Posted on 11/13/2012 9:37:11 AM PST by jazusamo
The head of the House Homeland Security Committee said Attorney General Eric Holder may have committed a “real dereliction of duty” if he didn’t immediately report the investigation into former CIA Director David Petraeus to President Obama.
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said on CNN last night politics “could have been” in play if that was the case.
“The fact that this became an FBI investigation to begin with, then to me, once Director Petraeus came within the scope of the investigation, it’s almost unprecedented for the FBI to be investigating the director of the CIA,” King said, making a case that the facts heretofore don’t add up. “If they were going to do that, they should have immediately gone to the attorney general and also to the president of the United States because David Petraeus was a key part of the president’s foreign policy team.”
“I’m not talking about guilt or innocence. I’m saying he’s under a cloud. And I have great admiration for David Petraeus. I urged him to run for president. I’ve worked with him. He’s a tremendous patriot. But once he came under this scope of the investigation, they had to have — they should have notified the president because David Petraeus was involved in some of the most sensitive negotiations around the world,” King added.
He stressed that once the investigation, which reportedly began a few months before Obama was told, became apparent to Holder in September, the attorney general should have immediately told the commander in chief.
“It’s the president that runs foreign policy, not the attorney general,” the congressman said, adding that Holder has “failed terribly” at his job if he sat on the news.
“If the president did find out about it and didn’t act on it until after the election, that’s equally wrong. But if Holder knew about it, if the attorney general knew about it in September, I believe he had the absolute obligation to tell the president in fairness to the president what was happening,” King said.
He said his panel doesn’t have enough information yet to know if national security was compromised.
“And then when we had Benghazi, I think if we on the intelligence committee had known about this investigation going on, we may have looked at David Petraeus, the evidence he gave us, somewhat differently because most of what he told us then has pretty much been disproven since, and again, I think we may have looked at that differently,” King said.
“If he knew that he was being investigated, for instance, if David Petraeus was aware of that, he may have again tried to either tailor the testimony or modify it or do something which is not going to draw attention to himself,” he continued. “I mean human nature, if you know there’s a massive investigation going on, which could bring down your career, you may be less inclined to go all out.”
Obama will have implausible deniability.
Well, I guess if MSM journalists only have the sensibilities and IQ of ‘National Enquirer’ readers... this should work out great for them.
AS IF this is THE most significant national issue right now!
Holder has been in the dereliction category many times before and not a thing happened nor will it this time.
Oh, please. If Congress won’t effectively act on these POS criminals after F&F, they never will.
yep, these guys are all teflon- nothing sticks.
This is an outright purge of senior military leadership by the administration.
They are getting rid of the generals so they can take away the coup avenue once Obama goes full commie.
John Kerry for secretary of defense? That’s like making Susan Rice secretary of defense.
“They are getting rid of the generals so they can take away the coup avenue once Obama goes full commie.”
Yup.
The Petraeus resignation took away all his clearances which means he cannot speak about anything he knew or found out while DCI...without permission from higher up. And that will never happen.
Our prez is quite a puzzle; while he is the most hands-on, intelligent man in the world, he somehow never knows ANYTHING about what is going on around him, and his various subordinates always neglect to tell him ANYTHING that they’re doing.
Holder got away with F&F, something that killed over 300 Mexicans and 2 cops. What else? Ah yes —the USA is secretly partners with the SINALOA CARTEL.
So now his not telling his boss about some affair will bring Holder down..?
I think gayMuzzie could throw his kids off the WH roof in front ofthe press pool and not only would there be no charges but no news reports outside of the UK and US blogs.
I believe you are correct. This is a purge.
I believe you are correct. This is a purge.
Well, if he’s derelict in his duty, he needs to be promoted. I hear that a few Supreme Court positions will soon become available.
I think this is actually a challenge to Obama and to Holder. Is Holder willing to take the fall for having been “negligent” and trying to conduct foreign policy without Obama’s knowledge? Or is he going to admit, at some point, that Obama has known about this from the very beginning and probably helped plan it.
This was all about collecting information that could come in handy later. With the Benghazi testimony looming, they found a use for it.
That so called 'red herring' is the very reason why Petraeus can skate and NOT testify about his role in Benghazi. Either the man is beyond stupid or he deliberately placed himself in a position to escape accountability.
Oh Come on. Stop with the BS.
Holder asks permission from Obama when he takes a whiz. Of course Obama was informed and told Holder how and when to use the information.
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