Justice Department aims to avoid contempt vote on Holder over Fast and Furious

[alp227]

Source: Washington Post

Justice Department officials are working behind the scenes to avert a vote in Congress next week on contempt charges against Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. stemming from the investigation of Operation Fast and Furious.

Justice officials are talking to staffers for Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, to reach a compromise on the documents that Issa has subpoenaed on the botched “gun walking” operation. Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole offered again Monday to meet with Issa, saying, “We believe that an amicable resolution of these matters is achievable.” He also has offered to meet with House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio).

Several other current and former Justice officials said they are skeptical that they will be able to stop the contempt vote.

“This is political theater, and it’s been political theater from the beginning,” said Holder’s former spokesman, Matthew Miller. “There is no evidence that the attorney general or senior Justice officials knew anything about the Fast and Furious tactics. I don’t think Chairman Issa wants a solution. He wants a contempt vote.”

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/justice-department-aims-to-avoid-contempt-vote-on-holder-over-fast-and-furious/2012/06/11/gJQAVHnzVV_story.html?wprss=rss_politics

[TrollBuster9090]

1. This is not about a botched sting on Mexican drug gangs.

a) The contempt charge against Holder is actually a shot across Holder's bow to get him to stop halting the Republican voter purge, IMHO, and


b) Fine, go ahead and vote him in contempt. It might actually teach him that it's a waste of time trying to appease Republicans, and he can start doing his job. Finally,

c) If they bring enough heat down on Holder that he's forced to resign, I vote we replace him with ELIOT SPITZER!

[truedelphi]

7. I do love each of your ideas.

Number three was the very best of them. But they are all good.

[Nye Bevan]

10. On (c), seriously? Someone who was bragging about prosecuting prostitution rings,

while at the same time arranging to transport prostitutes across state lines for his own use? Who laundered money to pay for these services, being careful to break up his transactions into chunks of less than $10,000 each? Who, without getting permission, used the name of a close friend (George Fox) while enjoying the "services" provided? Who somehow escaped prosecution himself while one of the women involved in the scandal had to serve several months on Rikers Island?

Yeah, that would be great.

[TrollBuster9090]

21. I wouldn't care if he was sneaking into the seafood store and screwing dead tunafish

he's the only politician who ever seriously went after Wall Street corruption, which is a FAR greater threat to America than playing hide the pickle with high end call girls.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

19. You're spot on on every point except for c). I love Eliot Spitzer but do you really

think that the Senate will allow Spitzer to be confirmed?

[TrollBuster9090]

20. They might, in a lame duck session. nt

[Drale]

2. The fastest and best way to stop it

is to arrest ever repuke for treason. They are all guilty and the evidence is everywhere.

[truedelphi]

8. That would not be keeping to the theme of the

Obama re-election campaign:

[h2][font color=blue]
Forward!

[/h2][/font color=blue]

[HillbillyBob]

22. contempt?

It seems to me that the Tpots in congress are much more worthy of contempt for their sabotage of our economy.

[bluestateguy]

3. Oh no! Just like Harriet Meirs and Josh Bolten went to jail for "contempt" of Congress

[creeksneakers2]

4. The rules change when right wingers get power

George W. Bush refused to provide staff members to testify to Congress and withheld documents during the US Attorneys scandal. The House voted for contempt, but a contempt finding must be prosecuted by the Justice Department, which is, of course, part of the executive branch. Bush simply ordered the US Attorney not to prosecute. Could Obama get away with doing the same thing? You'd hear the right wingers calling for impeachment if he did.

There is a history of Attorneys General refusing to provide Congress with documents. Previous Attorneys General cited reasons like confidentiality of internal deliberations. In all other cases, Congress ended up backing down. The tea party Congress is unlikely to be as reasonable at their predecessors.

[OnyxCollie]

6. The House could have bypassed the US Attorneys

Last edited Tue Jun 12, 2012, 02:54 AM - Edit history (2)

by going for inherent contempt instead of statutory contempt.

But since Monica Conyers, the wife of Rep. John Conyers, then chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, was being investigated by the FBI, Johnny Letter chose to let them off the hook.

Monica Conyers got three years for corruption, IIRC.

[Iliyah]

5. Issa is full of shit

where are the effing jobs Isaa jerk man!

[castnet55]

9. Why the resistance

I don't see anything wrong with getting to the bottom of this. For Christ sakes people have died because of this operation and more will certainly die.
Why doesn't Holder give up the documents and why hasn't someone been fired? Something's not right here,if some low level knothead can do something like this then it needs to stop. If it's the higher ups then we need to get something in place to stop it.
The Mexicans are even demanding information about how this happened.

[pscot]

11. Issa's not trying to get to the bottom of anything

He's just fucking with the AG.

[PavePusher]

12. The word some people are missing....

is "transparency".

Apparently, it only applies selectively. But I think we knew that...

[naaman fletcher]

13. Holder blatantly perjured himself

Why DU defends him I have no idea. Sure the repubs are assholes and there is a double standard, but let's just replace Holder with someone who is good and NOT a perjurer.

[msongs]

14. obama can find a conservative looking for a new job lol nt

[creeksneakers2]

17. How could police anywhere

run an undercover operation if their informant had to blow the whistle at the first crime he saw? I don't see how letting some crimes go on while going after bigger fish is unusual.

Also, there's no reason to believe that the drug cartels wouldn't have just obtained guns elsewhere if a source was cut off. The right wingers always insist with domestic gun control that eliminating a source of firearms for criminals does nothing to deter crime.

[bemildred]

15. I can't say I want to take either side in this argument.

[Lurks Often]

16. DOJ has been stalling this for over a year now

And for those of you who haven't been following this here is a link worth reading:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/atf-fast-furious-sg,0,3828090.storygallery

Holder & DOJ should have resolved this a year ago, now it has the possibility of having an impact on the election and it not likely to be a positive impact.

[former9thward]

18. Fast and Furious is a terrible scandal.

People died. Obama and Holder should fire anyone involved and get it over with. The cover up is always worse than the crime.