In a naked political move, President Obama has asserted executive privilege over the Fast & Furious documents that Chairman Darrell Issa’s committee has already seen:
WASHINGTON — Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious documents.
This is a losing fight for this administration. First, Chairman Issa’s committee has seen some of these documents. Second, Gen. Holder offered to brief Chairman Issa’s committee on the documents. Now he’s asking people to believe that these documents are classified. Third, this is a desperate attempt to hide this administration’s mistakes as it pertains to Operation Fast & Furious.
Fourth and most importantly, this stinks of coverup on the administration’s behalf. Regardless of what’s in the documents, people will now think that the information is damaging to this administration.
Check back later for more updates as they become available.
UPDATE: Chairman Issa is proceeding with the Contempt of Congress vote against Holder. This is about to get ugly for the administration.
UPDATE II: Let’s remember what this fight is about:
In particular, Issa’s committee wants documents that show why the Department of Justice decided to withdraw as inaccurate a February 2011 letter sent to Congress that said top officials had only recently learned about Fast and Furious.
This isn’t about information that might be used in criminal prosecutions against the gunrunners. It’s about the DoJ’s documents on why they lied to Chairman Issa’s committee.
UPDATE III: This picture captures it perfectly:
CONTEMPT
UPDATE IV: The hearing is getting testy:
But Issa’s Democratic counterpart, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., fired back that Holder never made such a demand, and said the attorney general had come to the committee in “good faith” to try and work out an agreement.
Cummings said the upcoming contempt vote has “diminished” the prestige of the panel. “For the past year, you’ve been holding the Attorney General to an impossible standard,” he said, addressing Issa. “Mr. Chairman, it did not have to be this way. It really didn’t.”
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., added that she was “horrified” by the panel’s looming vote, calling it a “political witch hunt” and accusing Republicans of “overruling” the president.
Rep. Cummings is wrong. It’s imperative that the vote happens. When the administration lies, then tries to ignores a congressional oversight committee’s subpoena for the documents, that committee must hold the administration accountable.
UPDATE V: Rep. Trey Gowdy made a great point during his statement. First, Democrats suggested that Chairman Issa was grandstanding and that he should’ve negotiated a deal. Rep. Gowdy replied that there isn’t a U.S. attorney that would subpoena documents from a government agency, then accept a deal where the agency first stonewalls the investigation, then accept a briefing but none of the documents they subpoenaed.
When this makes it to the courts, the administration will lose because they’re trying to hide documents, not of internal discussions on policy, pertaining to how they can play things after lying to Congress.
UPDATE VI: Here’s the video of Rep. Gowdy’s statement:
Incensed and passionate throughout, Rep. Gowdy delivered this shot at Gen. Holder:
Our fellow citizens, the ones we’re supposed to work for, when they get a jury summons, do you think they have choice on whether to comply? When they get a subpoena from the law enforcement agency, do you think our fellow citizens get to offer an extraordinary accomodation in lieu of providing the document?
Either Congress has the authority to send a subpoena and require full compliance or what we’ve been doing for the past 12 months has been a fool’s errand and we should never have discussed contempt. Either we have the right to the documents and we should get all of them or we have no business here.
And with respect to executive privilege, Mr. Chairman, I’m going to resist the temptation of Sen. Barack Obama’s position on executive privilege with President Obama’s position on executive privilege but I would just note that the juxtaposition is stark.
UPDATE VII: This morning, Dom Giordano of WPHT interviewed Brian Terry’s mother. Here’s what she said 3 minutes into the interview:
“[Brian] was a true American and I think he deserves the truth and I think everybody should know the truth,” she said. “And if this was a bad thing they did with Fast and Furious it should be acknowledged so it never happens to anybody else’s son.”
First, the administration should stop the spin immediately. After that, they should apologize to the Terry family for covering this up. Finally, they should stop this charade that they’re interested in justice.
Anyone who listens to Josephine Terry knows that their family deserves the truth. From that perspective, there’s no arguing against a grieving mother. There’s no spinning that. PERIOD.
Fast and Furious was an ATF operation. You may remember them from killing off Randy Weaver’s family in Idaho and burning down the Branch Davidian church/compound in Waco.
I have to admit Bush seems to have kept that pack of bozos in check better than either Clinton or Obama.
But the problem is systemic, to ATF, and not a presidential thing, apart from no president having the courage to propose reining in that pack of cowboys.
Do you, Gary, know of anything those ATF folks have done that turned out well?
And in closing, Gary, to refresh your sense of history this is NOT the very first time executive privilege has been asserted over deliberative matters within the executive branch.
Eric– jeeze–innocent people are dead. Despite Holder’s feigned temporary amnesia, documents heretofore PROVE that Holder knew about the operation. Holder has oversight over the ATF. The buck stops with him, and then the President. Memos leaked thus far demonstrate that Holder wanted to utilize the chaos caused by F & F to further his gun control agenda– again, more than willing to LET PEOPLE DIE to further that agenda.
You look pretty damned pathetic continuing to make excuses for this sorry bunch of ne’erdowells.
Eric, documents that don’t have anything to do with ongoing criminal investigations will be produced when the courts step in.
The documents this administration is withholding are documents dealing with this administration’s lying to the committee. That can’t be tolerated.
Eric:
I remember in 2009 that Holder and others published documents about how we treated the prisoners at Gitmo and investigated people for wrong doing.
Here nobody is officially being investigated (at least not declared publically) and there is nothing to hide compared with Gitmo.
This is more major than attorneys being fired by the US Attorney but democrats wanted to see every document involved with that even though it was something the President could legally do.
You do realize we’re talking about illegal conduct by people in the Justice Department?
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Eric – and when the ATF blew up the compound at Waco, Bill Clinton did not hide his AG behind “Executive Privilege” he rightly investigated! The FACT that AG Holder LIED TO CONGRESS REPEATEDLY (where Janet Napalitano did not) shows that he knew what was going on and did nothing to stop it. The FACT that Obama declared Executive Privilege shows, with Nixonian clarity, just how dirty this Chicago politician. I hope you Democrats are proud of your crook.
LL
Oh and Eric – ask Roger Clemens if you can get away with appearing to lie to Congress………
LL
Man, I really miss W now. Four more years of a community organizer is unthinkable.
Is Issa looking back at ATF beyond Jan. 2009, and what they did back then? If not, he lacks the legitimacy such investigative activity should have. Not looking at the entire time line is purely playing gotcha politics, in the worse way.
I expect you would find a continuity over time in ATF behavior. I expect if you lift all the rocks you get a real ugly picture of what actual ONGOING federal policy is toward the drug trade, and Mexican involvement in it. Remember the Iran-Contra planes returning with cargo. If that’s stopped, where are the signs? And I mean that stuff’s been happening from Reagan, through Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, and now Obama. Indo-China and Afghanistan wars involved poppy fields, as well as rice in Indo-China and pipeline routes and minerals in Afghanistan. It’s not new stuff.
I really think it would be good for the nation if Issa enlarged his perspective as Ron Paul would, were he heading that committee. Really go for the big picture.
Lady Logician – Give me a break. Clinton whitewashed. It was as sound an investigation as the Warren Commission did of the Kennedy assassination.
They burned that compound down in Waco, torched it, and they entrapped Randy Weaver before killing his family at Ruby Ridge.
ATF has big time Big Cowboy problems. Big time.
“Third, this is a desperate attempt to hide this administration’s mistakes as it pertains to Operation Fast & Furious.”
Gary, I don’t believe the regime has made any ‘mistakes’ when it comes to F&F other than getting caught. I believe everything the regime meant to do — including allowing guns to run to Mexican drug cartels so they would be used for their intended purpose — was done in the name of advancing a gun control agenda.
This is an absolutely textbook case for impeachment. Technically, the regime has committed an act of war against Mexico without Congressional oversight until ex post facto. Zero’s assertion of executive privilege begs an utterly obvious question: what did Zero know and when did he know it?
Eric:
I don’t think they have to investigate that since Nancy and her gang (not to mention Eric Holder) would’ve gone after that already. Besides if you believe Nancy Pelosi we have the power to arrest Eric Holder any minute we want to arrest him.
But while you were going after Lady you ducked my question. So I will ask you again.
You do realize we are talking about illegal conduct in the Justice Department? If you want to get at Bush even though he’s gone the materials must be in those files which until recently Holder wasn’t officially trying to hide.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Bob:
You need at least 20 democrats in the senate to vote for this. To the best of my knowledge they haven’t held one hearing. Too bad Holder didn’t fire one person then Amy K, Al, Charles Schummer, and a bunch of other democrats might care since they were horrified about the firing of six or seven us attorneys back in 2007.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
I realize that, Walter. However, justice delayed is justice denied. Given 0bama’s recent diktats on immigration and illegal recess appointments, could it not be more clear that this man believes himself to be above the law?
In any event, with 0bama becoming increasingly toxic to more and more people, getting Democrats, especially those up for re-election in November, on the record concerning this man’s conduct is an exercise worth doing. Do you not agree that sanctioning an act of war against a foreign power constitutes a ‘high crime and misdemeanor’?
Bob:
I understand the spirit, but how many americans even today understand that this isn’t a game to try to get Eric Holder? You got Nancy Pelosi saying we’re going after Holder because of voter ID. I think we’re getting lots of justice know.
And yes you got some leaders in House not wanting to do it because they thought they had lost the election in 1998 because they went after Clinton. They didn’t realize that they did such a bad job protraying what they stood for or what they could pass that was why they lost.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN