New Holder video surfaces on F&F ‘misunderstanding’ and Grassley reacts
Dave Workman, Seattle Gun Rights Examiner
October 4, 2011 The Justice Department's claim that Attorney General Eric Holder misunderstood a question from Congressman Darrell Issa regarding when Holder first knew about Operation Fast and Furious is now being questioned because additional video from the same hearing, showing Holder responding to essentially the same question from Congressman Jason Chaffetz, appears to contradict that assertion.
Holder gave the same answer both times. Senator Charles Grassley issued a statement calling the Justice Department's claim that Holder misunderstood to be "disingenuous at best."
According to new documents released last Friday by the White House, and covered by CBS News and other news agencies extensively in the past 24 hours, and discussed by this column, Holder was apparently briefed about Fast and Furious long before he said he was.
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The new documents show that on November 1, 2010, Deputy Attorney General Lanny Breuer, the chief of the Justice Department’s criminal division, personally informed Holder about the operation in a briefing. The document was a memo Breuer wrote to Holder saying in which he included a brief description of Operation Fast and Furious.
Another document is a July 2010 memo from the director of the National Drug Intelligence Center to Holder that details how “straw purchasers” — enabled by Operation Fast and Furious — were responsible for the purchase of 1,500 guns that were then supplied to Mexican drug cartels.—Daily Caller
The hearing was before the House Judiciary Committee on May 3. The video was uploaded the following day. Issa questioned Holder first about Fast and Furious, and the Chaffetz exchange with Holder comes afterward.
The Justice Department told CBS News that the officials in those emails were talking about a different case started before Eric Holder became Attorney General. And tonight they tell CBS News, Holder misunderstood that question from the committee - he did know about Fast and Furious - just not the details.—CBS News
The video, available on YouTube, was brought to this column’s attention by a Capitol Hill source close to the Fast and Furious investigation. In it, Holder reacts to Chaffetz’ question about an interview President Barack Obama did with Univision in Mexico on March 22. Holder tells Chaffetz that he knew about the operation “probably before the president.”
Responding to the contention that Holder misunderstood the question about when he was first aware of Fast and Furious, Sen. Charles Grassley issued the following statement to this column via e-mail:
“Attorney General Holder’s statements don’t add up. In May, the Attorney General told the House Judiciary Committee that he just learned of Fast and Furious a few weeks before. Yet, on January 31, in a previously scheduled meeting, I personally handed him two letters about Fast and Furious. Now, to find out he knew some pretty detailed information about the operation back in the summer of 2010, is troubling. In addition, the documents released last night showed several other people very high up in the Justice Department knew a great deal of information about Fast and Furious, including that guns were being walked. For the Justice Department to claim that they didn’t know ‘operational details’ is disingenuous at best.”
It is not clear whether Holder was under oath when he appeared before the committee, but it is clear from Monday’s revelations that he apparently knew about Fast and Furious long before he acknowledged. The case appears to be unraveling at a fast and furious pace, and Monday’s Washington Times raised the stakes with an editorial that stated, in part:
The “Fast and Furious” gunrunning probe is creeping closer to the Obama White House. It appears administration officials were willing to sign off on just about anything to accomplish their ends, and the result of this botched operation has been over a hundred dead. Someone needs to be held accountable…
…While Republicans seek accountability for the Fast and Furious debacle, survivors of the operation’s victims are left to wonder if there is any difference between the bad guys and the good guys in the era of Obama justice. It’s an open question.
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