House Drafts Contempt Citation Against Holder Over Fast and Furious

[M.D. Rawlings]

Thursday, 03 May 2012 11:23 AM
By Martin Gould
NEWSMAX

Congressional Republicans Thursday took the first formal steps toward holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt, issuing a draft of their complaint against him for his handling of the Fast and Furious gunrunning scandal.

The 44-page complaint, issued by House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., asks the full House to hold Holder in contempt for “failure to comply with a congressional subpoena.”

Issa uses damning language to make the case against Holder, saying that his Department of Justice holds “contempt against the American people,” and claiming that whistleblower agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) were “left to twist in the wind” by Holder and Justice.

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http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiep...eric_holder_for_fast_and_furious_stonewalling

 

[waltky]

Granny says it smells like one big cover-up to her...

Papers show Justice was told about tactics in gunrunning
Tuesday, June 5, 2012 - Court-sealed wiretap applications obtained by a House committee show that senior Justice Department officials in Washington, contrary to previous denials, were given specific information about the “reckless tactics” in the botched Fast and Furious gunrunning investigation, the panel’s chairman said Tuesday.

In a letter, Rep. Darrell E. Issa, California Republican and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, rebuked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. for what he called Mr. Holder’s “continuing efforts to mislead Congress” about the content of the wiretap applications and details of who knew about and gave approval for the operation. Mr. Issa’s note said the attorney general denied knowledge of the wiretap applications and cast doubt that they contained specific information about the operation, prompting a vigorous pushback including charges that the applications were leaked illegally and that Mr. Issa had mischaracterized them.

Mr. Holder has refused to produce many of the subpoenaed Fast and Furious documents showing that senior Justice Department officials reviewed and authorized the wiretaps, Mr. Issa said. “The [Justice] Department has consistently denied that any senior officials were provided information about the tactics used in Operation Fast and Furious,” Mr. Issa said. “The wiretap applications obtained by the committee show such statements made by senior department officials regarding the wiretaps to be false and misleading.” Wiretaps used in the Fast and Furious operation were intended to let investigators in Arizona listen to the phone calls of suspected drug traffickers in order to find evidence of involvement by high-level Mexican cartel associates, Mr. Issa said.

He said six applications for wiretaps obtained by the committee, which had been sealed by a federal judge as part of ongoing criminal cases, detail specific actions taken by Fast and Furious agents, including “conscious decisions not to interdict weapons that agents knew were illegally purchased by smugglers taking weapons to Mexico.” He said the applications were approved by senior Justice Department officials in March, April, May, June and July of 2010. The wiretaps, as required by federal law, were submitted to Washington for approval by senior Justice Department officials, Mr. Issa said, adding that they were approved under the authority of Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer.

But Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said senior department officials were not aware of the flawed tactics in Fast and Furious until they became public in early 2011, and the testimony Mr. Holder and others have given over the past year at numerous hearings, briefings and interviews was true and accurate. “Unfortunately, Chairman Issa continues to distort the facts and ignore the law,” she said. Ms. Schmaler also said the department cannot comment on the contents of court-sealed wiretap applications and was “very concerned that such documents relating to ongoing criminal cases have been leaked.” She said the unauthorized disclosure of court-sealed materials was illegal.

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See also:

Issa: Wiretaps show 'immense detail' about questionable Fast & Furious tactics
June 05, 2012 - A House investigative committee said Tuesday it has obtained new information from wiretaps related to the Obama administration?s Operation Fast and Furious that suggests high-ranking officials know more than they are telling Congress about the flawed weapons sting.

The announcement appears to be the latest attempt by GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, to press U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder into providing Congress with more information about the operation and an account of which officials knew about any problems -- and when. The wiretap applications show that immense detail about questionable investigative tactics was available to the senior officials who reviewed and authorized them,? Issa said in a June 5 letter to Holder. ?The close involvement of these officials -- much greater than previously known -- is shocking.

The targets of "Fast and Furious" bought nearly 2,000 weapons over several months. For reasons that are still in dispute, most of those weapons were never followed. High-powered weapons tied to the investigation ended up at crime scenes in Mexico and the United States, including the December 2010 murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. The wiretaps were intended to allow investigators in Arizona to listen to the phone calls of suspects as part of the strategy to reveal evidence of involvement by high-level Mexican cartel associates. The six applications for wiretaps, which have been sealed by a federal judge, detail specific actions taken by agents involved in the operation, the GOP-controlled committee said in a statement.

The information shows the officials made ?conscious decisions? not to interdict weapons that agents knew were illegally purchased by smugglers taking weapons to Mexico, according to the statement. Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House oversight committee, said Tuesday that he is concerned about Issa's possible mis-characterization of the "contents and significance" of the wiretap- related documents. In a 10-page letter, Cummings tells Issa that he omitted a critical fact and that the omission "completely undermines your conclusion." The information in dispute was redacted.

Cummings also said the "undisputed fact" before the committee is that senior Justice Department officials never saw the wiretap applications. Cummings says the summaries of the applications were prepared by federal attorneys and reviewed by deputy assistant attorneys general, standard practice in previous Democrat and Republican administrations. Holder has said he has given congressional investigators all of the relevant information. Issa, R-Calif., issues a subpoena in October 2011 for the remaining documents and last month asked House Speaker John Boehner to support his plans to hold Holder in contempt of Congress for failing to meet the subpoena deadline.

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[Oddball]

About damn time.

 

[tererun]

I remember when they did this to the Bush squad. They just laughed it off. I imagine the dems will probably not take that rout.

 

[Douger]

Send him a drone.

 

[tjvh]

I remember when they did this to the Bush squad. They just laughed it off. I imagine the dems will probably not take that rout.

I'd argue they might not have a choice as to how they "take it". You do know what rout means? "Defeat".

 

[gallantwarrior]

I remember when they did this to the Bush squad. They just laughed it off. I imagine the dems will probably not take that rout.

I'd argue they might not have a choice as to how they "take it". You do know what rout means? "Defeat".

Freudian slip, or poor spelling skills?

 

[tjvh]

I remember when they did this to the Bush squad. They just laughed it off. I imagine the dems will probably not take that rout.

I'd argue they might not have a choice as to how they "take it". You do know what rout means? "Defeat".

Freudian slip, or poor spelling skills?

Who could say?

 

[MuadDib]

What took them so long?

They've been far more patient with Holder than they ever should have been.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

About time...I didn't believe a word he said when this all began.
This is such an utterly f*ck up that no matter what - they cannot admit to it....yet...it is impossible that such a program existed without them knowing it.

 

[Katzndogz]

Congress with Fast and Furious on one side, and the senate on the other investigating white house leaks of classified information.

Let's hope that obama gets squeezed in these pincers.

 

[freedombecki]

Congress with Fast and Furious on one side, and the senate on the other investigating white house leaks of classified information.

Let's hope that obama gets squeezed in these pincers.

I'd like to see Obama defend his dereliction of duty in failure to can Holder for obstruction and a few other crimes, unless he committed them by order of the President.

It's really sleazy to give hundreds of world-class soldier weaponry and ammo to cartel drug lords, leaving the people holding the bag for lawsuits leveled against the United States for the many murders the cartels can commit with one assault weapon.

Today, 47,500 people have been killed by the Mexican drug lord wars under Calderon's 5-year crackdown.

Those freebie guns are a huge worry to responsible people in Congress.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

.

 

[whitehall]

Holder is counting on the Obama administration covering his ass and the liberal media ignoring felony murder. This should be interesting.

 

[Conservative]

Why isn't Chris in here screaming that Obama will soon be indicted?

 

[freedombecki]

What took them so long?

They've been far more patient with Holder than they ever should have been.

Getting your apples in a row against an Attorney General must be complex

 

[MuadDib]

What took them so long?

They've been far more patient with Holder than they ever should have been.

Getting your apples in a row against an Attorney General must be complex

Stonewalling is a helluva job!

 

[Truthseeker420]

Of course they did the House Republicans are partisan hacks.

 

[waltky]

He was talkin' `bout sumpin' else...

Holder Claims Emails Using Words ‘Fast and Furious’ Don’t Refer to Operation Fast and Furious
June 7, 2012 – Attorney General Eric Holder claimed during congressional testimony today that internal Justice Department emails that use the phrase “Fast and Furious” do not refer to the controversial gun-walking operation Fast and Furious.

Under questioning from Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who read excerpts of the emails at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Justice Department oversight, Holder claimed that the phrase “Fast and Furious” did not refer to Fast and Furious but instead referred to another gun-walking operation known as “Wide Receiver.” However, the emails refer to both programs -- "Fast and Furious" and the "Tucson case," from where Wide Receiver was launched -- and reveal Justice Department officials discussing how to handle media scrutiny when both operations become public.

Among three of the emails (see Jason Weinstein Email Fast, Furious.pdf), the second, dated “October 17, 2010 11:07 PM,” was sent by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein to James Trusty and it states: “Do you think we should have Lanny participate in press when Fast and Furious and Laura’s Tucson case [Wide Receiver] are unsealed? It’s a tricky case, given the number of guns that have walked, but it is a significant set of prosecutions.” In the third email, dated Oct. 18, 2010, James Trusty writes back to Weinstein: “I think so, but the timing will be tricky, too. Looks like we’ll be able to unseal the Tucson case sooner than the Fast and Furious (although this may be just the difference between Nov. and Dec).”

“It’s not clear how much we’re involved in the main F and F [Fast and Furious] case,” reads the email, “but we have Tucson [Wide Receiver] and now a new unrelated case with [redacted] targets. It’s not any big surprise that a bunch of US guns are being used in MX [Mexico], so I’m not sure how much grief we get for ‘guns walking.’ It may be more like ‘Finally, they’re going after people who sent guns down there.’” (See Jason Weinstein Email Fast, Furious.pdf) Operation Wide Receiver was run out of Tucson, Ariz., between 2006 and 2007 by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), a division of the Justice Department. In his testimony, Holder said that the emails only referred to Operation Wide Receiver.

Holder told the committee: “That refers to Wide Receiver, not to Fast and Furious. The e-mail that you [Rep. Chaffetz] just read [between Trusty and Weinstein] – now this is important – that email referred to Wide Receiver, it did not refer to Fast and Furious. That has to be noted for the record.” Chaffetz, after a long pause, said, "No, it doesn't. It says Fast and Furious. 'Do you think we should have Lanny participate in press when Fast and Furious and Laura’s Tucson case [Wide Receiver] are unsealed?' It's specific to Fast and Furious. That is not true, Mr. Attorney General. I'm happy to share it with you."

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