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Once the House committee votes in favor of citing Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt, it goes to the full House for consideration.
If the full House votes in favor of the contempt citation, the issue is sent to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. A federal law adopted by Congress in 1857 directs federal prosecutors to refer these matters to a grand jury for possible prosecution. The language is mandatory as to the U.S. attorney: "whose duty it shall be to bring the matter before the grand jury for its action."
But from there on, it gets complicated.
The Justice Department has long taken the position, as a separation of powers matter, that Congress cannot force the Justice Department to undertake a prosecution of an executive branch official. The courts have never resolved the question.
The Justice Department, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, has further claimed that a U.S. attorney must not initiate a prosecution when the president has asserted executive privilege over what Congress seeks.
The administration of George W. Bush most recently made this claim during the congressional investigation of the firings of several U.S. attorneys nationwide. Congress subpoenaed former White House counsel Harriet Miers and Chief of Staff Josh Bolton, and the president directed that neither should testify or produce the requested documents. Though the broad issue of executive privlege went to court, it is still unresolved.
Another gray area here is how much a president can cover under the umbrella of an assertion of executive privilege. The further a matter gets from the White House and presidential decision making, the more the courts have been unwilling to recognize it.
On a broader point, the federal courts have been reluctant to referee what they see as fights between the White House and Congress. During the legal battle over Miers, the federal district court in Washington practically begged the two sides to work it out without suing each other.
"The court strongly encourages the political branches to resume their discourse and negotiations in an effort to resolve their differences constructively," it said.
And finally, there's this point to remember: if this does end up in court, it could take up to two years to resolve, given the time for a trial and subsequent appeals. However, a contempt citation is valid only during the Congress which approved it. Each term of Congress lasts only two years, so if the issue was still in the courts when this Congress ends in a year and a half, the contempt citation would evaporate, and so would any lawsuit.
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I though libs played only with drugs flowers and frisbies.... what was Obumbler and Holder doing playing with assult weapons??
Resign now Obama!! Libs tell me... Is Barack Obama dumb?? I mean really dumb, like Nancy Peolosi, Joe Biden dumb???
Come on barack is thier liberal Einstein according to these tools.
Come on, Barack is their Einstein according to these fools.
"Contempt: Now what?"
Now throw his butt in jail.
There is nothing more sad than listening to MSNBC and there lemmign followers, with all thsi going on the FIRST story i se erun on MSNBC is a complately biases African american panel discussing that these hearings are racially motivated., No offense to african americans but if this is the only card that you can play, your argument is already lost. Oh and MSNBC for your information is a racist run, racailly motivated reporting agency that only does these kind of stories to sensationlize them and you lemmings fall right into line LOL hoe can we take you serious? My bet if Mr Holder wasnt Milano.... you wouldnt even be reading the story
Congress has not just a right, but an obligation to do all that it can to uncover exactly what happened and ensure that it never occurs again. After the Justice Department’s earlier false denial of reckless conduct, the Committee has a duty to pursue all options to gather and evaluate key evidence.
How sad, MSNBC whines about fairness, when they are the most biased. Bad president b hussein o, bad president. Killing your own is not a good thing, unless you can get their voter's id, then vote for them. Whoops, did I let out a secret? You lie, president, you lie holder
Wow, look MSNBC has finally decided to report on fast and furious it only took you libtards a year. When you going to apologize to Mitt Romney for the edited Wa Wa video you trash. I am sick of liberals and thier lies this election cant come soon enough to get rid of ever Democrar in Congress and this pretend leader in the White House.
the guns have not been linked to anyones death. Left at the scene of a shootout doesn't mean a thing. How many cars are at the scene of a homacide, did they cause the death? Proof that politics is what this is all about. GOP can't do anything but TEAR DOWN, BLOCK, DEGRADE----ALL TOOLS. Do your job and help the country!!!!
Same rants made by Nixon supporters back in 1973! In fact the guns contributed to hundreds of deaths in Mexico as well as the two here. Can you imagine what we would be saying if Mexico had flooded our cointry with such weapons and then they were used to kill our citizens. If it turns out that in fact this was done to frame the gun shops at the border so that the feds could legislate against the 2d Amendment this is even more egregious. Watrergate was child's play compared to what these arrogant criminals seem to have been planning. SHow the documents Obama - if in fact these charges are false!
Sandra Fluke - personal phone call from mr obama for being called a name
Trayvon Martin - unofficially gets inducted into the obama family by mr obama
Brian Terry - screw you buddy, files concealed courtesy of mr obama
This is the liberal way.
Libs are furious that someone other than NBC, ABC, CBS, NPR, BBC, and the NY Post has any authority to challenge the President. How dare the Republicans hold any democrat in contempt. Even when there is sufficient evidence that the Democrat caused us citizens to lose their lives. Oh hum, it's not about murder, gun racketeering, it's about politics? Wow and the libs came up with that all on their own? Who knew that the murder of many Mexicans and a few border patrol agents meant so little to them?
But the libs are circling the wagons and are going overboard to pretend that this is not on the same level as NIXON. Ok I agree, they are right. . .it's worse!!!! Nixon killed no one. Obama is now and forever linked to the murder of many people. And if the far left media believes this is going away good luck in November. P.S. the Speaker of the House has the authority to arrest and imprison HOLDER, and that you libs is a cold hard fact. Enjoy reality!!!!
They are reacting exactly like Nixon and his cronies did back then. It is deja vu all over again. Except that Watergate was a childish prank compared to this attempt to undermine the 2d Amendment by pretending these guns came from the gun shops near the border - if in fact that is what these hidden documents would show. In this one there are two American dead as well as hundreds of innocent Mexicans.
Hey libs at least Nixon had enough respect for the office of the President to resign! What does that say about your demigod?
The legality of idiots in Washington has proven comprehensible only to those with massive time to waste. Idiot lawyers with time and money are the bane of political notoriety.
Do you remember that the feds were decrying all the gun ssales by shops at the border in America that were being bought by cartel members back then? They were setting up an attempt to go after the 2d amendment rights by showing how disasterous the present rules were in allowing these sales. It now is beginning to become clear that they did this gun running of hundreds of automatic weapons as a ploy for them to then claim they came from these shops. And if that whistle blower had not stepped up they would have gottenn away with it. It is no wonder that they now don't want to cooperate by releasing documents that would confirm this growing suspicion. This scandal will make Watergate look like a child's prank since it involves deaths on both sides of the border.
Go get them Issa! Represent the American people and get these arrogant criminals!
holder + obama = cover up
You can say that again!
holder + obama = cover up
What ever happened to the Republican Mantra of "JOBS, JOBS, JOBS" in the 2010 elections? Maybe the country will speak loud this November!
30 jobs bills opassed by those Republicans who took over the House. Democrats in the Senate totally ignored the voice of the people and are blocking every one by not even voting on them. You will have to help them finish the job. Republicans got rid of the job-killing Democrsts in thh House and now you can help them do the same in the Senate. Hopefully you are correct and the country will speak out in November! Then and ony then will you finally get your wish to get jobs back.
The thing which concerns me, and I'm sure someone will correct me if I am wrong: On another site, I read that AG Holder had offered to allow Rep. Issa to see the information he requested, so long as it remained confidential because of ongoing issues. Rep. Issa, according to that article (on Reuters), refused the confidentiality portion. Why? There have always been confidentiality issues and for the most part, Congress has maintained the confidentiality when others' lives might be placed in jeopardy, or a field operation (or whatever) was ongoing. I don't get this.
I had heard that he just basically asked Issa to kill the whole thing. I believe he already knew that the President was going to come to his rescue and was just staling for the time.
Where did you read that Annie? Bush had done that with Karl Rove back when he exercised pivilege but there has been no record of Holder making such a proposal. Closest he came was to say that he would talk to them if they would drop the subpoenas.
I believe this was further back than the Tuesday meeting that went nowhere. Again, my question is why would Rep. Issa not agree to review the documents confidentially. If he found something that made the hairs stand up on the back of his neck, then he could have dealt with it.
Watermoon, I will try to find the article again.
A lot of people seem to think that the investigation about how guns got into a criminals hands who then used it to kill a government agent is just all politics. That the only reason to ask questions about it is to make it an attack against the current admin, that its only political. OK I could see that. But it still needs to be found out about a man's family would like to know if his death was caused by some insane action of the government, it is a valid question and they deserve an answer. But as far as saying that any one party is show boating more than the other is just stupid. Look at the executive order regarding immigration and tell me that was not a bid for the hispanic vote. The two parties have a lot in common when it come to treating the voting public like they are idiots they also both seem to draw supporters who cannot communicate with each other because they are both right and the other is wrong, not much room for compromise in that world. I am totally disappointed in both parties and the people who continue to support their failure to govern effectively.
Dumbocrats wouldn't know justice if it bit them in the butt!
I can't believe the venom and ignorance that springs from the mouths of Madcow, Schlutz, Bo-Biden, Matheeew, Wasserman-Schlutz, and the idiotic libtard posters on this thread. And Harry Reid, a/k/a Caspar Milquetoast. What an imspiration!!!
Poor slobs...the numbers are going against them...more in favor of dumping the Panderer-in-chief, and his crooked A.G. than the lame-brains supporting them.
It's going to be fun watching them squirm on election night!!!
Pot, meet kettle
You are right Annie. It was the shoe in the other foot during Watergate and now kettle meets pot.
Really, Watermoon, it has always been this way - from both sides. It just seems more vitriolic now, doesn't it?
My headline would be a little different:
"Contempt- So What?"
Holder has less contempt of Congress than most Americans. Congress needs to put its own House in order before it even contemplates censure of anything else- they're such a laughing stock that getting attacked by them is actually complementary at this juncture!
"Just seven percent (7%) of Likely U.S. Voters now rate the job Congress is doing as good or excellent, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey."
See: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/congressional_performance
for the article in its entirety.
FeO2 Dreams: so I'll throw back a "So What?" to your "So What?"...there are a lot of us Americans that really do want to know what happened and who's responsible...Brian Terry's family really deserves to get some answers.
A lot of us Americans want to know just what happened to our jobs too...but I don't see Bush under indictment- though he's certainly under censure, and held in contempt by many.
But...you wanted answers. You want to know why so many murders have taken place- and what the reasons are.
It's called "The War on Drugs."
When you artificially enhance the scarcity of a commodity that one in ten use on at least a monthly basis- like marijuana- you can raise the value of it until it literally becomes worth killing for.
see: http://www.jfa-associates.com/Marijuana_Study.pdf
Guns are simply the best available tools for that particular trade- but knives, crossbows, garrotes, and so on suffice in their absence.
Ask your Republican buddies who makes money off jails- and you'll know where the pressure to incarcerate the least violent segment of the populace ever put "under the gun" is coming from.
Those folks are the real killers- as always, clearly defined and indisputably damned by one of the simplest of questions ever asked: "Qui bono?" (For whom is this good?).
While you may remain concerned about Holder....I remain concerned over who outed Plame- and I want the bastard jailed. We all have our pet peeves- and try as you may, Holder's plight offers little distraction from the right's ongoing malicious nihilism in Congress.
Does anyone remember how the administration was claiming that gun shops on the border were selling hundreds of guns to the cartels? It is beginning to seem that this flooding of guns by the feds could well have been done to frame those shops and then begin an assault on the 2d Amendment. And it would have worked had it not been for a whistle blower. It certianly would explain why Obama and Holder don't want to give the House access to those documents. This scandal would make Watergate look like a childish prank!
We should all have CONTEMPT for the new media and all who have failed to carry this news up front with the President taking part in the cover up or trying to save himself and the gang. If you want NEWS and the TRUTH, turn FOX as the rest of them WILL NEVER give the news in a non-bias way.
THE LONGEST DAY: EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE...
The privilege covers only communications made directly to the president and among his White House advisers, Obama cannot claim executive privilege "to cover Eric Holder". That's illegal.
“The White House decision to invoke executive privilege implies that White House officials were either involved in the Fast and Furious operation or the cover-up that followed.
Just as Nixon was not allowed to claim executive privilege to cover up a crime; neither can Obama.
Poor Frankfurman... you are asking people to turn to Fox news for the truth?
Don't you know that only uneducated and ignorant people who don't know they are watch that for their main news source?
Even if you think Fox is biased, you can go there to at least see what is going on in the world. Then go to Google and find different slants on the story. If you stick with NBC and the rest of the liberal media broadcasts youu will never hear the story - and this one is a typical example. Fox News has been telling the story for 18 months and the Obamamedia is just now foced to pick it up. Liberas used to care about their news being censored by billionaire media moguls. When did they change?
All through the fast and Furious investigation obama has been doing his Alfred E. neuman routine...."What? Who, me? I know nothing". Now, when the house finally calls Holders bluff "the Fast and Furious documents are suddenly privelidged communications and advice from his cabinet."
Either Barry truly knows nothing about the case so there simply are no privlidged documents or, as we have come to realize, he's in it up to his ears and he's routinely lying again.
During Watergate, the coutrts ruled that executive privelidge did not allpy when the documents sought were a part of a conspiracy to cover up an illegal act. Soooo....
Barry stepped on his air hose. There are some who believe that this was an attempt to build a case around restricting the second ammendment and adding further oversight of the private manufacture and sale of firearms to individuals in the United States. It is likely that we will not know the real truth here but one thing is clear...Ears stepped on his air hose then let janret Napolatins, Nancy Pelosi and Eric Holder do an extended tapdance on said air hose for the last 18 months. No wonder Obama looked shaken, uninformed and incoherent in his press conference after Congressman Issa announced his intent to pursue contempt charges against Eric Holder.
The really interesting thing now is the lamestream media and the far left press can no longer give Obama a free pass by not covering the story.
Looks like Obama will have more difficulty finding support as this progresses. The Emporer has been revealed and what we see is a mean little man, scrabbling around like a cat on a wide flat rock desperately trying to cover his scat in plain view for everyone to see.
This couldn't happen to a nicer guy. In November we will all be singing Bye Bye Barry!
so much venom.....lets review the facts. Neither Obama or Holder started this cluster ***k, this program was started by the Bush admin. However Issa and his village idiots convention never asked anyone from the group who started this ( bush admin ) to testify or provide information. One would think if you are doing an investigation you would start at the beginning and collect all the information that applies. In fact holder was the one who put a stop to it. The fact that issa and nut job panel havent questioned all the players ( bush admin ) and collected all the information coupled with the fact that Holder even told the panel that he would provide additional classified info ( almost never done ) leads to only one conclusion. This is purely a gimmicky attemp, a stunt, a ruse to try and dis-credit the President and the AG. The Reps have nothing, what has this got to do with Jobs, Jobs, Jobs Mr Boehner ( pronounced boner...come on we know it he knows it ) whats this bay-ner stuff. More and More the american people are seeing thru their BS, the polls show it, they know it, hence all the smoke and mirror stuff to try and distract us.....Its not working,... in november it's time to vote and we will remember all the crazytrain antics the Rep House, Rep members of congress and governors have provided while doing zip, zilch, zero, nothing for most of us while giving hugh tax breaks to all their rich buddies behind the scenes.
Mike-3550903 - blame Bush, that's the best you've got for this corrupted administration, your a fool
Mike, you are misinformed. Holder did state in the beginning that Bush started this program but later retracted that statement as not true.
Mike
You seem to be suffering from a lot of false information ! Operation Wide Reciever was an operation run, briefly, under the Bush Administration. It did involve the selling of guns to criminals, proportedly to trace them to higher criminal groups. After only a couple of hundred such sales, it was determined to be untenable and halted! Some other differences were the guns were never intended, and none did, cross any International Boundries, and no one was ever injured or killed!
.The fact of Wide Reciever is part of what makes Fast and Furious such an agregious program ! They had that example, and chose to ignore it and even double-down on a proven flawed idea. It was, by design, intended that the guns cross International Boundries, without the knowledge, let alone the permission of that Country! In addition to that the sales, forced by the Government on the Gun Stores, were then used to claim that illegal Americian gun runners were contributing to the Mexican problem!
This entire think is a lot of BS over nothing. As usual -- the Republicans in the House (the same ones with a 7% approval rating) are grand-standing. It's going nowhere and come mid July, it will no longer be a story. Obama is going to do the same thing Bush did -- tell Congress to take their contempt charge put it where the sun doesn't shine.
You seem to be suffering from a lot of false information
LOL!!! False information is the lifeblood of both Fox and right wing radio. Without false information, neither would exist.
shelia-397642, spoiler41, and tedcrawford.
Your ignorance is very telling. It must be nice not to have base your opinions upon facts. What color is the sky in your world?? Try getting your information from some real and varied new sources, not from the Fox and Friends " you too can be an idiot" coloring book for dummies.
I wasnt going to touch this however sometimes people are so clearly wrong and lemming like I couldnt help it. This is clearly a witch hunt, I feel short changed because if you are so outraged I wish that the president and the AG had done as you suggest, but they havent.
Let see .....Pres obama went back in time and hypnotized G. Bush to develop this gun walking program before Obama was elected and appointed Holder so that both Obama and Holder could cook up some gun control ( which they havent ) so they could do this now?? Come on put down the crackpipe and back away slowly. All three of you are frightening.
Congrats to the Obozo Administration. Executive privilege is the domain of the Dems and Repubs who may have something to hide. Obviously given the recent intel leak violations of law we can assume that the "Privilege" was taken based on something other than National Security.
Hmmmmm,,,,what could it be .......I wonder.........
Perhaps it is the fact that any current or retired Federal Agent can tell you that an operation such as Fast and Furious involved crossing international borders. Crossing international borders in any investigation; guns, drugs, money, etc. requires clearances and sign offs at the HIGHEST LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT. NSC, DOJ, DOS, FBI, DEA, CIA and others have to be brought into the loop.
When the smoke clears in January 2013 and the curtain is ripped open on this "transparent" Administration of deception you will find the following:
a. DOJ was advised of this operation at the highest levels.
b. DOJ wanted to use this "gun walking" to go after the 2nd Amendment and the NRA
c. Persons in the Whitehouse were aware of this operation
d. Agent Terry and the two ICE agents shot in Mexico were victims of this travesty.
e. Rep. Issa was right and this was a "felony stupid operation"
f. The ATF whistleblower(s) and Federal Agent victims will be entitled to MILLIONS in compensation under OSC-11 guidelines and civil Federal lawsuit procedures
g.Obama is toast !
h. This 4 year fiasco will go down as the worst Presidency in modern times