President Obama asserts executive privilege over Fast and the Furious documents
The Justice Dept says that President Barack Obama has asserted executive privilege over documents a House committee is seeking in an investigation of a flawed gun-smuggling probe.
A showdown Wednesday in the House between Attorney General Eric Holder and Rep. Darrell Issa continues to be heated, the Wall Street Journal reports.
California Republican Mr. Issa is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and he called a Wednesday morning meeting of his panel to vote on a resolution to sanction Mr. Holder with contempt of Congress. The two men held a meeting Tuesday that lasted only 20 minutes.
Mr. Holder said Mr. Issa rejected his offer to provide documents because the lawmaker wouldn’t agree that they would fulfill the subpoena, effectively ending the contempt threat. Mr. Issa said the attorney general didn’t come prepared to provide documents and that the contempt threat can’t be removed until the documents are produced.
After Holder made the request to Obama via letter on Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General James Cole wrote to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., on Wednesday informing him that the president has granted the request.
“We regret that we have arrived at this point, after the many steps we have taken to address the committee’s concerns and to accommodate the committee’s legitimate oversight interests regarding Operation Fast and Furious,” Cole wrote. “Although we are deeply disappointed that the committee appears intent on proceeding with a contempt vote, the department remains willing to work with the committee to reach a mutually satisfactory resolution of the outstanding issues.”
Obama’s decision pertains to documents from February 2011 and afterward examining how Justice officials learned about the Fast and Furious probe.
They believe that Eric Holder shouldn’t have to explain what happened here. That’s what the Democratic Party believes. We have a right, but more importantly, the Terry Family has a right as Americans to know how their son was killed, and the Democratic Party and the President of the United States says to the Terry Family “blank you”, we’re not going to tell you. We are not going to it do it. Walk out of the Democrats and the executive privilege invoked by the president says to the Terry Family and every other American we are not accountable to you.
— Bill O’Reilly, The Factor, 6/28/12
[…] The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress despite a last-minute intervention by President Obama. […]