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While outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder continues to fend off responsibility for the law enforcement snafu known as Operation Fast and Furious, documents obtained through a judge's order
reveal that not only did Holder know about the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), but he discussed it via email
with his physician spouse, Sharon Malone, however President Barack Obama
is granting those emails to be withheld based on an "executive
privilege" claim.
While most media organizations are quick to give President Barack Obama,
Holder and others the "benefit of the doubt," in Holder's wife's case
they actually turned a blind eye to corruption that included alleged
confict-of-interest. For example, Dr. Malone is no stranger to controversy:
While Holder had been blasted for his failure to investigate alleged
crimes involving abortion clinics, his wife, Sharon, and his
sister-in-law co-owned an abortion clinic
run by an abortion physician, Tyrone Cecile Malloy, who was indicted by
a Georgia grand jury on charges of Medicaid fraud after Holder's office
failed to prosecute the alleged fraud.
The Fast and Furious documents, according to the prolific government
watchdog group Judicial Watch, include the emails between the attorney
general and his wife regarding a White House statement on the "gun
walking" scandal that the White House wanted kept secret.
On July 18, 2014, U.S. District Court Judge John Bates ordered the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to produce, a Vaughn Index of withheld documents regarding Fast and Furious which the DOJ grudgingly released on October 22. When the DOJ asked the court to delay the release day until later in November -- a ploy to avoid their release before the mid-term elections -- Judge Bates denied the obviously politically-motivated request to delay the release until after the Nov. 4, 2014, elections.
In a Vaughn Index, the government must list each withheld document, state the statutory exemption claimed for it and explain how the disclosure of each document would damage the governmental interests asserted by the exemption. Malone is not a government employee or a member of the Obama White House, and so the executive privilege claim rings hollow with many legal scholars.
The index provided under Judge Bates'order shows just how far the administration went, and will continue to go, to protect its actions in Fast and Furious scandal, especially since Attorney General Holder and the Obama White House said they were unaware of ATF "gun-walking" activity that cost the lives of a U.S. Border Patrol Agent, Brian Terry, and Jaime Zapata, a special agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
There are at least 20 emails [and] other communications, but principally emails between Holder and his spouse, Dr. Sharon Malone, and "between Holder and his mother [who is] now deceased," 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 (FOIA), according Judicial Watch's top investigator, Chris Farrell.
Executive privilege is meant to protect the secrecy of information regarding issues or policies such as Cabinet meetings or meetings between the president and his advisers. The people involved must be government officials. Farrell and the Judicial Watch attorneys argue that executive privilege is not supposed to be extended to communications between government officials and their family members even when the communications pertain to government actions.
According to Farrell, President Obama issued a statement on Oct. 6, 2011 claiming he had every confidence in his Attorney General, and he promised a full and extensive investigation no matter where it led. Yet news reports came out that caused suspicion to be cast on Holder's claim that he had only recently learned of the scandal. It was on that date that Holder and his wife exchanged a series of emails about President Obama's statement.
There are other emails on the same day that show a subject line on each that states: "Fwd: Holder Received At Least 5 Memos On Fast and Furious." Each of these is described as "Email discussing strategy on responding to the media."
According to an Examiner news story, besides the emails from Holder to his wife, there are the three emails between Holder and Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett and one from former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke to Jarrett. The three e-mails with Holder are all dated Oct. 4, 2011, the day after CBS News journalist Attkisson did a news story that showed Holder had been sent a briefing paper on June 5, 2010 by the director of the National Drug Intelligence Center, Michael Walther about Operation Fast and Furious.
That specific information shows that Holder lied during his testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, when he said that he, “probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks,” according to the Judicial Watch legal team.
On July 18, 2014, U.S. District Court Judge John Bates ordered the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to produce, a Vaughn Index of withheld documents regarding Fast and Furious which the DOJ grudgingly released on October 22. When the DOJ asked the court to delay the release day until later in November -- a ploy to avoid their release before the mid-term elections -- Judge Bates denied the obviously politically-motivated request to delay the release until after the Nov. 4, 2014, elections.
In a Vaughn Index, the government must list each withheld document, state the statutory exemption claimed for it and explain how the disclosure of each document would damage the governmental interests asserted by the exemption. Malone is not a government employee or a member of the Obama White House, and so the executive privilege claim rings hollow with many legal scholars.
The index provided under Judge Bates'order shows just how far the administration went, and will continue to go, to protect its actions in Fast and Furious scandal, especially since Attorney General Holder and the Obama White House said they were unaware of ATF "gun-walking" activity that cost the lives of a U.S. Border Patrol Agent, Brian Terry, and Jaime Zapata, a special agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
There are at least 20 emails [and] other communications, but principally emails between Holder and his spouse, Dr. Sharon Malone, and "between Holder and his mother [who is] now deceased," 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 (FOIA), according Judicial Watch's top investigator, Chris Farrell.
Executive privilege is meant to protect the secrecy of information regarding issues or policies such as Cabinet meetings or meetings between the president and his advisers. The people involved must be government officials. Farrell and the Judicial Watch attorneys argue that executive privilege is not supposed to be extended to communications between government officials and their family members even when the communications pertain to government actions.
According to Farrell, President Obama issued a statement on Oct. 6, 2011 claiming he had every confidence in his Attorney General, and he promised a full and extensive investigation no matter where it led. Yet news reports came out that caused suspicion to be cast on Holder's claim that he had only recently learned of the scandal. It was on that date that Holder and his wife exchanged a series of emails about President Obama's statement.
There are other emails on the same day that show a subject line on each that states: "Fwd: Holder Received At Least 5 Memos On Fast and Furious." Each of these is described as "Email discussing strategy on responding to the media."
According to an Examiner news story, besides the emails from Holder to his wife, there are the three emails between Holder and Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett and one from former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke to Jarrett. The three e-mails with Holder are all dated Oct. 4, 2011, the day after CBS News journalist Attkisson did a news story that showed Holder had been sent a briefing paper on June 5, 2010 by the director of the National Drug Intelligence Center, Michael Walther about Operation Fast and Furious.
That specific information shows that Holder lied during his testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, when he said that he, “probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks,” according to the Judicial Watch legal team.
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