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| Holder begs court to stop document release on Fast and Furious |
| 2013-01-18 |
| The hypocrisy of gun-control. Attorney General Eric Holder and his Department of Justice have asked a federal court to indefinitely delay a lawsuit brought by watchdog group Judicial Watch. The lawsuit seeks the enforcement of open records requests relating to Operation Fast and Furious, as required by law. Judicial Watch had filed, on June 22, 2012, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking all documents relating to Operation Fast and Furious and "specifically [a]ll records subject to the claim of executive privilege invoked by President Barack Obama on or about June 20, 2012." The administration has refused to comply with Judicial Watch's FOIA request, and in mid-September the group filed a lawsuit challenging Holder's denial. That lawsuit remains ongoing but within the past week President Barack Obama's administration filed what's called a "motion to stay" the suit. Such a motion is something that if granted would delay the lawsuit indefinitely. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said that Holder's and Obama's desire to continually hide these Fast and Furious documents is "ironic" now that they're so gung-ho on gun control. "It is beyond ironic that the Obama administration has initiated an anti-gun violence push as it seeking to keep secret key documents about its very own Fast and Furious gun walking scandal," Fitton said in a statement. "Getting beyond the Obama administration's smokescreen, this lawsuit is about a very simple principle: the public's right to know the full truth about an egregious political scandal that led to the death of at least one American and countless others in Mexico. The American people are sick and tired of the Obama administration trying to rewrite FOIA law to protect this president and his appointees. Americans want answers about Fast and Furious killings and lies." The only justification Holder uses to ask the court to indefinitely delay Judicial Watch's suit is that there's another lawsuit ongoing for the same documents -- one filed by the U.S. House of Representatives. Judicial Watch has filed a brief opposing the DOJ's motion to stay. As the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform was voting Holder into contempt of Congress for his refusal to cooperate with congressional investigators by failing to turn over tens of thousands of pages of Fast and Furious documents, Obama asserted the executive privilege over them. The full House of Representatives soon after voted on a bipartisan basis to hold Holder in contempt. There were two parts of the contempt resolution. Holder was, and still is, in both civil and criminal contempt of Congress. The criminal resolution was forwarded to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald Machen--who works for Holder--for prosecution. Despite being technically required by law to bring forth criminal charges against Holder, under orders from Holder's Department of Justice Machen chose to ignore the resolution. The second part of the contempt resolution--civil contempt of Congress--allowed House Republicans to hire legal staff to challenge President Obama's assertion of the executive privilege. That lawsuit remains ongoing despite Holder's and the DOJ's attempt to dismiss it and settle it. It's unclear what's in the documents Obama asserted privilege over, but the president's use of the extraordinary power appears weak. There are two types of presidential executive privilege: the presidential communications privilege and the deliberative process privilege. Use of the presidential communications privilege would require that the president himself or his senior-most advisers were involved in the discussions. Since the president and his cabinet-level officials continually claim they had no knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious until early 2011 when the information became public--and Holder claims he didn't read the briefing documents he was sent that outlined the scandal and how guns were walking while the operation was ongoing--Obama says he's using the less powerful deliberative process privilege. The reason why Obama's assertion of that deliberative process privilege over these documents is weak at best is because the Supreme Court has held that such a privilege assertion is invalidated by even the suspicion of government wrongdoing. Obama, Holder, the Department of Justice, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and virtually everyone else involved in this scandal have admitted that government wrongdoing actually took place in Operation Fast and Furious. In Fast and Furious, the ATF "walked" about 2,000 firearms into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels. That means through straw purchasers they allowed sales to happen and didn't stop the guns from being trafficked even though they had the legal authority to do so and were fully capable of doing so. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and hundreds of Mexican citizens--estimates put it around at least 300--were killed with these firearms. |
| Posted by:JohnQC |
| #23 For those of us who have a firearm (and don't want/need/can't afford another), any suggestions on what we can do to show our appreciation tomorrow, John? Firearms and ammo are hard to get right now because many citizens sense what is going on or anticipate what may come. So drink a toast or give a silent thanks to the Founding Father's wisdom and foresight when they put forth an inspired 2nd Amendment in our Constitution to prevent tyranny from abroad or from within. Contrary to the beliefs of some (not those at this site), the 2nd is not about hunting, plinking or target-shooting. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2013-01-18 18:31 |
| #22 Zimbabwe is starting to look good next to these same lying scum guys. |
| Posted by: Injun Stalin7884 2013-01-18 16:43 |
| #21 Holder begs court to stop document release on Fast and Furious Court, Do you have a LEDAL reson? Holder, Ummm, no. Court, so be it, No reason, Release it. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2013-01-18 16:34 |
| #20 Don't despair Glen. Tomorrow is another day and reloading.... "is the best revenge". |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-01-18 16:01 |
| #19 Nope. No ammo came in. Have brass, powder & primers, but none of the right bullets, so can't even reload. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2013-01-18 15:52 |
#18 Wonder if there is a tie in (document wise) with the ICE brothel shutdown today??? I think the most likely explanation for that shutdown was someone missed their protection payment. The State Department ran a much larger operation out of Texas which supplied the Zetas. Further our government has supplied weapons to violent groups everywhere in Central America. They were also running a similar program out of Indianapolis. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2013-01-18 15:03 |
| #17 Fast and Furious is just a small part of the weapons to create a crisis scheme. The State Department ran a much larger operation out of Texas which supplied the Zetas. Further our government has supplied weapons to violent groups everywhere in Central America. Unfortunately this is just a small window of how far Washington has disregarded the entire body of National and International laws. There presently appears to be no effective means left to stop or even slow down the collapse of our integrity as a nation. Unfortunately the American people have always tended to sit back and do nothing until that certain tipping point where they come off their couches and over-react. Among the many things this administration does not understand about this country, we the people are at that tipping point. The firearms purchases in the last two months would indicate the average person in America does not believe this aborition of our government will end peaceably. As for me I sit back (clinging to my bible and guns)with the full faith and confidence that when every socialist/communist/utopian/movement(SCUM)has taken over the first people they must eliminate, will be their facilitators on every level. |
| Posted by: David169 2013-01-18 14:49 |
| #16 Many Ethics complaints were made against Gov Palin as a harassment tactic. It tied up her and her staff so that they could not get things done. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2013-01-18 14:15 |
| #15 You're a brave, trusting soul Glen. I've kept mine away from guns and ammo since the |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-01-18 14:11 |
| #14 Spousal unit is out trying to buy some more ammo right now. Store was supposed to have a shipment in today. We'll see. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2013-01-18 13:39 |
| #13 "Tomorrow (1/19/13) is Firearm Appreciation Day" For those of us who have a firearm (and don't want/need/can't afford another), any suggestions on what we can do to show our appreciation tomorrow, John? Guess I could buy more ammo, but I'm pretty well stocked up now. |
| Posted by: Barbara 2013-01-18 13:30 |
| #12 The wife reminded me. Tomorrow (1/19/13) is Firearm Appreciation Day. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2013-01-18 12:22 |
| #11 Petty, lawless scoundrel. In a better world he be hanged in the public square and buried upside down in an unmarked grave. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2013-01-18 12:18 |
| #10 Wonder if there is a tie in (document wise) with the ICE brothel shutdown today??? |
| Posted by: Water Modem 2013-01-18 12:13 |
| #9 I read in her book about how her staff was kept constantly busy making copies of thousands of documents to comply with the requests to the point where they couldn't get any of the state's business done. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2013-01-18 12:13 |
| #8 In Sarah's case I don't think those were FOIA requests but actual lawsuits which the governor was required, by law, to respond to. Kind of like a Denial of Service attack. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2013-01-18 11:29 |
| #7 When Sarah Palin was still governor of Alaska the donks used a continuous series of frivolous FOIA requests to harass her and Alaska's government. Now the shoe's on the other foot. How does it feel, Champ? |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2013-01-18 11:24 |
| #6 @ P@K: Could it possibly be the planting of US made weapons purchased at Gun Shops and Gun Shows in the SW, which could be captured later in combined US and Mexican Law Enforcement (LE) raids ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-01-18 10:34 |
| #5 Tell me again what vital national security interests trump the FOIA requirements be met by the 'most open and transparent' government in history? /sarc off |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2013-01-18 10:29 |
| #4 Most transparent admin evah! But don't bother trying to gin up some outrage. Your average NPR listener has no idea F&F even exists. Thank you mainstream media! |
| Posted by: SteveS 2013-01-18 10:24 |
| #3 Of course he doesn't want those documents to see the light of day. Obama and his entire staff are guilty as sin. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2013-01-18 10:14 |
| #2 Holder and our DoJ were picking cartel favorites with F&F. They're picking favorites with 'gun control' here in the States as well. Unfortunately, both government picks are bad guys. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-01-18 09:33 |
| #1 There is no conflict between Obama's gun control ideas and F&F. He was just trying to keep the guns out of American hands. |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2013-01-18 09:25 |