Posted on 07/29/2011 6:33:41 AM PDT by marktwain
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) said on a conference call Wednesday evening that he will try to get a White House official who may have had knowledge of the botched Fast and Furious gunrunning operation to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
But Issa, who chairs the committee, was not optimistic about the effort. “Try? Yes,” he said, asked whether he would try to get the official into his committee room. But Issa noted that there has been “political interference at the highest level” throughout the Oversight committee’s Fast and Furious investigation.
The White House official in question is National Security Director for North America Kevin O’Reilly. During a Tuesday Oversight hearing on Fast and Furious, former ATF Special Agent Bill Newell, who was instrumental in implementing the operation, said that he had spoken with O’Reilly about Fast and Furious as early as September 2010. Whether O’Reilly was made aware that the ATF had let guns cross the border into Mexico as part of the investigation was not clear.
Newell’s admission is the first indication that White House officials were aware of the Fast and Furious program while it was ongoing. The email was leaked to the Oversight Committee by a whistleblower, Issa said; it was not released willingly by the White House.
CBS News reported on the details of the message on Wednesday:
Congressional investigators obtained an email from Newell to O’Reilly in September of last year in which Newell began with the words: “you didn’t get this from me.”
“What does that mean,” one member of Congress asked Newell, ” ‘you didn’t get this from me?’ ”
“Obviously he was a friend of mine,” Newell replied, “and I shouldn’t have been sending that to him.”
Newell told Congress that O’Reilly had asked him for information.
“Why do you think he asked for that information,” Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) asked Newell.
“He was asking about the impact of Project Gunrunner to brief people in preparation for a trip to Mexico… what we were doing to combat firearms trafficking and other issues.”
Two words: Executive Privilege.
He's a political appointee.
But claiming executive privilege in front of the committee and cameras would make a great clip for the 2012 election...:^)
What is with all the hand-wringing bed-wetters on this thread? It is a figure of speech. It’s way too soon to accuse Issa of being weak. He’s been a bulldog on this.
Bet that they claim “executive privilege” on all white house communications.
Once they do, the clock starts counting down to either impeachment or resignation..............
>Clearly, Issa isn’t man enough for the job.<
I think he has done a remarkable job getting what he has. He has not stopped and is hitting the administration on every angle that there is. But he also realizes that Obama has executive privilege on all communications coming into the white house.
He is playing by the rules. I bet that if he doesn’t get the guy to come in, he will get him another way. he has made statements like this before. He brought melson in through the back door despite Obama’s threats didn’t he?
your dead on.
Issa has been Obama’s worst nightmare. he has hammered him on EVERYTHING from every angle. If anyone can take Obama down it will be Issa
Impeachment won;t happen with the senate the way it is. Probably even this congress wouldn’t do it.
But resignation is a very good possibility. I would say a probability with the way things have been going.
>We can already see how far this “investigation” will go.<
Issa already has enough for perjury charges on Holder. He has worked a meticulous case. He is going for the big fish and snaring them in more and more traps daily. It is going far. It will be bigger than watergate and iran contra combined when he is done.
It is going to take a while. Perhaps years. But it will happen.
THE REAL QUESTION IS:
WILL HOLDER FALL ON HIS SWORD FOR THE MESSIAH?..................
b/m for later
He may try to. But I think that Issa is going to make that moot. He is going to lock Obama in as well. So if holder wants to take the fall, he can, but a pardon will be hard from a guy who is in the same sinking boat.
Thank you. Issa and Grassley have both been very methodical and tenacious. They haven’t let up at all and they are not outrunning their defense and making a bunch of hyperbolic accusations they can’t back up just for press coverage. That kind of beltway sensationalism might be emotionally satisfying to the keyboard cowboys but it would be the surest way to undermine the investigation and have it die on the vine.
Issa and Grassley really have done an excellent job. But people expect things over night and they expect headlines. Without them it is just condemnation and trashing them.
He has followed the line right up and built a good case.
There is a lot that they are doing that is not making headlines. They are already talking about a special prosecutor. He is going after Obama on campaign financing and on bills that he snuck in. I think at the very least he will make Obama politically a hot potato for 2012. If he is not rushed, it is going much further than people realize.
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