Eric Holder

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You Can Fool Some Of The People All Of The Time…

October 6, 2011 by

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.

The above quote come from President Abraham Lincoln. I seem to remember back in January 2009 there were some foolish people who compared Obama to Lincoln. What a difference two and a half years make.

Today we have Obama’s Press Secretary Jay Carney being asked about Attorney General Eric Holder and Operation Fast and Furious. His dissembling answer to the press makes me wonder if Carney is trying to outdo former Press Secretary Robert Gibbs in evasive smarminess.

From the White House transcript:

Q There have been calls for a general counsel to investigate whether or not the Attorney General perjured himself when testifying about Fast and Furious. Does the President have a reaction?

MR. CARNEY: Well, there has been one call — and I think it’s a biannual call for a special counsel by this particular congressman. Once every six months we hear something similar. And the fact is, the Attorney General’s testimony to both the House and the Senate was consistent and truthful.

He said in both March and May of this year that he became aware of the questionable tactics employed in the Fast and Furious operation in early 2011, when ATF agents first raised them publicly. And he then asked the Inspector General’s Office to investigate the matter, demonstrating how seriously he took them.

Q The question in May was when did he first hear about Fast and Furious? Not the questionable tactics, but when did he first hear of the program?

MR. CARNEY: Look, the Attorney General’s testimony was consistent and truthful. And calls for special counsels, which seem to be a regular occurrence, do not change that fact.

And when the Attorney General learned about the questionable tactics, he asked the Inspector General’s Office to investigate the matter.

Yes.

Another report came back to this topic and it includes references to Eric Schultz’s hissy fit with screaming and cursing aimed at CBS Investigative Report Sharyl Attkisson.

Q Thanks, Jay. I want to go back to Fast and Furious because what you said the Attorney General said is not what he said. He said, quote — and this is in May of this year — “I’m not sure of the exact date but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.” Now these documents that Jake was referring to say that he was actually told the first time about this July 2010 and October of 2010 —

MR. CARNEY: Well, you’re suggesting — first of all, I would refer you to the Department of Justice that is handling this.

Q He’s the President’s Attorney General, so —

MR. CARNEY: Yes, and the President believes he’s an excellent Attorney General and has great confidence in him, and we absolutely know that the testimony he gave was consistent and truthful. And —

Q So how does he have confidence in him if he’s a year off on what —

MR. CARNEY: If a piece of paper in a document that’s many, many pages long contained a phrase that discussed nothing about the tactics that are at issue here, I think what we’re talking about —

Q But he didn’t talk about — I just want to be clear. In his quote he never said tactics. He said —

MR. CARNEY: Ed, the Attorney General’s testimony —

Q — the first time he heard about it —

MR. CARNEY: — was consistent and truthful.

Q — and in the document, in July, he heard about it.

MR. CARNEY: Consistent and truthful.

Q Okay, but you’re not addressing the fact that he was not talking about questionable tactics.

MR. CARNEY: I think I just did.

Q In his quote in May, he said, “The first time I heard about it was a few weeks ago.”

MR. CARNEY: The issue here is not the name, it’s what happened and the questionable tactics. When he heard that, as testified, he asked the Inspector General’s Office to investigate it aggressively, and he has cooperated with — the Department of Justice has cooperated with the congressional investigation. So what he’s testified to is consistent and truthful, and his cooperation — both the fact that he believes it was a problem that needed to be investigated is demonstrated by the action he took, and the department has cooperated with the Congress as it looks into the matter.

Q So to clear up any confusion, when was the first time the President —

MR. CARNEY: Again, I —

Q No, no, not the Attorney General. When was the first time the President heard about this program?

MR. CARNEY: Well, as he said in public, in a press conference, he heard about it when he read about it. And that was sometime earlier this year. I think the press conference was in El Salvador when he was on that trip, and he referenced having heard about it recently. I don’t have a specific day.

Q Okay. And Sheryl Atkinson of CBS News is saying that a few days ago, I believe, a White House official and a Justice Department official was yelling and screaming at her — she’s been reporting about this for some time — about this whole story.

You were a reporter once. When government officials start yelling at you, sometimes it’s because they’re getting defensive, right? Why would they be yelling at her?

MR. CARNEY: First of all, I have no insight into the conversations she may or may not have had. Second of all, I know that you guys are all hard-bitten, veteran journalists and probably don’t complain when you have tough conversations with your sources sometimes. Again, this is just generally speaking.

I don’t know about it. I think it’s —

Q But she’s a credible reporter. When you say, “I’m not sure what conversations she had,” I mean, she said this on the record that she was yelled at and screamed at. Why would the administration be yelling at her about this story? I don’t —

MR. CARNEY: Again, I take issue with the report. I don’t know that it’s true. I’m just — what I think is that I know you are tough enough to handle an extra decibel or two in a phone conversation. I’m not sure that that happened here, but it’s a surprising complaint.

As I said yesterday, the response of Tracy Schmaler and Eric Schultz reminded me of a fear-biting dog. It lashes out because it is scared and it appears they are acting in exactly the same manner.

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Issa On AC360 With Anderson Cooper

October 5, 2011 by

The first correction I would make to Anderson Cooper’s intro is that this was not a botched gun sting. You can also see the damage control coming out of the Justice Department in Cooper’s questions. That said, he played it straight without any “gotcha” questions for Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA).

Mike Vanderboegh has posted a transcript of Rep. Issa’s comments to Cooper here.

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Quote Of The Day

October 5, 2011 by

Investors Business Daily is taking a hard line on Eric Holder and his perjurious testimony given to the House Judiciary Committee regarding when he first knew of Operation Fast and Furious. In an editorial published this evening entitled “Indict Eric Holder”, they concluded:

As Issa told radio talk show host Laura Ingraham last month: “We have a paper trail of so many people knowing that the only way the attorney general didn’t know is he made sure he didn’t want to know. … But if you don’t want to know something of this sort, then you shouldn’t have the job he has.”

We’d go a step further. Baseball star Roger Clemens was equally vehement when he told a House committee in 2008: “Let me be clear. I have never taken steroids or HGH.” Clemens was indicted for lying to Congress.

The same should go for Eric Holder.

And I would add that IBD is correct.

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House Judiciary Committee Chair Calls For Special Prosecutor

October 4, 2011 by

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is calling for a Special Prosecutor to investigate whether the statements made by Attorney General Eric Holder in response to a question by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA)were false.

Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today called for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate whether comments made by Attorney General Eric Holder during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in May 2011 were truthful. In a letter to President Obama, Chairman Smith expressed concern that Members of Congress may have been misled by the Attorney General’s response to a question regarding his knowledge of the Fast and Furious program. The Attorney General stated that the first time he had heard of the program was in the weeks leading up to the May 2011 hearing. But documents released on Friday night raise significant questions about the truthfulness of the Attorney General’s testimony.

Chairman Smith: “The Department’s consistent response to Congress has been that Operation Fast and Furious was a discrete law enforcement effort largely isolated to the ATF office in Phoenix. These documents appear to undermine this claim and bring into question statements made by Attorney General Holder to this Committee.

“Allegations that senior Justice Department officials may have intentionally misled Members of Congress are extremely troubling and must be addressed by an independent and objective special counsel. I urge you to appoint a special counsel who will investigate these allegations as soon as possible.”

The full letter from Smith to Obama can be found here.

Ed Morrissey at Hotair.com speculates that Obama will defy Congress and protect Holder rather than have a Special Prosecutor running wild amongst the emerging scandals of his “clean” administration.

Now Obama has to decide whether to defy Congress and create a precedent for protecting appointees who willfully mislead Congress, or submit to a special prosecutor that could run wild on his administration. I’m going to guess that Obama will defy the House, but that may not last very long, especially with Darrell Issa probing Solyndra and other potential scandals.

Fox News is also on this story. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) met with Holder on January 31st in Grassley’s office. At that time, Grassley gave him a letter with details on the investigation into Operation Fast and Furious. Grassley, saying he isn’t a lawyer, won’t speculate on whether Holder perjured himself but did add:

“But I can tell you this. They’re doing everything they can, in a fast and furious way, to cover up all the evidence or stonewalling us. But here’s the issue, if he didn’t perjure himself and didn’t know about it, the best way that they can help us, Congressman Issa and me, is to just issue all the documents that we ask for and those documents will prove one way or the other right or wrong.”

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Better Send The Fire Department – Eric’s Pants Are On Fire

October 4, 2011 by

Back on May 3rd, Attorney General Eric Holder, in response to a question from Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) asking when he first knew of Operation Fast and Furious, said  “I’m not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.”

Today, thanks to Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News, we see proof that he had been briefed on Project Gunwalker multiple times beginning 10 months earlier.

The lame response from the Department of Justice to explain Mr. Holder’s perjurious testimony – he misunderstood the question. Is that any better than a little kid saying the dog ate his homework?

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Holder Continues To Deny Involvement In Project Gunwalker

September 8, 2011 by 1 Comment

Attorney General Eric Holder continues to deny any involvement in Operation Fast and Furious according to a report from the Reuters News Service.

“The notion that somehow or other that this thing reaches into the upper levels of the Justice Department is something that, at this point, I don’t think is supported by the facts,” Holder told reporters.

I wonder just what Mr. Holder considers the upper levels of the Justice Department. I don’t think there is much debate among informed observers that Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer and Deputy Attorney General David Ogden were not involved in some capacity.

Holder goes on to claim that the investigations by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as well as the work of Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) are politically motivated.

Holder questioned whether the congressional probe, led by Republicans in the House of Representatives and Senate, was politically motivated.

He admitted it was a “flawed enforcement effort,” but said, “my hope would be that Congress will conduct an investigation that is factually based and not marred with politics.”

There is nothing that is NOT political in Washington and Holder well knows it. The very effort to use guns walked to Mexico as a pretext for more gun control was political.

As to my response to Attorney General Holder’s denial that he and other upper level executives in the Justice Department were not involved at some level in Project Gunwalker, it is below.

BS Flag gif
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Chuck Grassley On FoxNews About ATF Changes

August 31, 2011 by

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was interviewed today about the changes at ATF and DOJ by Jenna Lee of Fox News.

While Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) was given a courtesy call by Attorney General Eric Holder about the changes, Grassley was not despite being the Ranking Minority Member on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Common courtesy never has been a strong suit of anyone in the Obama Administration it seems.

Asked about whether DOJ is still stonewalling on the request for documents, Grassley said it has improved but they are still getting many documents that are just black sheets of paper.

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CCRKBA Says Holder Should Have Resigned Instead

August 30, 2011 by 2 Comments

Alan Gottlieb doesn’t mince words. He says that Eric Holder should have resigned instead of engaging in a “shell game” of reassignment.

HOLDER PLAYS ‘SHELL GAME’ AT JUSTICE, SHOULD RESIGN INSTEAD, SAYS CCRKBA

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

BELLEVUE, WA – Today’s replacement of Kenneth Melson as acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is a political charade by the man who really ought to tender his resignation, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today. That man is Attorney General Eric Holder.

CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb called for Holder’s resignation after this morning’s announcements that Melson was being “reassigned” and replaced. This action appears to be an attempt by Holder to convince people he is taking action in response to the Fast and Furious scandal, now being investigated by Congress.

“Holder is just moving deck chairs on the Titanic,” Gottlieb stated. “Today’s announcements will do nothing to restore America’s confidence in the BATF or the Justice Department so long as Eric Holder remains the Attorney General.

“The ultimate responsibility for Fast and Furious lies with Holder,” he continued. “Melson is just the latest player to be shifted around, rather than lose his job. Everyone directly involved in the Fast and Furious scandal has simply been moved to another position. There has been no discipline and no accountability, because the man who should be ultimately accountable is still running the Justice Department.”

Gottlieb called today’s announcement “self-serving” for Holder, who is “looking out for his own interests.”

“That’s the only thing that is really transparent about this entire administration,” Gottlieb observed. “They are looking out for themselves, and playing administrative games when they should step up to the plate and accept responsibility for this scandal. Several people have been moved from the ATF office in Phoenix to other jobs, especially in Washington, D.C. because of Fast and Furious.

“If there had not been significant wrong-doing,” he said, “none of these moves would have been made. This is an admission of guilt by the Obama administration without saying so. And where is the president in all of this? Maybe he’s hiding out on the ninth hole of a golf course.”

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Melson Out At ATF

August 30, 2011 by

The Department of Justice released this just a bit ago announcing that Kenneth Melson is being reassigned outside of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and that the U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota B. Todd Jones is being appointed the Acting Director. At the same time, DOJ has announced that Dennis Burke, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona is leaving. More on that in another post.

It is interesting to note that Todd Jones will serve as both U.S. Attorney for Minnesota and as Acting Director of ATF. I would have thought they would have learned their lesson about a part-time Director after the experience of Michael Sullivan as both U.S. Attorney in Massachusetts and Acting Director of ATF. They didn’t seem to work out too well.

Department of Justice Announces New Acting Director of ATF and Senior Advisor in the Office of Legal Policy

WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice today announced the appointments of U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota B. Todd Jones to serve as Acting Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson to become Senior Advisor on forensic science in the Office of Legal Policy (OLP).

“As a seasoned prosecutor and former military judge advocate, U.S. Attorney Jones is a demonstrated leader who brings a wealth of experience to this position,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “I have great confidence that he will be a strong and steady influence guiding ATF in fulfilling its mission of combating violent crime by enforcing federal criminal laws and regulations in the firearms and explosives industries.”

Jones will continue to serve in the capacity of U.S. Attorney when he assumes the role of ATF acting director on Aug. 31, 2011.

A veteran of the Justice Department, Jones has served as U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota under two presidential administrations. He first served from 1998 to 2001. He was nominated again in 2009 by President Obama and has been in that role since being confirmed that year.

In 2009, the Attorney General appointed him to serve as chair of the Attorney General Advisory Committee (AGAC), a group of U.S. Attorneys appointed to advise the Attorney General on policy, management and operational issues affecting U.S. Attorneys’ Offices throughout the country. Jones previously served as a member, vice chair and chair of the AGAC from 1999 to 2001.

During his several years as a federal prosecutor, Jones conducted grand jury investigations and has been the lead trial lawyer in many federal prosecutions involving drug trafficking, firearms, financial fraud and violent crime.

Throughout his career, Jones has served as a partner with Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi (2001-2009); a partner with Greene Espel, PLLP (2001; 1994-1997); First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota (1997-1998); and Assistant U.S. Attorney (1992-1994).

Following admission to the Minnesota bar, Jones went on active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he served as both a trial defense counsel and prosecutor in a number of courts martial proceedings.

Jones received his B.A. from Macalester College in 1979 and his J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1983.

Melson will join OLP on Aug. 31, 2011, in his new role as senior advisor where he will focus on issues relating to policy development in forensic science.

“Ken brings decades of experience at the department and extensive knowledge in forensic science to his new role and I know he will be a valuable contributor on these issues,” said Attorney General Holder. “As he moves into this new role, I want to thank Ken for his dedication to the department over the last three decades.”

He is a past president and distinguished fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and currently participates on behalf of the department on the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board. He has been an adjunct professor at George Washington University for almost 30 years teaching both law and forensic science courses.

Melson was appointed acting director of ATF in 2009. Prior to that, he was director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys and served several years in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Melson received his B.A. from Denison University in 1970 and his J.D. from George Washington University in 1973.

CNN also has a report up on this move which repeats the info from the DOJ release and adds some old info about Project Gunwalker.

Politico is also reporting on this move and have a reaction from Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, who has been spearheading hearings into Project Gunwalker.

In a statement Tuesday, Issa said “the reckless disregard for safety” by the Justice Department “certainly merits changes” in personnel.

But the committee will continue to investigate Fast and Furious “to ensure that blame isn’t offloaded on just a few individuals for a matter that involved much higher levels of the Justice Department,” Issa said. “There are still many questions to be answered about what happened in Operation Fast and Furious and who else bears responsibility, but these changes are warranted and offer an opportunity for the Justice Department to explain the role other officials and offices played in the infamous efforts to allow weapons to flow to Mexican drug cartels.”