Congress Prepares Contempt Citation Against AG Holder Over Fast And Furious

Now here's some good news to take into the weekend!


House Republicans investigating the Fast and Furious scandal plan to pursue a contempt citation against Attorney General Eric Holder, senior congressional aides told CBS News.

The resolution will accuse Holder and his Justice Department of obstructing the congressional probe into the allegations that the government let thousands of weapons fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

The citation would attempt to force Holder to turn over tens of thousands of pages documents related to the probe, which has entered its second year.

Needless to say, the usual suspects at quite upset at this:

The top Democrat on the panel slammed Issa's move as part of "an election-year witch hunt against the Obama administration."

"Leaking a draft contempt citation that members of our committee have never seen suggests that you are more interested in perpetuating your partisan political feud in the press than in obtaining any specific substantive information relating to the committee's investigation," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, referring to a report in the Los Angeles Times, which first reporting the plan.

Considering how Representative Cummings has continuously tried to stymie the investigation and turn it into a referendum on gun control, I think we can take his comments for the little they're worth.

The Oversight Committee's contempt resolution would have to almost certainly come to a full House vote. Passing it would probably be a foregone conclusion considering the current makeup of the House and the ongoing lies, obstructions and misstatements coming out of the Department of Justice since the Fast and Furious scandal, which involved deliberate sales of guns to Mexican drug cartels by the Department of Justice became known. While Holder and the Justice Department have supplied a large number of pages of the documentation demanded in congressional subpoenas, congressional investigators accuse the Justice Department of supplying the documents selectively and highly redacted, and that tens of thousands of pages of internal documents requested by the congressional subpoenas have been deliberately left out.

Once a contempt resolution passes, Congress could seek enforcement through federal courts if the Department of Justice still refuses to comply.

This is going to get good.