Eric Holder

13 posts
Civil Rights

Fast & Furious: More Contempt

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Last summer, Attorney General Eric Holder was held in contempt of Congress on the grounds that he stonewalled their investigation into the tragic Fast & Furious operation. The President invoked Executive Privilege in the matter, and it was effectively swept under the rug.

The President’s action allows information to be withheld, but it doesn’t make the contempt conviction go away. As a result, the Justice Department has been attempting to negotiate some sort of compromise on the matter.

Evidently, those talks aren’t going very well. The most shocking thing about it is the very literal contempt Holder shows for Congress when asked about the charges:

But I have to tell you that for me to really be affected by what happened, I’d have to have respect for the people who voted in that way (…) And I didn’t, so it didn’t have that huge an impact on me.

And this guy is still the chief law enforcement officer in the nation.

Civil Rights

Fast & Furious: Denouement

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The Office of the Inspector General has released its findings on the Fast & Furious debacle. The short version? Everybody short of Attorney General Eric Holder has egg on the face. The report finds that Holder himself was unaware of the operation until February of 2011.

In the wake of the report, former Acting Director Kenneth Melson announced his retirement, and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein resigned. Aside from the ATF Phoenix division staff, he seems to bear the brunt of the investigation’s ire.

And what of Holder? He fired back today about the “baseless accusations” leading to his contempt charge from Congress, and in the eyes of the public, he’s right. The Democrats claimed that Issa’s investigation was a partisan witch-hunt, and this report validates that assertion.

The report calls for a wide swath of disciplinary action, though I’m not expecting much. To this day, not a single government agent has been held responsible for Brian Terry’s death.

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Civil Rights

Win Some, Lose Some

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The Supreme Court upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) today. Let’s do act like adults and call it by its proper name, rather than “Obamacare.”

Do I agree with Roberts’ decision? No, but here we are. Reaching back to 1895, he finds that

The elementary rule is that every reasonable construction must be resorted to in order to save a statute from unconstitutionality.

So, he went looking for a reason to uphold the individual mandate. In the end, he found it justified by virtue of being a tax, rather than doing so through a tortured reading of the Commerce Clause. We would have been far worse off if he’d found his authority there.

If the Republicans mean that stuff they’re pounding their chests about (and if their supporters can be troubled to show up at the polls this November), it’s a bump in the road in any case.

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Civil Rights

Two Minutes to Midnight

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Hours before a vote in the House to hold the Attorney General in contempt of Congress, the President has invoked executive privilege as a reason not to turn over relevant documents. Whatever the reason, it only serves to make the administration look worse.

The obvious implication is that the President has something to hide that would be damaging if it were made public. Was there Oval Office involvement in Fast & Furious, or is Obama simply protecting a friend and political ally? Or does the guy just feel like throwing a cog into the works? In any case, it smacks of arrogance.

I guess we can forget about the whole doctrine of transparency this administration touted so vocally in its early stages.

Civil Rights

Frowny Face for Holder

The 2013 budget for the Department of Justice is up for review. During deliberations, Utah Representative Jason Chaffetz attached House Amendment 1068. The text of the amendment sounds like CSPAN on Valium:

An amendment to prohibit the use of funds used in contravention of paragraph (1), (2), or (3) of section 1001(a) of title 18, United State Code.

The code section in question is this,

(a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully–
(1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact;
(2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or
(3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry;
shall be fined under this title, [or] imprisoned not more than 5 years

The short version?

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Civil Rights

Holder Contempt Charge: Now It’s Official

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Sharyl Attkisson reports that the draft of a contempt citation naming Eric Holder is being circulated to members of the House Oversight Committee today. The citation addresses the Attorney General’s lack of cooperation in the investigation of Fast & Furious.

Resolved, That Eric H. Holder, Jr., Attorney General of the United States, shall be found to be in contempt of Congress for failure to comply with a congressional subpoena.

Resolved, That pursuant to 2 U.S.C. §§ 192 and 194, the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall certify the report of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, detailing the refusal of Eric H. Holder, Jr., Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, to produce documents to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform as directed by subpoena, to the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, to the end that Mr. Holder be proceeded against in the manner and form provided by law.

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Civil Rights

Fast and Furious: Another Round

Attorney General Eric Holder testified before the House Oversight Committee again today. As with his previous appearances, we were treated to a litany of evasions and excuses. Long story short:  he doesn’t know what’s going on in his department, and he claims to have had no knowledge of any gunwalking operations prior to the death of Brian Terry.

It’s been over a year since he promised an internal investigation, and he has yet to provide any explanation or any proof of action. Representative Labrador pointed out that Holder continues to show up for Congressional hearings unprepared, and that he seems oblivious to happenings at Justice. Representative Farenthold took it a step further, asking Holder, “knowing what you know, do you think you’re qualified to lead the Department of Justice?”

Holder’s response? “If you’re going to ask me to resign (…) you’ve asked the wrong question.”

I don’t think we are.

Civil Rights

Stubborn Facts and Pliable Statistics

Two years after the election, gun sales are still going through the roof.

Two years after the boom in sales, violent crime is still dropping.

As I’ve pointed out before, correlation does not equal causation. We can’t attribute the drop in crime to an increase in gun sales. What we can show, however, is that a vast increase in civilian gun ownership does not lead to more crime.

In other news, Eric Holder’s trotting out the race card:

This is a way to get at the president because of the way I can be identified with him, both due to the nature of our relationship and, you know, the fact that we’re both African-American.

“Nature of the relationship?” Like being the Attorney General of the United States? Or maybe it’s due to the fact that he’s so incompetent he can’t keep rogue elements in line, can’t orchestrate a decent coverup, and doesn’t have the political acumen to throw anyone under the bus, even if it means saving his own lying skin.

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Civil Rights

I love Mondays

This week, 23 state Attorney Generals signed off on a letter (pdf) to Attorney General Eric Holder, in which they advised against any sort of renewal of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban. Part of the letter reads,

As Attorneys General, we are committed to defending our constituents’ constitutional rights —including their constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear arms. This duty is particuarly important in light of the United States Supreme Court’s recent Heller decision, which held that the Second Amendment “elevated above all other interests the right of law-abiding, responsible citizens to use arms in defense of hearth and home.” The high court’s landmark decision affirmed that individual Americans have a constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear arms. We, the undersigned Attorneys General, are staunch defenders of that right and believe that it should not be encroached upon without sound justification — and a clear law enforcement purpose. (…) we believe that additional gun control laws are unnecessary.

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Civil Rights

We’re not arming Mexico

I was going to take today off, but I just caught two things on the news.

First off, reporst indicate that Richard Phillips was freed by a team of Navy Seals around 13:30EDT. Three pirates are reported dead, and one wounded. I’m glad to hear it, and I hope this sparks an initiative to arm our sailors from now on.

It also occurs to me that an American maritime vessel was taken by pirates for the first time in almost 200 years, and the President has remained mute on the issue. Same as with the North Korean missile launch last week. Mark my words, this administration will be known for its foreign policy failures more than any other issue in the balance of history.

The second thing was an interview with Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan, in which he revived the myth that 90% of weapons confiscated in warfare between Mexican law enforcement and drug dealers (who are often one and the same) come from American dealers.

Civil Rights

Mixed Signals on Gun Policy

In the wake of last week’s violence in New York and Pittsburg, it’s not unwise to expect calls for new gun restrictions. Couple that with this administration’s published stance regarding gun rights, and we all have reason to be worried.

However, it looks like the current administration is learning from history, and they’re not salivating over gun control as rabidly as they were fifteen years ago.

In an interview with Katie Couric, Eric Holder quickly backpedaled on his prior support for a new Assault Weapons Ban, stating,

I don’t think it has and in fact, I look forward to working with the NRA to come up with ways in which we can use common-sense approaches to reduce the level of violence that we see in our streets and make the American people as safe as they can possibly be.

When prodded further, all the elaboration he’d give about his support for gun control was,

These are issues that we’ll have to discuss.

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Civil Rights

OMG! AWB!

So, here we go. Yet again. The whole thing is getting tiresome, and I’ve got a sneaking suspicion I haven’t heard the last of it.

It works like this:

  1. Someone in the current administration says, “hey, wouldn’t it be great to bring the Assault Weapons Ban back?”
  2. People on the internet (or Bob over in accounting, who “knows guns”), who have no clue how politics works, go into apoplexy. They start screaming that the Last Days have come, and discuss how they’re going to cope. Usually this involves the phrase, “from my cold dead hands.”
  3. I am regaled, via internet and in person, by these people. I get hoarse and very sick of explaining political reality to them.
  4. It turns out that the comments made by said official turn out to have no real gravity or effect.
  5. Internet people come down off the roof, grumbling that we “dodged a bullet…this time.”

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