Eric Holder

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Contempt Vote Scheduled For June 20th

June 11, 2012 by 3 Comments

A vote on holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress has been scheduled by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for June 20th. I think this indicates that Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA)  has the number of votes needed to get the contempt citation out of committee and to the floor of the House of Representatives. You just wouldn’t see a committee chair schedule something this serious if he wasn’t absolutely certain he had the votes for it to pass. Moreover, as Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s statement indicates, Issa has the (tepid) support of the House leadership.

From the committee’s release about the vote:

On June 20th, the Oversight Committee will meet to consider a report holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for his failure to produce subpoenaed documents related to Operation Fast & Furious.

WASHINGTON— On Wednesday, June 20, 2012, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will convene to consider a report holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for his failure to produce documents specified in the Committee’s October 12, 2011, subpoena. Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa issued the following statement on the scheduling of a Committee vote on contempt:

“For over a year and a half, the House Oversight Committee, with Senator Chuck Grassley, has conducted a joint investigation of reckless conduct in Operation Fast and Furious. With the support of House leadership, the Republican Conference, and even some Democratic Members who have expressed concern to the White House over the Justice Department’s failure to cooperate, this investigation has yielded significant results. The Attorney General has acknowledged that the operation was fundamentally flawed and he has committed to take steps to ensure that it does not occur again. Evidence found in applications for wiretaps shows that although senior officials were given information about reckless tactics, they still signed affirmations that they had reviewed the investigation and determined that electronic surveillance of phones was necessary.

“Despite what the investigation has uncovered through whistleblowers and documents the Justice Department had tried to hide, the Committee’s work is not yet complete. Attorney General Holder has failed to meet his legal obligations pursuant to the October 12 subpoena. House leaders reiterated this failure in a May 18, 2012, letter. Specifically, the Justice Department has refused to turn over critical documents on the grounds that they show internal Department deliberations and were created after February 4, 2011 – the date Justice issued a false denial to Congress. Contempt will focus on the failure to provide these post February 4th documents.

“The Obama Administration has not asserted Executive Privilege or any other valid privilege over these materials and it is unacceptable that the Department of Justice refuses to produce them. These documents pertain to Operation Fast and Furious, the claims of whistleblowers, and why it took the Department nearly a year to retract false denials of reckless tactics. The Justice Department’s actions have obstructed the investigation. Congress has an obligation to investigate unanswered questions about attempts to smear whistleblowers, failures by Justice Department officials to be truthful and candid with the congressional investigation, and the reasons for the significant delay in acknowledging reckless conduct in Operation Fast and Furious.

“While the Justice Department can still stop the process of contempt, this will only occur through the delivery of the post February 4, 2011, documents related to Operation Fast and Furious and whistleblower accusations subpoenaed by the Committee. If the Attorney General decides to produce these subpoenaed documents, I am confident we can reach agreement on other materials and render the process of contempt unnecessary.”

Committee consideration of a contempt citation is a debatable and amendable measure. Committee approval requires a majority vote. Contempt is a process for enforcing compliance with a lawful subpoena and does not assign blame for the flawed and reckless conduct that took place in Operation Fast and Furious.

CBS’s Sharyl Attkisson has a video report on the vote including some background on past contempt citations for members of the Executive Branch.

Mike Vanderboegh does disagree with one comment made at the end of the CBS story which claims credit for exposing the scandal nationally. As he notes – and I agree with him – this ignores the work of both he and David Codrea in bringing it to light and bringing the whistleblowers to the media.

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Are Republican Leaders Finally Getting Off The Stick?

June 11, 2012 by

It looks like the House Republican leadership is finally getting off the stick with regard to Project Gunwalker and a contempt of Congress citation for Attorney General Eric Holder. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor just issued a statement regarding the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s plan to take up consideration of a contempt citation.

“As Attorney General Holder has acknowledged, ‘Fast and Furious’ was a fundamentally flawed operation. Despite repeated opportunities, the Department of Justice has refused to cooperate with the requests made by Congress for information surrounding the operation. Congress can no longer wait. Assuming Attorney General Holder continues to stonewall, we will have no choice but to hold him in contempt for his failure to provide the documents necessary to prevent a tragedy like this from happening again. I thank Chairman Issa and the Oversight Committee for their dedication and vigilance on this issue.”

It surely is not as strong a statement as I and many others would like but it is a start.

UPDATE: I see that Speaker John Boehner has also released a statement in support of contempt for Eric Holder. While it like that of Cantor is rather tepid, it is a bit more than the earlier letter sent by the House leadership.

“The Justice Department is out of excuses. Congress has given Attorney General Holder more than enough time to fully cooperate with its investigation into ‘Fast and Furious,’ and to help uncover the circumstances regarding the death of Border Agent Brian Terry. Agent Terry’s family, the whistleblowers who brought this issue to light, and the American people deserve answers. Either the Justice Department turns over the information requested, or Congress will have no choice but to move forward with holding the Attorney General in contempt for obstructing an ongoing investigation.”

It is obvious that Holder’s testimony last week before the House Judiciary Committee did him no favors and has increased the pressure on him to comply with the Oversight Committee.

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The Black Pastor Not Invited To Meeting

June 1, 2012 by 2 Comments

Attorney General Eric Holder held a meeting on Wednesday with a number of African-American religious leaders to discuss ways that they can discuss political issues (and support President Obama) without endangering their tax-exempt status. One of the major issues that they will discuss is Voter ID laws.

Rep. Emanual Cleaver (D-MO) had this to say as reported by the Washington Examiner:

“We will have representatives from nine denominations who actually pastor somewhere in the neighborhood of about 10 million people, and we’re going to first of all equip them with the information they need to know about what they can say and what they cannot say in the church that would violate their 501c3 status with the IRS,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., told MSNBC today.

“In fact, we’re going to have the IRS administrator there, we’re going to have the Attorney General Eric Holder there, we’re going to have the lawyers’ organization from around the country, the ACLU — all giving ministers guidance about what they can and cannot do,” he noted.

Cleaver said they would not tell pastors which candidate to support. They will let them know who to regard as the bad guys, though (hint: not Democrats). “We’re going to talk about some of the draconian laws that have cropped up around the country as a result of the 17 percent increase in African American votes,” Cleaver said, describing voter ID laws as a form of Jim Crow-style “poll tax” on seniors and black voters.

One African-American pastor not invited to the meeting was Rev. Kenn Blanchard. NRA News’ Ginny Simone interviewed Kenn about this meeting as well as the attempt to use black clergy to put pressure on Speaker John Boehner over a contempt citation for Eric Holder.

Kenn didn’t hold back in the interview. He described many of those who claim to be “civil rights veterans” as mere opportunists who are not even close to following in MLK’s footsteps. That is pretty powerful stuff!

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The Letter From The Republican Leadership To Holder

May 19, 2012 by 2 Comments

As I said in the previous post, the House Republican leadership sent a letter yesterday to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding answers on Operation Fast and Furious. If Holder and the rest of the Obama Administration continue to obstruct and impede this investigation, I think the contempt citation, which in my opinion is overdue, is a foregone conclusion.

I think the House leadership has looked to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton and the political fallout for the Republicans from it as a reason they should go slow. However, they are missing one essential difference: Bill Clinton lied about having sex while two Federal law enforcement officers and hundreds of Mexican nationals died as a result of Operation Fast and Furious. I think the Republican leadership should have enough faith in the American people to understand that the people will see that essential difference.

From the press release:

WASHINGTON, DC – House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and Oversight & Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder this morning demanding full cooperation with the ongoing investigation into the “Fast and Furious” operation and the death of Border Agent Brian Terry.

The letter states that the Department of Justice has not sufficiently complied with a Congressional subpoena seeking answers on the operation, and questions whether false information that was provided – and later withdrawn – was “was part of a broader effort by your Department to obstruct a Congressional investigation.”

“The Terry family deserves to know the truth about the circumstances that led to Agent Terry’s murder,” write the Congressional leaders. And “the American people deserve to know how such a fundamentally flawed operation could have continued for so long and have a full accounting of who knew of and approved an operation that placed weapons in the hands of drug cartels.”

And the letter:

May 18, 2012

The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr.
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, D.C. 20530

Dear Attorney General Holder:

We write to express our concerns with the lack of full cooperation from the Department of Justice (“the Department”) with the ongoing Congressional investigation into the operation known as “Fast & Furious” and the related death of Border Agent Brian Terry. While we recognize that the Department has provided some documents in response to some aspects of the October 11, 2011, subpoena from the Chairman of the Oversight & Government Reform Committee (“the Committee”), two key questions remain unanswered: first, who on your leadership team was informed of the reckless tactics used in Fast & Furious prior to Agent Terry’s murder; and, second, did your leadership team mislead or misinform Congress in response to a Congressional subpoena?

We are troubled by the Department’s assertions that the Executive Branch possesses the ability to determine whether inquiries from the Legislative Branch have been fully complied with. As the Supreme Court has noted, each co-equal branch of our Government is supreme in their assigned area of Constitutional duties. Thus, the question of whether the Executive Branch has sufficiently complied with a Congressional subpoena requesting specific information pursuant to Congress’ Article I responsibilities is one only the Legislative Branch can answer.

One fact appears to be undisputed by all concerned: Fast & Furious was a fundamentally flawed operation. It was taken to an extreme that resulted in at least one death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent and unknown other consequences, because U.S. law enforcement agencies allowed thousands of firearms to be illegally “walked” into Mexico and into the hands of drug cartels. Beyond the horrific impact on the Terry family, there is no doubt that this operation has done serious harm to one of the United States’ most important bilateral relationships. It is our hope that, in finding the truth, we can both provide closure to the Terry family, begin to repair our relationship with Mexico, and take steps to make necessary changes at the Department.

Clearly, the Department must take steps to ensure that tragic mismanagement like Fast & Furious does not occur in the future. Unfortunately, without the disclosure of the information requested in the October 11, 2011, subpoena regarding which members of your leadership team were informed of the reckless tactics that were used in the operation, the American people cannot be confident that any remedial steps you implement will accomplish this goal. For example, your leadership team recently asserted that “Department leadership was unaware of the inappropriate tactics used in Fast and Furious until allegations about those tactics were made public in early 2011.” Yet, Federal law requires that you, or a member of your leadership team, approve the application to a Federal judge for use of a wiretap.

In approving such an application, you or your designee would – or should – have reviewed the accompanying materials and affidavits that provided the basis for the wiretap application prior to affixing the Department’s approval to the application. We understand that the Fast & Furious operation may have included seven such wiretaps between March and July 2010. Whether the information used to justify the wiretap application or the information gained from the wiretaps is being used in any ongoing criminal prosecution is immaterial to the question of who on your leadership team reviewed and approved the wiretaps and was therefore privy to the details of the Fast & Furious operation. The assertion that your leadership team could approve wiretaps in 2010 and yet not have any knowledge of the tactics used in Fast & Furious until 2011 simply cannot be accurate and furthers the perception that the Department is not being forthright with Congress.

We would note that correspondence between your Deputy and Chairman Issa raises concerns that further Congressional actions might cause damage between the Legislative and the Executive branch. We would submit that the damage to that relationship began with a February 4, 2011, letter from the Department to the Congress that was subsequently withdrawn because it provided Congress with false information. The means to repair the damage caused by your Department lies within your powers to work with the Committee to find a mutually satisfactory level of compliance with the subpoena and avoid further confrontation.

While we are disappointed that a Senior Department official would provide false information to Congress, we are also concerned that it took your Department ten months to acknowledge the inaccuracy and ultimately withdraw the letter. In light of the letter and its subsequent withdrawal, it is critical for Congress to understand whether the letter was part of a broader effort by your Department to obstruct a Congressional investigation. We are unaware of any assertions of executive privilege that would prevent compliance with the Congressional subpoena. We are also unaware of any national security concerns or diplomatic sensitivities that would preclude compliance with the subpoena. Finally, as these post-February 4, 2011, communications concern the Department’s response to Congress, their disclosure to Congress would not impact any ongoing criminal investigations or prosecutions.

If the Office of Legal Counsel has provided a legal opinion that takes into account the specific circumstances of this investigation and you are relying on that opinion to maintain your current position, we would request that the opinion be provided to Congress at the earliest possible opportunity. Similar to arrangements previously made between your Department and Congressional investigators, we are confident that you possess adequate means to provide substantive compliance with a Congressional subpoena while protecting the integrity and confidentiality of specific documents.

We firmly believe and hope that you agree that a mutually acceptable resolution to this matter may yet be achieved. The Terry family deserves to know the truth about the circumstances that led to Agent Terry’s murder. The whistle-blowers who brought these issues to light deserve to be protected, not intimidated, by their government. And, the American people deserve to know how such a fundamentally flawed operation could have continued for so long and have a full accounting of who knew of and approved an operation that placed weapons in the hands of drug cartels.

As co-equal branches of the U.S. Government, the relationship between the Legislative and Executive branches must be predicated on honest communications and cannot be clouded by allegations of obstruction. If necessary, the House will act to fulfill our Constitutional obligations in the coming weeks. It is our hope that, with your cooperation, this sad chapter in the history of American law enforcement can be put behind us.

Sincerely,

Honorable John A. Boehner
Speaker

Honorable Eric Cantor
Majority Leader

Honorable Kevin McCarthy
Majority Whip

Honorable Darrell E. Issa
Chairman, Oversight and Government Reform Committee

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“We Cannot Operate In A Cover-up And Lie Environment” – Darrell Issa

May 19, 2012 by

The House leadership including Speaker John Boehner sent a letter yesterday to Attorney General Eric Holder “demanding full cooperation with the ongoing investigation into the ‘Fast and Furious’ operation and the death of Border Agent Brian Terry.” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, was interviewed about this letter by Ginny Simone of NRA News.

Issa speaks to the issue and to the letter in this interview.

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Executive Privilege: Presidential Communications Vs. Deliberative Process

May 18, 2012 by

Prof. Ken Klukowski of Liberty University School of Law had an article yesterday in Breitbart.com saying that Attorney General Eric Holder will lose in court if he pushes executive privilege as the reason for failing to comply with the subpoena from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.  Klukowski notes that there are two forms of executive privilege – presidential communications and deliberative process. The former is rooted in the Constitution and protects candid discussions between the President and his advisors. The latter is derived from common law and is considered a much weaker defense.

The only defense Holder can assert is to say that these documents are protected by executive privilege. That’s the doctrine that the president and his subordinates are independent of Congress, and that certain information can be kept secret to enable each president and his administration to do their jobs effectively. Though often asserted when information is sought regarding the president’s confidential conversations or for decisions involving military decisions or foreign diplomacy, executive privilege can be attempted whenever someone in an administration does not want to comply with a congressional subpoena.

But Holder will lose that legal fight if Issa and House Republicans persist in pursuing this investigation, as they should. This is in part because there are two types of executive privilege, as I explain in an academic publication. The first is the presidential communications privilege, which shields conversations a president has with his advisors. It’s rooted in the Constitution’s separation of powers, and allows every president to receive candid advice on how to discharge his duties.

That privilege only extends to communications directly involving the president, however, so instead Holder can only assert the second type of executive privilege, called the deliberative process privilege. It’s a common-law doctrine that is not found in the Constitution, and as such is a much weaker defense. Two centuries of legal precedent strongly suggest that if Holder tries claiming that this weaker form of executive privilege empowers him to refuse to answer Congress, the courts will smack Holder down–hard.

Klukowski examined the issue in detail in an article in the Cleveland State Law Review. A copy of that article can be found here.

Klukowski was interviewed by Cam Edwards of NRA News last night. In the interview he expands upon his article in Breitbart discussing why he thinks Eric Holder will lose in court if the Republicans show some spine and pass a contempt of Congress citation.

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I Can Suggest Someone For That Tenth Spot On The Most Wanted List

April 12, 2012 by 1 Comment

The FBI has taken most of a year to fill one of the openings in their Ten Most Wanted List. The openings came about due to the capture of mobster James “Whitey” Bulger and the death of Osama bin Laden. The ninth spot was just filled by Eric Justin Toth, a former private elementary school teacher from the District of Columbia, who is wanted on child porn charges.

NPR’s Audie Cornish interviewed the Kevin Perkins, director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, about what it takes to make the Ten Most Wanted List.

Perkins says that there are two critical factors that must be present for a person to be placed on the list. First, they must be “a present threat to society.” Second, it must be someone who, with the public’s help, “we think we can capture in a relatively short period of time.”

I think I can suggest a candidate for that tenth spot. This person has been implicated in an operation that involved the running of guns to narco-terrorists in Mexico. This has resulted in the death of an estimated 300 Mexican nationals and two Federal law enforcement officers.

This person is often seen in the vicinity of 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20530-0001.

Teams of investigators are actively seeking more information on his activities.

Here is a recent picture of this person.

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Fortress Holder

February 2, 2012 by

Infographics, if done well, are an excellent way to condense data and still make the information usable. That has been the emphasis behind the work of Edward Tufte for years.

This one from the House Oversight Committee gets the point across very well in my opinion.

Courtesy of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee