House Republicans To Sue Eric Holder Over Fast And Furious Scandal
Attorney General Eric Holder has faced many trials and tribulations stemming from the Fast and Furious scandal. In the latest sleight against the AG, House Republicans are now planning to file a civil lawsuit against Holder in order to get him to turn over documents relating to the scandal, settling their score with him once and for all.
Darrell Issa is still pushing for Eric Holder to turn over documents relating to the Fast and Furious gun-running operation that has resulted in the death of at least one U.S. Border Patrol agent. Using one of the last tools available to him, Issa and other House GOP figures are filing a civil suit against Holder this month, according to Newser. Their endgame? The hope that a federal judge will rule that President Obama’s executive privilege over documents relating to the Fast and Furious scandal is invalid.
“We’ll be filing a civil case during the break,” Issa told NBC, “We will expect a day in court before a federal judge, which we have a 100 percent chance that the judge will hold that these documents should be delivered.”
House Republicans held Holder in contempt due to his refusal to release Fast and Furious documents back in June. The Justice Department then said that it would not be pursuing criminal charges in the scandal, leaving the GOP’s contempt charge a symbolic gesture at best. A civil suit is just about the last measure that Issa and his House Oversight Committee can take against Holder in an attempt to get the truth regarding Fast and Furious.
“The idea that you would withhold based on some executive privilege the documents related to a cover up of a crime is absurd, but that’s the claim that the attorney general is hiding behind,” Issa said.
Issa has compared GOP difficulties in getting the real story behind the Fast and Furious scandal to congressional difficulties during Nixon’s infamous Watergate investigations.
“We’re seeking a remedy and the remedy is an order to compel,” Issa said. “Nixon didn’t respond to Congress, he responded to federal judges, ultimately the Supreme Court, ordering that he had no such privilege to cover up the tapes. And these are no different than the Nixon tapes, we’re asking for documents related to a cover up of lying to Congress.”
Do you think that the GOP’s civil lawsuit against Eric Holder will work? Will the truth behind Fast and Furious ever be known, or will it still remain a mystery for decades to come?
