Friday, May 4, 2012

Contempt citation details documents Holder has refused to give Congress

A contempt of Congress citation targeting Attorney General Eric Holder, which was released on Thursday, details exactly what Operation Fast and Furious-related information he has refused to provide to Congress.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa subpoenaed 22 categories worth of information about Fast and Furious from Holder on Oct. 12, 2011. According to Issa’s contempt of Congress citation draft, he hasn’t provided any documents for 13 out of the 22 categories. In a briefing paper accompanying the Holder contempt citation, Issa said that Holder hasn’t “completely fulfilled any of the 10 categories for which documents have been produced.”
The first listed subpoena category that Holder has not provided any documents on — or denied the existence of any such documents — is one where Issa demanded all communications “between and among Department of Justice (DOJ) employees and Executive Office of the President employees, including but not limited to Associate Communications Director Eric Schultz, referring or relating to Operation Fast and Furious or any other firearms trafficking cases.”
Schultz is the White House communications staffer who “screamed” at CBS News’ Sharyl Attkisson for her reporting on Fast and Furious. “The DOJ woman was just yelling at me,” Attkisson said in a radio appearance in early October 2011. “The guy from the White House on Friday night literally screamed at me and cussed at me. Eric Schultz — oh, the person screaming was Tracy Schmaler. She was yelling, not screaming. And the person who screamed at me was Eric Schultz at the White House.”
The second subpoena category Issa said that Holder has completely defied relates to “communications between DOJ employees and Executive Office of the President employees referring or relating to the president’s March 22, 2011, interview with Jorge Ramos of Univision.”

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