Just keep lying until after the election.

Just imagine what’s in the documents Holder refuses to turn over and Obama is hiding thanks to his executive privilege order.

Daily Caller reports:

In a letter Tuesday, Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley pressed Attorney General Eric Holder for details about a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives memorandum that indicates his Department of Justice may have tried to cover up the gunwalking tactics that were at the heart of Operation Fast and Furious.

Gary Styers, an ATF special agent in the Lubbock, Texas field office, wrote what Grassley described as a “Fast and Furious memorandum” on Feb. 3, 2011. In it, Styers described how two investigators for Grassley’s Senate Judiciary Committee office had contacted him the day before about the Fast and Furious operation.

The memo described a specific operation in which guns were allowed to walk across the Mexican border. Grassley told Holder that “according to ATF personnel, the memorandum was discussed by high level ATF personnel and possibly forwarded to DOJ headquarters on February 3, 2011.”

On Feb. 4 — one day later — Assistant Attorney General Ron Weich signed a letter to Grassley denying that guns were ever allowed to walk, including in Fast and Furious. The DOJ withdrew that letter to Congress nine months later, admitting that the statement was false.

“The possibility that DOJ was aware of this memorandum [the Styers memo] on February 3, 2011, and still sent the erroneous letter to Congress on February 4, 2011, raises more questions about DOJ’s claim that faulty information from department components inadvertently led to the false letter,” Grassley wrote to Holder.

“This was direct, documented information from street level agents in a far better position to know the facts than the senior supervisory personnel whom DOJ claims to have relied upon for information about the allegations.”

Grassley wrote that he wants Holder to disclose the names of DOJ personnel who knew about the memo before Weich’s letter made it to Congress on Feb. 4, 2011. He also said he wants to be sure the department has gathered and preserved all its records related to the memo, and he asked Holder if he would provide those records to Congress.

Continue reading>>>

-David Ben Moshe

English: Eric Holder at Obama-Biden National Security Press Conference on December 1, 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At 10 am this morning, for about two hours, a group of about 30 independent activists will gather on the White House lawn to demand the release of the Fast and Furious documents requested from Attorney General Eric Holder, but are currently being withheld under executive privilege. On Thursday, AG Holder was being held in criminal and civil contempt of Congress for withholding the documents, however the media has been spun in a bizarre direction, citing racism towards AG Holder as the true reason for the charges. The American people seem to have ignored the public hearings, available for viewing on youtube, because if they had watched them, they would know the accusations clearly have nothing to do with race.

Make sure to get trending on Twitter. #FireHolder #FastandFurious

Related articles

• No criminal prosecution of Holder for contempt (cnn.com)
• At the gates: Protesters to converge on White House calling for Fast and Furious justice | DailyCaller.com
• Issa to Obama: Either you abused privilege or the White House was involved in Fast and Furious (twitchy.com)
• Occupy the White House – Monday – Do It! (occupythebanks.com)

The protesters are expected to call for Holder and Obama to release the documents they’re withholding related to the scandal.

On Monday, protesters are scheduled to gather outside the White House to demand President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder be held accountable for Operation Fast and Furious.

According to a release grassroots organizers sent to the press, the protest will start at approximately 10 a.m. outside the White House’s north lawn gates. The protest will last for about two hours.

“We want justice for the victims and families affected by this scandal,” event organizer Oliver Darcy said in the release. “We are protesting to let Barack Obama and AG Holder know that the truth must prevail. They should fully disclose all documents related to the case in order to bring closure to a dark moment in our country’s history. Anything less is a fraud of justice.”

The protest comes on the heels of Holder being held in criminal and civil contempt of Congress on Thursday. The House voted on a bipartisan basis to hold Holder in contempt.

READ THE REST HERE

Imagine if Obama ever had to testify in court.

From ABCNews:

House Speaker John Boehern said today that Republicans are preparing to file a civil suit in an attempt to gain access to more information pertaining to the Justice Department’s botched Fast & Furious drug cartel gun tracking program.

The planned civil suit, which  comes on the heels of a letter sent by the Justice Department stating that the DOJ would not prosecute Attorney General Eric Holder following a House vote to hold him in criminal contempt of Congress.

“It’s not clear to me that the U.S. District Attorney will in fact, go down that path. That’s why we’re going to file, in District Court, a civil suit, over the issue of executive privilege,” Boehner said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

The Obama administration, in response to a request by Holder, asserted the right to executive privilege several weeks ago, in effect blocking Congressional access to documents pertaining the affair.

See you in court buddy!

Continue reading>>>

Today:

So What now? : Now it will go before a federal court and a DOj attorney will prosecute their boss “Holder” who will claim executive privilege. Then most likely the court will dismiss the charges and the House would file suit in civil court ordering the Administration to release the documents, after that its anyone’s game. Problem is it may take anywhere from 2-5 years for this to all come out in the wash. Making this whole thing pointless after the president asserted executive privilege. Which is why many today have called the contempt hearing a witch hunt/political theater, leading to democrats walking out during the vote.  [Future of charge]

Is Executive Privilege constitutional?:

According to previous Chief Justice Burger, “The concept of executive privilege is not mentioned explicitly in the United States Constitution, but it is considered to be an element of the separation of powers doctrine, and/or derived from the supremacy of executive branch in its own area of Constitutional activity.” [U.S. v. Nixon] Basically according to SCOTUS “executive privilege” is never mentioned in the constitution; however it is implied as part of the daily constitutional activity of the executive branch. To brake it down a little further even though the founders didn’t establish an executive privilege. SCOTUS viewed it as common sense that the President would tell his cabinet information in conducting conferences and that the information relayed would not be intended for others/the public. In fact if some of this information should reach the public……like I don’t know…..in the form of a leak…it could be devastating to the nations security. [Leaks]

My Opinion:

-Yes this is obviously political why else would the contempt take place so close to the election and on the same day the Obamacare ruling was to be announced.

-Yes Rep. Issa is doing the right thing by continuing to push for these documents, yes hes doing it for political show but we should be glad that for once political show coincidentally involves doing the right thing.  Many people argue that Issa should have taken Holders deal, gave Holder more time, or continued investigating before holding Holder in contempt. To those people I say, If  Holder was going to give the documents he would have, in fact he repeatedly stated he wasn’t going to release the documents. Lets remember there are statues of limitations with issues like this so Issa was already operating on borrowed time.

-Executive privilege shouldn’t be constitutional, meaning conversations between the president and his staff shouldn’t be protected for the sole purpose that the conversations took place and existed. Executive privilege should only exist as a defense against freedom of press when the information sought could harm cause the country harm. However, I’m not a justice and therefore as a citizen I must yield to the SCOTUS opinion.

-If the president did know about fast and furious, then of course he needs to assert executive privilege for his own defense if nothing else.

-If the president didn’t know anything about fast and furious and only saw emails or memos at a glance then one might make a weak argument for him to exercise executive privilege.

-If the president knew nothing of fast and furous prior to the closing of the program, then he should not assert executive privilege and to do so would only rob a grieving family of the truth, closure, and ultimately the justice (no not this DOJ’s definition of justice) they deserve.

By: Milton L. Jefferson

Today:

So What now? : Now it will go before a federal court and a DOj attorney will prosecute their boss “Holder” who will claim executive privilege. Then most likely the court will dismiss the charges and the House would file suit in civil court ordering the Administration to release the documents, after that its anyone’s game. Problem is it may take anywhere from 2-5 years for this to all come out in the wash. Making this whole thing pointless after the president asserted executive privilege. Which is why many today have called the contempt hearing a witch hunt/political theater, leading to democrats walking out during the vote.  [Future of charge]

Is Executive Privilege constitutional?:

According to previous Chief Justice Burger, “The concept of executive privilege is not mentioned explicitly in the United States Constitution, but it is considered to be an element of the separation of powers doctrine, and/or derived from the supremacy of executive branch in its own area of Constitutional activity.” [U.S. v. Nixon] Basically according to SCOTUS “executive privilege” is never mentioned in the constitution; however it is implied as part of the daily constitutional activity of the executive branch. To brake it down a little further even though the founders didn’t establish an executive privilege. SCOTUS viewed it as common sense that the President would tell his cabinet information in conducting conferences and that the information relayed would not be intended for others/the public. In fact if some of this information should reach the public……like I don’t know…..in the form of a leak…it could be devastating to the nations security. [Leaks]

My Opinion:

-Yes this is obviously political why else would the contempt take place so close to the election and on the same day the Obamacare ruling was to be announced.

-Yes Rep. Issa is doing the right thing by continuing to push for these documents, yes hes doing it for political show but we should be glad that for once political show coincidentally involves doing the right thing.  Many people argue that Issa should have taken Holders deal, gave Holder more time, or continued investigating before holding Holder in contempt. To those people I say, If  Holder was going to give the documents he would have, in fact he repeatedly stated he wasn’t going to release the documents. Lets remember there are statues of limitations with issues like this so Issa was already operating on borrowed time.

-Executive privilege shouldn’t be constitutional, meaning conversations between the president and his staff shouldn’t be protected for the sole purpose that the conversations took place and existed. Executive privilege should only exist as a defense against freedom of press when the information sought could harm cause the country harm. However, I’m not a justice and therefore as a citizen I must yield to the SCOTUS opinion.

-If the president did know about fast and furious, then of course he needs to assert executive privilege for his own defense if nothing else.

-If the president didn’t know anything about fast and furious and only saw emails or memos at a glance then one might make a weak argument for him to exercise executive privilege.

-If the president knew nothing of fast and furous prior to the closing of the program, then he should not assert executive privilege and to do so would only rob a grieving family of the truth, closure, and ultimately the justice (no not this DOJ’s definition of justice) they deserve.

By: Milton L. Jefferson

Some have called the investigation a witch hunt and that if Issa really wanted a thorough investigation he would be investigating bush since they claim this all began in the Bush administration (Déjà vu much?). However this is only partially true, Fast and Furious didn’t begin under Bush, but rather the “gun walking tactic” was also used during the Bush administration in an operation titled “wide receiver”. There are a few differences between “wide receiver” and “fast/furious” besides the fact that wide receiver didn’t produce any dead bodies, “Under the “controlled delivery” of Wide Receiver, agents didn’t just write down the serial numbers and let the guns disappear as in Fast and Furious. They closely and physically followed the guns from American dealers to straw purchasers to Mexican buyers.” [wide receiver]. Rep. Issa recognized to AG Holder that gun walking is wrong and when/if they were to begin an investigation into “wide receiver” hes sure he wouldn’t have a problem getting those documents from the DOJ since some of the 7600 received from AG Holder pertained to only “wide receiver” and didn’t even pertain to “Fast/Furious” at all. [only wide receiver documents]

Executive Privilege, What?: The Morning in which the committee was scheduled to vote for contempt charges, the Attorney General holder sent a letter that the President is imposing executive privilege. A privilege as most know is a legal term which covers the protection of confidential conversations in certain relationships (i.e. Teacher-Student, Priest-member of congregation, Banker-client, Doctor-Patient, Lawyer-Client, or like in this case Presdient-Staff). [Executive Privilege] This assertion of executive privilege raised a lot of eye brows making many wonder, what does the president know? And when did he know it? Regardless of privilege the committee continued their vote, in which overall they voted that the entire House of Representatives begin the official process of contempt charges.

By: Milton L. Jefferson

Some have called the investigation a witch hunt and that if Issa really wanted a thorough investigation he would be investigating bush since they claim this all began in the Bush administration (Déjà vu much?). However this is only partially true, Fast and Furious didn’t begin under Bush, but rather the “gun walking tactic” was also used during the Bush administration in an operation titled “wide receiver”. There are a few differences between “wide receiver” and “fast/furious” besides the fact that wide receiver didn’t produce any dead bodies, “Under the “controlled delivery” of Wide Receiver, agents didn’t just write down the serial numbers and let the guns disappear as in Fast and Furious. They closely and physically followed the guns from American dealers to straw purchasers to Mexican buyers.” [wide receiver]. Rep. Issa recognized to AG Holder that gun walking is wrong and when/if they were to begin an investigation into “wide receiver” hes sure he wouldn’t have a problem getting those documents from the DOJ since some of the 7600 received from AG Holder pertained to only “wide receiver” and didn’t even pertain to “Fast/Furious” at all. [only wide receiver documents]

Executive Privilege, What?: The Morning in which the committee was scheduled to vote for contempt charges, the Attorney General holder sent a letter that the President is imposing executive privilege. A privilege as most know is a legal term which covers the protection of confidential conversations in certain relationships (i.e. Teacher-Student, Priest-member of congregation, Banker-client, Doctor-Patient, Lawyer-Client, or like in this case Presdient-Staff). [Executive Privilege] This assertion of executive privilege raised a lot of eye brows making many wonder, what does the president know? And when did he know it? Regardless of privilege the committee continued their vote, in which overall they voted that the entire House of Representatives begin the official process of contempt charges.

By: Milton L. Jefferson

Whilst I am not going to rehash the whole saga, even though I am sympathetic to the families of those who have died as a result of Fast and Furious, I am going to bring up the other aspect of why this is important – IT IS THE COVER UP STUPID!!

Sufficient evidence has now been provided that Eric Holder knew about Fast and Furious and that he agreed to the operation. I think that there is also evidence that those within the White House were in on the decision making. I can think of no other reason for creepy POTUS to have invoked executive privilege in this matter. If anything the invoking of executive privilege in this instance points the finger directly at Østupid, and that he was in fact the one that gave the operation the “go ahead”.

I agree with those who have stated that they believe that the Administration wanted to use Operation as the means to curtail the 2nd Amendment. I note the various attempts of the Dimcrats to introduce legislation that would in fact impact upon the right to own a firearm, especially their attempts after someone decided to highlight the case involving the shooting of a thug named Traydemark Martin by George Zimmerman. They will try to use any situation to bring about their goal.

Also, the excuse that “Bush did it” does not hold water. That operation under the Bush Administration was done in conjunction with the Mexican government, and from what I understand it was successful. The guns did not end up in the hands of the cartels, and hundreds of Mexicans were not killed by those guns that crossed the border in that operation.

However, it is not just about Fast and Furious. There is another operation where guns crossed the border into the Honduras. Maybe more needs to be researched on that particular operation and its outcome in light of the events that took place in the Honduras in 2009.

Because of the wing-nut conspiracy theory that Fast and Furious was intended to deprive us of our Second Amendment rights, the National Rifle Association told House members that this vote would count as part of their NRA “score.”  That’s why 17 Democrats voted in favor, out of fear of the NRA.

The overall vote was 255 in favor, 67 against, and 110 not voting.  Two brave Republicans voted against.

I believe that this vote will be remembered as a truly ridiculous and shameful episode in the history of the House.

It is going to get interesting!

Issa notes the history of executive privilege:

Courts have consistently held that the assertion of the constitutionally-based executive privilege — the only privilege that ever can justify the withholding of documents from a congressional committee by the Executive Branch — is only applicable with respect to documents and communications that implicate the confidentiality of the President’s decision-making process, defined as those documents and communications to and from the President and his most senior advisors. Even then, it is a qualified privilege that is overcome by a showing of the committee’s need for the documents. The letters from Messrs. Holder and Cole cited no caselaw to the contrary.

This is important because historically executive privilege only applied to communications made to the President concerning decisions he has to make. In short, the privilege allows the President’s advisers to provide him with advice without fear that an investigation will be held which pins the blame on bad decisions the President makes on them. It frees the President’s advisers to speak freely, that’s the point of the privilege.

With that in mind of course it makes one wonder whether Obama received advice from advisers on Fast and Furious long before he allegedly read all about it in the newspapers. Issa details two possible conclusions one could reach concerning Obama’s executive privilege claim:

Accordingly, your privilege assertion means one of two things. Either you or your most senior advisors were involved in managing Operation Fast & Furious and the fallout from it,including the false February 4, 2011 letter provided by the Attorney General to the Committee,or, you are asserting a Presidential power that you know to be unjustified solely for the purpose of further obstructing a congressional investigation. To date, the White House has steadfastly maintained that it has not had any role in advising the Department with respect to the congressional investigation. The surprising assertion of executive privilege raised the question of whether that is still the case.

So which is it, was Obama involved in Fast and Furious from the beginning and now he’s trying to protect his advisers or is he simply trying to obstruct a Congressional investigation. There is of course a third option, lawless Obama is trying to expand executive privilege to the point where the executive branch does not have to respect or respond at all to the legislative branch despite the latter’s Constitutional authority to oversee the executive.

The claim of privilege is even more bizarre in light of Holder’s offer to Issa made on June 19th. As Issa details:

During the June 19th meeting, the Attorney General stated he wanted to “buy peace.” He indicated 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.

Issa of course rejected this offer, largely because he didn’t want to declare Holder in compliance without first seeing the documents. The very next day Obama declares executive privilege on the very documents that Holder tried to “buy peace” with the day before. It makes no sense that these documents would be in play for a bargain on the 19th but by the next morning they’re protected by executive privilege. It’s pretty clear that Obama is trying to obstruct the Congressional investigation, at least as far as this small batch of documents is concerned.

Issa cited In re Sealed Case (Espy) 121 F.3d 729 (1997) which states on executive privilege:

The privilege should not extend to staff outside the White House in executive branch agencies. Instead, the privilege should apply only to communications authored or solicited and received by those members of an immediate White House adviser’s staff who have broad and significant responsibility for investigating and formulating the advice to be given the President on the particular matter to which the communications relate.

This is important because the Courts have already decided that communications within, for example, the Justice Department aren’t subject to executive privilege. This includes communications between the Attorney General and his subordinates. In short the only way these documents could be subject to executive privilege is if Obama is directly involved and receiving advice from Holder or other advisers. This goes against everything Obama has said on Fast and Furious so far and it goes against what Holder has testified under oath to concerning this program. In short, either they were lying or they’re trying to both obstruct a Congressional investigation and expand executive privilege.

It’s a safe bet that the documents Holder offered Issa contain no communications with Obama. Holder wouldn’t have made those documents available on June 19th. This the claim of executive privilege fails under the In re Sealed Case (Espy) case. That doesn’t mean there aren’t other documents out there linking Obama earlier than when he and Holder claim the President found out, only that these documents don’t contain such information. What is really going on here is Obama is helping Holder obstruct the Congressional investigation and expand executive privilege. It is a lawless act and one we should generally oppose no matter what we think of Fast and Furious or Issa’s investigation. The last thing we need is more executive power. We should be very reluctant to allow the President to withhold even more documents from Congress and the American people.

Attorney General Eric Holder seems to be confusing racial prejudice with saving his own skin.  This week, I caught myself rolling my eyes after reading that the Attorney General is making racial prejudice part of his defense of the Fast and Furious controversy.  In  a New York Times article last week I learned that  Mr. Holder said that it was his belief that a few — the “more extreme segment” — were motivated by animosity  against Mr. Obama and that he served as a stand-in for him. “This is a way to get at the president because of the way I can be identified with him,” he said, “both due to the nature of our relationship and, you know, the fact that we’re both African-American.”

 This is a bit of a head scratcher.  After the Justice Department knowingly gave thousands of guns to Mexican gangs resulting in the deaths of two law enforcement agents and Mr. Holder tries to thwart the investigations of congress over the matter, out comes the race card.

Here we go again.  It was only last week when the President Obama campaign asserted that the interruption of the President during a Rose Garden announcement of immigration policy, by Neil Munro of the Daily Caller, was racially motivated. 

The Attorney General faces an expected vote later this week on a charge of Contempt of Congress over his unwillingness to turn over documents to them.  The scandal continues to plague the White House and they have asserted that they had no knowledge of the Fast and Furious operation.  President Obama is now invoking Executive Privilege over the documents requested by the committee.  Since the White House has consistently claimed no knowledge of the Fast and Furious operation it is a bit hard to believe that now those documents can be withheld due to Executive Privilege.

Voters are beginning to believe both of these political defenses with the same credibility as Dorothy, the Scare Crow, the Tin Man and the Lion did in the famous movie The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy’s dog Toto pulled back the curtain and the Wizard yelled, “Pay no attention to that man behind that curtain. The great Oz has spoken!”

 As voters  become more and more educated they have less and less tolerance for political attacks that are personal in nature, and are also becoming more skeptical of issues that are over-played or seem to lack credibility.  The President continues to insist that most of the problems facing the country today were inherited from the Bush Administration when he took office.  While there is no doubt that he did begin his term facing some enormous problems, after 3 ½ years of serving in office, that assertion has less and less traction with voters.  Both the President and the Attorney General would do better to drop these tactics or at the very least let an outside groups seen as non-partisan carry that message. 

Dan Hendricks is Vice President of Political Communications for BlueSky Creative, Inc. Dan has more than 20 years of experience working in advocacy, grass-roots lobbying, and campaign management at local, state and national levels.

Tomorrow will be a big day. The ruling on ObamaCare and a contempt of Congress vote, boy am I glad I’m on my break.

Who am I kidding? I’m watching this as closely as any political junkie.