The US House of Representatives has voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. Holder was cited for refusal to meet Republican demands to hand over documents in an investigation into tactics used in Operation Fast and Furious, which allowed hundreds of guns to be smuggled from Arizona to Mexico.
Eric Holder is the first sitting attorney general to be held in contempt. A separate vote will be held to hold the attorney general in civil contempt.
A number of Democrats boycotted Thursday's vote.
A House of Representatives committee voted to Holder in contempt last Wednesday for failing to turn over Justice Department documents related to the flawed Operation Fast and Furious.
Hours before last Wednesday's committee vote, President Barack Obama invoked executive privilege for the first time to withhold the documents after Holder formally requested presidential intervention.
"We regret that we have arrived at this point, after the many steps we have taken to address the Committee's concerns and to accommodate the Committee's legitimate oversight interests regarding Operation Fast and Furious," deputy attorney general James Cole wrote to Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican chairman of the House oversight and Government Reform Committee before the vote was held.
The documents are at the center of the standoff between Holder and Issa, who called the president's action "an untimely" assertion of the privilege.
“But Barry promised me that I would be above the law!”
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/politics&id=8718463
Eric Holder is the first sitting attorney general to be held in contempt. A separate vote will be held to hold the attorney general in civil contempt.
A number of Democrats boycotted Thursday's vote.
A House of Representatives committee voted to Holder in contempt last Wednesday for failing to turn over Justice Department documents related to the flawed Operation Fast and Furious.
Hours before last Wednesday's committee vote, President Barack Obama invoked executive privilege for the first time to withhold the documents after Holder formally requested presidential intervention.
"We regret that we have arrived at this point, after the many steps we have taken to address the Committee's concerns and to accommodate the Committee's legitimate oversight interests regarding Operation Fast and Furious," deputy attorney general James Cole wrote to Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican chairman of the House oversight and Government Reform Committee before the vote was held.
The documents are at the center of the standoff between Holder and Issa, who called the president's action "an untimely" assertion of the privilege.
“But Barry promised me that I would be above the law!”
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/politics&id=8718463