House Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are circulating a staff briefing paper in the first step toward citing Attorney General Eric Holder for contempt in the Fast and Furious gunrunning scandal.
Committee Chairman Darrell Issa Tweeted out that : “InTheDay1 @GOPoversight thank you. we’re not stopping until #Holder &@TheJusticeDept are held accountable and the truth is out.”
They have circulated a 48-page draft that has been distributed to all of the Democrats and Republicans on the committee establishing the case for citing the attorney general.
The report hits Holder for obstructing the committee’s investigation, now in its second year.
“When the Committee issued a subpoena to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on October 12, 2011, for Justice Department documents, the Committee specified 22 categories of documents it required the Department to produce,” the report states. “Department representatives specifically confirmed their understanding of each category. To date, the Department has not produced any responsive documents for 12 of the 22 categories. The Department has not completely fulfilled any of the 10 categories for which documents have been produced.”
It states that instead of complying the with the committee’s requests for documents the Holder Justice Department, the report alleges it engaged in a systematic effort to intimidate witnesses and hid subpoenaed documents until they were confronted with incontrovertible evidence.
“The Justice Department’s demonstrable contempt for the congressional investigation has inflicted harm on the people of two nations seeking the truth – and very pointedly on the family of fallen Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and ATF whistleblowers who now face retaliation in the wake of their own heroic efforts to expose wrongdoing,” the brief said.
The committee also hits the Justice Department for fueling cartel violence in Mexico, noting that Mexican authorities have been able to trace weapons used in at least one drug-cartel killing to the Fast and Furious operation.
According to CBS News, there have been at least three contempt citations filed against Executive Branch officials since 1983.
