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https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/05/08/fast-and-furious-settlement-dc-court/

‘Fast And Furious’ Settlement Entered Into DC Court

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Hours after House Judiciary Committee
Democrats voted to hold Attorney General Bill Barr in
contempt of Congress for withholding parts of the Mueller
report, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the House
Oversight Committee settled the 2012 contempt case against
the DOJ. The case, related to the “Fast and Furious”
document subpoena demanded of Obama’s Attorney General Eric
Holder when Republicans held the majority, is now considered
settled, since Democrats became the majority in the lower
chamber and Elijah Cummings became Oversight Committee
Chairman.

According to court documents, settlement negotiations first
began January 2017 during the 115th Congress. By March 7,
2018, the Justice Department and the Oversight Committee
signed a conditional settlement agreement with certain
conditions, which included that the court would vacate
certain rulings at issue on remand. However, the court ruled
last October that it would not vacate the rulings.
Following a subsequent lapse in appropriations for the DOJ
and the election of Cummings as Chair, “the parties resumed
settlement negotiations in early February 2019. The parties
informed this Court on April 4, 2019, that they had ‘made
substantial progress towards a negotiated solution.’”

The settlement agreement includes that the Oversight
Committee “will take all necessary steps to voluntarily
dismiss its appeal with prejudice in Committee on Oversight
and Government Reform of the United States House of
Representatives v. Barr, No. 16-5078 (D.C. Cir.), marking
the termination of all civil litigation between the parties
arising out of the complaint filed by the Committee…”

The case with which Holder was charged with contempt by the
House sprung from a botched federal gun-tracking program
that came to light in 2010. Known as “Operation Fast and
Furious” by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms
(ATF), the gun-walking program came out of the Arizona field
office. Federal investigators set the program up so
licensed firearms dealers could sell guns to illegal straw
purchasers and the U.S. government could track the firearms
to Mexican cartel leaders, arrest them and dismantle their
operations.

However, in 2010 it came to light that the guns that ATF was
supposed to track turned up at Mexican crime scenes where
vicious murders took place and at the site where U.S. Border
Patrol Agent Brian Terry was slain by Mexican gang members
in December of that year.

Holder was charged by the House with two separate contempt
resolutions—criminal and civil—for withholding documents
related to the Fast and Furious case. The criminal contempt
charge was never prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney in D.C., as
he served at the pleasure of Holder at the time. The civil
charge, though, was a different matter and remained
litigated in the court for the past seven years. The
charges against Holder also stemmed from his testimony
before Congress, when he claimed he was unaware of the
operation until a few weeks before he came to testify.
However, leaked documents from the Justice Department showed
that he was informed of the matter for months.