A lot of the government appointees and career employees who are following the Holder gag order are very high level, experienced and sophisticated. They know they are at the very least in the grey areas of obstruction of justice and they have a lot to lose.
Issa has laid down a marker that the time is running out for these people at DOJ, ATF, FBI, DHS and others to come forward and break the Holder stonewall to cover up what has happened.
Issa directly stated it's time for those involved to tell what they know and they are formally legally allowed to do with with their own lawyers as part of Issa’s agreement with Holder on this issue (ie they cannot hide behind the “I was told to follow Executive Privilege by Holder and not come forward) , or be liable for at least obstruction charges, and possible other criminal charges, soon when things get serious.
Given that the ATF Director has now turned state's evidence those involved know they have been outed, that Issa probably has the cookie crumbs to road map the paper trail which will contain some pretty damaging disclosures and that they are now forced to choose between coming forward with their lawyers are per the Issa/Holder agreement or facing conspiracy to obstruct justice charges once it is too late to come forward.
This will be very interesting. At the very least, Holder's crew are already been caught lying about who knew about this operation.