January 25, - The US Attorney's office in Arizona announces that 34 suspects have been indicted for firearms trafficking from the United States to Mexico. January 27, - Senator Chuck Grassley of the Senate Judiciary Committee sends a letter to Kenneth Melson, acting director of the ATF, regarding the agency's firearms trafficking investigation and allegations that the ATF allowed hundreds of assault weapons to be smuggled to Mexico. He notes that two of the guns may have been used by Terry's killers.
March 3, - Melson announces the formation of a panel to "review the bureau's current firearms trafficking strategies employed by field division managers and special agents. May 3, - Holder testifies before the House Judiciary Committee. He says that he first heard of Fast and Furious only over the past few weeks.
June - Whistleblowers testify on Capitol Hill. July 26, - The House Oversight Committee holds a second hearing. October 12, - The House Oversight Committee issues a subpoena for communications from Holder and other DOJ officials related to the federal gunrunning operation. November 8, - Holder testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The lawsuit is later dismissed. February 2, - Holder testifies before the House Oversight Committee. June 12, - Holder rejects calls for his resignation from Republicans during a House Oversight Committee hearing.
June 20, - Republicans on the House Oversight Committee recommend that Holder be cited for contempt of Congress for failing to turn over documents relating to Fast and Furious. They make the recommendation after President Barack Obama asserts executive privilege over some documents sought by the committee. June 28, - The House of Representatives votes to hold Holder in criminal contempt of Congress. The brother of the former attorney general of the state of Chihuahua was murdered, and Fast and Furious weapons were found at the scene.
Agent Terry was struck in the back and bled to death. Two of the guns involved in the shootout were traced back to Fast and Furious, which continued for another six weeks. The operation was finally shut down with the help of Senator Chuck Grassley R. Two months later, Darrell Issa R. But the investigation made clear a widespread cover-up.
ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico. Operation Fast and Furious would have been bad enough. By that time, Holder had become a figure of particular interest. What did the attorney general know about the operation, and when did he know it? In May , he claimed to have known about gun-walking tactics for only a few weeks. But by October, new documents showed that Holder had been briefed about Operation Fast and Furious as early as July Furthermore, the operation may have had an explicitly political angle.
In late June, at the recommendation of the committee, Holder became the first sitting member of a presidential cabinet to be held in contempt by the House of Representatives. In September, the administration declared victory. Odd, that. In December , a walked gun was found at the site of a gunfight at a Mexican resort that left five cartel members dead. A congressional power to request information from the Executive Branch and then review the ensuing Executive Branch discussions regarding how to respond to that request would chill the candor of those Executive Branch discussions and introduce significantly unfair imbalance to the oversight process.
Technically, Congress can overturn executive privilege, if it can prove that the documents are "demonstrably critical" to its investigation. But as Holder points out, the documents Issa wants relate to the DOJ's response to the investigation — not to the investigation itself. As far as we can tell, the legal premise of Holder's argument is sound — allowing the House to control how the executive branch responds to investigations would be a violation of the balance of powers.
Plus, there's precedent — previous presidents, including George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, used executive privilege for the same reasons that Holder lays out. On the GOP side, Obama's decision to further enshroud the Fast and Furious scandal in secrecy confirms Republican suspicions that the administration is hiding something, and is possibly trying to cover up who knew what about the botched gun-walking program.
In the end, however, the entire debacle will probably be a wash, at least as far as election-year politics are concerned.
People who hate Obama already will hate him even more after today, but everybody else will likely dismiss the news as more theatrics from a Congress that doesn't do much except yell at people. For you. World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options.
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