Attorney General Eric Holder and Rep. Darrell Issa are not friends — and newly disclosed emails add further proof to the claim.
A 2011 email from Holder to his staff said that Issa and his “idiot cronies” were indifferent about Operation Fast and Furious until they saw a political opportunity. He also accused them of wanting to “suck up to the gun lobby,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Justice Department turned over more than 64,000 pages of documents on the Fast and Furious Monday night, after long-standing demands by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to do so, as reported Tuesday by Washington Examiner’s Susan Ferrechio.
The committee, chaired by the California Republican, has spent years investigating the botched gun-tracking operation.
In one April 2011 email, Holder wrote to his staff: “Issa and his idiot cronies never gave a damn about this when all that was happening was that thousands of Mexicans were being killed with guns from our country. All they want to do – in reality – is cripple ATF and suck up to the gun lobby. Politics at its worst – maybe the media will get it.”
In a statement after the Election Day-eve document dump, Issa said, “When Eric Holder wants to know why he was the first Attorney General held in criminal contempt of Congress, he can read the judge’s order that compelled the production of 64,280 pages that he and President Obama illegitimately and illegally withheld from Congress. […] I am deeply concerned that some redactions to these documents may still be inappropriate and contrary to the judge’s order in the case.”
Holder and Issa have continually bumped heads. In May 2013, for example, Holder accused Issa of “unacceptable” and “shameful” behavior in a harsh exchange during an oversight hearing about phone tapping of Associated Press phone records.
