Posted on 02/16/2012 6:15:34 PM PST by neverdem
‘Contempt of Congress” is a pretty strong term, and one with tangible legal consequences, but how else to describe Attorney General Eric Holder’s continuing obstructionism in the burgeoning Fast and Furious scandal?
It’s been 14 months since news broke that a federal agent had been killed with weapons that Holder’s Justice Department intentionally allowed to cross the border into Mexico, with no plan on how to track them and without alerting Mexican officials. In all, the Obama administration sent thousands of guns south to the drug gangs under the misbegotten operation.
But since last May, Eric Holder has been stonewalling congressional attempts to get to the bottom of Fast and Furious — a mess hatched on his watch by Obama appointees at the office of the US attorney for Arizona and agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
On Tuesday, Rep. Darrell Issa (R.-Calif) — whose House Oversight Committee is leading the congressional investigation — sent Holder another in a series of stern letters, demanding that Justice comply with committee subpoenas that it’s been pretty much ignoring since Oct. 12.
The letter was prompted by Justice’s failure to meet a Feb. 9 deadline to make witnesses available and turn over hundreds, if not thousands, of pages of internal documents. Holder’s crew requested a further extension — while publicly decrying Issa’s probe as a political witch hunt.
Of course, as Issa writes, it’s Justice’s own “delay tactics” that “have extended this investigation into a presidential-election year.” Indeed, “had the department demonstrated willingness to cooperate with this investigation from the outset — instead of attempting to cover up its own internal mismanagement — this investigation likely would have concluded” last year.
“In reality,” Issa continues, “it is the department that is playing political gotcha games, instead of allowing a....”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Lock the SOB up. Stop farting around with this guy.
make him crap or get up off the pot.
Anyone confirm this?
I think his being under oath is implied by virtue of him being AG.
Holder has absolutely nothing to fear from Issa or this congress, they are impotent despite their occasional blasts of hot air. Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters are still running around loose, cocky as ever. So will Holder be after this fizzles out, which it will.
I don’t have a link but Issa is on video, During a FNC interview, saying that Holder has been under oath, after Issa was asked a direct question if Holder was under oath!
He was put under oath multiple times.
They need to put his ass in jail and start threatening his underlings. Obama will be sweating bullets then.
Here’s to Boehner getting PRIMARIED!
Don’t have the link but there was an article a week or so ago saying Boehner would block any attempt to site Holder for contempt of Congress.
Agreed, primary Boehner. Ball-less, gutless, whiny, no-spine, POS. He carries much of the responsibility for the mess our country is in today. nobama depends on Boehner. Without him, much of Barry’s foolishness would have gone no where.
When the next federal Budget makes its way through the house, as all spending bills must, color code the monies in every bill. Include language that restricts the monies in that particular bill to being spend only on the line items in the bill.
There are many things that bureaucrats will do but going to jail ain't one of them.
In short, financially starve DOJ until Holder et al fully comply with the Congressional summons. Do so in such a way that NO other source of Federal Funding is available. make it march.
What we are seeing is exactly why the democratically controlled Congress never passed a Federal Budget - money becomes untraceable and can be spent anywhere, by anyone, on any project with zero accountability.
Unfortunately to accomplish what I recommend requires some intestinal fortitude and ability to stand by your commitments. Neither attribute appear to be part of the republican make up these days.
So far that is nothing but a rumor.
You are right. If enough pressure is put on enough underlings somebody will roll over and finger Holder. Maybe Barry if we get lucky.
Agreed, primary Boehner.
Primary a sitting Speaker of the House? I could be wrong, but good luck with that. I'm hoping Boehner, Issa et al. are ready to play hardball, and that contempt of Congress charges are just a ruse. Holder and his top lieutenants should be impeached. Let the Senate have to deal with it. The rat conference has to defend 23 seats in the Senate next November, 7 of which are open due to retirements.
Obama's Anti-Constitutional Pattern
This administration has been a prolonged assault on the Constitution.
Thanks neverdem.
You’ve nailed it. There is the real problem with dealing with Holder.
Rumor? This doesn't sound like a rumor to me (from Feb 7):
Months ago, Boehner prevented Darrell Issa filing a charge of perjury against Holder even after documents proved the Attorney General’s May 4th House testimony concerning the date of his first “acquaintance” with Fast and Furious to be an outright lie. And now the weepy Speaker will OFFICIALLY let the most corrupt Department of Justice head in the nation’s history off the hook for complicity in the Regime’s murderous scheme to savage the 2nd Amendment rights of the American people.
However, I notice there are several articles since that claim Boehner is backing Issa. Perhaps Boehner backed off.
>>You are right. If enough pressure is put on enough underlings somebody will roll over and finger Holder. Maybe Barry if we get lucky.
If they finger Barry, it’ll be more action than he gets from Michelle.
Following a contempt citation, the presiding officer of the chamber is instructed to refer the matter to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia; according to the law it is the "duty" of the U.S. Attorney to refer the matter to a grand jury for action.
The criminal offense of "contempt of Congress" sets the penalty at not less than one month nor more than twelve months in jail and a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $1,000.
While the law pronounces the duty of the U.S. Attorney is to impanel a grand jury for its action on the matter, some proponents of the unitary executive theory believe that the Congress cannot properly compel the U.S. Attorney to take this action against the Executive Branch, asserting that the U.S. Attorney is a member of the Executive Branch who ultimately reports only to the President and that compelling the Attorney amounts to compelling the President himself. They believe that to allow Congress to force the President to take action against a subordinate following his directives would be a violation of the separation of powers and infringe on the power of the Executive branch. The legal basis for this belief, they contend, can be found in Federalist 49, in which James Madison wrote "“The several departments being perfectly co-ordinate by the terms of their common commission, none of them, it is evident, can pretend to an exclusive or superior right of settling the boundaries between their respective powers.
Reportedly? By who? An anonymous source is no source.
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