Fast and Furious emails released, including Holder's complaint about 'Issa and his idiot cronies'
Attorney General Eric Holder. ABA file photo by Tony Avelar.
Administration officials and U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., differ over the revelations contained in nearly 65,000 pages of Operation Fast and Furious documents released on Monday night by the U.S. Justice Department.
Issa contends the documents show abuse of executive privilege by the administration, while the U.S. Justice Department says the documents reinforce past statements about the operation, the Washington Post reports.
Issa is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is investigating the botched gun-running probe that allowed illegal firearms to be smuggled across the border. Two of the guns were found at the site of a gun battle in which a U.S. Border Patrol Agent was killed.
The documents were released as a result of a federal judge’s ruling in October.
The statement by Issa’s panel says the documents show that “the president and the attorney general attempted to extend the scope of the executive privilege well beyond its historical boundaries to avoid disclosing documents that embarrass or otherwise implicate senior Obama administration officials.”
A statement by the U.S. Justice Department, on the other hand, says nothing in the materials contradicts past statements by the department, including Attorney General Eric Holder’s assertion that he was not made aware of the Fast and Furious tactics until February 2011.
The Post cites an email supporting Holder’s contention about the date he became aware of Fast and Furious tactics. After Holder learned of a CBS News story about the operation in February 2011, he emailed senior Justice officials. “Ok. We need answers on this, not defensive bs–real answers,” Holder wrote.
But the Post also identified this email by Holder, written in April 2011: “Issa and his idiot cronies never gave a damn about this when all that was happening was that thousands of Mexicans were being killed with guns from our country. All they want to do—in reality—is cripple [the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] and suck up to the gun lobby.”
