By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
CBS News is reporting that House Republicans are preparing to pursue a contempt citation against Attorney General Eric Holder, in an attempt to force him into releasing thousands of pages of documents that have been subpoenaed by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform relating to Operation Fast and Furious.
The gun trafficking sting operation was mounted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the fall of 2009, and abruptly shut down in December 2010 after two guns linked to the investigation were recovered at the scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry’s murder in Arizona.
In an interview with TGM, Congressman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) said with certainty that Holder “will comply” with those subpoenas, if not through a contempt citation, than under pressure from House budget cutters when the Justice Department appropriation is debated on the House floor in May.
That interview followed Gowdy’s appearance on Fox News’ “On the Record” with Greta Van Susteren, in which he said Holder would comply before Memorial Day.
“Before Memorial Day, Eric Holder will either comply or he will suffer consequences, and when I say consequences, I mean contempt of Congress,” he told Van Susteren.
Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor now in his freshman term in the House, has an ace up his sleeve: Money. He told TGM that Holder may face a budget axe, which is a “wonderful way of getting people’s attention.”
“There has to be consequences for not complying with a legal subpoena,” Gowdy said.
He noted that Holder has been given months to comply with subpoenas for tens of thousands of documents related to Operation Fast and Furious. So far, he said, the few thousand pages of documents that have been delivered have curiously not included any e-mails or memoranda with Holder’s name on them.
That prompted Gowdy to recall from his days as a prosecutor that when there are documents that would benefit someone’s case, “most people go ahead and produce them pretty quickly.” However, when someone either destroys evidence or withholds it, there is the presumption that the evidence is detrimental to their case.
When Gowdy spoke with TGM, he was heading into a meeting with Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Oversight Committee. He indicated that the subject was Fast and Furious, and that two other committee members with backgrounds as prosecutors were also attending.
Issa and Senator Charles Grassley have complained for months that Holder and his subordinates in the Justice Department have been withholding documents. Many of the documents that have been provided to the committee have been so heavily redacted as to be useless.
But there are still an estimated 70,000 pages of subpoenaed documents that have not been provided to the committee or to Sen. Grassley, who actually inaugurated a probe of Fast and Furious.
Although the congressional investigation has spanned more than a year and resulted in several hearings on Capitol Hill, nobody involved in the operation has been fired. Former U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke resigned from his job last August at the same time that William Newell, former special agent in charge at the Phoenix BATF field office, was transferred to Washington, DC headquarters and his immediate subordinate, George Gillett was also transferred, after having retained counsel and apparently cooperated with congressional investigators.
