GOP-led House Oversight Committee files suit against AG Eric Holder over Fast and Furious documents

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee filed a civil lawsuit against Attorney General Eric Holder in an effort to win the release of documents pertaining to the Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal, Aug. 13, 2012.

(CBS News) The House Oversight Committee filed a civil lawsuit against Attorney General Eric Holder Monday, demanding that Holder release documents from the Fast and Furious gunwalking operation.

The Republican-led House of Representative voted to hold Holder in contempt on June 28 for failing to turn over thousands of pages of subpoenaed documents. The Justice Department has said it is withholding documents under White House executive privilege.

Seventeen Democrats voted with 238 Republicans in the 255-67 vote for contempt. Democratic leaders called the contempt vote a "political witch hunt."

In a past subpoena dispute between Congress and the executive branch, a federal judge ordered the executive branch to turn over the disputed documents. However, before the executive branch could pursue an appeal, the two sides reached a compromise and certain documents were turned over.

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The contempt vote had two possible tracks for enforcement: criminal and civil. But shortly after the House vote, the Department of Justice announced it would not pursue a criminal case against its own Attorney General and did not believe any crime had been committed. The civil lawsuit filed Monday asks a federal judge to order the Justice Department to turn over the documents.

During Operation Fast and Furious, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms allowed thousands of weapons to fall into the hands of traffickers for Mexican drug cartels. Documents sought by Congress include internal emails and memoranda regarding a now-discredited letter to Congress from the Justice Department that denied any "gunwalking" had occurred. Nearly a year later, the Justice Department told Congress the letter was incorrect and that gunwalking had, indeed, gone on but that Holder knew nothing of it at the time.

[jms133]

I read,at a couple of locations,on the internet ,that when Romney was starting up Bain Capital,Bain wouldn't let him use any of his(Bains) investors.Well,Romney met a group of rich Salvadoran families wanting to invest, which would have been fine,but,the families also financed Salvadoran right wing death squads that killed and tortured tens and thousands of communists,socialists and political dissenters for disagreeing with the authoritarian government in el Salvador.His business was built with blood money.He laundered money for Central American drug lords,you know ,the other interminable war costing billions year after year,that we have been fighting for ever and losing.

[iamaham]

All of which has nothing to do with F&F. Why is you that liberals always find a way to change the subject when they don't have any answers to the subject at hand. Holder is withholding and his boss is using executive privilege to protect him along with his cronies at the justice department refusing to investigate. Hopefully a civil suit will clear things up and if it turns out that he is clean, then so be it.

[USMJP]

Please support my campaign, I've uploaded my flower photos on T-shirts and Thongs, and my dog photos, and tomorrow I'll upload my vegetable garden photos on more T-shirts and Thongs. Cris Ericson
http://cafepress.com/USMJP1
I am on the ballot for Governor and for U.S. Senate, and the
USMJP1 T-shirts and Thongs are for my U.S. Senate campaign.

[Shibbol]

These 109-working-days-a-year people have time to go after Holder but no time to pass a farm bill. What exactly are they thinking? Any Congressman opposing the farm bill should resign now and not pass "go".

[USMJP]

When in God's name are the Republicans going to demand the original documents underlying the legal notice on the birth certificate that President Obama first put on the internet that showed, in the lower right hand corner in tiny print, HRS codes which are Hawaii Revised Statutes proving that the certificate of birth was amendend and/or altered? We have a legal right to know WHAT it was amended or altered from, especially since the SECOND long form birth certificate he released did NOT have those HRS codes and has all of the same information, therefore what was amended and or altered is still being concealed. We have to fight corruption from the top down, because as long as there is corruption, even a tiny bit, even as much as people naturally like President Obama, as long as he is concealing material facts about his birth, then we know he will just give Eric Holder and Governor Peter Shumlin of Vermont, who was not legally elected, pardons when needed.
Governor Peter Shumlin was not legally elected because he did not receive a majority of the vote and under those conditions, the state legislature is required to vote between the top 3 candidates, and I was one of the top 3, until suddenly my votes were cut in half, so there is an official website of the state that lists "unofficial" vote count, and then my votes are cut in half, and then listed with only half the count in the "official" votes, so that when the top 3 candidates were voted on by the state legislature, I wasn't included. This is an important issue now because I am running against Peter Shumlin again this fall Nov. 6, 2012 general election.
Cris Ericson

[nearl451]

Yaaaaaaawwwwn.

Yeah when?

[nearl451]

Did you know that if Obama wasborn on Mars, because his mother was a US citizen, he is also a naturalized US citizen?

Good luck on your campaign. You'll need it.

Good luck in Belleview too.

[thebob-bob]

Republicans have nothing better to do then Grandstand for the Obama-haters. Everything they don't like is a constitutional crisis or a threat to our way of life or a Islamist plot or an attack on religion or a threat to marriage or ... whatever. These guys have stood in the way of solving Americas problems because to work with Obama would mean that they would have to accept that a Black man was duly elected by a majority of American voters ... just like the Constitution calls for. No Supreme Court intervention, just a straight up election.

Nope, in their minds, it just can not be so...

It would be sad if they weren't so dangerous.

[tmsanders78]

Stupid, racist comment from a stupid, racist liberal.

(1) The dems owned the entire government for 3 years. They passed all of Obama's harebrained schemes. None worked.

(2) Disagreeing with the president's policies does not mean failure to accept a "Black man."

[solarisgod]

People here are missing all kinds of facts because you are being steered like cattle from Montana. The AG Eric Holder HAS turned over 7700 pages of information over 40 times and sat before this committee 7 times. As the caption read, Holder was not aware that the program was in fact in operation it was architected under the Bush administration. His last request, when asked to turn over more pages was that this be the time and that sensitive information be removed due to current operatives in the field, revealing judges signatures, while investigating where the leak was sprung and potentially upcoming prosecution in court. Additionally, most of the guns were funneled through Arizona which did not have a real stringent gun policy to deter this traffic. This congressman is on a witch hunt at the taxpayers liability. Issa needs to get a life and stop wasting the taxpayers time and money. If he want documents 'specify' what he is looking for and the AG will turn it over. How simple is that. The AG was negotiating all types of options to protect an on going investigation as to how this happened. Issa just want to play this in the media.

[justamaz]

You're being misled by this administration if you believe that. Holder can turn in 77K pages and it doesn't matter. The point is that the information wanted is being withheld and Obama doesn't have the guts to tell Holder to release it or you're fired.

[solarisgod]

People here are missing all kinds of facts because you are being steered like cattle from Montana. The AG Eric Holder HAS turned over 7700 pages of information over 40 times and sat before this committee 7 times. As the caption read, Holder was not aware that the program was in fact in operation it was architected under the Bush administration. His last request, when asked to turn over more pages was that this be the time and that sensitive information be removed due to current operatives in the field, revealing judges signatures, while investigating where the leak was sprung and potentially upcoming prosecution in court. Additionally, most of the guns were funneled through Arizona which did not have a real stringent gun policy to deter this traffic. This congressman is on a witch hunt at the taxpayers liability. Issa needs to get a life and stop wasting the taxpayers time and money. If he want documents 'specify' what he is looking for and the AG will turn it over. How simple is that. The AG was negotiating all types of options to protect an on going investigation as to how this happened. Issa just want to play this in the media.

[larryleighton]

Judging from the vote, no republicans can think for themselves, they have to vote like a gang.

[AaliyahY]

I know! It reminds me of the health care vote.

[ghostcommander]

"Op votes for contempt as "Fast and Furious" blows up in it's face"
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/06/fast_and_furious_investigation...

"The truth about the fast and furious scandal"
http://features.blogs.fortune.com/2012/06/27/fast-and-furious-truth/...

Dear sycophant wingnut supporter of the radical extremist republicans,
Why do constantly repeat the lying talking points of your miserable failure masters? Isn't it enough they almost destroyed the American economy?
Why are they not cooperating with President Obama and the Democrats to fix the economy?
Why are the radical extremist republicans in Congress obstructing the recovery and sabotaging the economy?

Are your miserable failure masters and you, their serf helpers, Sadists?

[ghostcommander]

Here we go again folks, another witch hunt by Issa and his demagogues following the same script they used against President Clinton--Tell lies, even preposterous lies and repeat them over and over to convince, fool and even brainwash the citizens.

The radical extremist republicans used to rail out frivolous lawsuits all the time, but when it comes to them using "We the People's" House of Representatives for a frivolous witch hunt, then it is okay.

The MSM could do the American people a really big favor by denying these radical extremist republicans a forum. Have they not done enough damage to America already?