AG Eric Holder Could Be Held in Contempt of Congress

A key House of Representatives committee plans to vote next Wednesday on whether to hold U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for stonewalling the Operation Fast and Furious investigation.

Although this scandal has been generally underreported in the media, Operation Fast and Furious was a botched operation by the U.S. government that purposely sold firearms to Mexican drug cartels, resulting in the murder of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and hundreds of Mexican citizens.

Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, indicated that his committee would set side the the contempt process if Holder’s Justice Department would agree to turn over thousands of additional documents that the committee has under subpoena according to CBS News. If the contempt motion is approved by Issa’s committee, it would go next to the full House for a vote. Holder has testified numerous times before Issa’s committee on this matter, but Republicans and some Democrats have been less than satisfied with his answers.

Speaker of the House John Boehner released a statement as follows:

The Justice Department is out of excuses. Congress has given Attorney General Holder more than enough time to fully cooperate with its investigation into “Fast and Furious,” and to help uncover the circumstances regarding the death of Border Agent Brian Terry. Agent Terry’s family, the whistleblowers who brought this issue to light, and the American people deserve answers. Either the Justice Department turns over the information requested, or Congress will have no choice but to move forward with holding the Attorney General in contempt for obstructing an ongoing investigation.

Last September, CNN’s Anderson Cooper aired a pretty solid report on Fast and Furious, a.k.a Project Gunwalker:

In this video, FNC’s Judge Napolitano discusses the latest struggle between Holder and Congress over Fast and Furious:

Separately, Holder appointed two U.S. attorneys on the Friday to investigate the leaking of national security secrets to the media by the White House. Some have argued that an independent prosecutor outside of Justice Department influence should handle the investigation, however.