Obama Caught Covering Up Emails In Fast And Furious Scandal For Eric Holder And His Family

by James Beattie 

A government watchdog group announced Thursday, after receiving information about the Fast and Furious operation, that President Obama asserted executive privilege to block emails sent between Attorney General Eric Holder and family members.
Early during President Obama’s tenure, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) launched “Operation Fast and Furious,” allowing thousands of firearms to be illegally sold in the hopes of tracking Mexican drug cartels. United States Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed with one of those firearms in December of 2010.
Judicial Watch, a right-leaning legal advocacy organization, announced Thursday it received from the Department of Justice (DOJ) a “Vaughn index” — a more than 1,307 page draft document with details about Fast and Furious. Among the information the group received is disclosure of 20 emails between Holder and his wife, Sharon Malone, as well as his mother.

The contents of the emails are being withheld “under an extraordinary claim of executive privilege as well as a dubious claim of deliberative process privilege under the Freedom of Information Act.” Judicial Watch writes that the exemption is ordinarily only used for “public disclosure records that could chill internal government deliberations.”
Other information in the ‘Vaughn index’, according to Judicial Watch, included:
–Numerous emails that detail Attorney General Holder’s direct involvement in crafting talking points, the timing of public disclosures, and handling Congressional inquiries in the Fast and Furious matter.

–DOJ communications (including those of Eric Holder) concerning the White House about Fast and Furious.
–Communications to and from the United States Ambassador to Mexico about Fast and Furious.
The scandal required the attention of virtually every top official of the DOJ and ATF. Many of the records are already publicly available, such as letters from Congress, press clips, and typical agency communications. Ordinarily these records would, in whole or in part, be subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. Few of the records seem to even implicate presidential decision-making and advice that might be subject to President Obama’s broad and unprecedented executive privilege claim.

H/T Washington Examiner
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