And even then, the administration has sent the documents down the memory hole, meaning Holder is immune from prosecution. There's also a history perhaps unsuspectingly of not following through with prosecution when administration officials are held in contempt. The last time an administration official was prosecuted for contempt, EPA official Rita Lavelle, was in The other option, and more likely, is that House Republicans will move forward on civil charges.
If House Republicans pursue this option, some documents may be turned over, but this would likely be long after public interest has waned. The civil case against Miers and Bolten was resolved in , after Bush had gone into retirement, and the public -- and political -- notice given was minor. Obama's assertion of executive privilege also makes it slim investigators will get what they want, too.
This Congress will be out of office and Obama may be out of office. If they wind up going to court, it will actually be to the great detriment of the House's oversight role. And all of this will occur as the details of Fast and Furious are subject to greater scrutiny. Katerine Eban of Fortune reported Wednesday that instead of intentionally allowing guns to walk, the ATF's Phoenix office was instead paralyzed by incompetence, internal conflicts and weak gun laws that allowed smugglers to move freely.
Though, in at least one case, an ATF agent reportedly used taxpayer money to buy pistols for a weapons trafficker. If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it.
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Today's Highlights. This is different from finding a person in contempt, which only happens after the committee votes on a citation and then passes along the vote to the full house. The process involves a series of legal maneuvers including the president's ability to assert executive privilege, as he did in this case. Executive privilege is rarely accepted by Congress , but the Justice Department maintains that infringing on executive privilege erodes the balance of powers. Obama invokes executive privilege.
More Videos House spars over Holder contempt vote A: The Oversight Committee cited Holder for contempt for failing to hand over all the documents relating to Operation Fast and Furious, the botched Justice Department sting operation linked to the death of U. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and a number of Mexican citizens from some of the 2, weapons that fell into the hands of Mexican drug gangs.
Q: When is the last time an executive branch official faced a contempt citation?
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