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Posted on 05/25/2010 4:56:35 AM PDT by Libloather
Holder ducks questions on Sestak claim
By JAMES HOHMANN
5/13/10 7:47 PM EDT
Attorney General Eric Holder ducked a series of questions Thursday about how the Justice Department has followed up on questions surrounding Rep. Joe Sestak’s (D-Pa.) claim that the White House offered him a high-ranking government job in exchange for dropping out of a contested Democratic Senate primary.
Sestak first made the claim during a television interview in early February, and he repeated it during an appearance on MSNBC in early March. He’s largely declined to elaborate on it since then.
At a House Judiciary committee hearing, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) pushed to get Holder on record about whether such behavior would be illegal and whether an investigation has begun.
“There’s an election to be held in a matter of days, greatly influenced in the entire state of Pennsylvania by these unanswered allegations of White House criminal activity,” said Issa, who is also the Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s top Republican.
Holder demurred often during the unrelenting, six-minute line of questioning that stopped only when Issa’s time expired.
“Any matter that comes up like that is obviously fact specific and deals a lot with what the intent of the person was,” Holder said. “I’m not speaking specifically about the matter you have raised because I don’t talk about any matter that might come into the purview of the Department of Justice.”
Polls show Sestak running evenly with Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), the incumbent who is backed by the state and national Democratic establishment.
Issa, who has focused on the issue for two months, sent a letter on April 21 saying that, if Sestak’s allegation is true, administration officials may have violated a federal statute which makes it a crime for a government employee to use his authority “for the purpose of interfering with, or affecting, the nomination or the election of any candidate” for certain offices, including Senate seats.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in March that he was “told that whatever conversations have been had, are not problematic.”
Holder said Thursday there are “requirements that have to be met before a special prosecutor, an independent counsel, is appointed.” He also expressed confidence in the Public Integrity section.
“It is the department’s policy,” he added, “not to comment on pending matters, to say there is an investigation or say there is not an investigation. That is not the way in which the Department of Justice under Republican or Democratic attorney generals conduct themselves. That is not what we do.”
On Thursday, after Holder batted the question away, Issa spun a hypothetical in which a congressman is offered a job as Navy secretary in exchange for dropping out to clear a primary.
“Well, I think we’re talking about more than a hypothetical now,” Holder said.
Issa said he hasn’t received a response to his April letter.
Holder said he thought one had been sent.
Issa said maybe it got held up in the mail.
/sarcasm
CC
methinks this house of cards is teetering..
which scandal blows sky high this summer?
The Sestak deal is small change...
The pot is boiling isn’t it?
All three - add conspiracy and racketeering to the charges.
They’re all ducking questions in this regime about the issue, giving only a vague statement about their own internal review found now wrongdoing... and the MSM meekly accept the statement and move on.
Contrast this to the exhaustive coverage dedicated to the supposedly illegal firing of nine federal attorneys during the Bush Administration.
now wrongdoing=no wrongdoing
because “now” wrongdoing implies that it hasn’t been an ongoing thing... :)
Time for some diversionary action.
Methinks Obama is pissing on the NORKS to get them into some action, anything to get the media off his backside right now.
A re-vived Korean War would be perfect for Obama right now.
And those requirements have been met -- it's time for an IC to get to the bottom of this. The White House does not get to determine what is or is not appropriate behavior.
Ahhh! The Janet Reno 2-step shuffle! I see that Holder is ready for "Dancing with the Stars".
Sestak seems like such a clean cut, honest guy....but isn’t he as guillty the person making the offer to him? Isn’t it a crime to cover up a crime? I am hoping this all comes to light and that BHO is the one who offered the job to him, but I fear someone in the administration will fall on the sword for him. Disgusting!!! There isn’t one ounce of honesty in this admin.
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