Holder presses delay on Fast and Furious documents

Politico ^ | 16 Sep 2014 | JOSH GERSTEIN

[mandaladon]

Attorney General Eric Holder is again asking a federal court to delay the transfer of disputed documents relating to Operation Fast and Furious to a House committee.

In a new court filing Monday night, Justice Department lawyers asked U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson not to require Holder to turn over any of the roughly 64,000 pages of documents to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee until after her rulings can be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

"The Department respectfully submits that it would be preferable for the parties, this Court, and the D.C. Circuit — if an appeal were taken — to have any injunctive order await the conclusion of the district court litigation to allow for orderly and complete appellate proceedings," DOJ lawyers wrote.

Jackson has previously denied DOJ permission to file an immediate appeal, although lawyers for Holder indicated in the new filing (posted here) that they may do so anyway. Any appeal is likely to take months and perhaps more than a year to resolve. If that process does not begin until Jackson rules definitively on the the executive privilege claim President Barack Obama has made for many of the documents, the timeline for the case being resolved could begin to approach the end of the Obama administration.

The documents in dispute relate to the Justice Department's response to congressional and media inquiries about Fast and Furious, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation that appears to have resulted in as many as 2,000 weapons reaching Mexican narcotraffickers through a tactic known as gunwalking. Holder has denounced and banned the practice, which he said he and other senior department officials did not know about.

[Pollster1]

The AG has no respect for the rule of law and no respect for Congress. Congress should use its primary power over a rogue executive to restrain the AG - impeachment. That won’t happen because the Senate is too corrupt to do its job, but the House has a back up - the power of the purse. The House should withhold a significant portion of the AG’s funding until Holder turns over the documents required for the House to conduct oversight.

[Slyfox]

Holder is only supporting the laws he wants to enforce.

Geesh, get off his back.

/s

[VRWCarea51]

That was not what my comment was inferring. I have nothing but the up most respect for Ethical L.E.O.

Crooked, unethical, ruthless bastards hiding behind and abusing ANY position of Authority over American Citizens are a completely different matter...

[KC Burke]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3204746/posts

see the above related thread about ATF undercover agent Dobyns awarded damages on top of previous damages for the corruption of ATF management.

[Diogenesis]

"At the foundation of our civil liberties lies
the principle that denies to government officials
an exceptional position before the law and which
subjects them to the same rules of conduct
that are commands to the citizen."
Justice Louis D. Brandeis

"When the law no longer protects you from the corrupt,
but protects the corrupt from you -
you know your nation is doomed."
-Ayn Rand

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.
We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream.
It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same,
or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children
and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."
President Ronald Reagan

[hal ogen]

So sue me!

[Vendome]

Hurry up! Stop...

[gwjack]

I still have confidence that a Judge will not engage in decision making because of politics. For example, Judge Jackson was appointed by the current President. Any judge abhors a direct lie or obfuscation. They detest when their authority is challenged.

Gwjack

[Mouton]

Any judge abhors a direct lie or obfuscation. They detest when their authority is challenged.

That works 100% of the time when the GOP is involved or when Bush was president. Not so much now but I do applaud what this judge has done so far. Of course when it gets to the entire circuit, the movement on a geologic pace will begin. Sometime in 2018, the results will be in and it will be held they were violating the law, obstructed justice and should have been tossed in jail but too much time has elapsed and President Clinton will issue a pardon.

[dead]

A handful of Iraqi combatants were made to do naked dog piles while a German Shepherd barked at them - it merits 46 consecutive front page NY Times stories.

Fast and Furious supplies thousands of guns to the Mexican drug cartels, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of innocent Mexican civilians - The Times gives it one or two mentions on page A-26, mostly discussing Republican overreach in investigating the scandal.

[a fool in paradise]

TRANSPARENCY #SMIDGEN

[Amagi]

Holder presiding over investigations about his own potential criminality.
Crime, Inc.