DOJ Fast and Furious Document Dump: More Evidence Holder Lied to Congress

From Judicial Watch:

DOJ Fast and Furious Document Dump: More Evidence Holder Lied to Congress In another "document dump" late last Friday evening, the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) released 500 pages of records, including internal email correspondence, regarding the exploding scandal known as "Fast and Furious," where the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) allowed guns to "walk" into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, leading to the death of at least one U.S. federal agent. NPR detailed one of the key finds: For the first time, the Justice Department has made public a series of sensitive messages that passed to the highest levels of the agency within hours of an ambush that killed a U.S. border patrol agent along the Southwest border in December 2010, igniting a national scandal over a gun trafficking investigation gone wrong.… The email messages show the former top federal prosecutor in Arizona, Dennis Burke, notifying an aide to Holder via email on Dec. 15, 2010 that agent Brian Terry had been wounded and died. "Tragic," responds the aide, Monty Wilkinson. "I've alerted the AG, the acting Deputy Attorney General..." Only a few minutes later, Wilkinson emailed again, saying, "Please provide any additional details as they become available to you." Burke then delivered another piece of bad news: "The guns found in the desert near the murder ... officer connect back to the investigation we were going to talk about - they were AK-47s purchased at a Phoenix gun store."

 

Are we supposed to believe that Wilkinson "alerted" Holder to the news of Terry's death, but did not mention the more devastating revelation shortly thereafter that the guns linked to the crime were purchased in Phoenix?! This hardly seems credible. You will recall Holder testified before the House Judiciary Committee on May 3, 2011, that he only had known about Fast and Furious for "a few weeks." However, documents released by CBS News in October 2011 show Holder was receiving weekly briefings on Fast and Furious as far back as July 5, 2010. (See the documents here.) Holder later said he did not understand the question posed to him by the committee and amended his claim, saying he may have known about the gun-running operation for "a couple of months." But that still doesn't square with the timeline suggested by the growing heap of credible evidence, which now includes a smoking gun email to Holder's Deputy Chief of Staff linking Fast and Furious to the Brian Terry murder - all the way back in December 2010.

Corruption Chronicles Obama Negotiates With Taliban Over Gitmo Prisoners -- February 02, 2012 DHS Report Compares Terrorism To "Ordinary Crime," Omits Islamists -- February 01, 2012 Illegal Immigrants Trash Border Lands With Tons Of Waste -- February 01, 2012 Another D.C. Scandal Fleeces Taxpayers Out Of Millions -- January 31, 2012 New Mexico Won't Stop Giving Illegal Aliens Driver's Licenses -- January 30, 2012

And yet, we still do not have an investigation of Holder's alleged perjury. Perhaps it is because he continues to get cover not only from President Obama, but from congressional Democrats as well. On Wednesday, one day before Holder testified again before the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, congressional Democrats rallied around the attorney general releasing a report that places the blame squarely on the shoulders of local ATF agents in Phoenix in an effort to shift the focus from the Obama DOJ. Senate Republican Charles Grassley, who has been helping lead the charge to investigate Fast and Furious, said the report did not "pass the laugh test." House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight Chairman Darrel Issa (R-CA) did not back down one bit from his previous threats to hold Holder and DOJ officials in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over documents regarding the scandal in what he suggests is a massive cover-up. Meanwhile, in his congressional testimony on Thursday before Issa's committee Holder continued tocontemptuously deflect criticism and blame. While noting that, thus far, no one at the DOJ has been disciplined for the Fast and Furious scandal, Holder then used his testimony to blame the scandal on Congress for failing to pass more gun control laws. He also suggested the whole Fast and Furious mess was just a political witch hunt. As reported by The Washington Examiner: Attorney General Eric Holder attributed the difficulty preventing gun-trafficking into Mexico to weak gun controls laws, when he blamed on the U.S. House, with particular reference to the House investigators asking him about Operation Fast and Furious. "ATF's ability to stem the flow of guns from the United States into Mexico suffers from a lack of effective enforcement tools," Holder told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today. "Unfortunately, in 2011, a majority of House Members - including all members of the majority on this Committee - voted to keep law enforcement in the dark when individuals purchase multiple semi-automatic rifles, shotguns, and long guns - like AK-47s - in gun shops in four southwest-border states." Holder also suggested that the political partisanship is motivating the investigation. "I am determined to ensure that our shared concerns about these flawed law enforcement operations lead to more than worn-out Washington 'gotcha' games and cynical finger pointing," he said. This was no "flawed law enforcement operation." This was an unlawful, dangerous and deadly blunder by the Obama DOJ that has led to the death of one person, and will likely kill many more - by Holder's own admission. The attorney general must pay for this monstrous scandal with his job. A criminal investigation of his possible perjury is also warranted. As you know, Judicial Watch has commenced a full investigation into the Fast and Furious scandal, filing Freedom of Information Act requests and related lawsuits. (You can read more about our investigationhere.)