SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR CUTTING THE NUMBER OF MEMOS, DOCUMENTS AND EMAILS UNDER SUBPOENA FROM THE HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE FROM 80,000 DOWN TO ONLY 1,300!!!
While Holder attempts to make some sort of “deal” with Issa to avoid contempt charges in a meeting at 5pm eastern today, it has also been reported that Speaker Boehner wants the entire Fast and Furious investigation DROPPED because HE thinks, in an election year, to further the investigation will somehow harm republican chances.
If I could say one thing to Speaker Boehner, it would be…
Mr. Speaker, and I use that term temporarily, to NOT go forward with the Fast and Furious investigation for ANY reason would cause serious and irreparable damage to the system of justice provided by the Constitution and further, it would set a precedent by which those in elected office or appointed to their position BY those in elected office are held to NO standards of the law whatsoever while the people of the nation, NOT elected or appointed are held to the HIGHEST possible standards.
To drop this investigation in whole or in part, as Boehner desires, is an affront to this nation’s citizens.
Listening to Holder feign amnesia in one congressional hearing after another is nauseating. He’s done it 8 times now and I have had quite enough.
The committees have subpoenaed some 80,000 documents, emails and memos from Eric Holder and he has turned over only 7,600 of them.
Holder himself yesterday admitted to having 140,000 such documents but upon questioning from Congressman Issa as to how many subpoenaed documents he has YET to turn over, Holder would only say that he has turned over 7,600.
Speaker Boehner, in not answering questions, in stonewalling, in lying, in claiming he does not recall dates, conversation or reading documents, in claiming he has no idea who knew what, when they knew it or who if anybody they told, Eric Holder is clearly showing contempt for the congressional committees.
We all watched and listened to the sound bites from yesterday’s hearing. We all heard time and time again…”I don’t know,” “I don’t recall,” I was not aware,” and on and on and on.
We heard the contentious back and forth with Congressman Issa and we listened while Holder refused to answer question. We heard it and I suspect, you did as well.
All of that was rehashed non answers of questions asked and not answered by Holder in 7 previous hearings but there was something new. Something startling. Something which did not get much notice yesterday, but I want to bring it to your attention today.
This was the give and take between Eric Holder and Congressman Jason Chaffetz.
In this, you will hear, point blank and no question about it, Eric Holder PERJURE himself before the congressional committee.
PERJURY, Mr. Speaker.
Watch and listen.
From an email dated Oct 17th, 2010, from Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein to James Trusty:
“Do you think we should have Lanny participate in press when Fast and Furious and Laura’s Tucson case [Wide Receiver] are unsealed? It’s a tricky case, given the number of guns that have walked, but it is a significant set of prosecutions.”
Then on Oct. 18th, 2010, from Trusty back to Weinstein:
“I think so, but the timing will be tricky, too. Looks like we’ll be able to unseal the Tucson case sooner than the Fast and Furious (although this may be just the difference between Nov. and Dec).”
“It’s not clear how much we’re involved in the main F and F [Fast and Furious] case,” reads the email, “but we have Tucson [Wide Receiver] and now a new unrelated case with [redacted] targets. It’s not any big surprise that a bunch of US guns are being used in MX [Mexico], so I’m not sure how much grief we get for ‘guns walking.’ It may be more like ‘Finally, they’re going after people who sent guns down there.’”
Mr. Speaker, with the words being read aloud to him by Congressman Chaffetz, Eric Holder stood his ground and told Congressman Chaffetz that those emails DID NOT REFER TO FAST AND FURIOUS.
Mr. Speaker…clearly…Eric Holder is lying and THAT, sir, is perjury.
For Eric Holder to insist, over and over again, that these emails do not refer to Fast and Furious when he is told over and over again by Congressman Chaffetz that they clearly do because they indeed mention Fast and Furious by name is both showing contempt for the Congressional Committee and committing perjury.
No more delays, Mr. Speaker. No more waiting. No more chances, Mr. Speaker.
I call on you to bring charges of contempt and perjury against Eric Holder NOW.
You, sir, have allowed Eric Holder more than a year to comply, and it is obvious to the world that he has no intention of doing so; and to allow this travesty to continue is, in and of itself, a travesty and any who would allow the continuation of it are themselves guilty of aiding and abetting the contempt, the perjury and the travesty.
Not for one more day Mr. Speaker, should the Attorney General, the head of the Department of Justice, be allowed to obstruct justice!
Congressman Issa and the House Committee investigating Eric Holder and the Fast and Furious scandal has given Holder until Memorial Day weekend to cough up the rest of the 80,000 documents, emails and memos regarding their investigation.
Waiting in the wings is a contempt of Congress charge against Holder.
Last week, Utah Congressman, Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the Oversight in Government Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations introduced an amendment to the Justice Department’s appropriations bill to cut dollars from the DOJ budget and another measure which would cut $1 million dollars from the DOJ over its stonewalling and stall tactics regarding Fast and Furious.
Said Chaffitz, “You shouldn’t be using federal taxpayer dollars to lie to Congress.”
The vote on the measures passed, 381-41 and all of the 41 are Democrats.
This, of course means, there are 41 liberals in the House who believe that the DOJ and Eric Holder have every right TO use taxpayer money to lie to Congress.
That is shameful at every level and at every turn.
As the debt talks continue, drone on may be a better description, and both sides dig in, there is a way to solve several problems.
The Tea Party faithful are digging in and calling upon their elected officials telling them under no circumstances should they give even an inch. Liberals are digging in insisting that THEIR elected officials not to allow ANY republican plan to see the light of day in the senate.
Impasse? Maybe…but there is one Tea Party backed Congressman who sees things differently.
Allen West from Florida’s 22nd District has stepped forward to back the latest plan put forth by Speaker Boehner and even some of the West faithful are talking about leaving because of it. Maybe they’re not looking closely enough at the deeper issues at play here.
Memorial Day weekend to cough up the rest of the 80,000 documents, emails and memos regarding their investigation.