FAST N FURIOUS STONEWALL CONTINUES...

HOLDER BEGS COURT TO STOP DOCUMENT RELEASE ON FAST AND FURIOUS



by MATTHEW BOYLE 17 Jan 2013

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.

Ask his doctor about the weapons.

Amazing. If a Republican president tried something like this, MSM would destroy him. He'd be forced to resign by his own party, just like Nixon.

Obama is a tyrant.

Amazing. If a Republican president tried something like this, MSM would destroy him. He'd be forced to resign by his own party, just like Nixon.

Obama is a tyrant.

Originally Posted by joe bloe

funny, I cant remember MSM destroying Bush when he used executive privilege to keep Cheney from being questioned about the enron fiasco and the Iraq invasion ...

Make a public records request for their doctor's notes to check on the weapons.

funny, I cant remember MSM destroying Bush when he used executive privilege to keep Cheney from being questioned about the enron fiasco and the Iraq invasion ... Originally Posted by CJ7

You have a very bad memory. O'Blunder gets a pass on anything he does or says. The MSM excoriated Bush about everything he did or said. Ditto for Cheney.

As I recall, the two situations you mention involved Executive Branch internal deliberations, which have always been sacrosanct. What Holder wants to keep covered up are inter-departmental communications, which do not rise to that level.

then to shut up the simpletons, all Obie needs to do is use EP ..

scratch that, they'd bitch like teenage girls because he used EP

Do what every modern president has done before - appoint a special independent prosecutor to investigate the facts !!!!!!

Appointing a prosecutor is the President's prerogative; Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Bush I and II all have, Obama doesn't have the balls to open his administration up to an investigation. It is the most corrupt White House in modern times.

Do what every modern president has done before - appoint a special independent prosecutor to investigate the facts !!!!!! Originally Posted by Whirlaway

+1.

You have a very bad memory. O'Blunder gets a pass on anything he does or says. The MSM excoriated Bush about everything he did or said. Ditto for Cheney.

As I recall, the two situations you mention involved Executive Branch internal deliberations, which have always been sacrosanct. What Holder wants to keep covered up are inter-departmental communications, which do not rise to that level. Originally Posted by EXTXOILMAN

yeah, Ive noticed how all of the rightwing media, i.e. Fox, Rush, and Beck et al, never say a fucking thing about Obie ... my memory?

yeah, Ive noticed how all of the rightwing media, i.e. Fox, Rush, and Beck et al, never say a fucking thing about Obie ... my memory? Originally Posted by CJ7

So those folks are now mainstream to you?? Progress, CBJ, you're coming around...attaboy!!

So those folks are now mainstream to you?? Progress, CBJ, you're coming around...attaboy!! Originally Posted by EXTXOILMAN

I stand corrected, Fox et al isnt mainstream ... theyre specifically intended for mindless simpletons that cant think for themselves, and basically thrive on conjecture, and horseshit.

mea culpa

You mean like people who don't understand the budget process?? (Sorry to mix threads, but it had to be said)

You mean like people who don't understand the budget process?? (Sorry to mix threads, but it had to be said) Originally Posted by EXTXOILMAN

dont blame your ignorance on anyone but yourself

You mean like people who don't understand the budget process?? (Sorry to mix threads, but it had to be said) Originally Posted by EXTXOILMAN

LMFAO!