from mySA:

House Republicans threaten Holder

McClatchy

Updated 11:25 p.m., Thursday, February 2, 2012

• 
  Attorney General Eric Holder testifies during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation.

   Photo: Mark Wilson, Getty Images / 2012 Getty Images

0
inShare

Comments (0)

Larger | Smaller

Printable Version

Email This
Font

Recent Headlines

• Banker cleared in death of S.A. girl

• Strey helped develop recipes at iconic sausage maker

• Carver Academy will become public charter school

• Texas software pirate sentenced to prison

• San Antonio's “RoboCop” named award finalist

WASHINGTON — House Republicans threatened Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. with a criminal contempt of Congress citation Thursday, alleging the Department of Justice has refused for a year to turn over key documents in lawmakers' investigation of the failed Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. and chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told Holder in a Capitol Hill hearing that the Justice Department has provided only 6,400 pages of “heavily redacted” documents out of some 93,000 that the committee sought.

Issa said he and his GOP colleagues believe Justice officials are suppressing evidence that they approved the gun-walking tactics used in the operation, which ultimately allowed hundreds of U.S. weapons to flow to violent Mexican drug cartels.

“All these people should be ashamed that they didn't do as good a job as they should have,” Issa said.

Holder testified that his department is trying to cooperate with the congressional investigation. He said Justice staffers have responded to three dozen letters from members of Congress and have “facilitated numerous witness interviews.”

“This has been a significant undertaking for department employees, and our efforts in this regard remain ongoing,” Holder said. He added, “There is no attempt at any kind of a cover-up.”

Should the Issa committee follow through, the panel would hold hearings or simply vote on a resolution to find Holder and possibly other Justice officials in contempt. The full House would then consider the matter.

If the House agreed, the resolution would be sent to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, and he would be directed to bring a criminal indictment. But because the U.S. attorney serves under Holder, some other special prosecutor might be chosen to handle the matter.

Democrats on the committee, who conducted their own investigation, said they found no evidence that Holder or other Justice officials oversaw or approved of Fast and Furious.

But Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., a former committee chairman, did not back down. “You're hiding something here,” he told Holder. “You ought to give us the documents.”

Holder said his department's review of the material so far has shown that much of it is “not relevant or protected by grand jury secrecy rules.”

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/House-Republicans-threaten-Holder-2975302.php#ixzz1nk0aaj4D