Gunwalker: What Mr. Holder remembers isn’t what Mr. Chaffetz heard, and CNN takes notice

**Posted by Phineas

Remember, after documents came out showing that Attorney General Eric Holder had been informed of details regarding Operation Fast and Furious (aka “gunwalker,” aka “felony stupid“) long before he claimed to have heard of the operation, the Justice Department tried to hem and haw by claiming that he knew the name, but not much else.

That isn’t how Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) remembers it, and he claims the video backs him up:

In statements this week to Fox News and CBS, officials at Justice claimed Holder misunderstood Issa’s questions during the May 3 hearing.

But Chaffetz told TheDC that video of the hearing clearlly shows him restating Holder’s testimony for the record. “You said it was in just the last few weeks that you had heard of this [Operation Fast and Furious], right?” Chaffetz asked Holder.

Holder didn’t object to Chaffetz’s characterization of his testimony even though, Chaffetz now says, he had ample opportunity to clarify the record.

“My impression was [that] he was indifferent, and leading us to believe he knew nothing about the operation,” Chaffetz told TheDC. “But it seems the more we’ve learned, maybe that wasn’t the case.”

Though Chaffetz wouldn’t definitively say whether or not he believes Holder committed perjury, he did say the responses he has received from the Attorney General and his staff are troubling.

“I was really surprised to hear the [DOJ] spokesperson say that the Attorney General misunderstood the question,” Chaffetz said. “I restated what the Attorney General had said and he didn’t refute it. He had an opportunity to clarify and he obviously didn’t. So, for the spokesperson to say the Attorney General misunderstood the question doesn’t hold any water.”

(via Jimmie Bise at The Sundries Shack)

Remember, Holder was under oath. Can you say “perjury?”

Hey, if it was good enough for Scooter Libby…

Meanwhile, more of the MSM is starting to cover the scandal. Now it’s at CNN, where Anderson Cooper interviewed Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and seemed doubtful, to put it nicely, of Holder’s claim to have misunderstood. Visit Hot Air for the video. Apparently the administration is falling back on the “Bush did it too!” excuse, as Cooper references a BATF operation called “Wide Receiver.” Ed correctly notes, though, that a lot of questions have to be answered about Wide Receiver before we can let them get away with that claim:

Wide Receiver apparently allowed a small number of weapons to get into the hands of gun traffickers — but did any of those cross the border? If so, did the Bush administration coordinate that effort with the Mexican government? The issue here [i.e., regarding Operation Fast and Furious. --Phineas] isn’t the idea of a sting operation, but the fact that the Department of Justice knowingly allowed weapons to flow over the border and get into the hands of drug cartels.

Issa said he is willing to investigate Wide Receiver, too. Unlike the administration, our side has some integrity left.

Let’s get something straight: this isn’t just about Eric Holder, even though he richly deserves to be fired and remembered in infamy. Fast and Furious involved multiple agencies (minimally the BATF, DoJ, the Phoenix US Attorney’s Office, and the FBI) at all levels from bottom to top. Federal agents have been killed by “walked” guns, as have over 200 Mexican soldiers, federal agents, and civilians. There are strong indications of evidence tampering and witness tampering. There is evidence that staff within the White House itself knew, though is it an open question as to just what they knew and how high the knowledge went.

The point, though, is that these are all agencies and departments of the Executive Branch, which cannot with credibility investigate itself in such a far-reaching scandal.

It is time for a special prosecutor and it is time to make people answer under oath to a grand jury.

RELATED: Earlier Gunwalker posts.

(Crossposted at Public Secrets)

BREAKING: House Republicans ask for special prosecutor to investigate Eric Holder for perjury

**Posted by Phineas

It’s about danged time:

House Republicans are calling for a special counsel to determine whether Attorney General Eric Holder perjured himself during his testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on Operation Fast and Furious, Fox News has learned.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, was sending a letter to President Obama on Tuesday arguing that Holder cannot investigate himself, and requesting the president instruct the Department of Justice to appoint a special counsel.

The question is whether Holder committed perjury during a Judiciary Committee hearing on May 3. At the time, Holder indicated he was not familiar with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives program known as Fast and Furious until about April 2011.

“I’m not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks,” Holder testified.

However, a newly discovered memo dated July 2010 shows Michael Walther, director of the National Drug Intelligence Center, told Holder that straw buyers in the Fast and Furious operation “are responsible for the purchase of 1,500 firearms that were then supplied to the Mexican drug trafficking cartels.”

Other documents also indicate that Holder began receiving weekly briefings on the program from the National Drug Intelligence Center “beginning, at the latest, on July 5, 2010,” Smith wrote.

“These updates mentioned, not only the name of the operation, but also specific details about guns being trafficked to Mexico,” Smith wrote in the letter to Obama.

“Allegations that senior Justice Department officials may have intentionally misled members of Congress are extremely troubling and must be addressed by an independent and objective special counsel. I urge you to appoint a special counsel who will investigate these allegations as soon as possible,” Smith wrote.

Of course Obama will resist, so let the subpoenas fly….

Note also that Judiciary is where any moves to impeach AG Holder would begin.

Popcorn!

(Crossposted at Public Secrets)