Posted on 06/29/2012 11:52:14 AM PDT by MindBender26
In the midst of a fiery floor debate over contempt proceedings for Attorney General Eric Holder, House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) quietly dropped a bombshell letter into the Congressional Record.
The May 24 letter to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), ranking member on the panel, quotes from and describes in detail a secret wiretap application that has become a point of debate in the GOP’s “Fast and Furious” gun-walking probe.
The wiretap applications are under court seal, and releasing such information to the public would ordinarily be illegal. But Issa appears to be protected by the Speech or Debate Clause in the Constitution, which offers immunity for Congressional speech, especially on a chamber’s floor.
According to the letter, the wiretap applications contained a startling amount of detail about the operation, which would have tipped off anyone who read them closely about what tactics were being used.
Holder and Cummings have both maintained that the wiretap applications did not contain such details and that the applications were reviewed narrowly for probable cause, not for whether any investigatory tactics contained followed Justice Department policy.
The wiretap applications were signed by senior DOJ officials in the department’s criminal division, including Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco and another official who is now deceased.
Next, sources in DC say it came, NOT from Cummings, but from leakers inside DOJ. If so, it makes Cummings look very bad. I was at a veterans's fundraising event in Atlanta 4 weeks ago and he was there. He is a very old stumbling, mumbling man, and will be great for our side on TV. Imagine an old, mumbling, toothless, black, non-gramatical Bobert Byrd and you are on target.
Next, anytime you an get the word "wiretap" into a story, you get the public's sttantion.
We are quickly getting into the "what did you know, when did you know it" phase here.... and anytime you get there, individuals and their private lawyers begin looking for "deals."
House of cards, and with Obama/Holder's refusal to come clean, it just prolongs it.... and I love it!
Issa is showing a few of the cards he is holding, hoping he can get someone on the other side to fold
good move
I just heard Rush say something to the effect that the wiretaps have something to do with F & F being a rogue op that Holder did NOT know about...
I’m confused...will have to go study some more.
Amazing how willing to lie these guys are at the DoJ. I hope the rank and file still have a sense of shame.
Can 0bama pardon the MOST GUILTY party - himself?
Does anyone know how Fast and Furious was supposed to work?
What was the goal? How was the plan suppose to work? Who authorized it? What went wrong?
These are VERY SIMPLE questions to answer. I would like to see the MSM starting asking these questions.
“I would like to see the MSM starting asking these questions.”
And that’ll be the day pigs grow wings and fly!
Good luck with that!
In the history of recent decades, we are constantly bombarded by the liberal media with dragged-out appearances by Woodward (sometimes Berstein) of WaPo about the utter magnificience of their investagatory prowess and import in Watergate - a third rate burglary turned into a mountain.
In actual fact, these two are two lucky asswipes with actually very little intelligence (Woodward talks like a simp who’s just learned how to speak). Their Pulitzers are on a par with Obama’s Peace Prize in my opinion.
If anyone wants to see what real passion, real work, real determination and real maneuvering for Justice looks like, they need only look at Issa. I hope he gets them, and gets them ‘hang them from the yardarms’ good.
There's no formal detention facility in the House but one of those portable storage locker units would work out well ~ with a port a potty and a garden hose.
He's held people in worse conditions I"d imagine.
Put it on the tourist route so they could come by and look at him.
It shows that those who report directly to Holder knew details of F&F.
I’d say there’s a good chance that someone high up in the DOJ is going to talk in exchange for immunity.
I predict Pierce Bronson will portray Darryl Issa in “All The Presidents Men II”
Not sure, but the President has the ability to unconditionally pardon any Federal crime before or after conviction, and there are no exclusions, so that would logically include himself.
Note my tagline.
“I just heard Rush say something to the effect that the wiretaps have something to do with F & F being a rogue op that Holder did NOT know about...”
I’m afraid that you misheard what Rush said.
Rush was proposing that it would take a rogue element inside the DOJ for Holder NOT to know about F&F - which is not realistic. Holder had to have known.
You may well be right- I am not sure exactly what he said- I should have prefaced it with “I thought I heard...”
It seems unlikely given the way this administration operates that anything that big could go on without Holder knowing.
Looks like Issa’s holding all the trump cards.
As for you Mr. Holder, keep telling the lies as each and every day, the lies become harder and harder to keep track of.
The truth is your worst enemy.
Not to worry. The Justice Department will surely attempt a prosecution.
Drudge must have crashed TheHill.com site with this story.
What was the goal? How was the plan suppose to work? Who authorized it? What went wrong?
The key questions, and the answer is the key fact.
The only logical conclusion consistent with the actions of the F&F agents is that it was suppose to make it appear that American civilian straw purchased guns were smuggled to Mexican drug cartel killers by having them left at Mexican crime scenes.
Trouble is, this is just work that Americans won't do, so Obama, Holder, Justice and ATF simply did it for them using taxpayer paid ATF agents and taxpayer funds to buy and smuggle the guns to the real drug cartels.
That's why there were no arrests, and no tracking of the guns.
No way. F&F was an OCEDETF task force operation, which means it was approved by the top tier of DOJ for special funding, and cooperation between all the other arms of Justice (FBI, ATF, etc). They even sent down word when they approved the OCEDETF application that it was contingent on the local offices reorganizing the operation to meet central DOJ’s approval. Furthermore, federal wiretaps all have to get approved through the top tier of DOJ, so this is just further evidence that this is anything but a rogue operation.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.