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.

[mandaladon]

DOJ has turned over thousands of pages relating to the operation and the initial department response to the controversy but has withheld internal records about its response after February 2011, when it sent lawmakers a letter that insisted department personnel never knowingly engaged in gunwalking..................This from the most transparent administration.

[ronnie raygun]

These guys should have been put in jail by now

[Ray76]

Delay, delay, delay.

Repeat.

[morphing libertarian]

it’s like the warren report................75 years

[doc1019]

Shredder overheating?

[upchuck]

the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit...

Isn’t that the court nobama has managed to pack with far left-wing judges?

[Darksheare]

You will know things are serious when Holder starts securing passage to a nation that doesn’t have an extradition treaty with us.
Otherwise, it is all street theater with no consequences.

[Tenacious 1]

What is “Fast and Furious”? Didn’t that happen in, like, the 1980s or something? That’s old news. It’s settled science. Bush started it anyway.

(Pissed off)

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Yep. That’s the usual narrative.

[Hugin]

I hear Holder is hiring the private defense firm, Hyde, Stahl and Delay.

[Fungi]

This entire regime is a criminal enterprise. “The unlawful we can do immediately, the unconstitutional takes a little longer.” The pres mantra for the Nixon administration.

The current regime: We can do anything we want so go screw yourself if you don't like it.

[what's up]

until after her rulings can be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit

They really mean until after the elections.

[Paine in the Neck]

Holder needs to be extradicted to Mexico to stand trial for the several hundred murders he facilitated there.

[ought-six]

FUEH.

[FlingWingFlyer]

It’s taking these commie bastards a long time to sanitize their dirty work and hand over the worthless remaining garbage. I am so disgusted with this bunch of Nazi bastards. Every one of them should be in prison.

[kidd]

I read parts of the DOJ filing. The DOJ is saying "if we don't get to appeal the whole thing all at once, we will be appealing the order to turn over each of the thousands of documents, individually"

(see page 5 of http://images.politico.com/global/2014/09/16/holderfandfnondisclosurerationale.pdf)

Accordingly, in order to avoid the possibility of piecemeal litigation and multiple appeals, the Department, on September 2, 2014, requested that the Court stay the effect of its August 20 production Order until the conclusion of district court proceedings

[Paladin2]

Not turning the documents over is racist.

[Lurker]

“Holder needs to be extradicted to Mexico to stand trial for the several hundred murders he facilitated there.”

That’s some serious leverage for the Mexican government right there. “Let our citizens in or we indict your Attorney General as an accessory to several hundred murders. You might want to move that executive action you were prattling on about up a bit, too. Comprende amigo?”

L

[VRWCarea51]

I think the pigs need fed

[Paladin2]

I don’t understand why some folks want to fight and shoot ordinary cops.