A full U.S. House vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in
contempt of Congress is almost certain, with plans confirmed by the
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to advance the process
with a committee vote next week.
The committee is headed by Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who has been trying to pry information out of the Obama administration on the Fast and Furious gunrunning scandal.
Congressional aides told Fox News that the committee will vote June 20. If the citation is approved, a full House vote likely would be scheduled.
If cited, Holder would join Janet Reno as the only attorneys general to be held in contempt by the Oversight Committee.
When Democrats held the majority in the House, they voted in 2008 on a resolution against White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers for not providing internal documents.
The House Judiciary Committee also voted on a contempt citation for White House adviser Karl Rove that same year.
The move against Holder follows a 64-page report by Issa that accuses the attorney general of failing to respond to a 2011 subpoena for Justice Department documents on Fast and Furious.
Holder, meanwhile, insists he’s met the requirements by providing thousands of pages of documents.
The two have squared off in hearings more than half a dozen times over the issue, and last week’s meeting didn’t go well.
Issa asked, “Have you and your attorneys produced internally the materials responsive to the subpoenas?”
Holder responded, “We believe that we have responded to the subpoenas.”
“No. Mr. Attorney General, you’re not a good witness. A good witness answers the question asked,” said Issa.
Some 2,000 guns were sold and delivered to Mexican drug cartels under the Fast and Furious government program. At least one of the guns was later found at the scene the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.
Fox News reported that six House Republican freshmen wrote to the leadership on May 18 to seek support for a contempt of Congress resolution. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, then wrote Holder demanding his cooperation in the investigation.
A congressional source inside the Justice Department suggested Holder and his staff could have known about the gun-running operation long before he says he was informed. The source offered applications for wiretaps that suggested the information was available to top Justice officials as early as March 2010.
Holder said said he didn’t find out until early in 2011.
WND columnist Jeff Knox contends the DOJ’s assertion it has cooperated by providing 7,600 pages of documents rings hollow. Those pages, he wrote, make up only about 10 percent of the documents Issa’s committee has requested.
“The fact that DOJ has repeatedly made false or misleading assertions and then had to backpedal when their duplicity was exposed, strongly suggests an active intention to cover up certain aspects of the operation,” Knox explained.
He commended Issa for investigating an operation that “clearly violated U.S. and Mexican law and helped to fuel the horrific violence being waged in Mexico and on the border.”
See the latest confrontation between Issa and Holder:
The committee is headed by Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who has been trying to pry information out of the Obama administration on the Fast and Furious gunrunning scandal.
Congressional aides told Fox News that the committee will vote June 20. If the citation is approved, a full House vote likely would be scheduled.
When Democrats held the majority in the House, they voted in 2008 on a resolution against White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers for not providing internal documents.
The House Judiciary Committee also voted on a contempt citation for White House adviser Karl Rove that same year.
The move against Holder follows a 64-page report by Issa that accuses the attorney general of failing to respond to a 2011 subpoena for Justice Department documents on Fast and Furious.
Holder, meanwhile, insists he’s met the requirements by providing thousands of pages of documents.
The two have squared off in hearings more than half a dozen times over the issue, and last week’s meeting didn’t go well.
Issa asked, “Have you and your attorneys produced internally the materials responsive to the subpoenas?”
Holder responded, “We believe that we have responded to the subpoenas.”
“No. Mr. Attorney General, you’re not a good witness. A good witness answers the question asked,” said Issa.
Some 2,000 guns were sold and delivered to Mexican drug cartels under the Fast and Furious government program. At least one of the guns was later found at the scene the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.
Fox News reported that six House Republican freshmen wrote to the leadership on May 18 to seek support for a contempt of Congress resolution. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, then wrote Holder demanding his cooperation in the investigation.
A congressional source inside the Justice Department suggested Holder and his staff could have known about the gun-running operation long before he says he was informed. The source offered applications for wiretaps that suggested the information was available to top Justice officials as early as March 2010.
Holder said said he didn’t find out until early in 2011.
WND columnist Jeff Knox contends the DOJ’s assertion it has cooperated by providing 7,600 pages of documents rings hollow. Those pages, he wrote, make up only about 10 percent of the documents Issa’s committee has requested.
“The fact that DOJ has repeatedly made false or misleading assertions and then had to backpedal when their duplicity was exposed, strongly suggests an active intention to cover up certain aspects of the operation,” Knox explained.
He commended Issa for investigating an operation that “clearly violated U.S. and Mexican law and helped to fuel the horrific violence being waged in Mexico and on the border.”
See the latest confrontation between Issa and Holder:
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