In the midst of the scandals involving Department of Justice, Rep. Sheila Jackson (D-Texas) Lee gave
a spirited half-hour defense of Attorney General Eric Holder on the House floor Thursday afternoon. Lee said she was “baffled” by the attacks on the AG and that she could personally vouch for his “integrity” and the good works he’s done for the American people.
“When it is suggested that the DOJ would violate that sacred trust of blocking info to the American public, then obviously there is enormous amount of concern,” Jackson Lee said.
However, she ruled out Holder’s involvement in any of the scandals, citing his 37 years of public service. “Those were many years since 1976, and if I would take a guess, if he were going to falter in the practice of law, or in the upholding of justice, he would have faltered a long time ago,” she said.
“His passion for peoples’ lives is so moving that I need to get this on the record,” she said at one point, while noting everything he did to “secure justice” for the victims of Bernie Madoff.
The Democratic Representative went on to to discuss the acts of AG “away from the aura of cameras and hysteria” stating that Holder couldn’t have possibly been involved in the IRS and Benghazi scandals because it doesn’t even fall under the DOJ’s jurisdiction.
“It seems like all of this is piling on all on someone who was not involved,” she said. With regards to Fast and Furious, Jackson Lee said she was not there to defend the gun-walking scandal, however there needs to be a “reasonable” discussion about whether Holder was involved or not. To say that Holder purjured himself is “absolutely without context,without substance, without basis, without intent without proof, and it serves no purpose.”
“It serves no purpose to go on an unsubstantiated witch hunt on what is one of the finest public servants that this country has seen,” Lee said. “And that is the Attorney General of the United Stated, Eric H. Holder Junior.”
Jackson Lee said the AG has been a supporter of the media shield law and that he did not participate in discussions about subpoenaing AP’s records. She also claimed that the investigation into the Associated Press was done only after some 15,000 pages of documents were issued and DOJ still could not determine who the culprit of the leak was.
“Let it be very clear – that it was not to entrap reporters. The intrusion was to protect the American people,” she claimed.
Jackson Lee was later joined on the House floor by D.C.’s delegate to the House of Representatives Eleanor Holmes Norton, who also lavished praise on Holder and on Jackson Lee for defending the AG.
Norton said she believed Holder when he said he recused himself from the AP investigation, so “he better not have any knowledge of it.”
And “if you want to accuse somebody of something…Something as serious as perjury and a lawyer, at that,” you better have evidence, she continued.
“So I thank the gentle lady for coming to the floor so these accusations – these wild and reckless accusations against the Attorney General – have not gone unanswered.”
After Holmes Norton finished her remarks Jackson Lee continued her defense of Holder and questioned the House Oversight Committee’s claims that the AG may have perjured himself.
“Perjury is the ultimate charge,” she said. “That’s why I’m so baffled and felt compelled to come to the floor to raise the question why lawyers on the Oversight Committee and lawyers on the Judiciary Committee would even offer a charge of perjury under the circumstances of what I have just defined.”
If Congress weren’t spending so much time investigating Holder, perhaps it would have more time focus on other issues – like promoting Obamacare, she added.
