The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is scheduled to vote Wednesday, June 20 on whether to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt over Justice Department stonewalling on Operation Fast and Furious.
It might be possible for Holder to head off the vote, however, by providing all of the documents sought in an Oct. 12, 2011 subpoena issued by the Oversight committee. That possibility was noted in a statement Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) released Monday morning, June 11. At issue are tens of thousands of documents, including e-mails and memoranda.
The contempt move came about a week after Issa revealed that he had obtained copies of sealed wiretap requests regarding Fast and Furious. The wiretaps allegedly show that high-ranking Justice Department officials knew about Fast and Furious long before Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was murdered in the Arizona Desert in December 2010.
In his statement announcing the June 20 committee hearing to consider the contempt citation, Issa noted that the congressional investigation of Fast and Furious has dragged on for 18 months.
“For over a year and a half, the House Oversight Committee,” Issa said, “with Senator Chuck Grassley, has conducted a joint investigation of reckless conduct in Operation Fast and Furious. With the support of House leadership, the Republican Conference, and even some Democratic Members who have expressed concern to the White House over the Justice Department’s failure to cooperate, this investigation has yielded significant results. The Attorney General has acknowledged that the operation was fundamentally flawed and he has committed to take steps to ensure that it does not occur again. Evidence found in applications for wiretaps shows that although senior officials were given information about reckless tactics, they still signed affirmations that they had reviewed the investigation and determined that electronic surveillance of phones was necessary.
“Despite what the investigation has uncovered through whistleblowers and documents the Justice Department had tried to hide, the Committee’s work is not yet complete,” Issa continued. “Attorney General Holder has failed to meet his legal obligations pursuant to the October 12 subpoena. House leaders reiterated this failure in a May 18, 2012, letter. Specifically, the Justice Department has refused to turn over critical documents on the grounds that they show internal Department deliberations and were created after February 4, 2011 – the date Justice issued a false denial to Congress. Contempt will focus on the failure to provide these post February 4th documents.
“The Obama Administration has not asserted Executive Privilege,” Issa said, “or any other valid privilege over these materials and it is unacceptable that the Department of Justice refuses to produce them. These documents pertain to Operation Fast and Furious, the claims of whistleblowers, and why it took the Department nearly a year to retract false denials of reckless tactics. The Justice Department’s actions have obstructed the investigation. Congress has an obligation to investigate unanswered questions about attempts to smear whistleblowers, failures by Justice Department officials to be truthful and candid with the congressional investigation, and the reasons for the significant delay in acknowledging reckless conduct in Operation Fast and Furious.
“While the Justice Department can still stop the process of contempt, this will only occur through the delivery of the post February 4,2011, documents related to Operation Fast and Furious and whistleblower accusations subpoenaed by the Committee,” he concluded. “If the Attorney General decides to produce these subpoenaed documents, I am confident we can reach agreement on other materials and render the process of contempt unnecessary.”
House Speaker John Boehner issued a statement supporting Issa’s plan, saying the Justice Department has “run out of excuses” for continued stonewalling.
“The Justice Department is out of excuses,” Boehner said. “Congress has given Attorney General Holder more than enough time to fully cooperate with its investigation into ‘Fast and Furious,’ and to help uncover the circumstances regarding the death of Border Agent Brian Terry. Agent Terry’s family, the whistleblowers who brought this issue to light, and the American people deserve answers. Either the Justice Department turns over the information requested, or Congress will have no choice but to move forward with holding the Attorney General in contempt for obstructing an ongoing investigation.”
“This action is straightforward and necessary,” noted Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA). He was first on Capitol Hill to begin investigating the gun walking scandal in January 2011.
“Contempt is the only tool Congress has to enforce a subpoena,” Grassley said. “The Department of Justice can avoid the action by complying with its legal obligation. It’s not about personalities. It’s a procedural mechanism in our system of checks and balances. If Congress is afraid to pursue answers to questions, it’s not doing its job. People deserve transparency from their government. Transparency leads to the truth about what’s going on. It puts people in a position to defend their rights. It protects our freedoms.
“The only constitutionally viable exception to the Department of Justice’s obligation under the subpoena would be executive privilege,” Grasley added. “The President hasn’t asserted that privilege, presumably because the vast majority of the documents at issue aren’t related to communications with the White House. Because the documents don’t fit the category of executive privilege, the department is obligated to turn over the documents. To date, the Department of Justice has refused even to provide a privileged log describing what it wants to withhold and why. The House committee can’t make a judgment about whether there are valid arguments for withholding documents if the department refuses to provide such a log. That kind of fundamental refusal to even participate in any sort of a process of negotiation is what forced the House committee to move toward contempt to require the Justice Department to respond in a meaningful way.”
Holder appeared before the House Judiciary Committee on June 7, where he faced heated criticism from Issa and Reps. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and Jason Chaffetz (R-UT).
Expect the committee to split largely along partisan lines, with Democrats – led by Ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings – lining up behind Holder, while Republicans will follow Issa, whose frustration with Holder and his subordinates has become clear in recent months.
According to CBS News, the effort to move forward on contempt has met resistance among some Republicans who are worried it could become a political distraction.
