Full pardon from Obama coming in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5.....
Posted on 09/27/2014 10:03:56 AM PDT by upchuck
The unexpected resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder follows a series of court rulings against his Department of Justice over its failure to produce documents related to the government’s “Fast and Furious” firearms operation.
Holder also has come under increasing congressional criticism for a tepid investigation of evidence that IRS officials deliberately targeted tea party and other conservative groups for greater scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status.
Eric Holder leaves a Justice Department facing numerous controversies and negative court rulings.
Calling the government’s arguments for “even more time … unconvincing,” a federal judge this week refused to grant Holder’s Justice Department the additional time it requested to turn over a list of Operation Fast and Furious documents withheld under executive privilege exerted by President Obama.
The list is referred to as a “Vaughn index” and requires the Justice Department to justify document-by-document the reasons it hasn’t released the materials. This exercise alone often prompts the release of documents.
The Justice Department sought to delay the Vaughn index until one day before the Nov. 4 midterm elections. But the court ordered the index produced by Oct. 22 instead. The order comes in a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch.
“[S]eventy-five days—plus another twenty-one, based in part on Judiciary Watch’s consent—is enough time for the government to prepare the index that this court has ordered, given that this matter has been pending for over two years,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge John Bates. “The court will therefore extend the Department’s Vaughn index submission deadline to Oct. 22, 2014—and no further.”
‘I Hope I’ve Done a Good Job’
Holder declined my repeated interview requests over the years. In a recent interview with ABC News, Holder said, “It is the honor of my professional life to serve the American people as attorney general. I hope I’ve done a good job. I’ve certainly tried to do as good a job as I can.”
Holder has served a little more than five years and seven months in office as the nation’s first black attorney general. He is also the first attorney general to be held in criminal contempt of Congress.
As the country’s lead law enforcement official but also a political appointee with great latitude to steer policy, no attorneys general escape controversy. Holder’s activist stance often proved polarizing. From the start, he made clear that he intended for civil rights protection—specifically combating the unequal treatment of black Americans—to be a top priority during his tenure.
The shooting of an unarmed, 18-year-old black suspect by a white policeman in Ferguson, Mo., on Aug. 9 provided Holder a prime opportunity to make his mark. His intervention drew both praise and criticism.
Holder took the unusual step of taking over a police investigation before there was any evidence of that the local police had mishandled, or would mishandle it. It was a step that the Los Angeles Times called “unusually aggressive” writing, on Aug. 20, that “Holder appears locked in an odd and unsteady competition with Missouri officials over which of them, if either, will prosecute Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson first.”
Holder also launched a broad civil rights investigation into the Ferguson police department and other police agencies in the area. His officials have already held two meetings in Ferguson to hear the opinions of black community members when it comes to their treatment by police.
In resigning today, Holder leaves his Ferguson initiative midstream.
Operation Fast and Furious
Insiders said Holder considered resigning in 2012 amid the Fast and Furious fallout but was convinced to remain in office.
Fast and Furious proved a devastating black mark on Holder and his agency. As I first reported in February 2011, federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents under the Justice Department had allowed thousands of assault rifles and other weapons to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. The controversial, secret strategy was supposedly to see where the guns ended up and take down a drug kingpin. Instead, the weapons were used in violent attacks, including the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December of 2010.
The Justice Department denied it had ever allowed guns to “walk.” And when ATF Special Agent John Dodson blew the whistle in an interview with me in March 2011, the Justice Department continued its denials and allegedly targeted Dodson for retaliatory treatment.
In subsequent congressional hearings, Holder testified he hadn’t learned of Fast and Furious until a few weeks before. When documents surfaced showing that he had repeatedly been directly sent briefings on the case, a spokesman said that Holder had misunderstood the question.
Eventually, the Justice Department retracted the denials it had made to Congress. After documents and witnesses indicated that White House officials had discussed Fast and Furious, Congress issued subpoenas. Holder withheld them and, in a bipartisan vote, was held in contempt of Congress. On the eve of the vote, June 20, 2012, President Obama declared executive privilege to withhold key documents.
Judicial Watch sued the Justice Department in September 2012 for all of the documents that Obama ordered withheld. It was the first time, and is the only time, the president has exerted executive privilege.
Agent Terry’s family issued a statement today that reads in part, “Holder’s resignation is welcomed by the Terry family and should have occurred immediately after Brian Terry’s death and the revelation that the men that killed Brian were carrying weapons supplied to them by ATF.”
Holder’s Legacy
A Justice Department spokesman did not respond to a request for information and comment on Holder’s resignation and accomplishments. In an ABC News report today, a Justice Department official said that, under Holder’s leadership, the department saw “historic gains in the areas of criminal justice reform and civil rights enforcement, particularly on the issues of gay rights, sentencing reform and voting rights.”
Among other “key accomplishments,” according to the Justice Department official, are Holder’s declining to defend the Defense of Marriage Act signed by President Clinton and extending federal benefits to same-sex couples.
Responding to news of the resignation, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Darrell Issa, R-Calif., called Holder “the most divisive U.S. attorney general in modern history.”
“Time and again, Eric Holder administered justice as the political activist he describes himself as instead of an unbiased law enforcement official,” wrote Issa in a statement. “By needlessly injecting politics into law enforcement, Attorney General Holder’s legacy has eroded more confidence in our legal system than any attorney General before him.”
Often cited among Holder’s controversies are his targeting of journalists and federal whistleblowers. Last year, it was revealed that the Justice Department had labeled Fox News reporter James Rosen a “co-conspirator” in one leak investigation and had seized phone records of Associated Press reporters in another.
More than two dozen news organizations signed a letter of objection, prompting Holder to modify Justice Department policies. Additionally, Holder has refused to answer questions first posed by a U.S. senator in July 2013 regarding the unauthorized, remote intrusions of my computers.
Holder also leaves the Justice Department in the middle of its investigation into the IRS’ targeting of conservative and tea party groups. The Justice Department has faced conflict-of-interest allegations because at the same time it is supposed to be independently investigating the IRS, it is also defending the IRS in civil litigation. Holder has said that his agency is impartially investigating the IRS and that no politics are at play.
Good piece by Sharyl, she’s far from done with Holder.
Bet he’s going to get a pardon before 0 leaves town.
But this is great news, he is one disgusting racist and I’m glad he’s almost gone
What nobody is noticing s what Eric Holder’s DOJ is doing to police departments around the country with consent decrees designed to tear up law enforcement’s ability to go after street crime.
Full pardon from Obama coming in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5.....
Eric Holder blew it. He had the opportunity to show America, and the World, what a black man could do to advance the cause of the Constitution, Justice, Liberty, Freedom, and God.
Instead, he has been the most Racist, Corrupt, Inept, Evil, and Horrible Attorney General in American history.
At this point in history, I would not be surprised if the American people in the future put Eric Holder in plastic flex cuffs.
I believe the realization that impeachments were going to be a real possibility starting early next year as the new majority is sworn in...
I believe that was a big driver in this decision...
But like I said, expect to see a lot od presidential pardons come out of the Resolute desk before the current administration is up...
Holder will get one, Lerner, Valerie Jarrett for starters...
I’m sure no one will be surprised by this either...
nobama may set a record for number of presidential pardons.
ON that little statement, Holder should be held accountable
There was NO TRACKING MECHANISM , evident as soon as the weapons went over the Border.
The intent of "Fast and Furious" was to make the Mexican people fearful, and flood the Southern Border.
When this threat of violence was unsuccessful , DHS (Executive Dept.) offerred "escorts" in their 1/29/2014 offer for "escorts" for alien,
illegal children to assist and accompany illegals to come North.
This was a planned program out of the Executive Branch, and designed to overwhelm Border Patrol.
Planned chaos designed in the Executive Branch to overwhelm the system (Cloward-Piven)
Ohhh, I think it will be argued that that will not be true...
A fact that might be lost on the stupid people population that it is not necessarily the “quantity”, its the “quality”...
Besides, Holder needs time off---to travel the world to visit his numbered offshore accounts....and to count up his holdings gained while extorting corporations and threatening prosecutions.
Holder suffered severe bouts of constipation whenever he had to actually enforce a US law......so much so he got addicted to Metamucil.
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Cong Louis Gohmert (REPUB-TX) aptly detailed Holder’s abuses of power: “I have been calling for Holder’s resignation.....he lied before members of Congress and, was held in contempt; he has obfuscated the truth and been the most partisan, partial, prejudiced, and self-pitying attorney general in my lifetime....it is frustrating to seek the truth and receive dishonesty and arrogance from the US' chief law enforcement officer.”
HOLDER'S CRIMES ARE LEGION Chipping away at US exceptionalism---our sacrosanct rule of law----is a task Obama and Holder relished. Holder's arrogant, self-serving politicization of the US justice system---colluding w/ Obama was part of the job.
As Clinton-era Asst US atty, Holder was the Clintons' errand boy---he arrogantly ignored US protocols and failed to inform L/E that tax cheat Mark Rich----- who had absconded and renounced his US citizenship----- was getting pardoned.
Senate candidate Hillary needed blocs of hyphenate votes....so Bill wielded the midnight pardon pen....latino FALN terrorists, upstate Orthodox crooks who looted Pell grants, and Mark Rich.....all got pardoned.....all facilitated by Holder.
He should be on “Dancing With The Stars”.
Dancing the Tyburn Jig.
Holder was just a cat’s paw for obama, as are the rest of his “cabinet”. Now that Holder is used up, he can retire to a cush $77 million a year job and Holder II will be nominated.
Holder was nothing more than a mindless cat’s paw for obama, as are the rest of obama’s “cabinet”. Now that Holder is used up, he can retire to a cush $77 million a year job and Holder II will be nominated. The real crimes are obama’s, not Holders. Holder was just the good little fascist, following the time-honored fuhrerprinzip
You reminded me of his story with the reference to media people getting what's coming to them. In Jeff's story, I think the network talking head was executed for treason, and it served as a wake up call to all the other MSM traitors.
It was years ago, but a very enjoyable read.
I consider Jeff Head to be a great patriot.
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