White House asserts executive privilege over Fast and Furious documents

AP Photo/Susan Walsh

Updated 12:05 p.m. ET

(CBS News) The showdown between the White House and key congressional Republicans over the administration's response to a controversial program that allowed guns into the hands of Mexican drug cartels kicked into high gear Wednesday.

President Obama granted Attorney General Eric Holder executive privilege on the matter, while the head of the House panel overseeing government conduct moved forward with proceedings to hold the nation's top law enforcement official in contempt of Congress.

By asserting executive privilege, the Justice Department can withhold documents from Congress, even if Congress has issued a subpoena, as the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has.

In a letter to Rep. Darrell Issa, R.-Cal., head of the Oversight Committee, Deputy Attorney General James Cole wrote, "Although we are deeply disappointed that the Committee appears intent on proceeding with a contempt vote, the Department remains willing to work with the Committee to reach a mutually satisfactory resolution of the outstanding issues."

At issue is documents over Operation Fast and Furious, an 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.

The contempt proceedings have led to a face-off between the Executive and Legislative branches. The Justice Department Wednesday asked the White House to get involved.

In a letter to President Obama asking for executive privilege, the attorney general wrote "that the Committee has not established that privileged documents are demonstrably critical to the responsible fulfillment of the Committee's legitimate legislative functions."

A White House aide told CBS News that this is the first time President Obama has asserted executive privilege, and noted that President George W. Bush used the privilege six times and President Bill Clinton used it 14 times.

With the White House's move, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, raised the prospect that the Obama administration was involved in Fast and Furious.

"Until now, everyone believed that the decisions regarding 'Fast and Furious' were confined to the Department of Justice. The White House decision to invoke executive privilege implies that White House officials were either involved in the 'Fast and Furious' operation or the cover-up that followed. The Administration has always insisted that wasn't the case. Were they lying, or are they now bending the law to hide the truth?" Boehner spokesperson Michael Steel wrote in a statement.

However, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee defended the president's assertion of executive privilege.

"In this case, it seems clear that the Administration was forced into this position by the Committee's unreasonable insistence on pressing forward with contempt despite the Attorney General's good faith offer," Rep. Cummings said at Wednesday's contempt proceedings.

A meeting held Tuesday evening between Rep. Issa and Holder was an attempt to work out an agreement over  documents pertaining to the Fast and Furious case. But it ended without an agreement being reached.

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."

"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 Issa 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."

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

[JJnaa]

Obama knew about gun walking in March 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L54gOgJxIRQ

He lied.

[erzkarlaspern]

It is time to impeach Holder and President Obama for illegal and criminal activities such as gun-running and also for fighting a Congressional law, the Defense of Marriage Act. The Executive Branch has the Constitutional duty to Enforce Congressional Laws and these two are Fighting a law! Impeach now!

[occupy_cbs]

Seriously, a "freerepublic" link exonerating bush/cheney for the drug wars in Mexico that began in 2006, when the ATF gunrunning pilot program began in 2005, Wide Receiver covered 2006-2007, and you have the gall to say none of those guns, or any from the other NRA gun nutz didn't end up on the streets of Mexico under bush?

Sorry, but your highly-partisan propaganda is total nonsense and you know it's nothing but your type of lies and deceptions! LOL!


=====
jd2408: "Mexico knew about the program during the Bush administration. I don't care about the political parties, I do care about the truth".
=====




Seriously, both you and julia couldn't care less about the truth, since she uses a "freerepublic" link to backup your ridiculous point, since that's only the fox/rush propaganda speaking, and you bought into it while having the gall of saying you're not partisan.

The ATF ran a series of "gunwalking" sting operations between 2005 and 2011. This was done under the umbrella of Project Gunrunner, the pilot project in 2005 in texas, and increased in numbers out of the Tucson ATF office during 2006-2007 -- neither of which had informed the Mexican authorities, nor did the ATF stop the weapons from crossing into Mexico -- two partisan republican lies and deceptions!



'Wide Receiver' gun-walking records released by Justice Department

The Justice Department released documents Thursday on the Bush-era Wide Receiver gun-walking operation that suggest the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was aware that guns were likely flowing into Mexico but allowed it to continue in the hopes of penetrating deeply into U.S.-Mexico gun trafficking networks.

An August 2006 briefing memo on Wide Receiver, which was conducted from 2006 to 2007, shows that "there is currently sufficient documentation to conclude" a criminal case from the investigation.
In addition, the memo suggests that it was "highly unlikely," due to the limited recovery of firearms, that weapons had not already entered gun trafficking conduits to Mexico.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71127.html#ixzz1yRIr9blZ

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71127.html#ixzz1yRIM2MBH

-----

'Operation Wide Receiver': The Bush Administration Had Its Very Own ATF 'Gun Walking' Scandal

The operation, run by ATF's Tucson office and the U.S. Attorney for Arizona, started in 2006 - when George W. Bush's Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was running the show - and ran until the end of 2007. No charges were filed.

Fast forward to 2009, when the Obama administration took over the Justice Department. The former Gang Unit inside DOJ's Criminal Division (it later merged with the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section) reviewed the case for possible prosecution. At that time, a federal prosecutor in the unit "learned the ATF Arizona had permitted guns to be transferred to suspected gun traffickers and had not interdicted them," according to a DOJ official.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/wide_receiver_the_bush_administration_had_its_very_own_atf_gun_walking_scandal.php

[occupy_cbs]

Ed Morrissey's Operation Wide Receiver Lie: "They Accounted For Those Guns"
June 15, 2012

During the June 13 broadcast of Cam & Company on NRA News, conservative blogger Ed Morrissey relied onblatant falsehoods to draw a distinction between the failed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Operation Fast and Furious and its Bush-era analogue, Operation Wide Receiver.

Morrissey claimed that during Wide Receiver ATF "coordinated" with Mexican law enforcement officials and that firearms involved in the operation were "accounted for." In reality, no such coordination occurred and many of firearms involved in Wide Receiver were lost after being allowed to "walk" across the U.S. border with Mexico.

Far from being "accounted for," the vast majority of the 450 guns involved in Wide Receiver were never recovered by the United States. This may have been because the ATF agents involved in Wide Receiver did not actually coordinate with the Mexican authorities as Morrissey claimed.

A report issued on January 30 by the Minority Staff of the House Oversight Committee, indicates that ATF hoped to coordinate with Mexican law enforcement during Wide Receiver, but the idea was never executed in practice.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201206150011

[marychgo]

Let's stop fighting about how many guns went where when and consider for a moment whether Darrell Issa's conspiracy theory makes any sense.

I originally thought this insanity came from some blowhard talk radio pundit, but NO, it's actually Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) who justifies his hysteria over Fast & Furious because he claims to believe that the President and the Attorney General planned out a clumsy and poorly executed sting operation out of the Phoenix ATF and U.S. Attorney's offices in the hope that, if U.S. guns "walked" across the border into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, the Obama administration would be able to pass radical gun control laws.

Wha...? I happen to favor what the NRA would consider radical gun control laws, at least on handguns and assault weapons, but I pride myself on having fairly good contact with reality, and I KNOW that the NRA has a hammerlock on certain parts of the anatomy of most Republican legilators and a whole lot of Democratic legislators. So I'm not holding my breath for gun control legislation anytime soon.

So please explain to me, commenters who think Obama and Holder want to take away your beloved guns, any POSSIBLE set of circumstances under which the unsupervised release of 1,400 guns into the hands of Mexican drug cartels who at the time owned far more than 100,000 guns was EVER going to make it possible to enact significant gun control legislation in the U.S. House and Senate.

YOU know it wouldn't have happened; I know it wouldn't have happened; OBAMA and HOLDER know it wouldn't have happened. Yet somehow ISSA thinks it WOULD have happened.

I guess Issa is kind of like the Queen of Hearts in "Alice in Wonderland": he thinks it's his job to "believe three impossible things before breakfast"!

[occupy_cbs]

Yes mary, the republican conspiracy theory about the ATF sting operation being the catalyst behind the radical removal of American's 2nd amendment rights, is well-beyond comprehension, but this is from a party full of "birthers, baggers and buffoons" that swallow any of the fox/rush propaganda whole!

This is also from a party that wants to continue the very failed WAR on Drugs that's fueling the arms smuggling and massive killings in Mexico, and if any of this political theater by republicans in the House would actually address these problems instead of trying to blame all the killings on AG Holder, we might move forward.

[newseer]

WHAT ABOUT THE IRANGATE?

[mikecragar]

What did the President and Holder know and when did they know it?

Nothing says "I have nothing to hide" like an assertion of executive privilege to block investigators from looking at government documents from the Dept. of JustUs that did not originate in the White House and which Obama and Holder claim to have no knowledge of!

Most transparent administration EVAH!

They are claiming executive privilege for documents on the basis that they are confidential communications to the President and at the same time claiming that Obama has no knowledge of them.
But logical inconsistencies have never been an impediment to this administration.

[newseer]

IBN iSSA AND THE REST OF THE CONGRESSPEOPLE SHOULD REFRAIN FOR DIGGING INTO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S BUSINESS, AS THE COUNTRY CARRIES OUT ACTIVITIES THAT ARE FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL OF US, AND SHOULD NOT BE MADE PUBLIC FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL AMERICANS. AMERICANS SHOULD TAKE NOTE OF THE SHENANIGANS OF THESE PEOPLE AND TAKE THE APROPRIATE ACTION IN THE NEXT ELECTIONS FOR CONGRESS.

[mikecragar]

Note the leaks of highly sensitive national security information from the White House on SEAL Team Six actions, drone attacks, the identity of cooperating agents in Pakistan like the doctor that is now doing 33 years in a Paki prison because the White House wanted to spike the ball yet again on the Osama killing, the leaks of the Stuxnet and Flame worms originating at the NSA/CIA and Israel - all to make Obama look like a competent military leader and all CRIMINAL TREASON leaks of classfied information. And yet Holder and Obama refuse to appoint an independent Special Counsel like Bush did for the much less important Valerie Plame matter.

[Molly-Pchr]

I remember the Mexican president's visit and the warm and fuzzy atmosphere and Obama calling our White House "la Casa Blanca". But gun walking?

[raptor-022]

Juliatime June 20, 2012 6:57 PM EDT
"No I blame him for all the deaths caused by his gun running as no guns ever crossed the border under BUSH. http://www.freerepublic.com/"




Seriously, a "freerepublic" link exonerating bush/cheney for the drug wars in Mexico that began in 2006, when the ATF gunrunning pilot program began in 2005, Wide Receiver covered 2006-2007, and you have the gall to say none of those guns, or any from the other NRA gun nutz didn't end up on the streets of Mexico under bush?

Sorry, but your highly-partisan propaganda is total nonsense and you know it's nothing but your type of lies and deceptions! LOL!

[arthanyel]

And of course if they apprehended the starw buyers while still in the US they capture the little fish, while the big fish continue uninterrupted. Letting the little fish go to land the big ones is a time-honored law enforcement tactic. In THIUS case it was executed badly and didn't work, but there is nothing wrong with the basic premise.

And the people that executed it badly and tried to cover it up - the ATF agents involved - have been found and fired.

[jd2408]

Big difference. Mexico knew about the program during the Bush administration. They did not know about the fast and furious program. They were two different programs. I don't care about the political parties, I do care about the truth. Who is being partisan here ?

[raptor-022]

Juliatime June 20, 2012 6:15 PM EDT
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2011/06/mexico-war-dead-update-figures-40000.html



Nothing like a highly-partisan attack dog, unable to read her own links, and would rather just blame AG Holder for everything wrong in the world today, despite 68,000 confiscated U.S. guns in Mexico -- far more than the 1,000 from Fast and Furious and other ATF fiascos.

From YOUR link:

"It covered the period from the start of the drug war in December 2006 until the end of 2010".


So now you want to blame AG Holder for the deaths from Dec. 2006 to Jan. 2009 when he wasn't even Attorney General? LOL!

[raptor-022]

You highly-partisan republican attack dogs should start blaming the bush/cheney administration for their part in these deaths, since the start of the drug wars in Mexico was clearly in Dec. 2006, and the pilot program for the ATF gunrunning began in texas in 2005!

[VRWCmember20]

raptor-22:
Here's a factual response to your FALSE 68,000-confiscated-guns talking point nonsense-

According to ATF statistics, of the 21,313 guns submitted for tracing by the government of Mexico in 2009, only 5,444 of them (25 percent) traced back to federally licensed gun dealers in the United States. Similarly, in 2010, of 7,971 guns submitted for tracing by the government of Mexico, only 2,945 (37 percent) traced back to federally licensed gun dealers in the U.S.

The reason for the large disparity between the overall numbers of guns submitted in those two years is that in late 2009, the government of Mexico provided the United States with a large list of guns it had been stockpiling for years. Accordingly, 2009's numbers do not reflect guns that were seized exclusively in 2009, but rather for a number of the preceding years.

Additionally, any statistics on the percentage of such guns tracing back to the United States are further skewed because of selection bias. As it has been widely noted, the government of Mexico only provides guns to the United States for tracing that they already have reason to believe originated here. There is no reason to submit for tracing guns that are known to originate in Mexico.

In a November 8, 2011, court filing, the Chief of ATF's Firearms Operations Division made a declaration that "in 2008, of the approximately 30,000 firearms that the Mexican Attorney General's Office informed ATF that it had seized, only 7,200, or one quarter of those firearms, were submitted to ATF for tracing." Based on these statistics, it's clear that the total sample of guns submitted for tracing is not representative of all the guns found in Mexico, and there isn't evidence that the other 75 percent of those guns were sold in a U.S. gun store.

These are facts that only an uninformed inferior half wit would LAUGH OUT LOUD !!!!! over.

[ugacrew]

Go down swinging Mr. President.

If they put forth this much effort into everything they are actually charged with doing, we would not a deficit, we would have have been involved in wars for such a prolonged period, the healthcare debate would have been resolved and or negotiated; most if not simply more of your political apointees would have been appointed by now and the backlogs of critical decision making, i.e. in the judicial system would have long diminished; problems related to the mortgage and U.S. Banking system could have been minimized or averted entirely;
and decisions would have been made in a timely manner so as to avoid having entire the U.S. credit rating downgraded.

Despite having graduated from one of the highest regarded educational institutions in this country and serving as the President of your law class, they still second guess practically every decision you make. They will continue to do so as long as you have black skin. That won't change because they are too hate filled to see their own bigotry or fill their own hate.

They want to pretend they are concerned with the death of agents as related to this gun case while simultaneously Americans are dying everywhere everyday because they feel themselves only worthy of descent and basic health care.

The current investigation strikes at the core of their pride because you are not the puppet they insist on you being. I would rather they focus with the same level of intensity on helping create jobs for the American people and/or helping to preserve the retirement and pension plans for those who have already worked their entire lives. This is not important enough for them, however, because they can't point fingers at you or your administration.

Despite their supposed intellect, they want the American people to believe all of the problems we are facing as a nation rest solely on your shoulders. Never in any history book have I studied has there every been any one man or one President to solve all of the nations problems. It has always been a concerted effort.

Many Presidents have had to deal will political opponents, Mr. President, but none of them had Black skin, you do, and as long as you have Black skin, nothing you ever will do will be right.

I say fight on Mr. President, and if need be, go down swinging. In time, history will record your efforts fairly and though you may feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders realize that it is the empty wagon that always makes the loudest noise, and that is the noise you hear now.