-knock warrents on the wrong house. It's a systematic fuck-up - a failure of the system - but there's no single person or group that can really be blamed for it.

The apologism and denial is partisan, too.

 

[theDoctorisIn]

Yeah, it's called an undercover operation.

That went bad and someone should be held accountable

-Geaux

People were held responsible. The people in charge of the operation have been fired.

Sacrificial lambs

I want Obama held accountable since he was going to use the gun walking news as proof of straw man buys. Then use that as justification to ban AR-15, SKS and M4 firearms. He got caught with his hand in the cookie jar

-Geaux

Did your crystal ball tell you that?

Or was it some gun fetishist blog?

No, because he and Holder got caught in a lie when they claimed the number of guns that were illegally exchanged when in fact they were not. It was all a lie... Just like a video

-Geaux

Would you care to elaborate? I can't even understand this post.

 

[theDoctorisIn]

Thanks for all the funnies, guys.

 

[Martin Eden Mercury]

You do know most any President worth being called President would have claimed executive privilege on principle alone?

Just like Nixon, huh?

Yes. And as wee all knew before he made his claim, he was trying to cover up and unfolding criminal conspiracy. His conspiracy had nothing to do with the duties of the executive, unless of course you want to suggest the duties include breaking into the offices of opponents and the offices of their medical doctors

 

[WildBillKelsoe]

04/02/2014

Todd Jones, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives director, admitted to a House panel Wednesday that no one was fired as a result of the Fast and Furious scandal.

The Justice Department had called for the firing of William Newell, who was the special agent in charge of the operation, and a suspension for case agent Hope MacAllister. Newell was not fired and MacAllister was only reprimanded.



ATF director: No one fired for Fast and Furious

No one at the ATF was fired - but some of their bosses at the Justice Dept. were.

no one was fired cant you read

Your link doesn't change the fact that McMahon and Grindler were, in fact, "asked to resign" over F&F.

I don't know what McMahon is doing, but Gary Grindler is a lobbyist now. I've met him a few times.

When were they asked to resign?

In 2012, after the OIG report came out.

I'm April 2014 The ATF director testified, under oath that no one has been fired over Fast and Furious.

ATF director: No one fired for Fast and Furious

 

[theDoctorisIn]

All of this is beside the point.

The "outrage" over Fast and Furious is so clearly pure partisanship that quibbling over who was fired is entirely irrelevant.

Fast and Furious was a fuck-up. They happen all the time. There was no "corruption" involved, no malicious intent. It was just a fuck-up - a completely retarded law enforcement operation - and it failed, horribly.

From my perspective, this is no different than the countless innocent people blown away by police serving no-knock warrents on the wrong house. It's a systematic fuck-up - a failure of the system - but there's no single person or group that can really be blamed for it.

The apologism and denial is partisan, too.

There's no doubt that there are mindless partisans on both sides.

 

[Geaux4it]

That went bad and someone should be held accountable

-Geaux

People were held responsible. The people in charge of the operation have been fired.

Sacrificial lambs

I want Obama held accountable since he was going to use the gun walking news as proof of straw man buys. Then use that as justification to ban AR-15, SKS and M4 firearms. He got caught with his hand in the cookie jar

-Geaux

Did your crystal ball tell you that?

Or was it some gun fetishist blog?

No, because he and Holder got caught in a lie when they claimed the number of guns that were illegally exchanged when in fact they were not. It was all a lie... Just like a video

-Geaux

Would you care to elaborate? I can't even understand this post.

No doubt... that was Bud light lingo

-Geaux
==============


For political context we now need to step back to April 16, 2009 — four or five months before we think Fast and Furious began. On this day President Barack Obama was visiting Mexico. While there he said, “This war is being waged with guns purchased not here but in the United States … more than 90% of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States, many from gun shops that lay in our shared border.”

This 90% statistic was, to be kind, math so shoddy a third grader should know better.

The figure was based only on guns the Mexican government sent to the ATF for tracing. On April 2, 2009, Fox News reported that, according to statistics from the Mexican government, only about a third of the guns recovered at crime scenes in Mexico are submitted to the ATF. The Mexicans, as it turns out, only send guns to the ATF they think came from the U.S. Also, many guns submitted to the ATF by the Mexicans cannot be traced. As a result, the reporters determined that only 17% of guns found at Mexican crime scenes have been traced by the ATF to the U.S.

Now, because President Obama used the made-up 90% figure to push political positions — he was using the statistic to argue that the U.S. needs more gun-control laws — it’s difficult not to sniff politics in what happened next.

'Fast And Furious' Just Might Be President Obama's Watergate

 

[theDoctorisIn]

No one at the ATF was fired - but some of their bosses at the Justice Dept. were.

no one was fired cant you read

Your link doesn't change the fact that McMahon and Grindler were, in fact, "asked to resign" over F&F.

I don't know what McMahon is doing, but Gary Grindler is a lobbyist now. I've met him a few times.

When were they asked to resign?

In 2012, after the OIG report came out.

I'm April 2014 The ATF director testified, under oath that no one has been fired over Fast and Furious.

ATF director: No one fired for Fast and Furious

See above, that's already been posted.

The ATF director is speaking for the ATF. The people who were "asked to resign" didn't work for the ATF.

 

[Hossfly]

All of this is beside the point.

The "outrage" over Fast and Furious is so clearly pure partisanship that quibbling over who was fired is entirely irrelevant.

Fast and Furious was a fuck-up. They happen all the time. There was no "corruption" involved, no malicious intent. It was just a fuck-up - a completely retarded law enforcement operation - and it failed, horribly.

From my perspective, this is no different than the countless innocent people blown away by police serving no-knock warrents on the wrong house. It's a systematic fuck-up - a failure of the system - but there's no single person or group that can really be blamed for it.

In the military when a fuck-up occurs, you go up the chain till you reach the responsible party. Someone is always in charge. Not in Government though. Not in Obama's government.

 

[WildBillKelsoe]

You do know most any President worth being called President would have claimed executive privilege on principle alone?

Just like Nixon, huh?

Yes. And as wee all knew before he made his claim, he was trying to cover up and unfolding criminal conspiracy. His conspiracy had nothing to do with the duties of the executive, unless of course you want to suggest the duties include breaking into the offices of opponents and the offices of their medical doctors

A crime is a crime. No President can use executive privilege to cover up a crime. Thanks for clarifying.