Presidents rely on the Justice Department to provide them with a legal basis for their actions. Today, Attorney General Eric Holder provided President Obama with a legal basis for blocking an investigation that into “serious wrongdoing” by his Justice Department, according to House investigators.

“The legal basis is set forth in the enclosed letter from the attorney general to the president,” the Justice Department wrote in a letter this morning to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee announcing that Obama had asserted executive privilege over documents pertaining to Operation Fast and Furious.