Holder loses cool during House hearing when asked about Fast and Furious

The Daily Caller ^ | 29 February, 2012 | Matthew Boyle

[marktwain]

A visibly frustrated Attorney General Eric Holder slammed the table when responding to a question about Operation Fast and Furious during a Tuesday budget hearing before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies.

“That was a fundamentally flawed program, fundamentally flawed,” Holder said of Fast and Furious. “And, I think that I can agree with some of my harshest critics that there are legitimate issues that need to be explored with regard in which the way Fast and Furious was carried out.”

“But, I think one thing that also has to be understood is that once this was brought to my attention” — Holder said before slamming his hand on the committee room table he was sitting at — “I stopped it. I stopped it.”

During an interview with Fox News host Megyn Kelly shortly after Holder’s comments, House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa — the lead congressional investigator into the Fast and Furious scandal with Sen. Chuck Grassley — said he and others in Congress don’t think Holder is telling the full truth.

“Well, certainly one of the reasons we doubt the legitimacy of that claim is, on Feb. 4 [2011], we received what was in fact an untruthful, a lie, a false letter that has now been retracted,” Issa said. “Lanny Breuer, one of his chief aides and number three at Justice, was in Mexico lobbying for more gun-walking. Additional evidence shows that [U.S. agent] Jaime Zapata was killed with a similar program weapon. In other words, this was a policy change that happened and continued up until fairly recently. We need to get to the bottom of it.”

In addition, Issa said that if Holder wants to show he’s cooperating with the congressional investigation and is interested in really ending gun-walking, he’d fork over the rest of the lawfully-subpoenaed documents he’s still hiding from Congress. (RELATED: Full coverage of Eric Holder)

“The inspector general at Justice has 80,000 pages and we have 6,000 pages, but even in those 6,000 pages we find damning evidence that high-ranking people in Justice knew all along and not only didn’t stop this program, but believed in it,” Issa said.

Fast and Furious was a program of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, overseen by Holder’s DOJ. It sent thousands of weapons to Mexican drug cartels via straw purchasers — people who legally purchased guns in the United States with the known intention of illegally trafficking them somewhere else.

At least 300 people in Mexico were killed with Fast and Furious weapons, as was Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. The identities of the Mexican victims are unknown. Allegations have surfaced that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata was also killed with Fast and Furious weapons. Many members of Congress have demanded Holder’s resignation or firing over the scandal, arguing that he either should have known about it, or did know about it and is trying to cover up the evidence. They also point to how nobody has been held accountable for the operation more than a full year after the DOJ provided false information to Congress, and even longer since Terry was murdered.

As the two lists don’t perfectly overlap, 103 members of the House have called for Holder’s resignation, signed an official resolution of “no confidence” in Holder, or both. Three U.S. senators, two sitting governors and all major Republican presidential candidates have called for Holder’s resignation or firing, too.

NEXT: Holder shifts blame to Bush DOJ

[LucyT]

[TigersEye]

“But, I think one thing that also has to be understood is that once this was brought to my attention” — Holder said before slamming his hand on the committee room table he was sitting at — “I stopped it. I stopped it.”

Flat out lie.

Here is a petition to call for Eric Holder's prosecution.
Tea Party Petition to Prosecute Eric Holder

How long does it take an Attorney General to get the name of the DoJ subordinate who authorized a given operation or policy?

What kind of CEO would wait over a year to find out which floor manager in his production plant decided to cancel the installation of a key component in their product?

Is Eric Holder in charge of the DoJ or what?

(all rhetorical questions)

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4:37 PM MST Operation #EFAD bump (Fast and Furious related, check it out)

Also read Gangster Government, and Sakharov's Immunity (Operation #EFAD)

[GOPJ]

I appreciate you too... thanks.