Post date: Jun 20, 2012 10:43:16 PM
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives' Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on a party-line vote, decided to cite the nation's top law enforcement officer in connection with the operation, code-named "Fast and Furious."
The move set up a new confrontation between Democratic President Barack Obama and Congress.
Republican House leaders said they would schedule a vote in the full House next week on the contempt charge. House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor said if the requested documents were submitted before that vote, it would provide an opportunity to resolve the issue.
The House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted 23 to 17 to charge Attorney General Eric Holder with contempt of Congress after the Obama administration invoked executive privilege, withholding some documents related to a failed gun-running investigation.
WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (JUNE 20, 2012) (UNRESTRICTED POOL) - A U.S. congressional panel voted on Wednesday (June 20) to charge Attorney General Eric Holder with contempt of Congress after the Obama administration invoked executive privilege for the first time since coming to office, withholding some documents related to a failed gun-running investigation.
In theory, an official charged with contempt could be punished with a fine or jail, but no one expects it to come to that. Weeks or months of controversy feeding into the presidential election campaign is the more likely result.
Even before the vote, the White House criticized the panel chaired by conservative Representative Darrell Issa.
Issa and other Republicans on the panel accused the Justice Department that Holder heads of stonewalling and trying to protect its political appointees from potentially embarrassing revelations about the botched gun-running probe.
"Contempt today is not about whether we end the investigation or not. It is about a narrow subset of the documents that the committee must ultimately receive," Issa said.
The committee's ranking member Elijah Cummings, a Democrat, said the vote could have been postponed.
"Mr. Chairman, it did not have to be this way. It really did not," he said.
"By not honoring the constitution's charge to seek accommodation when possible, the position and prestige of this committee has been diminished and the result should concern us all," he said.
The "Fast and Furious" operation was meant to help federal law enforcement agents follow the flow of guns from Arizona into Mexico, where they were thought to fall into the hands of violent Mexican drug cartels. A similar operation was conducted during Bush's administration.
U.S. agents lost track of many of the weapons, which later were involved in crimes, including the shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Fast and Furious ran from late 2009 until early 2011.
Word of the fumbled operation prompted Congress to investigate the Obama administration's handling of it.
Historically, Congress has had considerable difficulty enforcing contempt citations and has ultimately relied on negotiated settlements following protracted litigation to get the information it has sought.
Obama and congressional Republicans have battled since January 2011, over everything from budget and tax policy to healthcare, immigration and keeping basic government services running.