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House Republicans will file a civil suit against Attorney General Eric Holder during the August recess, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has told NBC News.
House Republicans will file suit in an effort to compel Holder to release documents associated with the failed "Fast and Furious" gun-walking operation.
"We'll be filing a civil case during the break," Issa told NBC, "We will expect a day in court before a federal judge, which we have a 100 percent chance that the judge will hold that these documents should be delivered."
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa has told NBC News that House Republicans will file a civil suit against Attorney General Eric Holder. NBC's Pete Williams reports.
During negotiations between House Republicans and Holder in June, the White House invoked executive privilege on the documents Issa had requested for his investigation. Issa says that a federal judge should find that executive privilege does not apply to the documents he is requesting.
"The idea that you would withhold based on some executive privilege the documents related to a cover up of a crime is absurd, but that's the claim that the attorney general is hiding behind," Issa said.
The House voted on June 28th, 255-67, to hold Holder in contempt of Congress for not turning over documents related to the Fast and Furious operation. During that vote, the vast majority of Democrats walked off the floor of the House in protest of a measure they saw as a political witch hunt.
Soon after the House found Holder in contempt of Congress, the Justice Department penned a letter to House Republicans saying it would not be pursuing the case, stating that "the attorney general's response to the subpoena issued by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform does not constitute a crime." The DOJ cited the White House invoking executive privilege as a primary reason for not proceeding.
Larry Downing / REUTERS
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder during a meeting at the White House in Washington, July 26, 2012.
The DOJ's response has left Republicans with few options, according to Issa, who compared the current situation with congressional attempts to retrieve the Nixon tapes during their investigation into the Watergate scandal in the 1970s.
"We're seeking a remedy and the remedy is an order to compel," Issa said. "Nixon didn't respond to Congress, he responded to federal judges, ultimately the Supreme Court, ordering that he had no such privilege to cover up the tapes. And these are no different than the Nixon tapes, we're asking for documents related to a cover up of lying to Congress."
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Jobs, jobs, jobs. The clown car rolls on and on.
Do you have any evidence that Jan Brewer knowingly walked guns or are you just talking out your @ss???
Well, this should provide sufficient proof for everyone. The right wingers are nothing but racists. Pure and simple. Racists. They can't stand the thought of a black President or a black Attorney General. They ignore that both Obama and Holder are exceptionally brilliant men.
And somebody's remark about Obama's grades at Harvard? Not only did Obama head up the Law Review at Harvard but he became a Professor of Law at the University of Chicago. The University of Chicago is a top school, and especially their Law School. Obama was an exceptional student. No one is hired as a Law Professor anywhere without a sterling academic background.
Obama and Michelle do not make an issue of their exquisite academic backgrounds because average Joe Doe would take offense out of sheer stupidity.
Highly intelligent people who run for public office virtually have to keep their academic excellence hidden due to the stupidity of so many people.
Why do you think George Bush won the presidential election? Because it became so clear in the presidential debates that he was average joe charlie. Hardly a brain cell functioning. People could so easily relate to his lack of intelligence that they voted for him. They said to themselves, 'Oh, he's just like me. Duh.'
It didn't occur to them that it might be useful to have someone on a higher intellectual level running the country.
Joan, Joan, Joan........you poor ignorant.....liberal. You struggle to find an intelligent argument to defend the indefensible. So in this futile attempt you reach into the Democrat playbook, and what do you pull out???
The warn, tired, wrinkled "race card". BRILLIANT......since Obama and Moocheles "exquisite" academic records(which no one else but YOU have seen) are not in question here..........your point is?
Many of the worst criminals in history have high IQ's, the reason behind "fast and furious" was not an attempt of Obama/Holder to catch Mexican drug cartels, but an attempt to thwart the Constitutional right to bear arms.
When the weapons that were ALLOWED to cross the borders began racking up body counts, the Obama administration would use this "crisis" to DEMAND gun control....... period.
So let's get this straight. You think there should have been some kind of 'gun control' to prevent weapons from walking. Yes you are against gun control that you think this administration would demand? Which it hasn't and it won't. Ad Hominem attacks don't make you correct.
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????WTF
The documents sought are Justice Department documents not White House documents. Executive privilege clearly does not apply. End of comment !!
gil, prove it. Bush 6 executive privileges, Obama 1, didn't hear you crying foul when w did it. Nonsense.
Obama 2012
The question you have to ask yourself is "What are Obama and Holder hiding?"
ig, you may not relly want to know, could be about w and war mongrel cheney's role or if anything pertinent to ISSA's neo-taliban panel whitch hunt.
Obama 2012
The GOP is incapable of doing anything for American other than start wars, bankrupt the country, give taxpayer money to the wealthy, repress women, repress minorities, and attack Democrats. If they would work 10% as hard for us as they do attacking the other side, the country would be a much better place. They are just filled with so much hate. So much for their "Christian" values.
But let me guess, invalid, you fully support Democrat attacks on Republicans, wasting taxpayer money on propping up unions, failed "green" companies, and GIVING automatic weapons to Mexican drug cartels? And where is the "love" in that? Why not start by cleaning up the "slime" on your side of the aisle.... VALID....."Christian values"? How about not casting the first stone................
ValidViewpoint has a Valid Viewpoint. It would be nice if they would work for the good of us all wouldn't it?
Does anyone really care about this farce? Even the most spittle-lipped Republicans probably don't. Pursuing this is just going to turn more people against the House Republicans.
Why would the Fast and Furious investigation turn voters against the Republicans? They are only seeking the truth. Guns were illegally allowed to cross the border and fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.....and SOMEONE needs to be held accountable. Five members of the ATF who were involved are still on the government payroll. If Holder did not know about Fast and Furious, he should have. So he is either lying or incompetent. Either way, he needs to resign. But he won't, so the November election will not only evict his boss from the WH, but put Holder, as well as several others, out of work. It's time to send all the Chicago crooks back to Chicago. .
The truth Cherokee, is that the Republicans have not done anything on jobs for the middle class and this failed Fast and Furious plan was just that a failed plan. That is not, it anyway, close to what Bush Cheney did that caused the deaths by their lying to the country to send troops in to Iraq to seek out WMDs that did not exist and the damage that their failed policies caused the country.
Now, that said, let's go to motives by all involved. What did Holder have to gain? Nothing, and he did stop the program. What does the Right have to gain from blowing this failed attempt by the ATF to get at drug dealers? Allot, when they are trying to defame the President through his appointees and you and yours will never mention the rights NO JOBS plan, will you?. What did Bush Cheney have to gain from sending in the troops to Iraq? Halliburton is one that comes to mind. Why not discuss the real problem, which is selling guns to straw buyers in general legally, thanks to bad law, the NRA and munitions manufactures wanting the regulations to be weak and not enforced. You keep waving your copy of the Constitution while the gun dealers and munition manufacturers continue to rake in profit from selling guns to drug dealers.
I do believe that what is good for the goose is good for the gander, so to speak. Let us hold hearings on the WMDs that your side never brings up, shows no shame for lying to the public and let's hold the DO NOTHING Congress responsible for not doing the people's business. The one truth in this is that what I stated as truth is true as opposed to what Issa and his stooges have blown out of proportion to deflect from their own failures to help the unemployed.
Cherokee, Holder has already had to "walk back" his original statement about being unaware. There are also documents showing Obama knew as well. The "missing" documents, and the ones already turned over by the DOJ(with up to 90% "blacked out), it is these documents that Obama has invoked "executive privilege".
Is anyone really that stupid not to realize that this scheme was from the "top down" and thats why the White House refuses to turn over the documents?
Nixon used "executive privilege" during Watergate, and this "lawsuit"(as in the case of Watergate) is an attempt to supersede that. Democrats fully understand if Obama can be tied with "fast and furious", it will END his chances for re-election. So by attacking Republicans, especially Issa, Democrats are reaching into their old stand-by playbook, when they tried "character assassination" against Ken Starr during B.J.Clintons hearings.
There is nothing NEW here, I could post examples of this tactic by Democrats, but the amount of time this would take would be...eternity. This simply who Democrats are, they cannot win with their liberal entitlement agenda(unless its the TAKERS listening) so they use "character assassination" as an attempt to "take out" their detractors. If nobody wants what your selling, Democrats simply SHOVE it down your throat.
Mrusuerhead
While your party fiddles, with false made up @!$%# at the tax payer's expense, the country suffers. How about you go and ask Issa and the the rest of his stooges where the jobs bills are!
What congress should be doing is investigating Obama,s birth certificate from Coast Province General Hospital Mombasa Kenya.
Was Obama born in Kenya.com
Even if that were true.......what difference would it make now?
Obama / Biden 2012
It is horrendously difficult to enter a pertinent comment on msnbc. This format needs reworking. That said, this wouldn't be happening if the GOP hadn't decided that job 1 for them was getting rid of Obama. Wouldn't we rather have them working to improve the economy and such? According to them the government can't create jobs yet they have the nads to complain about the administration not creating jobs. What?
Issa-Joke!!
Obama/Biden/Pelosi/Reid-2012
The GOP is wasting its time with Holder; Obama will protect him with his executive decrees as a reward for all the evil he and his "so-called" DOJ has done to America and Arizona in particular. The liberals are again yelling "racism" in order to divert attention from the wrong-doing of Holder, Obama, and Napolitano. They have no other relevant argument or defense. The sooner we get rid of these subversives, the better.
I see a room full of accountants scrubbing and rewriting Romney’s tax returns for the last 5-10 years, that will magically forget what they did.
limit all Senate/Rep terms to a couple months .. problem solved
In case anyone would like to read the article in the Fortune
The truth about the Fast and Furious scandal
http://features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2012/06/27/fast-and-furious-truth/?section=money_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fmoney_topstories+%28Top+Stories%29
Here is a rebuttal to the Fortune article from the Oversight Committee...
"Fortune’s “investigation” is exposed as a hit piece full of errors and omissions."
http://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/7-31-12-FF-Part-I-FINAL-Appendix-III.pdf
ran
Pretty weak reply. It's like saying that Obama has had an army of community organizers forging his birth certificate, his resume, his school records, and so on. Don't you think Obama has already had the IRS going over Romney's tax returns with a fine toothcomb looking for any miniscule, irrelevant item? Reid continuing to shoot off his big mouth is just one more stupid diversion from Obama's record.
No it would be breaking the law
Really Ranmarie, "It would be against the law". Like the Obama administration hasn't been disregarding the law since....... taking office..............great come-back........NOT
Get this! Not only does Mitt Romney refuse to release his tax returns now (other than the one incomplete return for 2010 that suspiciously was missing information about his Swiss Bank Accounts), but Mitt Romney has in his prior political campaigns DEMANDED that other candidates release their tax returns, and furthermore DEMANDED that other candidates even release the tax returns of their spouses, all the while Mitt Romney still REFUSED EVEN THEN to release his own tax returns.
Not only does Mitt Romney REFUSE to release any more than an incomplete tax return from 2010, in his prior political campaigns Mitt Romney DEMANDED that his opponents, and their SPOUSES, release their tax returns at the same time he refused to release his. I think it is only fair now that we
All i know is we should arrest this brillo headed buffoon...convict him..send him to prison..then ship his butt to siberia in winter.
the, your nasty racist name calling just proves what a good lock-step trooper you are. Ignorant fox howler.
Obama 2012
It's people like that will bring this country down. What ever your color is, we are all equal! So I guess you too have brillo head, or is it brillo mind. Get off of this racial beliefs, be a man and last but not leased, be human!
So what if he was involved in an AMERICAN border patrol agent getting killed, you should not call the ignorant SOB RACIST names.
Leave that to his boss BAROKE OBUMMER.
San Tan
Maybe “we the people” should return the favor
I guess it’s time to start procedures on a few republicans. On real crimes not ones that are fabricated
Bush asserts authority to bypass defense act
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/30/bush_asserts_authority_to_bypass_defense_act/
Bush bypasses Torture Ban
http://archive.truthout.org/article/bush-prepares-bypass-new-torture-ban
New law expands power to wiretap
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/08/06/new_law_expands_power_to_wiretap/
Dick Cheney’s Nigeria Arrest Warrant
http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/39134/dick-cheneys-nigeria-arrest-warrant-a-political-prison-for-obama/
Amnesty International seeks George W. Bush's arrest
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/65810.html
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/blogs/yeas-and-nays/Joe-Wilson_-Karl-Rove-a-_traitor_-1274874-105375178.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17479718/
Wow your "research" list reads like the whose who of the liberal media, what no NYT???
When will the republican party, stop doing stupid things like this, and get back to what is most important to the people of america. JOBS! JOBS! JOBS! is what we want, not your jackass ideas, to do nothing for this country!!!!
I guess, NO Brainer, Means, republicans in congress. N.B.A.A. refer to them!
NO
BRAINS
AT
ALL.
Wake up america and see, which party is the true lesser of two evils. Hint(thay like red like communists do!)
Wow. What a great contribution to the topic.
Axlehead the moron who is running the Obama campaign is a total idiot and these imbeciles are trying so many desparate tactics to help their liar-in-chief. The do not want voter ID's, they want illegals to vote, they want dead people to vote, now they are trying to change the voting process in Ohio to let all voters vote early as does the military. These stupid democrats are trying every dirty trick in the book because they can not run on Obama's record. Axlehead along with most of the morons keep trying to overtalk everyone when there is a discussion because they want to use smoke and mirrors instead of facts. The American people understand they are a bunch of dirty politicians who are trying to cover up the real story of Obama's failure as a leader.
Wasserman Schultz, Pelosi, Harry Reid and other morons on the far left are running out of time and they know it. Their jobs are going to be long gone soon. They are all full of BS and the American people will let them know in Nov.
So we are really worried about Mitt Romney's private tax documents.
YET, we should not be concerned about the illegal gun sales/distribution to Mexican drug cartels resulting in countless loss of lives, including American immigration officials and who knows even American civilians "so what" you say? What would you say if it was a family member of yours... give that some thought before you speak. Also I am not interested in hearing about or the over lamented "Bush started it" liberal ploy. Which is a complete falsehood, The wide receiver program was suspended long before The fast and furious program ever started. Two completely different programs the similarities shared by both, pale in comparison to the severity of impact displayed by either program
Eric Holder and Barak Obama should release, All documentation pertaining to and about The fast & furious program immediately IMMEDIATELY!!!
vote
How soon we forget Bush and Operation Wide Receiver same as Fast and Furious. Gun walking. Hold Shrub accountable. How soon we forget when it's convenient.
Correct. But Wide Receiver was done right. Fast and Furious was a big screw up and a cover up. It is the cover up that is the issue. That is all.
Here you go Rich- 298746 ... Not the same very different, and seriously dis-similar outcomes.
However, please continue to prevaricate as liberally as you see fit. I am sure Brian terry's family will not mind.
What did "Fast and Furious" and "Wide Receiver" have in common, if anything?
Here are some interesting well-established facts about both programs.
After a long period of resolutely ignoring Operation Fast and Furious, the bulk of the mainstream media has been dragged into covering the “gun walking” scandal by the charges of perjury directed at Attorney General Eric Holder. Flailing around for something they can spin, liberals have suddenly become very interested in Operation Wide Receiver, a gun walking program from the Bush era. Longtime observers of the Obama scandal have long been camped out on Operation Wide Receiver’s front porch with a bowl of Halloween candy, knowing it was only a matter of time before the Left showed up.
Far from letting the Obama Administration “off the hook” because “Bush did it too,” an understanding of the full Operation Wide Receiver story makes the Obama scandal much worse.
1. Wide Receiver was less than one-quarter the size of Fast and Furious, involving about 500 guns. About 450 guns made it across the border into Mexico. Not only was Fast and Furious much larger, but it was only one of several gun walking operations launched by the Obama Administration. In fact, intrepid CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson says she has “found allegations of gun walking in at least 10 cities in five states.”
2. Unlike the Obama Administration programs, there actually was a serious attempt made to track the Wide Receiver weapons. Some of them were fitted with radio tracking devices. The cartel gun buyers figured out how to defeat the tracking system by driving around in circles, until the tracking planes ran out of fuel and were forced to return to base. Also, some of the tracking devices were damaged when ATF agents improperly inserted them into the guns.
By contrast, one of the signature features of Obama gun walking is that absolutely no effort to track the guns was ever in place. ATF agents have testified they were expressly ordered to stand down when they tried to follow the cartel straw purchasers. Whatever mistakes were made in Operation Wide Receiver, there’s no way to argue that Operation Fast and Furious was not much worse… because they should have learned from what happened in Wide Receiver.
3. And by “they” I mean “Special Agent In Charge Bill Newell.” That’s right – the same Phoenix ATF supervisor who became famous during the investigation of Fast and Furious was involved with Operation Wide Receiver. He’s also the ATF agent that originally told Congress that he mentioned gun walking in a roundabout way to his old buddy Kevin O’Reilly of the White House national security staff, who he communicates with maybe three or four times a year… only to be exposed as a liar when the same document dump that put AG Holder in jeopardy of perjury charges revealed a constant stream of emails between Newell and O’Reilly, lasting over a month.
4. Operation Wide Receiver was, by all accounts, shut down after its weapons dropped off the grid, and the ATF realized it had blundered. Operation Fast and Furious was only shut down because two of its weapons were discovered at the scene of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder. According to congressional testimony, the Terry shooting - along with the mistaken suspicion that Tucson mass murderer Jared Loughner​ might have been packing a Fast and Furious gun – panicked top ATF brass into halting its gun walking operations.
5. The Obama Justice Department cobbled together significant inter-agency co-operation for its huge gun walking programs. As Kurt Hofmann of the Gun Rights Examiner notes, “At this point, we don’t seem to have any evidence that earlier ‘gunwalking’ involved the FBI, the DEA, DHS, the State Department, the IRS, and even the White House Security Council.”
6. And, of course, there was no massive cover-up of Wide Receiver. No senior Administration officials committed perjury to distance themselves from it. The ATF was not exactly advertising the existence of the operation, or its unhappy conclusion, but that’s very different from the thick stone wall Obama and his people tried to build around their far larger and deadlier operations.
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