Issa: Holder contempt vote to move forward, for now

Updated 10:01 p.m. ET

(CBS News) A meeting between the head of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Attorney General Eric Holder to work out an agreement over documents pertaining to the Fast and Furious case has ended without an agreement being reached. As a result, Rep. Issa has not postponed or cancelled a contempt vote of the attorney general.

Issa told reporters after the meeting, "If we receive no documents, we'll go forward. If we receive documents we will evaluate them."

In a letter to Issa sent later Tuesday evening, Deputy Attorney General James Cole wrote, "We regret that the Committee rejected our proposal. Our offer would have provided the Committee with unprecedented access to these documents, many of which are not covered by the Committee's subpoenas in this matter."

Issa and Holder met in an attempt to end a stalemate between Republicans in Congress and the Obama administration over documents pertaining to the Fast and Furious case, the Arizona gunwalking program that put guns in the hands of illicit gun purchasers as a way to track Mexican smuggling cartels. As a result of the program, hundreds of guns showed up in Mexico and one was found at where a U.S. border agent was killed. Issa and his counterpart in the Senate, Charles Grassley, R-Iowa., opened an investigation into the case more than a year ago.

"We're not looking to hold people responsible. We're looking for document production," Issa said.

Issa's committee is looking for documents dating from February to December 2011 on how the Justice Department handled the Fast and Furious case.

Holder says he made Holder an "extraordinary" offer that includes documents, a briefing on those documents and answers to questions Issa and his committee might have.

"The ball is in their court," Holder said. "They rejected what I think is an extraordinary offer."

Senator Grassley, who attended the meeting, told CBS News that Issa is right to proceed with contempt vote against Holder.

"He wants to turn over only what he wants to turn over and not give us any information about what he's not turning over. That's unacceptable. I'm not going to buy a pig in a poke," Grassley said.

Although Issa said the contempt hearing, scheduled for Wednesday at 10 a.m., is on for now, he left open the possibility that there is still time to cancel the vote.

"The deadline will always be to the last moment," Issa said.

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[Geoff_Caldwell]

The only thing "unprecedented" in this entire mess is Holder's corruption.

[SD92040]

Sweet! What a master stroke! Executive Priviledge! Obama has come to the rescue.

Now the stink covers them both. What happens when someone leaks the documents that show F&F was a political operation that originated in the WH? And americans and mexicans are dead because of it?

I give holder less than a month, than he'll resign to "remove the political distraction to the Presidents reelection effort".......

[arthanyel]

Conservative propaganda, and nonsense besides. Fast and Furious was the THIRD iteration of a BATF program that began under BUSH. What on earth would make you think it could have been "a political operation that originated in the WH".

Try again.

[wfw3536]

And now the president uses Executive Privilege(this means the president had to been named and knew about this in these documents otherwise you can't by law use Executive Privilege) to continue this cover up where a brave American agent was killed along with thousands of innocent Mexicans. And Obama was the person who ran as an open and different president, well this cover up shows us that this administration has little regard for the law, the constitution, and the right of the American folks the right to know.

[RealWorldNow]

This type of cover up is what took Nixon down, Obama is toast regardless of this issue, it's all running thru his hands like grains of sand now...

[arthanyel]

Inaccurate. Executive privilege does not mean that the President has to be specifically named or involed. Please read up on laws before you misquote them. A component of the definition:

Executive privilege is the power claimed by the President of the United States AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH (emphasis added) to resist certain subpoenas and other interventions by the legislative and judicial branches of government

[johngalt_as]

You Obama and Holder fans can throw insults all you want but it was announced that Holder is asking Obama for Executive Priviledge on the Fast & Furious docs he refuses to turn over. WHY? What is there they don't want known? Wanna bet that not only Holder had knowledge of the whole thing but Obama did also.

[nottblu]

trout, one can only imagine your partisan laced didtribes if this was the Bush administration. This scandal is bigger than watergate. Obama and holder lied and people actually died. You are a hypocrite of the highest degree.

[arthanyel]

Conservative propaganda, 100% fact free. Read the full text of the letter to Issa. The only documents Issa is still asking for relate to an investigation AFTER THE FACT. If Holder or Obama knew anything about this operation they would have to have known BEFORE the February 4, 2011 letter - and all of THOSE prior documents have already been produced.

This is a witch hunt, pure and simple, by Republicans for political purposes.

[sjc_1]

Issa is playing politics just like he did in the governor recall in California. He is a megalomaniac and should be taught a lesson. This is another form of McCarthyism.

[ammo17]

he lied to congress do to him what they did to roger clemens.we are never going to get to the truth from this lying lawyer.

[CaptainSmollett]

If there is nothing to hide, why is he hiding it?

The major problem I have with this administration is its sheer contempt for the American people in order to advance its political agenda. It is disgusting to see in what's supposed to be a democracy.

[johngalt_as]

Troutfishman, the difference is that Obama crowed about how his administration was going to be 'different', that's the difference.

[Yanika25]

There is no logic to your comment.

Would you allow the police to search your home everyday? What do you have to hide?

Why don't you publish you real name, address, and phone number? Do you have something to hide?

[quotelawrence]

after waiting this amount of time, and to continue to beat the drum is placing the American citizen in a lucrative position Justice and Rule of Law, or Corruption and withholding of Evidence, either way this divides the country further, and shows our enemy and our allies we are suffering due to no balls, and most Obama fans think withholding of evidence is okay, obviously as they could also inform the president to abide by the law rather then by his personal doctrine,

[arthanyel]

It is not witholding evidence, as all of the documents in question are after the fact.

[quotelawrence]

after waiting this amount of time, and to continue to beat the drum is placing the American citizen in a lucrative position Justice and Rule of Law, or Corruption and withholding of Evidence, either way this divides the country further, and shows our enemy and our allies we are suffering due to no balls, and most Obama fans think withholding of evidence is okay, obviously as they could also inform the president to abide by the law rather then by his personal doctrine,

[KnowerseekerReturns]

"Holder says he made Holder an "extraordinary" offer...." -- Um... yeahhhhhh. Holder offered something to himself? Politicians do that all the time....

Anyways, it's a shame how anything legit that happens in the government, such as investigating negligence from a government official that has led to disaster, always gets politicized into Dem vs. Rep. I have zero faith in our government or our nation anymore.

[Rafterman11]

There's a fine line between investigating and fishing expeditions.

[Geoff_Caldwell]

Understand. But what gets really irritating is how the Dems and the left keep trying to label this as a fishing expedition. Brian Terry was not fist bait.