Project Gunwalker

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Losing The Trotskyite Wing On Fast And Furious

May 18, 2012 by 2 Comments

Van Jones represented the extreme left-wing in the Obama Administration as the Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation aka Green Jobs Czar. I might go so far as to say he represented the Trotskyite wing of the administration before he resigned. Thus when someone that far to the left rips Attorney General Eric Holder over Operation Fast and Furious it is news.

The lead story at The Daily Caller today is about a radio interview that Jones had with a conservative radio program. In that interview, Jones made the comment:

“I believe that if this was happening across our other border in Canada, we’d probably take it a little more seriously,” Jones said, implying much of the carelessness over Operation Fast and Furious came because many of the victims are Hispanics from Mexico.

“I worry sometimes that we just don’t value all life the same,” Jones added.

I don’t tend to agree with Van Jones on much of anything and I explicitly reject his vision of America. That said, I think he is right. While at the risk of being called paranoid, delusional, and an insurrectionist, I think somewhere along the line the calculation was made that in the greater scheme of things a few dead Mexicans were an OK tradeoff if it allowed the Administration to implement stronger gun control laws. I mean it’s not like they were campaign donors or anything.

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Brian A. Terry Memorial Act Passes Senate By Unanimous Consent

May 9, 2012 by

Despite not being able to pass a budget in three years, some stuff still does get done in the US Senate. Yesterday, the Senate passed by unanimous consent and without any amendments HR 2668 – the Brian A. Terry Memorial Act. This act will rename the Border Patrol station in Bisbee, AZ, the Brian A. Terry Border Patrol Station, in memory of the fallen Border Patrol agent.

The bill was sponsored by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) who had this to say on the Senate’s action:

“All of Washington mourned with the Terry family when Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry gave his life in the line of duty in 2010. Today we stand just as unified for the purpose of honoring and preserving his legacy.

“The unanimous support with which the Brian A. Terry Memorial Act passed the United States Senate is a tribute to Agent Terry’s career of service to our country and to the Border Patrol’s distinguished history of intrepidity and sacrifice for the sake of homeland security.

“We recognize that Agent Terry’s untimely passing is a tragedy that never should have happened. And while we continue to pursue answers regarding the circumstances surrounding his death, we resolve that his example of bravery and sacrifice will never be forgotten – especially in the city of Bisbee, AZ where he served.”

In his Gun Rights Examiner column today, David Codrea speculates that the bill’s passage may create a political dilemma for President Obama.

“When the bill reaches Obama’s desk, I expect him to invite Brian Terry’s family to the signing,” Katie Pavlich of Townhall.com writes.

That creates an interesting dilemma for the President, particularly because of Terry’s mother calling his Attorney General Eric Holder a “coward” and a “joke,” and especially since the slain agent’s parents filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department and ATF that “seeks $25 million dollars in compensation for Terry’s death.”

David wonders among other things if the White House indeed will invite the Terry family to the signing ceremony or will the lawsuit be used as a reason to just quietly sign the bill without press or family there.

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Interesting News Out Of Indiana

May 9, 2012 by

While State Treasurer Richard Mourdock’s win in the Indiana Republican primary over Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) was not unexpected given recent polls, it was welcome. As Sebastian notes, he was a guy “who didn’t even think enough of the Second Amendment to sign on to the Heller brief.”

However, interesting as Mourdock’s win and Lugar’s loss is, that isn’t the most interesting thing that came out of Indiana yesterday. Rep. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) who will be facing Mourdock in the general election became the first Democrat to support the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s efforts to get Attorney General Eric Holder to comply with their subpoena. In an interview with The Daily Caller, Donnelly had this to say.

Indiana Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly told The Daily Caller on Tuesday that he supports the House oversight committee’s efforts to enforce the congressional subpoena of Attorney General Eric Holder over Operation Fast and Furious.

“One of the duties of Congress is to provide oversight of the Executive Branch,” Donnelly told TheDC. “There has been a serious allegation of federal law enforcement misconduct and we need to get to the bottom of this issue without playing partisan politics.”

Donnelly was one of 31 Democrats who sent a joint letter to President Obama in June 2011 asking that he direct Holder to comply with the Oversight Committee’s request for documents on Operation Fast and Furious.

Regardless of who wins the race between Mourdock and Donnelly, the people of Indiana will be getting a new senator who believes in their Second Amendment rights.

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Lou Dobbs Interviews Rep. Patrick Meehan On Draft Contempt Citation

May 4, 2012 by

Lou Dobbs had Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-PA) on his show tonight to discuss the draft of the contempt citation for Attorney General Eric Holder. Meehan is a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee which has been investigating Operation Fast and Furious.

Meehan said he expects that Chairman Issa will formally present the draft contempt citation to the Oversight Committee next week when Congress returns to Washington. Meehan said that the investigation could have been completed already if the Department of Justice had been compliant with the committee’s information request but instead they have just stonewalled.

Watch the latest video at video.foxbusiness.com

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FoxNews On Possible Contempt Citation Of Holder

May 3, 2012 by

William LaJeunesse, one of only two network reporters who have consistently followed Project Gunwalker, had a report earlier today on the draft contempt citation for Eric Holder that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has started circulating among House members. LaJeunesse says the draft lays out the case for the citation and notes that no documents have been received by the committee in 12 categories.

LaJeunesse speculates that Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) would not have started to circulate this draft contempt citation unless he had the backing of Speaker John Boehner and the votes on the committee to pass the citation. He does note that others are saying that John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor are still not on board with the contempt citation. If the latter is correct, I say it is past time for them to get on board with it.

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

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Grassley On Contempt Charges For Holder

May 3, 2012 by 1 Comment

With news that a draft contempt citation for Attorney General Eric Holder is circulating among members of the House of Representatives, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who has been doggedly pursuing the facts in Project Gunwalker since it first came to light, released a statement concerning it.

From Sen. Grassley’s office:

Senator Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released the following statement after information from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee indicated a possible vote about holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. Holder has refused to provide subpoenaed documents related to the congressional investigation of Operation Fast and Furious.

Grassley first began investigating alleged gunwalking in January 2011 after whistleblowers came forward to alert Congress about gunwalking in Arizona. The Justice Department and Attorney General Eric Holder initially denied gunwalking occurred, but have since withdrawn the denials and admitted that ATF whistlebowers were right to complain about the reckless tactic. Despite the constitutional responsibility of Congress to conduct oversight of the executive branch, the Justice Department has stonewalled every step of the investigation. In fact, the Justice Department has provided 80,000 pages of documents to the Inspector General in connection with its investigation of Operation Fast and Furious, but has provided only 6,000 pages of documents to Congress. The department has provided no legal justification for withholding each of those 74,000 pages.

“The subpoena authority of the House Oversight Committee, and the Chairman’s willingness to use it, helped shed light on Operation Fast and Furious and the Justice Department’s desire to allow guns to walk into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. Congressman Issa deserves credit for moving forward on contempt. The Attorney General and the Justice Department are thumbing their nose at the constitutional authority provided to the legislative branch to conduct oversight.

“The Attorney General is facing a real test of leadership here. He has a choice to make. He can force the department to come clean, or he can force a high-stakes political conflict between the legislative and executive branches. It’s past time to hold accountable those public officials responsible for our own government’s role in walking guns into the hands of criminals. The family of Agent Terry deserves more than what they’re getting from this administration.”

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Jimmy Kimmel Mentions Project Gunwalker

April 29, 2012 by 2 Comments

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel was the headliner at the White House Correspondents Dinner last night. Traditionally the comedian who is the headliner will make somewhat funny jokes at the president’s expense. Among the topics that Kimmel brought up was Operation Fast and Furious if only for about 10 seconds.

As the staff of Twitchy noted, most in the audience didn’t get it.

Yes, Virginia, someone in liberal Hollywood finally found the balls to bring up Barack Obama’s bloodiest scandal.

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel made reference to the deadly “Fast and Furious” White House/DOJ gun-walking scandal at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday night. Most of the D.C. media and Hollywood types, of course, a) cringed; b) shrugged their shoulders; or c) scratched their heads in abject, willful ignorance.

C-SPAN cameras did not share President Obama or First Lady Michelle Obama’s reactions. Attorney General Eric Holder was nowhere to be seen.

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Contempt Citation In The Works

April 27, 2012 by

Richard Serrano of the LA Times is reporting that Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has been given the green light by the GOP House leadership to pursue a Contempt of Congress citation against Attorney General Eric Holder.

The 48-page draft citation is being drawn up by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Top committee officials recently met for most of a day in the House speaker’s office and were given the green light to proceed toward a contempt citation, according to sources who declined to be identified.

If adopted by the GOP-led House, the contempt resolution would be sent to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington or perhaps an independent counsel in an attempt to force the Justice Department to provide tens of thousands of internal documents to the committee.

According to Serrano’s sources, the draft citation says that Holder “obstructed and slowed” the investigation into Operation Fast and Furious.

As Katie Pavlich says in her post on this contempt citation, “It’s On.”

I hope they are right as this will be more fun than ridiculing Obama for eating dog.

UPDATE: It seems that CBS and the LA Times might have been a bit premature in their forecast of a contempt citation in the works. Either that, or the Republican leadership has chickened out yet again. If I was a betting man, I’d go with the latter and not the former.

From Matt Boyle at the Daily Caller:

After the initial reports, a House Republican leadership aide told The Daily Caller that the LA Times and CBS reports were inaccurate. The GOP leadership aide said that “while there are very legitimate arguments to be made in favor of such an action [holding Holder in contempt], no decision has been made to move forward with one by the Speaker or by House Republican leaders.”

Initially, a spokesperson for Issa refused TheDC’s request for comment. But just hours after TheDC published a story detailing the appearance of infighting between Issa and Boehner, a House oversight committee spokesperson backed off and said the LA Times and CBS reports were inaccurate as well.

“The Justice Department has not fully cooperated with the investigation into gunwalking that occurred in Operation Fast and Furious,” the committee spokesperson told TheDC. “The House Oversight Committee continues to make necessary preparations to hold Attorney General Holder in contempt if the Justice Department refuses to change course and stop blocking access to critical documents.”

“While the committee continues to move toward consideration of contempt, it is important to note that the next step in the process of contempt must be made by the Oversight Committee,” the spokesperson added. “Reports, based on anonymous sources, that decisions for consideration of contempt on the House floor have already been made are inaccurate.”

Throw into the midst of this an accusation from Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Ranking Member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, that Darrell Issa has political motivations with the possible contempt proceedings. Of course, coming from the likes of Elijah Cummings who has viewed his role in the hearings as to protect the Obama Administration and to promote more gun control, this is rich.

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Getting Out While The Getting Is Good

April 26, 2012 by

It was announced yesterday that Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich will be leaving the Department of Justice to become Dean of the University of Baltimore Law School.

From the university’s announcement:

University of Baltimore President Robert L. Bogomolny has named Ronald Weich, the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs in the U.S. Department of Justice and former chief counsel to both U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senator Edward M. Kennedy, as the new dean of the University’s School of Law. Weich, a longtime federal official with expertise in criminal justice and legislative process, will begin his tenure as dean in July. The University of Baltimore School of Law is the sixth largest public law school in the country, with more than 1,100 students at its midtown campus.

“Ron Weich is the right person to continue the growth and transformation of the UB School of Law,” Bogomolny said in announcing Weich’s appointment. “During this time of considerable transition in legal education and the legal profession, it is important to have leadership with integrity and vision. Ron Weich embodies those qualities. I look forward to working with him, and I know our students, faculty, staff and alumni will be energized by his arrival.”

“UB is a law school with tremendous strengths and endless potential,” Weich said. “I’m honored to be selected as dean, and I can’t wait to join this vital institution.”

Weich was appointed to his current Justice Department position by President Barack Obama in March 2009 and confirmed by the Senate the following month. In this role, he develops and implements strategies to advance the department’s legislative priorities, coordinates the department’s response to congressional oversight and guides nominees through the Senate confirmation process.

Prior to his work at the Justice Department, Weich served as chief counsel to Senator Reid from 2007-09 and in a similar capacity when Reid was minority leader in 2005-06. As principal legal adviser to the Democratic leader, Weich helped to manage Senate floor activity on Judiciary Committee bills and judicial nominations and coordinated related activities of the Democratic caucus. Weich played a key staff role in enactment of the 2007 ethics reform law, the 2008 amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and other significant legislation.

As Senator Kennedy’s chief counsel (1995-97), general counsel (1992-95) and counsel (1990-92), Weich advised the senior senator from Massachusetts on civil and criminal justice issues, drug control policy, patient safety legislation, constitutional amendments and other matters.

From 1997-2004 Weich was an attorney in private practice at Zuckerman Spaeder, a Washington, D.C.-based law firm with a highly regarded Baltimore office. Earlier in his career, he served as special counsel to the U.S. Sentencing Commission and as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan.

Weich earned a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1983. He also holds a B.A. from Columbia University, which he received in 1980.

Ronald Weich, for those who are not familiar, has been the Department of Justice’s designated obfuscator in hearings on Project Gunwalker before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He was the signer of the letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley which denied that ATF had knowingly allowed guns to walk. This letter was later retracted as being “inaccurate”.

As Rep. Steve King (R-IA) says about Weich’s resignation, it indicates that the Obama Administration is starting to move people out of “the target area” of the Project Gunwalker investigation.

One thing that struck me about the release announcing Weich’s appointment as dean was what the President of the University of Baltimore, Robert Bogomolny, said about his appointment: “During this time of considerable transition in legal education and the legal profession, it is important to have leadership with integrity and vision. Ron Weich embodies those qualities.” Leadership with integrity is not something I would associate with Ron Weich nor, for that matter, any of the higher-ups in the current Department of Justice.

You have to wonder if Dean Weich will be teaching any classes for the University of Baltimore Law School. If so, I’d suggest it be called Congressional Relations: How to Lie, Deny, and Obfuscate While Keeping a Straight Face.

H/T Mike Vanderboegh

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“Blood On Their Hands” – A Documentary About Project Gunwalker

April 25, 2012 by 2 Comments

Michael McNulty of Citizens Organization for Public Safety – COPS – is a documentary filmmaker in Loveland, Colorado. He is seeking funding from the public for a full-length documentary on Operation Fast and Furious and Project Gunwalker.

Mr. McNulty is not a newcomer to documentaries about DOJ malfeasance.  One of his previous efforts is the Academy Award-nominated Waco: The Rules of Engagement which examined the ATF raid and the FBI siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas and its fiery aftermath.

COPS needs to raise $398,500 to produce this documentary. If you’d like to pledge support for this effort, you can go here and make your pledge. I did.

H/T David Codrea