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Issa to Obama: Check

Shit’s getting real.

In re: executive privilege, below is the full letter sent by Rep Issa to the President.  My favorite part:

During the June 19th meeting, the Attorney General stated he wanted to “buy peace.” Heindicated a willingness to produce the “fair compilation” of post-February 4th documents. He told me that he would provide the “fair compilation” of documents on three conditions: (1) that I permanently cancel the contempt vote; (2) that I agree the Department was in full compliance with the Committee’s subpoenas, and; (3) that I accept the “fair compilation,” sight unseen.

As Chairman of the primary investigative Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, I considered the Attorney General’s conditions unacceptable, as would have my predecessors from both sides of the aisle. I simply requested that the Department produce the“fair compilation” in advance of the contempt vote, with the understanding that I would postpone the vote to allow the Committee to review the documents.

The short meeting in the Capitol lasted about twenty minutes. The Attorney General left the meeting and, shortly thereafter, sent an eight-page letter containing more than forty citations requesting that you assert executive privilege. The following morning, the Deputy Attorney General informed me that you had taken the extraordinary step of asserting the privilege that is designed to protect presidential decision making.

In his letter, the Attorney General stated that releasing the documents covered by the subpoena, some of which he offered to the Committee hours earlier, would have “significant, damaging consequences.”  It remains unclear how — in a matter of hours — the Attorney General moved from offering those documents in exchange for canceling the contempt vote and ending the congressional investigation to claiming that they are covered by executive privilege and that releasing them — which the Attorney General was prepared to do hours earlier — would now result in “significant, damaging consequences.”

 

Rep. Issa Letter to Obama Re: Executive Privilege

(h/t sdferr and geoffb)

42 Replies to “Issa to Obama: Check”

  1. BigBangHunter says:

    – Hoyer says that he expects some Dems to vote for contempt if it goes that far, but would’nt say anymore about it.

    – It’s likely that Dems up for election this year, and aware that the NRA jumped into things with its support for Issa recently, will be possibles to junp ship and vote for contempt.

    Holder: “Thursday is shaping up to be a busy day”.

    Yeh, hopefully busy kicking you and Obamas smug asses.

  2. newrouter says:

    oh don’t have a boehner

  3. geoffb says:

    AP lies and lies.

    In Fast and Furious, agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Arizona abandoned the agency’s usual practice of intercepting all weapons they believed to be illicitly purchased. Instead, the goal of gun-walking was to track such weapons to high-level arms traffickers who long had eluded prosecution and to dismantle their networks.
    […]
    The agents in Arizona lost track of several hundred weapons in Operation Fast and Furious.

    Fast and Furious used “uncontrolled delivery” gun smugglers were allowed to buy more than 2,000 high-powered weapons and simply walk them across the border. Because Mexican officials had no idea about the program, tracking the weapons simply stopped after they were purchased agents were ordered not to intercede, but instead allow the weapons to disappear.

    Mexicans died and died. F&F twice the deaths of the OKC bombing, four times that of Waco. Trans-formative administration indeed, in deed.

  4. sdferr says:

    I get the sense Obama and Holder think they can bluff their way through this deep doo-doo by just playing power politics. Problem is, they don’t seem to understand what to do when someone plays back.

  5. sdferr says:

    Hinderacker has a good wrap-up, and includes in another piece a brief stint on Wisconsin Public Radio too.

  6. jcw46 says:

    It’s a bitch when you verbally paint yourself into a corner with your own lies; publicly; on the record; to a congressional committee; on tv; for over a year; by yourself; as the person in charge; with malice and contempt aforethought.

  7. motionview says:

    Not to worry, the MBM is riding to the rescue – of Obama.

  8. sdferr says:

    Says Eban without the slightest hint of ironic apprehension:
    ‘ . . . Arizona, the state ranked by the gun-control advocacy group Legal Community Against Violence as having the nation’s “weakest gun violence prevention laws.” ‘

  9. leigh says:

    It will be interesting to see the spin on this the rest of today and tomorrow.

    Heh heh heh.

  10. LTC John says:

    I think they are just trying to drag it out, hiding behind the friendly press and figure they will deal with it, somehow in term 2. God willing and the creek don’t rise, we can get full access to all this come January 2013…

  11. Jeff G. says:

    I get the sense Obama and Holder think they can bluff their way through this deep doo-doo by just playing power politics. Problem is, they don’t seem to understand what to do when someone plays back.

    There’s a lesson there for conservative governors.

    Refuse to play, and like a mist dissipating, so goes the power of the fed and their bureaucratic “authority.” It must be done. Period. Or we’re done.

    Soft civil war. Through logistical rebalancing. Professor Kiteley may have been OUTRAGED by such a militia-esque failure to show due respect to my federal betters, but then, fuck him, too.

  12. geoffb says:

    So Fortune gets to have documents that Congress cannot have. If this story is just the way Fortune have portrayed it then why the fuss over turning over the documentation? Why was there a major player and Hillary confidant whisked to Iraq just before he was to be testifying? Also why is this always talked of as an ATF program when it was OCDETF which involves multiple agencies and personnel up to the level of Deputy AG?

    Nice little story Fortune, staunch heroes, evil plotting, blogging villains, and plenty of lefty code words “liberally” sprinkled throughout.

    Also do this compute?

    After initially supporting Group VII agents and denying the allegations, they have since agreed that the ATF purposefully chose not to interdict guns it lawfully could have seized.
    […]
    They say they seized weapons whenever they could but were hamstrung by prosecutors and weak laws, which stymied them at every turn.

  13. sdferr says:

    We only have to note that the straw buyer who had months earlier bought the weapons found at the Terry murder scene was arrested later that same day after those weapons turned up. Coincidence?

    Why, of course! What else could it have been?

  14. leigh says:

    Too funny! Thanks sdferr.

  15. Pablo says:

    ‘ . . . Arizona, the state ranked by the gun-control advocacy group Legal Community Against Violence as having the nation’s “weakest gun violence prevention laws.”

    …which is weird when the state with the least gun restrictions is Vermont. You know why you can’t get a concealed carry permit in Vermont? Because you don’t need a concealed carry permit in Vermont.

  16. LBascom says:

    There’s a lesson there for conservative governors.

    Refuse to play, and like a mist dissipating, so goes the power of the fed and their bureaucratic “authority.” It must be done. Period. Or we’re done.

    That’s the way I see it.

    The main problem I see is the states have become so dependent on federal funds they are easily frightened by threats of losing any of them. They need to get over that.

  17. sdferr says:

    Leading House Democrats on Wednesday urged the nation’s powerful gun lobby to butt out of the partisan fight over a measure to hold U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress.

    The National Rifle Association (NRA) warned House lawmakers last week that it will score Thursday’s vote on the Republicans’ contempt resolution, which accuses Holder of stonewalling a GOP investigation into a bungled gun-walking program under his Department of Justice (DOJ).

    Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) said the NRA is merely “playing politics,” arguing that the contempt vote “has nothing to do with the specific use or ownership of guns” and charging that the NRA’s involvement “shows how far Republicans allowed the issue of government oversight to descend into an issue of Republican overreach.”

    “What the heck is the NRA doing getting involved in scoring votes on an issue of a contempt citation?” Becerra, vice-chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said during a press briefing in the Capitol.

    Shut up!,” they argued.

  18. sdferr says:

    Oh, and, Mia Love for Congress!

  19. Jeff G. says:

    “What the heck is the NRA doing getting involved in scoring votes on an issue of a contempt citation?” Becerra, vice-chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said during a press briefing in the Capitol.

    Seems that while some of our bien pensant GOP pragmatists are dubious over the motives of Holder and the President re: finding American guns at drug cartel murder scenes and what the blowback from that might be politically, the NRA, well, isn’t.

  20. leigh says:

    Xavier Becerra has always been a tool. He must be gunning (so to speak) for a more visible role in congress since he’s on teevee quite often.

  21. sdferr says:

    “Xavier Becerra . . . a more visible role in congress . . . ‘

    Yep, I think he esteems himself one of the smarter among his Democrat colleagues. Could be the mere thinking so is enough with that bunch. I mean, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Nancy Pelosi are pretty strong arguments in that direction.

  22. leigh says:

    He’s a wise Latino, dontcha know.

  23. RI Red says:

    So, will anyone go for “WithHolderGate”?

  24. sdferr says:

    I’d go for just about anything if it could end in impeachment before the summer is out.

  25. RI Red says:

    I’m having a hard time finding the contempt vote over on MSNBC.

  26. sdferr says:

    At least five Democrats so far have said they plan to vote to hold Holder in contempt over his refusal to turn over Operation Fast and Furious documents. Sources told Fox News that roughly 20 are likely to break ranks.

    Repeat after they:

    Witch hunt.

    Partisan witch hunt.

    Political gamesmanship.

    Political bludgeon.

    Political confrontation and theater.

    Fishing expedition.

    Racism.

    That should do it. If it doesn’t suffice, further talking points will be issued upon request.

  27. cranky-d says:

    I’ll bet all the rank-breakers are white so it will in fact be a racist vote.

  28. newrouter says:

    “What the heck is the NRA doing getting involved in scoring votes on an issue of a contempt citation?” Becerra, vice-chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said during a press briefing in the Capitol.

    none of your business party hack

  29. palaeomerus says:

    ” “What the heck is the NRA doing getting involved in scoring votes on an issue of a contempt citation?””

    Duh. Fast and Furious was about federal law enforcement agencies under Obama permitting and encouraging international gun running that ended in many deaths on both sides of the border, had no Mexican government visibility, and no tracking function in place. It was probably a lame attempt to drum up popular support for imposition of anti 2nd amendment legislation or regs. THAT is why the NRA is involved.

    My dachshund understands that. Why don’t you Becerra?

    Are you fucking THICK or something?

  30. palaeomerus says:

    Why is Juan Williams reporting on this? Who gives a damn what he thinks? He’s a dishonest partisan smug bonehead to ran to fox after finding out that his employers and friends at NPR were all Stalinist pricks. Who the hell wants the twit’s eye view of this ?

  31. palaeomerus says:

    I bet Obama’s white half hates him too since white is logically defined as racist. Or maybe he has a white hispanic half. I dunno. This race shit got too complicated for me to keep track of.

  32. jdw says:

    Obama to Issa: tl;dr.

    RAAAAACIST!

  33. jdw says:

    Chris Cox, NRA-ILA Executive Director, writing in the DC just days ago…

    Attorney General Eric Holder’s continued refusal to turn over “Fast and Furious” documents to House investigators — even in the face of being held in contempt by Congress — is another symptom of the disease of lawlessness that has been rotting our republic ever since President Barack Obama took office.

    Moreover, Obama’s decision to invoke “executive privilege” to hide these documents from the American people is a tacit admission that what the National Rifle Association has been saying since day one is true. Namely, that the inconceivable crimes committed under operation “Fast and Furious” were designed to support the Obama administration’s gun-control agenda.

    Americans should not be fooled by Holder and Obama’s spin that this is a “partisan” fight. This is an American fight to restore the trust that we deserve to have in our government. The Obama administration’s continued cover-up of this deadly scandal is a threat to the lives of our border patrol agents, our rule of law, the accountability we expect from our top leaders, and the sanctity of our U.S. Constitution.

    As powerfully stated as anything I’ve read vs. our Dear Leader.

  34. jdw says:

    Oooops, linky.

  35. palaeomerus says:

    Juan Williams is the worst guest host I’ve ever seen stand in for O’Reilly. He couldn’t even properly host a #@#$ing parasite. What a drip.

  36. geoffb says:

    Simple questions.

    In a world where selective fire AK-47s go for as little as $30. A weapon of which over 100 million have been made and more are made each year. With a cartel which has the resources to smuggle tons of drugs and thousands of people across borders, 24/7.

    Why would any “drug-lord” bother to smuggle semi-auto commercial versions of a weapon which the full auto military version costs less, much less? Could it be for the style points of having the US disabled version?

  37. newrouter says:

    Simple questions.

    why are they buying – retail?

  38. RI Red says:

    Follow-up question: Why are they buying at retail – and then leaving the weapons behind at the scene of the crime? Are you kidding me?

  39. cranky-d says:

    I’ve thought the same thing about this weapons trade crap. People with connections can get better stuff cheaper.

  40. newrouter says:

    People with connections can get better stuff cheaper.

    like submarines to heck with peasants

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