WASHINGTON -- The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has scheduled a vote for next week to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress over the controversial "Fast and Furious" gun-tracking operation.
Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) released a 64-page memo in early May outlining the case for holding the attorney general in contempt. The chairman based his argument around Holder's failure to respond to an October 2011 subpoena for internal Justice Department documents on the operation.
The committee's vote for contempt is scheduled for June 20.
In a statement Monday, Issa accused Holder of having "failed to meet his legal obligations."
He said the Justice Department has "obstructed the investigation," adding that the department "can still stop the process of contempt" by delivering key documents.
In a separate statement, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said the department is "out of excuses."
The Justice Department maintains that it has cooperated with the investigation and provided thousands of documents. Holder has testified before the committee at least eight times about "Fast and Furious," most recently on Thursday before the House Judiciary Committee.
Issa grilled Holder in a particularly heated exchange where he accused the attorney general of failing to answer questions about the investigation.
The "Fast and Furious" program oversaw sales of nearly 2,000 firearms to suspected Mexican drug cartels in an attempt to trace gun trafficking. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) recovered only 567 of the guns. Most controversially, many of the guns were found at violent crime scenes, including at the shooting of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
Holder would join only one other attorney general, Janet Reno in 1998, to be held in contempt by the Oversight Committee.
The last time the House voted to find an executive branch official in contempt was in 2008 over the US attorney firings controversy. It passed a resolution against White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers for failing to provide internal documents. Miers also refused to comply with a subpoena to appear at a hearing. The House Judiciary Committee also found White House adviser Karl Rove in contempt later that year over the same issue.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/nation...contempt_7yxr4D4wgROvpGpqhVa21L#ixzz1xVXuz1Zg
Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) released a 64-page memo in early May outlining the case for holding the attorney general in contempt. The chairman based his argument around Holder's failure to respond to an October 2011 subpoena for internal Justice Department documents on the operation.
The committee's vote for contempt is scheduled for June 20.
In a statement Monday, Issa accused Holder of having "failed to meet his legal obligations."
He said the Justice Department has "obstructed the investigation," adding that the department "can still stop the process of contempt" by delivering key documents.
In a separate statement, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said the department is "out of excuses."
The Justice Department maintains that it has cooperated with the investigation and provided thousands of documents. Holder has testified before the committee at least eight times about "Fast and Furious," most recently on Thursday before the House Judiciary Committee.
Issa grilled Holder in a particularly heated exchange where he accused the attorney general of failing to answer questions about the investigation.
The "Fast and Furious" program oversaw sales of nearly 2,000 firearms to suspected Mexican drug cartels in an attempt to trace gun trafficking. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) recovered only 567 of the guns. Most controversially, many of the guns were found at violent crime scenes, including at the shooting of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
Holder would join only one other attorney general, Janet Reno in 1998, to be held in contempt by the Oversight Committee.
The last time the House voted to find an executive branch official in contempt was in 2008 over the US attorney firings controversy. It passed a resolution against White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers for failing to provide internal documents. Miers also refused to comply with a subpoena to appear at a hearing. The House Judiciary Committee also found White House adviser Karl Rove in contempt later that year over the same issue.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/nation...contempt_7yxr4D4wgROvpGpqhVa21L#ixzz1xVXuz1Zg
