Fast & Furious

[Assuredcw]

That's exactly what I thought was going on.

Um, Issa had whistleblowers coming to him with all sorts of information! Why didn't the whistleblowers come up with anything proving Holder to be at fault? And since they didn't, Issa had no business involving Congress in DOJ affairs at all. You don't issue a subpoena just because you feel like it. You issue a subpoena because the whistleblowers already gave you something on Holder that makes it impossible to trust him anymore. We don't have it. I looked at that "contempt report" and it is beneath contempt!

I would have asked the whistleblowers if they had brought any of this to DOJ attention. The contempt report is silent on this point, so I am assuming "No." If they told me no, I would refer them to AG Holder.

You see, someone, anyone, needs to be willing to blow the whistle on AG Holder, and you don't have one person who has done that. I'm willing to bet because the man is just trying to do his job.

Is Holder trying to hide something illegal? Then blow the whistle on him and provide evidence of it. Still waiting for that evidence, from the people who have the security clearances that gives them access to those files. If THEY aren't saying anything, then there is nothing to see here.

 

[GarfieldJL]

There is no shortage of potential whistleblowers who would and could leak evidence, if it in fact existed. That is why Holder is innocent unless proven guilty. You don't have control over who would have access to those files in terms of them being loyal to Obama -- most of the people with access are career civil servants who are not beholden to anyone and who have no incentive to cover up any kind of a problem.

While that may be, Holder is blatently obstructing Justice and considering Holder is sitting on over 90% of there relevent documents (even after someone snuck documents out of DoJ and turned them over to Representative Issa), so odds are there is something they are trying to hide.

Btw, it's hard to conduct any investigation if the DoJ is obstructing the investigation.

 

[Assuredcw]

While that may be, Holder is blatently obstructing Justice and considering Holder is sitting on over 90% of there relevent documents (even after someone snuck documents out of DoJ and turned them over to Representative Issa), so odds are there is something they are trying to hide.

Btw, it's hard to conduct any investigation if the DoJ is obstructing the investigation.

The investigation was pointless because they were never given any evidence. We are back to the separation of the Executive function, as discussed in the OP in this thread. You know -- the Reagan era memo, that reiterated this separation? Congress conducted their investigation, found Holder in contempt, and referred the matter to the Justice Dept. The career Justice Dept employee with Civil Service protections had nothing to gain by NOT prosecuting, and nothing to lose by PROSECUTING. The decision not to prosecute was controlled by the fact that there was no EVIDENCE.

You would have had to have evidence in order to get either an impeachment or criminal contempt. But because of that separation between Executive and Legislative branches, you needed better whistleblowers -- you know -- the ones who report directly to Holder, rather than to the people further down, who were disobeying him without realizing it, and wouldn't have had documentation of what the instructions were, by virtue of the fact that they don't report directly to Holder.

But no, Congress doesn't get to go on a fishing expedition to look for evidence that the whistleblowers didn't give them. If there is no evidence, there is nothing to see, and the investigation is over. In this case, there was no evidence for what Holder was being accused of doing, because the whistleblowers never produced it. Congress doesn't get to do it. Someone who already works for the Executive side needs to do it.

Edited: Obviously if Holder didn't do this, there won't ever be any evidence to produce. It is certainly looking that way to me. Innocent until proven guilty is just...wise.