Report on the hearing today.
Today, the House Oversight Committee held a hearing to explore whether Congress has the right to hold the Justice Department in contempt in the so-called ATF "gunwalker" investigation.
Experts indicated the Justice Department should probably be more forthcoming when responding to the document requests from Congress. They said Congress has the right to resort to contempt proceedings, but that the document tug-of-war between the co-equal branches of government is not unusual.
In this case, it's getting heated. Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-CA, has said more subpoenas are forthcoming. He accuses the Justice Department of withholding documents after a subpoena he issued to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF); which is under the Justice Department's jurisdiction.
Morton Rosenberg, a specialist in American public law, formerly with the Congressional Research Service, told Congress, "the Department of Justice has the power to string out your investigation, refuse to obey it, and then when it's time for contempt...say all you can do is bring a civil action which will extend and delay your constitutional ability to enforce your" legislative powers.
Democrats on the Oversight Committee defended the Justice Department saying it has provided some documents to Congress. "The Department in fact had produced to the committee or made available to the committee staff for review approximately 1,336 pages of subpoenaed documents to date," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-MD. Cummings added that turning over more could jeopardize the ongoing investigation into potential crimes at issue in the gunwalker case. Chairman Issa argued that all of the documents turned over were already publicly available on the Internet, or too highly redacted to be of use in the investigation.
In the Gunwalker case, ATF agents say they were ordered to allow thousands of weapons to be sold to suspected suppliers for Mexico's drug cartels. The idea of letting so many guns "walk" onto the street was apparently to see where they would turn up and go after the major cartel kingpins instead of the smalltime weapons traffickers.
Today's hearing was a precursor to Wednesday's gunwalker hearing, which will feature the family of murdered border patrol agent Brian Terry and a Justice Department official. Members of Congress will also hear from three ATF agents, including whistleblower John Dodson who first spoke to CBS News in March.
6 comments:
They have begun to strike back with this report. They are on the run.
Ken
http://my.earthlink.net/article/int?guid=20110613/95c8e2a9-5e7d-4023-984d-d69a68a1ad7a
The wisdom of the founders proves out again. Holder can't buy a paperclip without the approval of the House of Representatives. All the House has to do is defund DOJ and Issa's committee would get buried in the requested paperwork. Now.... whether or not the House has the stones to do that remains to be seen. But they have the constitutional power to force the issue if they choose to use it.
For Anonymous at 4:30 AM:
What makes you think The One and the DOJ would comply with non-funding? Do you REALLY think there is still Rule of Law? I read a post here the other day about the Sergeant at Arms of the House going to arrest DOJ officials for contempt of Congress. Just exactly what do you think that FedPig would do in that situation? And what makes you think they would act any differently in a cutoff of funding? Especially since it would include THEIR funding that would be cut off?
Of course, that is all merely nice speculation since the House AND the Senate would have to do so by veto-proof margins. And with "Weepy" in charge of the House, I would hope you understand the probability of THAT even starting.
Dontcha wonder how badly "Weepy" and Kasich are gonna get beaten by The One and Joe in their golf match, just to show the spirit of bipartisanship?
"Of course, that is all merely nice speculation since the House AND the Senate would have to do so by veto-proof margins. And with "Weepy" in charge of the House, I would hope you understand the probability of THAT even starting"
Get a grip. Even the Immaculated one, Allah praise his name, can't veto something the house doesn't pass. They need only delete all DOJ funding from future budgets. I guarantee you, before BHO grew the stones to veto an entire federal budget, Holder would be in the bus's rear view mirror with a nice set of tire tracks on his miserable carcass.
For Anonymous at 2:13 PM:
Well, of course you are right! Just look at the outstanding job the House did with the continuing resolution for 2011, and how they saved that $100 billion that they promised! And of course the upcoming debt limit will NOT be raised, since "the Immaculated one, Allah praise his name, can't veto something the house doesn't pass"
YOU might want to get a grip instead. Not that it's really going to matter anyway.
connecting the dots leads to the guy in Chicago arrested with the cartel, He's sayings the democrats and the republicans were arming them and getting drugs back for payment! How many people have died,imprisoned and lives ruined because of this stupid drug war? and he's alleging to have the proof, yikes. Seems to be a continuation of Iran/Contra or maybe cartelgate lol. Wanna take a hard look at any politician within 1000 miles of trying to defend this murdergate?! Blacks will be absolutely furious over this as well as Mexicans and should be! How many children have died cause of this? or made orphans? probably gonna see more smart people convert to the tea party instead of either of 2 partys in cahoots now.
Post a Comment