Holder Doubles Down: Senior DOJ Officials Knew Nothing About Fast and Furious Tactics

Townhall.com ^ | June 8, 2012 | Katie Pavlich

[Kaslin]

Capitol Hill- It was another tense hearing for Attorney General Eric Holder on Capitol Hill where he testified before the House Judiciary Committee about Justice Department Oversight today. Holder was asked about and covered a variety of topics, but his personal role and those of his senior Justice Department officials in the lethal Fast and Furious operation were front and center.

Chairman Lamar Smith opened his remarks with Fast and Furious, saying the Department of Justice has not provided enough information about the operation that has left hundreds dead in Mexico and at least one U.S. federal agent, Brian Terry, dead. Smith berated the Justice Department for its failure to comply with Congressional subpoenas that “may shed light on why this program was authorized and who had knowledge of the inappropriate tactics.”

Holder, in his own opening remarks, reiterated his “commitment to working with Congressional leaders.” He also stated that his Justice Department orchestrated “a series of coordinated strikes against violent drug cartels,” while working alongside counterparts in Mexico. However, in the case of Operation Fast and Furious, the Mexican government and ATF agents working in Mexico throughout 2010 were left in the dark about the program, as DOJ sanctioned the sales of thousands of AK-47s and .50 caliber rifles, allowing them to be trafficked across the southern border.

Earlier this week, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa, who also sits on the House Judiciary Committee, sent Holder a letter about six Fast and Furious wiretap applications dated 2010 that were approved by his Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein. Both Holder and Breuer have said under oath they knew nothing about the program until the beginning of 2011, after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed. Breuer is the second in command behind Holder at the Justice Department. Today, Holder again doubled down on the recurring defense that senior officials within his Justice Department knew nothing of the gunwalking tactics.

“Fast and Furious was a mid-level, regional investigation,” Holder said. “Mr. Weinstein and Mr. Breuer did not know about the tactics being used in Fast and Furious until the beginning of last year.”

When asked about whether his senior officials in the Justice Department had simply read the wiretap applications, Holder responded by saying his top officials did not read the affidavits and the details of what was in the Fast and Furious wiretaps while trying to talk his way around the questions asked.

“Mr. Attorney General, you are not a good witness. Good witnesses answer the question,” Issa said.

As a refresher, in order to apply for and have a wiretap approved, agents must submit extremely detailed information about a case.

“A reasonable person would only come to the conclusion that senior members of the department of Justice knew about gunwalking tactics in Fast and Furious,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz said.

Chaffetz invited Holder to sit down with himself, Rep. Trey Gowdy and two Democratic Reps. to further discuss Fast and Furious. Holder declined the invitation saying, “With all due respect, I give you four hours a crack,” adding that he has testified about Fast and Furious eight times before Congress.

President Obama’s White House was also under scrutiny about Operation Fast and Furious today, after all, in March 2011 President Obama discussed Eric Holder’s knowledge about Fast and Furious. The problem is, Holder admitted in May 2011 to only knowing about Fast and Furious for “a few weeks.” Holder said today he did not personally brief the White House at any time about the program, especially before December 2010, when Terry was killed.

"How would the White House know about Fast and Furious if they didn't hear it from you?” Chairman Smith asked.

Holder responded by saying the White House would have been informed about Fast and Furious by his staffers. He was then asked if there was any collaboration between the Justice Department and the White House on Fast and Furious messaging. Holder didn’t deny the White House connection and said the DOJ was working with the White House to “get the facts out” about this case.

[Joe Brower]

Once again we see how "we hang the petty criminals and promote the big ones to high office".

[HotHunt]

Eric Holder is obfuscating, denying, avoiding and plain old lying to the questions posed by the committee members. He seems so be either very incompetently unknowledgeable about this deadly illegal weapons operation going on right under his very nose or he is a LIAR. He has taken the "Hogan Heroes" Sgt. Schultz approach to responding to the investigators.

[Whats-wrong-with-the-truth]

Honestly it doesn't matter. Obomba and holder could confess that they are the sole architects and administers of the entire Fast and Furious program and it wouldn't matter. We don't have a single reprsentative with the balls to impeach, have arrested, censured... either of them. We have, in my opinion, a vast conspiracy and fraud being perpetrated on the American people.
Obomba should have been vetted and forbidden from being on the ballot; EVER. He... By his own admission violated this nations drug laws and committed several felonies. By his own hand he has presented fraudulent documents to the American people (i.e. the birth certificate he has released as authentic but that has been proven to be a fake, his social security number is a fraud,...). He has unilaterally taken over our nation and like the dictator he is, he is by executive order forcing his will upon the American people while simultaneously campaigning to become the first dictator of the New World Order. He illegally has misappropriated trillions of dollars of American taxpayer's money in order to bribe foreign rulers in order to garner their support in his quest to rule the world and NOT ONE SINGLE CONGRESSMAN or WOMAN has the guts to remove him from office. Let's not even get started with the Joint Chiefs. Those invertebrates have not only the Constitutional duty as evidenced by the oath each and every one of them took to this country's people and our Constitution, but the physical power as well to remove the tyrant from office and to either try him as an enemy combatant and or Treason yet they do nothing.

Do you really think these Fast and Furious trials are going to accomplish anything and if so... what?

To think there are people that honestly think Romney is better yet were are his calls for obomba and holder to be held accountable?

If asked I'd have to say that "The Avengers" movie is much more uplifting and entertaining than these fiascoes being played out in D.C.

[Verginius Rufus]

Holder has been stonewalling and getting away with it because of the media. What if the media had treated Watergate as a trivial story? Nixon would have served out his second term.

If I remember rightly, the death toll in the Watergate scandal was less than in the Fast & Furious scandal.

[Kaslin]

If I remember rightly, the death toll in the Watergate scandal was less than in the Fast & Furious scandal.

There was no death toll in the Watergate scandal

[Verginius Rufus]

There was no death toll in the Watergate scandal.

Yes, I knew that.

Unless you accept the theory that Howard Hunt's wife's death in a plane crash was not an accident.

[Macgedos]

This administration and the DOJ is stalling and hoping that if they stall long enough this matter will fade away. American people need to contact their rep’s and demand closure of this matter and support rep Issa in contempt of congress resolution. The American people need to write letters and make ph calls to demand closure or it will continue to stall and the real truth will never be known.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

RE: "We have lost the language to liberals. We don't insist on words meaning anything. . . ."

logomachy (lo gom'a kee) - a dispute over words, misuse of words

Obama does that and he could be called Obamachy.

or possibly the left's langrage -- crap words used to damage our sails.

(I think they got the idea from Bill Ayers' langrage.. "a kind of shot consisting of bolts, nails, etc., fastened together or enclosed in a case" and exploded -- like at a San Francisco police station in 1971 injuring several and killing Sgt. Brian McDonnell. For 40-plus years friends in high places have protected the Ayers.)

[TigersEye]

FWIW John N. Mitchell was a former AG at the time. He resigned as AG in ‘72 to become Nixon’s campaign manager.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Yes, it is good to note that Mitchell was not perp-walked out of DoJ. But whatever he did caught up with him. Holder can a sweat a little thinking about that.

BTW I remember those days.. I hope someday before I die that the above top secret -- so far above that no one can imagine it -- information is released that tells what it was that Nixon did that JFK and LBJ did not do. I can't wait to read that!

[rawcatslyentist]

>"The American people need to write letters and make ph calls"

E-Mail Addresses for Congress/House, Senate Pass it on.

[StAnDeliver]

[StAnDeliver]

I've always traced the moment when I thought the US jumped the shark to when they interviewed that Amish kid on the bicycle underneath one of the trees outside the Capitol while Bubba was being impeached; he said, "They hate on him cuz he's a playuh."

Just the other day I realized that same kid was just old enough to vote for Obama in 2008.

The US lost control of the urban public schools around 1990, and that was that.