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ICE lawyer’s discrimination complaint details battles with Obama administrationThe Obama administration told federal immigration lawyers to release illegal immigrants with “old” drunken-driving convictions and those found guilty of stealing other people’s identities, according to a lawsuit filed by one of the lawyers at the center of the operation. Patricia M. Vroom, a top attorney for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Arizona, filed a 67-page discrimination complaint that details repeated battles with agency higher-ups who told her to close cases and not deport people whom President Obama deemed low-priority. Federal officials were particularly dismissive of identity theft convictions from Arizona,...

Holder responds by saying that they needed to be very careful. He goes on to criticize Issa, and calls his investigation a purely political move. In the process however, he basically admits that the operation at the center of the investigation led to the death of thousands of Mexican civilians. “Ok. We have to be careful. His decision has to truly be his. If he testifies so be it.” “Issa and his idiot cronies never gave a damn about this when all that was happening was that thousands of Mexicans were being killed with guns from our country. All they...

Justice Department officials provided House investigators with thousands of documents related to Operation Fast and Furious that President Obama had previously claimed were exempt from congressional review. In an “election eve dump,” as House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) put it, DOJ handed over 64,280 pages of documents, a release that is still only a partial fulfillment of the committee’s request. “This production is nonetheless a victory for the legislative branch, a victory for transparency, and a victory for efforts to check Executive Branch power,” Issa said of the release.

A new batch of emails from Attorney General Eric Holder were revealed on Friday, further demonstrating just how frustrated he became over Congress’ investigation into the “Fast and Furious” gun-walking scandal. In one Aug. 30 email, he wrote of his critics, “Some people can kiss my ass.”

Attorney General Eric Holder criticized Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) years-long congressional probe into "Operation Fast and Furious" as little more than an effort to "suck up to the gun lobby," according to internal emails released Monday. "Issa and his idiot cronies never gave a damn about this when all that was happening was that thousands of Mexicans were being killed with guns from our country," Holder wrote to members of his staff in April 2011, after Issa threatened to subpoena a Federal Firearms Licensee witness to testify on the investigation. “All they want to do -- in reality -- is...

With the media and engaged citizens focused on critical mid-term elections, the Department of Justice turned over 64,000 pages of documents related to Operation Fast and Furious that it had previously claimed executive privilege for, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Responsibility announced Tuesday. Per the committee release, the production of the documents, compelled by court order, is further evidence the administration had no legitimate reasons for withholding them in the first place consistent with the purposes behind executive privilege, and their withholding was part of a continued effort to avoid disclosures “that embarrass or otherwise implicate senior Obama...

November 4, 2014BREAKING: DOJ Turns Over 64,000 Fast and Furious Documents Held Under Obama's Executive PrivilegeKatie PavlichAfter years of legal battles between the House Oversight Committee and Attorney General Eric Holder, 64,280 redacted Operation Fast and Furious documents held under President Obama's assertion of executive privilege since 2012, have been turned over by the Department of Justice after an order from U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson. The Justice Department was originally ordered to turn over a list of documents, better known as a Vaughn Index, with explanations as to why documents fall under executive privilege claims by November...

Scandal: Documents obtained by a government watchdog group list emails between the attorney general and his wife regarding a White House statement on the "gun walking" scandal the White House wants kept secret. The release of the government's Vaughn Index of documents that the administration withheld from the House Oversight Committee's investigation of Fast and Furious may not be the October surprise that the Obama administration hoped for. It raises more questions than it answers and shows the absurd extent of the administration's cover-up. On July 18, U.S. District Court Judge John Bates ordered the Justice Department to produce, in...

Late last night the Department of Justice complied with a court order and turned over a list to government watchdog Judicial Watch , known as a Vaughn Index, of Fast and Furious documents being held from Congress and the American people under President Obama's assertion of executive privilege. Not surprisingly, DOJ failed to fully comply with the requirements of providing a Vaughn Index. The Vaughn index explains 15,662 documents. Typically, a Vaughn index must: (1) identify each record withheld; (2) state the statutory exemption claimed; and (3) explain how disclosure would damage the interests protected by the claimed exemption. The...

Maricopa Co., AZ Sheriff Joe Arpaio reported that 36 percent of the criminals his sheriffs turned over to ICE “keep coming back” ... Last month a guy came back 25 times. So what is this? Either the border is really unsecure, or they're letting these guys out in the streets of Maricopa County. We got a big problem” he said. Arpaio added that releasing illegal aliens with criminal records was a “form of amnesty by the Obama administration.” ... Arpaio also said that the Mexican border has become so dangerous, law enforcement are afraid to cross,

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been trying to investigate the Fast and Furious scandal for years, but has been stymied by the Obama administration’s stonewalling. The House committee was willing to narrow its request for Department of Justice documents to an extraordinary degree; ultimately, the committee asked only that the Obama administration produce documents after February 4, 2011, relating to the false letter to Congress that bore that date, and the process by which Eric Holder’s DOJ decided to withdraw that letter. Notwithstanding this narrow scope, the Obama administration has stiffed the House committee for three years,...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)On October 23, Judicial Watch announced it received a "Vaughn index" for records the Department of Justice has withheld from Congress regarding Operation Fast and Furious. Contained in the index details are evidence that Obama asserted executive privilege for Attorney General Eric Holder's wife Sharon Malone—and his mother. According to Judicial Watch, emails between Holder and his wife and Holder and his mother are the materials withheld via executive privilege and "the dubious claim of deliberative process privilege." Yet the release of the Vaughn index is a good thing, and it comes after Judge John D. Bates ordered the index...

The House Oversight Committee is pursuing another contempt of court charge, and possibly a daily monetary fine, and jail time for outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder unless he complies with a court order to release certain Fast and Furious documents. Via The Washington Times: Members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee requested U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson to fine Mr. Holder if he doesn’t comply with her own order issued back in August — the one where she said he couldn’t claim executive privilege to keep private certain documents related to the federal gun-running program, “Operation...

The top deputy to Attorney General Eric Holder announced his resignation on Thursday amid revelations that Operation Fast and Furious scandal guns were used to harm Americans in Phoenix in 2013, a development top congressional Republicans say President Obama’s administration sought to cover up. ... Holder, the attorney general, has failed to cooperate with the Fast and Furious congressional investigation led by Issa and Grassley. Holder was voted, on a bipartisan basis, into both criminal and civil contempt of Congress—a first in the history of the United States for a Cabinet-level official—after he failed to provide documents to Issa’s committee...

Judicial Watch announced today that it received from the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) a “Vaughn index” detailing records about the Operation Fast and Furious scandal. The index was forced out of the Obama administration thanks to JW’s June 2012 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and subsequent September 2012 FOIA lawsuit (Judicial Watch v. Department of Justice (No. 1:12-cv-01510)). A federal court had ordered the production over the objections of the Obama Justice Department. The document details the Attorney General Holder’s personal involvement in managing the Justice Department’s strategy on media and Congressional investigations into the Fast and Furious...

For years the White House has argued it had nothing to do with Operation Fast and Furious while it was active and certainly wasn't involved the fallout and cover-up that followed after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in 2010 by Mexican bandits carrying guns from the lethal program. Now years later, a Vaughn Index describing Fast and Furious documents being held from the American people and Congress under President Obama's assertion of executive privilege shows White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett played a key role in Attorney General Eric Holder's changing testimony to Congress. More from Judicial Watch: Practically lost in...

President Obama’s trusted senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett, was a key player in the effort to cover-up that Attorney General Eric Holder lied to Congress about the Fast and Furious scandal, according to public records obtained by Judicial Watch. The information is part of a Department of Justice (DOJ) “Vaughn index” detailing records about the gun-running operation known as Fast and Furious. JW had to sue the agency for the records after the Obama administration failed to provide them under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A federal court ordered the DOJ to provide the records over the agency’s objections. Yesterday...

President Obama’s trusted senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett, was a key player in the effort to cover up that Attorney General Eric Holder lied to Congress about the Fast and Furious scandal, according to public records obtained by Judicial Watch.The information is part of a Department of Justice (DOJ) “Vaughn index” detailing records about the gun-running operation known as Fast and Furious. JW had to sue the agency for the records after the Obama administration failed to provide them under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A federal court ordered the DOJ to provide the records over the agency’s objections. Yesterday...

The Obama administration is claiming executive privilege over more than 15,000 documents related to Operation Fast and Furious, including correspondence between Attorney General Eric Holder and his wife, according to records received Wednesday night by the watchdog group Judicial Watch. Last month, a federal judge ordered the Justice Department to release to Judicial Watch the list of documents, known as a “Vaughn index,” that it is withholding from the public, calling its requests for further delays “unconvincing.” The 1,307-page Vaughn index lists 15,662 documents related to Operation Fast and Furious that the Obama administration is asserting executive privilege over—the first...

Via Guy Benson, the key point is the lying, not the fact that they’re putting dangerous people who have no right to be here back onto America’s streets.After all, they do that all the time. The new records, including spreadsheets and hundreds of pages of e-mails, offer the most detailed information yet about the people ICE freed as it prepared for steep, across-the-government spending cuts in February 2013. They show that although two-thirds of the people who were freed had no criminal records, several had been arrested or convicted on charges more severe than the administration had disclosed…A spreadsheet...