Thursday, May 3, 2012

Issa issues draft of resolution of contempt against Holder over ‘Fast and Furious’

The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has circulated to committee members a draft of a contempt of Congress resolution against Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., citing the “refusal” of the nation’s top prosecutor to cooperate in an investigation of the botched “Fast and Furious” gunrunning operation.
The 64-page draft resolution and accompanying 17-page staff briefing paper explain what Rep. Darrell E. Issa, California Republican and committee chairman, called the “reckless conduct” of the Fast and Furious investigation, the “hardships” faced by the family of a U.S. Border Patrol agent killed with a weapon purchased in the probe, how agents who blew the whistle on the operation faced retaliation, and the “carnage in Mexico” that Fast and Furious helped fuel.
“This briefing paper and draft contempt report explains the case to both members of the committee and the American people for holding Attorney General Holder in contempt of Congress,” Mr. Issa said. “Operation Fast and Furious’ outrageous tactics, the Justice Department’s refusal to fully cooperate with the investigation and efforts to smear and retaliate against whistleblowers have tainted the institutional integrity of the Justice Department.”
Fast and Furious was a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) attempt to allow “straw buyers” in Arizona to “walk” weapons into Mexico with a goal of tracking them to drug cartel leaders. But ATF lost track of hundreds of the weapons, nearly 600 of which have never been recovered.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/3/issa-issues-draft-resolution-contempt-against-hold/

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