While House leaders push the attorney general to cough up more details and documents about the “Fast & Furious” gun-running scandal, a posse of conservatives is pushing for harsher action against the Justice Department, including a contempt of Congress charge and even impeachment of Eric Holder.
“The most important thing is to make sure that he answers the questions,” said Arizona Rep. Ben Quayle, leading the effort to pressure Holder for more information on the scandal that left one U.S. Border Patrol agent dead. If not, he told Secrets, he expects the House to move to contempt and possibly impeachment of the attorney general.
Holder appears at a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing Thursday where Quayle and others will press him to explain in greater detail the scandal in which U.S. guns that could be tracked were trafficked to Mexican drug lords. Critics say Holder hasn’t been forthcoming about who directed the effort. They also say thousands of pages of documents are missing.
Quayle, who represents Phoenix, the epicenter of Mexican drug trafficking, has been dogging the issue and last month urged House leaders to pressure Holder. “We should not allow Attorney General Holder’s failure to do his job prevent us from doing ours,” Quayle and five other House Republicans wrote in a letter to Speaker John Boehner.
An aide to Boehner said that GOP leaders are waiting for Holder to respond to their late May letter demanding to know who planned Fast & Furious and other details before moving on a contempt vote. “At this point, we’re still waiting to see what Justice comes up with,” said the aide.
Quayle, however, said his constituents don’t want to wait long. “This directly affects Arizona and puts us at risk,” he said. “It’s one of the biggest issues people here are talking about.”
