Posted on 06/20/2012 2:58:24 AM PDT by Libloather
Rep. Issa ‘disappointed,’ says contempt vote against Holder will move forward
By Jordy Yager - 06/19/12 05:55 PM ET
A House panel is expected to vote Wednesday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress after a last-ditch effort to reach a deal over documents related to Operation Fast and Furious appeared to fail.
After a Tuesday evening meeting with Holder and other lawmakers in the Capitol, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said he was “disappointed” that the attorney general had not come with the documents demanded by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Issa, Holder’s chief interlocutor in a saga that has lasted more than a year, said unless Holder provides the paperwork, the contempt vote would proceed Wednesday morning.
Issa also called on President Obama to press Holder “to be more cooperative.”
Holder emerged from the meeting considerably later, and accused Issa of being consumed with “political gamesmanship.”
Holder said he offered to make documents Issa has requested available to the chairman on the condition that the powerful Republican drop the two outstanding subpoenas he has issued to the department. The documents Issa wants are related to the panel’s 16-month investigation of the failed Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation.
Holder said Issa rejected that offer and demanded that Holder fork over the documents to his committee, while offering no assurances that he would drop the contempt vote scheduled for 10 a.m. on Wednesday or consider the subpoenas satisfied.
“I think the ball’s in their court,” said Holder. “They rejected what I thought was an extraordinary offer on our part.
“What we asked from the chairman was an indication that if we provided these materials, that would be considered to resolve the subpoenas that were standing,” Holder said. “He’s not indicated the desire to do that at this point. I hope he will change his mind.”
Asked whether he had spoken to any of the House Republican leaders about ways to resolve the matter, the attorney general declined to comment.
“I don’t want to answer that question,” he said.
Issa said he hoped Holder would deliver the documents later Tuesday night, but that until he received them he would plan to move forward with the contempt vote.
“If we receive no documents, we’ll go forward,” said Issa. “If we receive documents, we’ll evaluate them and we’ll take such time as is necessary in delay to be sure of the quality of these documents and whether they’re sufficient.
“We never expected to get all of the documents. But our hope was, and still is, that later this evening we’ll receive such documents that’ll allow us to say that at least for the time being we’re evaluating future documents.”
Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the ranking Democrat on Issa’s committee, and Sens. Patrick Leahy (Vt.) and Chuck Grassley (Iowa), the top Democrat and Republican, respectively, on the Senate Judiciary Committee, also attended the meeting
Cummings said he believed Issa’s mind was made up about the contempt vote before the meeting.
“It appears that the chairman made up his mind even before we stepped into the room,” he said following the meeting, which lasted roughly 30 minutes.
Grassley, however, praised Issa for moving forward with the contempt vote and called Holder’s offer unacceptable.
“The attorney general wants to trade a briefing and the promise of delivering some small, unspecified set of documents tomorrow for a free pass today,” said Grassley in a statement after the meeting. “That’s unacceptable. I’m not going to buy a pig in a poke.”
Issa wants documents that he says would show how much Justice knows about Fast and Furious. Holder has insisted he did not know of the gun-tracking operation, and he has noted that a similar operation was executed under the Bush administration.
Issa has focused his request on DOJ documents from after Feb. 4, 2011, when the department sent a letter to Grassley denying that it lets guns “walk” across the border into Mexico. Issa wants as much internal correspondence as possible that could give him a clear picture of how much the department knew about those tactics and what made the DOJ withdraw that letter in December.
Fast and Furious was an attempt by the Justice Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to track the flow of weapons from the United States into Mexico in hopes of dismantling drug cartels’ network.
Nearly 2,000 guns were sold in the United States to straw buyers for the cartels, but instead of tracking the weapons, ATF agents were ordered to let them go with the hope of rediscovering them later at a crime scene or drug bust.
The Department of Justice's inspector general, at the request of Holder, has been investigating Fast and Furious for more than a year and is searching for who is responsible for the controversial tactics. Issa has been conducting his own investigation.
Thanks. So Congress does have the power to punish but under these circumstances I don’t believe anything beyond the contempt vote will happen.
Waiting and watching ping.
This is Obama’s treason. Everyone else is a useful idiot.
I am sure that when the House (Issa) refers charges on Holder to the Holder attorney general office he will act swiftly on prosecuting himself, OK back to the planet Earth. Living in a fantasy world is not beating Dems
The Dem talking points have gone out and are being repeated over and over, I heard them on MSNBC and then Dems flooded all the CSPAN lines this morning including the Republican ones, the points go : “Bush started that program (F+F) and Holder stopped it as soon as he learned about it. Issa promised from day 1 to bring the Obama administration down and this is nothing more than a witch hunt. “ .
It may be a lie but Republicans appear not to be organized like Dems are to counter it.
Maybe a trail to the White House?
How could there be any doubt in your mind?
Denis McDonough, "Obama’s most influential foreign policy adviser" and the Fast & Furious Cover-up.
My money is on Boner running away from conflict, clearly showing his yellow streak.
OK, contempt charges may be filed.....then what?
We saw the Republicans impeach Clinton and everyone saw how badly that was taken by Clinton and the rest of the population since nothing ever really happened to actually remove him from office.
Now, like little mad lemmings, the Republicans are going to file contempt charges against Holder. Then what? Nothing!
We’ve seen it before and we will see it again...no followup.
That dream doesn't work when nobody's working. Clinton's stains didn't sink him because he was riding the wave of the Republican Congress's tax cuts.
Contempt hearings for one or more of Zippy's thugs will provide a lot of footage of Holder ducking and slithering, and occasional mention of a lot of murders in Mexico caused by him. It will tarnish an administration people already distrust. Some won't go to the polls; by November, others will actually vote GOP.
It was nothing of the sort. It was an attempt to justify increased federal control on the right to bear arms by the citizens. The media still persists in telling this lie. All know it is untrue. But if you tell the big lie often enough..... AP = Always Propaganda
the time for reason is long over and there are several people in the ground
boner and company have been complicit
remember Charlie Rangel and just look at Mad Maxine
Ethics Case Against Congresswoman to Resume
6/6/12 WASHINGTON — Leaders of the House Ethics Committee said Wednesday that they would move ahead with a long-delayed inquiry into allegations of impropriety by Representative Maxine Waters after concluding that committee missteps had not denied Ms. Waters a fair hearing in the case.
Ethics investigators accuse her of improperly trying to facilitate federal bailout financing and do special favors for a Boston-based bank, OneUnited, at a time when her husband had stock in the company worth about $200,000.
Maxine Waters Ethics Case: 6 Committee Members Recuse Themselves Los Angeles Times ^ | Richard Simon - Friday, February 17, 2012 3:05:05 PM
And expose the cover up,expect another Obama EO.
RINO racing snails leap to the starting gate!!!
ONLY one quarter mile to go!!!
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
“Axelrod, Obama, Holder are thinking -—”How do we spin this as racist? And which of our media stooges will help us do it?””
To answer that question, it is all the media stooges. However, due to the gay pride fiasco which had black leaders panties all wadded up, they will probably do the church circuit again to make sure any congregants that were looking to escape the plantation are brought back.
Holder gets executive privilege for requested documents!
I remember when CSPAN had one call-in line. They switched when too many conservatives were calling in - decided to give 'equal time'. If a thousand conservatives were trying to call and 10 liberals were calling - they would get 'equal opportunity' to speak. So, they took 10 calls from each group - meaning 100% of the liberals got to speak - vs one percent of conservatives.
To add insult to injury - liberal decided that wasn't enough advantage and came up with ways to cheat a system rigged in their favor. They call in and lie - say they're moderates or conservatives - and of course CSPAN is too stupid to catch it.
If conservatives started doing the same, CSPAN would catch it and correct it in days - maybe hours.
Of course, the 'doting court eunuchs' of the MSM fail to notice... when it works for their side. Shame on CSPAN.
Fact or conjecture?
At 10:00 am Obama declared executive privilege over Justice dept document.
Guilty as charged.
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