Obama blocks Fast and Furious documents from House investigation
The latest from the most transparent, accountable administration ever (via CNN):
President Barack Obama has asserted executive privilege over document sought by a House committee investigating the botched Fast and Furious gun-running sting, said a letter to the panel Wednesday from Deputy Attorney Gen. James Cole. The move means the Department of Justice can withhold the documents from the panel.
With that maneuver, Obama has guaranteed a story that has played out mostly under the radar of the mainstream press (including, I must acknowledge, on my own blog) will be thrust into the headlines. A House committee is holding a contempt hearing this morning over Attorney General Eric Holder’s lack of cooperation in its investigation of the operation, in which our government allowed hundreds of guns to be smuggled across the Mexican border. The guns subsequently were connected to the deaths of Mexican citizens and U.S. border agent Brian Terry.
Holder has been engaged in a standoff with House Republicans over documents related to the operation. The president has denied any knowledge of the operation, but his invoking executive privilege now puts the issue squarely at his doorstep.
Previous presidents from both parties have invoked executive privilege in the face of congressional investigations. It’s kind of like pleading the Fifth Amendment: In theory, it preserves one’s innocence, but the average observer is likely to infer the opposite and wonder what the administration is trying to hide.
For an idea of how Republicans might frame this issue in the election, check out this video by the American Future Fund (h/t: Power Line):
Expect this issue to pick up steam in the days and weeks ahead.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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310 comments Add your comment
@@
June 20th, 2012
1:06 pm
Weird!
Obama’s well known for tossing people under the bus…why not Holder? It’s not like he’s a capable AG.
Maybe Holder wasn’t willing to fall on his sword for Obama.
Obama knew.
Melissa Lipnutz
June 20th, 2012
1:06 pm
“The buck stops here” -President Harry Truman, Democratic Party of the Past…
Curious
June 20th, 2012
1:08 pm
If this program had been discontinued, the drug cartels would have been weaponless and the killing orgy wouldn’t have happened.
We probably wouldn’t even have a problem with drugs in this country. All us US citizens would’ve quit using them.
Right?
ragnar danneskjold
June 20th, 2012
1:08 pm
The attorney general is a crook and a liar.
That Black guy
June 20th, 2012
1:08 pm
Kyle Wingfield
June 20th, 2012
11:59 am
And one ATF agent and scores of Mexicans wound up dead.
__________________________________________________________
Kyle, the U.S. death toll may actually be higher.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20106253-10391695.html
John Galt
June 20th, 2012
1:09 pm
It’s an awesome defense for the lberals to cry “but so and so did it to”.
You have no moral compass. And that is why you are lost.
ragnar danneskjold
June 20th, 2012
1:10 pm
He proved he was a crook with the Marc Rich pardon during the Clinton administration. He proved he is a liar with his testimony to Congress on Fast and Furious.
zgoldatl
June 20th, 2012
1:11 pm
How’s all that transparent hope and change working out?
The only jobs obama has created are people paying their teenage neighbors to scrape the obama bumper sticker of their prius. This is nothing like operation wide receiver in scope.
Pretty typical that the teachers lounge liberals who support Obama have no remorse for the loss of a US Border Patrol agent. This Starbucks socialist mentality is ruining our country.
Is it November yet?
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
June 20th, 2012
1:11 pm
Ya’ll are soooo concerned about the death of one federal officer?
What about the death of 4,000 federal employees in a war that we were lied into, with nothing accomplished by it?
zgoldatl
June 20th, 2012
1:12 pm
-off
Curious
June 20th, 2012
1:13 pm
No thing is for sure.
Objectivity has no place on either Kyle’s or Jay’s blogs.
zgoldatl
June 20th, 2012
1:13 pm
Finn- Tell that to Brian Terrys family. Heartless liberal
DebbieDoRight - A Do Right Woman
June 20th, 2012
1:13 pm
well ragnar that’s really funny because when he invoked the priviledge he statead that he had Nothing to do with the firings; but now you’re saying he DID?!? Are you saying the President LIED about deliberatig firing AG’s because they wouldn’t uphold his political agenda?
Why I’m shocked SHOCKED I tell you!!! GASP!!!!
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
June 20th, 2012
1:14 pm
Here’s a federal employee who was killed:
On July 13, less than a week after claiming executive privilege for Miers and Taylor, Counsel Fielding effectively claimed the privilege once again, this time in relation to documents related to the 2004 death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman. In a letter to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Fielding claimed certain papers relating to discussion of the friendly-fire shooting “implicate Executive Branch confidentiality interests” and would therefore not be turned over to the committee.
DebbieDoRight - A Do Right Woman
June 20th, 2012
1:18 pm
ragnar: Obama asserts the privilege in furtherance of a cover-up of criminal activity that led to the death of a Federal officer
Well now, speaking of coverups concerning a death…………:
***On July 13, less than a week after claiming executive privilege for Miers and Taylor, Counsel Fielding effectively claimed the privilege once again, this time in relation to documents related to the 2004 death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman. In a letter to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Fielding claimed certain papers relating to discussion of the friendly-fire shooting “implicate Executive Branch confidentiality interests” and would therefore not be turned over to the committee
Hi Pot! Where’s Kettle?
Tommy Maddox
June 20th, 2012
1:22 pm
Mr. Holder, the previous Administration knew what about Fast & Furious?
http://washingtonexaminer.com/holder-retracts-claim-bush-team-knew-about-fast-and-furious/article/2500157
Oh, nothing.
Tommy Maddox
June 20th, 2012
1:23 pm
“What about the death of 4,000 federal employees in a war that” were sent via a resolution of Congress?!?
DebbieDoRight - A Do Right Woman
June 20th, 2012
1:26 pm
He proved he was a crook with the Marc Rich pardon during the Clinton administration.
FYI – Clinton granted Rich a presidential pardon
Only the President of the US can grant a Presidential pardon. This has been another lesson in Civics 101 — hope you enjoyed it.
Big Brother
June 20th, 2012
1:27 pm
This “Fast & Furious” debacle was intentionally designed in an attempt to “prove” guns are going to criminal elements and must be controlled (aka stopped.) They specifically told agents, who knew the program was insane, to “stand down” and let the guns go in a pathetic attempt to make us think there was a problem with gun sales here in the US. Our US govt is caught arming criminals and even using “stimulus” money to do so. And now the govt needs to strengthen gun laws so criminals can’t get weapons as easily?! What people should be asking is, why would a new law be required to catch guys breaking an existing law? When you piece the puzzle together–the absence of genuine investigative strategies, the lack of goals, objectives and a credible endgame, the ‘secret’ nature of the operation hidden from Congress and the American public, the hidden funding, the warning to frontline ATF agents to stand down and shut up, DOJ’s refusal to submit requested documents to Congress even after the issuance of subpeonas, DOJ/ATF stonewalling, the continued denials and cover up and now invoking executive privilege –well, you get the picture.
215 more days
June 20th, 2012
1:28 pm
CNN’S LARRY KING: “Do you favor executive privilege or should Karl Rove and others in that like position be forced to testify before the House or Senate?
OBAMA: “Well, you know, I think we’ll — we’ll determine over the next several weeks how this administration responds to the very appropriate call by Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to have these individuals come in and testify. You know, there’s been a tendency on the part of this administration to — to try to hide behind executive privilege every time there’s something a little shaky that’s taking place. And I think, you know, the administration would be best served by coming clean on this. There doesn’t seem to be any national security issues involved with the U.S. attorney question. There doesn’t seem to be any justification for not offering up some clear, plausible rationale for why these — these U.S. attorneys were targeted when, by all assessments, they were doing an outstanding job. I think the American people deserve to know what was going on there.”
SOURCE: CNN’s “Larry King Tonight,” 3/20/2007
Curious
June 20th, 2012
1:29 pm
Sen Charles Grassly:
“In his eagerness to blame the previous administration, Attorney General Holder got his facts wrong. And his tactic didn’t bring us any closer to understanding how a bad policy evolved and continued. Bad policy is bad policy, regardless of how many administrations carried it out. Ironically, the only document produced yesterday by the Department appears to show that senior officials in the Attorney General’s own Department were strategizing about how to keep gunwalking in both Wide Receiver and Fast and Furious under wraps.”
Grassly is correct.
getalife
June 20th, 2012
1:31 pm
The headline should be gop forced a first from President Obama.
215 more days
June 20th, 2012
1:31 pm
National Security??????????????
I guess O’Bama doesn’t want Mexico knowing the whole truth, ya think?
Grasshopper
June 20th, 2012
1:33 pm
The damning paragraph from Tommy Maddox’s 1:22 link:
“The Justice Department has retracted a second statement made to the Senate Judiciary Committee. During a hearing last week, Attorney General Eric Holder claimed that his predecessor, then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey, had been briefed about gunwalking in Operation Wide Receiver. Now, the Department is retracting that statement and claiming Holder “inadvertently” made that claim to the Committee. The Department’s letter failed to apologize to former Attorney General Mukasey for the false accusation. This is the second major retraction the Justice Department has made in the last seven months. In December 2011, the Department retracted its claim that the ATF had not allowed illegally purchased guns to be trafficked to Mexico.”
Yet libs want to make this all about who, when and why executive privilege has been used over the past half century. Anything to obfuscate the facts that Holder and his minions have blood on their hands and Obama is covering it up.
Jhunt163
June 20th, 2012
1:34 pm
It is also funny how Holder has now had to retract three testimonies for the congressional hearings with one alleging that the Bush Administration and Senior Justice officials had prior knowledge of Operation Wide Receiver, a retraction he later apologized for.
morerightthanleft
June 20th, 2012
1:35 pm
cutty. we get it.. youre a black guy or a white guy who wants to be cool bc you might get a black friend out of.youre so open minded..nevertheless …you bow to the alter of obama…keep blaming W…but to deny and think that you can be above the law…well …your an idiot!!! they are all crooks!!!
Ayn Rand was right
June 20th, 2012
1:37 pm
If F/F could be blamed on Bush, don’t you think Holder/Obama would have released every single document in existence?
This is yet another shameful example of our elected leaders having no idea what leadership is. Then again, it is the party of “please define “is”".
getalife
June 20th, 2012
1:39 pm
Our President is on a roll and needs to keep acting like willard wanted.
Talk is cheap.
Act.
DebbieDoRight - A Do Right Woman
June 20th, 2012
1:45 pm
**George W. Bush invoked executive privilege “in substance” in refusing to disclose the details of Vice President Dick Cheney’s meetings with energy executives, which was not appealed by the GAO.
***Further, on June 28, 2007, Bush invoked executive privilege in response to congressional subpoenas requesting documents from former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor.
***On July 9, 2007, Bush again invoked executive privilege to block a congressional subpoena requiring the testimonies of Taylor and Miers. Furthermore, White House Counsel Fred F. Fielding refused to comply with a deadline set by the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee to explain its privilege claim, prove that the president personally invoked it, and provide logs of which documents were being withheld.
***On July 13, less than a week after claiming executive privilege for Miers and Taylor, Counsel Fielding effectively claimed the privilege once again, this time in relation to documents related to the 2004 death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman. In a letter to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Fielding claimed certain papers relating to discussion of the friendly-fire shooting “implicate Executive Branch confidentiality interests” and would therefore not be turned over to the committee.[13]
***On August 1, 2007, Bush invoked the privilege for the fourth time in little over a month, this time rejecting a subpoena for Karl Rove. The subpoena would have required the President’s Senior Advisor to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in a probe over fired federal prosecutors. In a letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, Fielding claimed that “Mr. Rove, as an immediate presidential advisor, is immune from compelled congressional testimony about matters that arose during his tenure and that relate to his official duties in that capacity….”[14]
Leahy claimed that President Bush was not involved with the employment terminations of U.S. attorneys. Furthermore, he asserted that the president’s executive privilege claims protecting Josh Bolten, and Karl Rove are illegal. The Senator demanded that Bolten, Rove, Sara Taylor, and J. Scott Jennings comply “immediately” with their subpoenas, presumably to await a further review of these matters. This development paved the way for a Senate panel vote on whether to advance the citations to the full Senate. “It is obvious that the reasons given for these firings were contrived as part of a cover up and that the stonewalling by the White House is part and parcel of that same effort”, Leahy concluded about these incidents.
<SIDENOTE: As of July 17, 2008, Rove is still claiming executive privilege to avoid a congressional subpoena. Rove’s lawyer writes that his client is “constitutionally immune from compelled congressional testimony. ” You know I’ve read the constitution and did a little research trying to find the precedent, but you know something funny? It was nowhere to be found………….
Red
June 20th, 2012
1:49 pm
Partisans are squabbling in D.C.<<>> Isn’t there some dancing show on TV tonight?
Grasshopper
June 20th, 2012
1:49 pm
^^^^^^^^^
Like I said before…libs want to make this all about who, when and why executive privilege has been used over the past half century. Anything to obfuscate the facts that Holder and his minions have blood on their hands and Obama is covering it up.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
June 20th, 2012
1:53 pm
Apparently, this whole “Fast and Furious” deal must have been obozo’s idea, although it does sound like something hillary would come up with.
So that means this will all be leading to his IMPEACHMENT!!!!!
yay!
Atlantan
June 20th, 2012
1:56 pm
I’m sure Brian Terry’s family appreciates the Obama Administration and his Justice department getting to the truth of the matter. If Obama had a Brother-in-Law from his Mother’s side of the family he’d look like Brian Terry…..
Yet the same self-loathing American citizens will line up to support this crooked narcissist in November. Make Putin, Ahmadinejad, Hamas, Assad, Hezebollah, the worlds Marxist day and haters of America, truth and integrity – vote Obama in November.
DawgDad
June 20th, 2012
1:59 pm
“allowed hundreds of guns to be smuggled across the Mexican border” — Allowed? Enabled.
Debbie, what exactly does this have to do with Bush that “nothing” does not accurately convey?
Tom(Independent-Viet Vet-USAF)
June 20th, 2012
2:03 pm
Bytome – Since you choose to bring up “torture” again as one of your idiotic talking points. Let me make one thing perfectly clear – I would have water-boarded a terrorist on National TV if it would have saved American lives!! Yes, I understand you liberal wimps do not think like that!
Thulsa Doom
June 20th, 2012
2:05 pm
Where there is smoke there is fire. So much for the “transparency” administration. What a joke.
Thulsa Doom
June 20th, 2012
2:06 pm
What’s with all the George Bush stuff. George Bush is not president. Hasn’t been for going on 4 years.
iggy
June 20th, 2012
2:07 pm
Obama = Jimmy Carter
Holder = Brother BIlly
iggy
June 20th, 2012
2:09 pm
Obama is very arrogant or very stupid. By enacting exec priviledge he did exactly what Issa wanted.
1961_Xer
June 20th, 2012
2:12 pm
Ha. Read all the replies, and the libs really do sound like tards. Hint: when your man does something blatantly wrong, you look like an idiot trying to justify it.
This forum is a microcosm of the national picture. If folks can’t ever admit that their politicians did anything wrong, then there is no compromise or moving forward.
Let’s take Reagan in Iran/Contra. You can draw this conclusion: If Reagan new about Iran/Contra, he was guilty. If he didn’t, he was incompetent. I am a conservative and I can tell you that he was either guilty or incompetent on this matter.
Let’s look at Bush: I am a conservative. I hate the Patriot Act, I hate the Medicare drug program, I thought that the justification of invading Iraq was bogus. I would never support W on any of these issues.
If you can’t admit that your man is wrong, then you are devoid of reason. Libs and Cons alike should be appalled at the actions of Eric Holder. Obama should have cut him loose months ago. Whether or not Obama is involved, invoking executive privilege over this matter now stains the Presidency and makes it appear like he (Obama) is involved in a cover up. We could excuse the fact that DOJ officials ran a program of which Obama had no knowledge. We cannot excuse the cover up of the death of a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil by a sitting President for political gain. Spin it anyway you want, this is what it looks like from the outside until/unless Obama comes clean.
That Black guy
June 20th, 2012
2:19 pm
I guess because I can’t be called a “wingnut”, “bushbot”, or repub, I will not get an answer to my questions at 12:57.
At what point does party take a backseat to the truth?
Do(es) the life/lives of your fellow citizens mean anything? Or is it party before anything.
Halftrack
June 20th, 2012
2:24 pm
Fast & Furious was not started under Pres. Bush. AG Holder has now admitted this. This all belongs to the Obummer administration. This was an attempt on our 2nd Amendment rights to start with. The Klouso clowns goofed this operation up and someone ended up being killed. It is bad all the way around. It’s just to try and cover up some more manure but the smell will stay around for a long time.
Gimme Gimme Gimme
June 20th, 2012
2:40 pm
“Ya’ll are soooo concerned about the death of one federal officer?
What about the death of 4,000 federal employees in a war that we were lied into, with nothing accomplished by it?”
Pathetic attempt to avoid the topic. Totally expected from you though.
ragnar danneskjold
June 20th, 2012
2:43 pm
Dear Debbie @ 1:13 and 1:18, swing and miss twice. (1) Even if Bush had personally directed the firing of the Federal prosecutors that would not have been a crime. Invocation of executive privilege is appropriate for such a legal internal matter. (2) We agree that the Bush administration did not reveal that Pat Tilman was killed by friendly fire, rather allowing the perception of a heroic death to persist. Typical that a leftist would be horrified at allowing perception of heroism by a soldier.
Whoops, more misses, you definitely need some minor league rehab. @ 1:26 – suspect you are too dim to know who was the DoJ official who recommended the Rich pardon – hint, his initials are EH and he is a known crook and liar. @ 1:45 you are horrified that the executive used the privilege to block politically-motivated disclosure of energy policy debates? That is exactly when the privilege is supposed to exist, what a doofus.
Gimme Gimme Gimme
June 20th, 2012
2:46 pm
I love the “we are no worse then you” from DebbieDoYouRight. I thought your side was supposed to be standing on the high moral ground?
Grasshopper
June 20th, 2012
2:53 pm
“I love the “we are no worse then you” from DebbieDoYouRight. I thought your side was supposed to be standing on the high moral ground?”
Her side is devoid of a moral ground. The responses here illustrate that.
ragnar danneskjold
June 20th, 2012
2:56 pm
Dear Debbie @ 1:45, we would not expect your reading comprehension to facilitate understanding: “”<SIDENOTE: As of July 17, 2008, Rove is still claiming executive privilege to avoid a congressional subpoena. Rove’s lawyer writes that his client is “constitutionally immune from compelled congressional testimony. ” You know I’ve read the constitution and did a little research trying to find the precedent, but you know something funny? It was nowhere to be found………….
Perhaps you also noticed that there is no Constitutional power vested in Congress to demand testimony from any other co-equal branch. The "check" is the power of impeachment.
I demand to see Cheesy Grits Birth Certificate- Long Form Please
June 20th, 2012
2:57 pm
What about the death of 4,000 federal employees in a war that we were lied into, with nothing accomplished by it?
That doesn’t matter because it was a Republican mistake. Just like deficits dont matter when Republicans are in charge but they do when Democrats are.
Big difference.
ragnar danneskjold
June 20th, 2012
3:00 pm
Dear Cheesy Grits @ 2:57, do you support the Obama administration cover-up?
Liz
June 20th, 2012
3:06 pm
Ugly partisan arguments are being made here. Every president, every elected official always has “blood” on his or her hands. They make life and death decisions all the time (direct and indirect), through direct orders or budgets, etc.
We are “killing” the future of our country by the priorities The Congress, House and Senate are taking right now. I feel sorry for the youth of this country. I grew up in much better times, and I don’t see Congress doing anything to improve this country right now.