Resolution to Impeach Holder Being Drafted, Yoho Says

 

By Emma Dumain 

Some House Republicans are talking impeachment these days, but not of President Barack Obama. The scalp they’re looking for is that of Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.
From Operation Fast and Furious to the wiretapping of Associated Press phone calls, Holder has been under fire from Republicans for some time. The House voted last year to hold him in contempt of Congress.
Now, Omar Raschid, a spokesman for Florida Republican Rep. Ted Yoho, has confirmed to CQ Roll Call that a formal resolution calling for Holder’s impeachment is in the works.
It won’t be coming through Yoho’s office, Raschid said, but the Florida Republican will surely be a leader in the effort. Raschid declined to name the member who is taking the lead out of respect for that office’s rollout of the resolution.
On Tuesday evening, Yoho appeared at a town hall meeting with constituents in Chiefland, Fla., where he said he and his colleagues would attempt to launch impeachment proceedings against Holder in the weeks ahead.
“It will be before the end of the year,” Yoho said, according to local news reports. “It will probably be when we get back. … It will be before the end of the year. This will go to the speaker and the speaker will decide if it comes up or not.”


The press office of Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, declined to comment, and the offices of several members who have been Holder’s major critics on Capitol Hill did not respond to queries as to whether they knew about the resolution or were behind the effort.
But the list of House Republicans who want Holder out of office is a lengthy one. The House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress last June for refusing to provide the Oversight and Government Reform Committee with key documents related to the botched gun-running program known as Fast and Furious. Since then, in addition to the heat Holder received over the AP wiretaps, he has been criticized by Republicans for intervening in the implementation of a Louisiana school voucher program and in voting rights laws in Texas. 


The list of lawmakers who would actually support an impeachment resolution, however, is sure to be a shorter one. And it would likely need establishment heft in order to make leadership — and Judiciary Chairman Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia — pay attention.