Isn’t it a wonderful thing that the Eric Holder, the Attorney General for the USA, knows the law
(Hot Air) The hearing today on Operation Fast and Furious by the House Oversight Committee produced a curious moment during a confrontation between its chair, Rep. Darrell Issa, and Attorney General Eric Holder, caught by The Right Scoop. Issa asks when Holder will start holding his team accountable for the mistakes made during Operation Fast and Furious, especially since the wiretap applications involved in the operation appear to show that Assistant AG Lanny Breuer and other high-ranking officials in the DoJ and ATF had knowledge of the gunwalking techniques employed. Will any action on accountability from Holder come after the Inspector General report on OF&F, Issa asks, “because you haven’t done any so far, as far as we can tell.â€
Holder responds that he’s prepared to hold people in his organization accountable right now … for whistleblowing on the wiretap applications:
The video of the exchange, via the afforementioned The Right Scoop, is available at both. It’s not like
The Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA) prohibits federal agencies from taking adverse personnel actions against federal employees who engage in whistleblowing activities. Under the WPA, employees who believe they have been subjected to reprisal because of their protected disclosures may:
It’s almost like if Holder takes those actions, he’d be in violation of the law.
Holder maintained during the hearing today that there is “no coverup,” and that this has become “political”. Uh huh
“The conclusion that I come to is there are some things in there that’s being hidden that you don’t want us to see,” said Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind. “We have every right under the Constitution to check on what you’re doing… So for you to deny this committee anything like that is just dead wrong and I don’t think you’re going to find any way that you can do it.”
Burton went on to say that 93,000 documents related to the operation are being withheld by the Justice Department even though they’ve been turned over internally to the department’s inspector general, a political appointee, Burton said.
“And you’re saying, well, the separation of powers prohibits you from (delivering them to Congress). That’s baloney. That is just baloney,” Burton said.
Congress has only received about 8% of the documents. It’s almost like they are being reviewed with a fine tooth comb, and then released in drips and drabs.
PS: Looks like our illustrious AG also ignores child pornography on the computers of his underlings. Phineas has the story here and here.
