Grassley On The Assertion Of Executive Privilege

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has responded forcefully to the White House’s claim of executive privilege for the documents involved in Operation Fast and Furious. He says it now raises even more questions.

Senator Chuck Grassley made the following comment about the President’s action today claiming executive privilege in response to congressional oversight of the government’s Fast and Furious gun-walking program. The congressional investigation began with Senator Grassley’s inquiry into whistleblower allegations that the government had allowed the transfer of illegally purchased weapons found at the scene of the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. The Department of Justice denied the allegations to Senator Grassley for 10 months before being forced to withdraw its denial in face of evidence to the contrary.

Grassley comment:

“The assertion of executive privilege raises monumental questions. How can the President assert executive privilege if there was no White House involvement? How can the President exert executive privilege over documents he’s supposedly never seen? Is something very big being hidden to go to this extreme? The contempt citation is an important procedural mechanism in our system of checks and balances. The questions from Congress go to determining what happened in a disastrous government program for accountability and so that it’s never repeated again.”

NRA Will Score Contempt Vote On Holder

In a letter to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Chris Cox of the NRA-ILA indicated that the NRA will be using the vote on the contempt citation for Eric Holder to evaluate candidates. They also said that they support the contempt citation for Holder.

The American people – including millions of NRA members and tens of millions of NRA supporters – deserve the truth about these issues, and we will support any effort that leads us to that truth. This is an issue of utmost seriousness and the NRA will consider this vote in future candidate evaluations.

Contempt Vote Will Continue As Scheduled

Attorney General Eric Holder met at 5pm today with Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) along with Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) to discuss the production of certain documents related to Operation Fast and Furious in an attempt to stave off the vote on the contempt citation. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is scheduled to meet on Wednesday to vote on a contempt citation for Holder for failing to produce subpoenaed documents.

The only thing that could postpone or stop the vote on the contempt citation would be for Eric Holder to deliver a subset of the documents requested by the committee. As of the 5pm meeting, he hadn’t done that and indicated in the meeting that he wasn’t prepared to produce them.

The following is the statement from Chairman Issa on the meeting and the contempt vote.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa made the following statement after his meeting with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder:

“I had hoped that after this evening’s meeting I would be able to tell you that the Department had delivered documents that would justify the postponement of tomorrow’s vote on contempt. The Department told the Committee on Thursday that it had documents it could produce that would answer our questions. Today, the Attorney General informed us that the Department would not be producing those documents. The only offer they made involved us ending our investigation.

“While I still hope the Department will reconsider its decision so tomorrow’s vote can be postponed, after this meeting I cannot say that I am optimistic. At this point, we simply do not have the documents we have repeatedly said we need to justify the postponement of a contempt vote in committee.”

While Issa is still holding the door open for postponing the vote on contempt it appears to be closing fast. If his description of what Holder said is accurate – and there is no reason to believe it isn’t – then Holder just thumbed his nose at the Committee again. I think all that Holder accomplishes with his stonewalling is to unite the Committee’s Republicans.

UPDATE: Sen. Chuck Grassley didn’t think much of Eric Holder’s decision to continue withholding the documents.

“The Attorney General wants to trade a briefing and the promise of delivering some small, unspecified set of documents tomorrow for a free pass today. He wants to turn over only what he wants to turn over and not give us any information about what he’s not turning over. That’s unacceptable. I’m not going to buy a pig in a poke. Chairman Issa is right to move forward to seek answers about a disastrous government operation.”

“There’s A Bus Waiting”

Given the history of Obama throwing subordinates and other supporters under the bus, I don’t think any of us really believe that he’ll go to the mattresses for Eric Holder. Chris Muir in tomorrow’s Day by Day cartoon captures this reality very well.

It is obvious that Muir keeps up with the gun blogs to know about Mike’s latest revelation regarding the new whistleblowers.

Courtesy of Chris Muir and Day by Day Cartoon.

Another Senator Calls For Holder To Resign

In what must be taken as a sign that he is in real political trouble at home well-known RINO, Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, has joined the list of those calling for Eric Holder to step down. At least, in an equivocating, qualified manner.

Hatch made the call during a Wednesday interview on former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s radio show. “Well if he doesn’t cooperate with the Congress on this Fast and Furious, where one of our agents was killed because of the stupidity of this administration, then he ought to step own,” Hatch said.

“He’s basically a nice man, but by gosh he’s been so partisan in that job that I’m very concerned about him and tend to support Sen. Cornyn and others who think that he ought to retire.”

As The Daily Caller notes, his opponent for the Republican nomination in Utah, Dan Liljenquist, made the demand for Holder to step down in November 2011. Liljenquist just this week reiterated that demand and criticized Hatch for not demanding Holder’s resignation.

The late Speaker Tip O’Neill (R-MA) famously said “All politics is local”. In this case, I’m sure he was right.

New Whistleblowers In Project Gunwalker

Mike Vanderboegh reported in an exclusive yesterday afternoon that one and maybe two new whistleblowers have come forward in the investigation into Operation Fast and Furious. What makes this unique it that they are from the Department of Justice and not BATFE.

Multiple, previously highly credible, sources close to the Gunwalker investigation report that there are at least one and perhaps two sources within the Department of Justice headquarters who have approached the Issa Committee seeking whistleblower status. One source, who reported that there were at least two of Eric Holder’s subordinates who “came in from the cold,” characterized them as “high-level” DOJ employees “with knowledge of Eric Holder’s actions before and after” the 4 February 2011 DOJ letter denying that the DOJ and its subordinate agencies knew about “gunwalking.” That letter has since been admitted by DOJ to have been a lie. If true, one or both of these whistleblowers may be the so-called “mole” — a source within DOJ said to have been leaking documents, including the wiretap affidavits, to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

What they bring with them from the cold, according to one source, is “the keys to the kingdom as far as Holder is concerned,” adding “if this comes out before the (contempt) vote (on 20 June), then Holder is toast.” Said another, “not even Boehner will be able to stop it. Hell, he’ll really jump on board and act like it was his idea.”

This could be one of the reasons that Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) scheduled a vote for next Wednesday on the contempt citation. Moreover, this could be behind Attorney General Eric Holder’s invitation to Rep. Issa, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to meet with him privately to discuss Project Gunwalker. Both Issa and Boehner have declined the invitation until such time as Holder provides the subpoenaed documents.

The offer to meet with Issa, Boehner, and Grassley came after Holder had turned down a request for a meeting from a bi-partisan group of representatives including Trey Gowdy (R-SC), Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), Mike Quigley (D-IL), and Bobby Scott (D-VA). Gowdy had this to say about Holder’s refusal to meet:

Gowdy said that because Holder is seeking a meeting with leadership rather than with the actual investigators or with members really close to the scandal like him, “that tells me that you’re interested in a political resolution.”

“I’m not interested in a negotiation,” Gowdy said. “I’m interested in the documents. If this were political, then I’d say ‘Sure, let’s compromise.’ But, it’s not political to me. It’s about law enforcement, law and order, respect for the rule of law, confidence in the Justice Department — I want the documents.”

Gowdy went to say that when Speaker John Boehner green-lighted the contempt vote in House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that  Eric Holder realized that time was running out.

I tend to agree with that. I had thought Holder would be around come November but now I am seriously reconsidering that. Michael Bane in his last podcast said he thought Holder would throw himself under the bus come September in order to help Obama. If the whistleblowers come forward and are credible, I think Holder could be gone by mid-summer. Time will tell.

John Cornyn Goes For The Jugular

This weekend we watched a bit of the French Open tennis tournament. It is always interesting to watch really good tennis players set up their opponent for the kill shot. At first it just seems that they are in a long rally with the ball going back and forth (and back and forth). In reality, they are maneuvering their opponent into position for the put away. It is a joy to watch when it all comes together.

So, too, it was with today’s Senate Judiciary Committee when Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) led Attorney General Eric Holder into that trap. Cornyn starts off by asking questions about the investigation into the national security leaks and the people appointed to run the investigation. The questions start off looking like easy lobs. Cornyn then goes for the jugular at which point Holder realizes he’s just been trapped. He tries to escape but Cornyn doesn’t let him.

It was a joy to watch.

The full 12 minute exchange can be found here if you are interested. An abbreviated version of the “kill shot” is below which should stop at the 6:51 mark.

Quote Of The Day

The quote of the day comes from Tam regarding Attorney General Eric Holder’s announcement of a special investigation into leaks of classified information.

Eric Holder announced that he was shocked, shocked! to find that there were leaks of classified information from the Obama administration, and he would investigate it immediately. I have no idea how the newscaster read that line with a straight face; this is like expecting the minister for Reich security in 1940s Germany to investigate the mysterious disappearance of Jews.