CQ HOMELAND SECURITY
Dec. 8, 2011 – 7:33 p.m.
Fast and Furious Debate Pits Watergate Imagery Against McCarthyism
By Rob Margetta, CQ Staff
During a House hearing on a controversial anti-gunrunning program Thursday where Republicans said they wanted to see firings at the Justice Department and repeatedly reminded Attorney Gen.
Other lawmakers said they expected Holder to hold officials within his department accountable for the botched Operation Fast and Furious and implied that Congress could take some sort of action if the attorney general refused to cooperate. Issa, however, was more explicit when Holder told the Judiciary Committee he did not plan to turn over email that some members wanted to see.
“Are you aware that by doing so, you are in contempt of Congress,” unless the Justice Department provides a reason for withholding the information or turns over communications logs, Issa asked.
And when Holder replied that he would respond “in the manner that other attorneys general have,” Issa raised the specter of President Richard M. Nixon’s attorney general, who was jailed for his role in the Watergate scandal.
“John Mitchell responded that way,” Issa said.
Holder, who spent hours sparring with Republican questioners, turned to Judiciary Committee Chairman
“Was that called for?” Holder said. Then he made a historical reference of his own, alluding to the hearings held by Sen. Joseph McCarthy. “Have you no shame?” he said to Issa.
The exchange wrapped a hearing where panelists covered almost every aspect of the investigation into Fast and Furious, which the ATF ran from 2009 to 2010, allowing certain gun traffickers to sell U.S.-bought weapons in Mexico, a practice known as “gunwalking.” The agency’s justification was that it was building cases against high-level targets in Mexican drug cartels, but Holder has called the tactic unacceptable and Justice Department officials have said ATF was expressly warned against using it in 2010, after an investigation into a similar operation conducted in the George W. Bush administration. Whistleblowers at the ATF brought the operation to congressional attention after two guns allowed into Mexico were used to kill a Border Patrol agent late last year. Of an estimated 2,000 guns associated with the program, roughly 600 have been recovered.
Several times, lawmakers asked Holder for the name of the officials who planned Fast and Furious and approved the gunwalking. Although Holder said the operation originated in the ATF’s Phoenix office, he said the Justice Department has not identified anyone responsible for its flaws. Furthermore, the likelihood of finding a memo or other documentation that would conclusively show that gunwalking was ordered.
“I’d be surprised if we see a document that says something like ‘We let guns walk,’” he said.
When asked if any of his top lieutenants should resign over Fast and Furious, Holder said he hadn’t seen evidence to show that such action would be appropriate. Earlier in the hearing, he called Fast and Furious a local operation, and said that the memos sent to his office described the program as functioning properly, with no mention of gunwalking.
He also said he has no plans to leave due to fallout from the operation.
“I have no intention of resigning,” he said. “I’m the attorney general who put an end to these misguided tactics.”
Fast and Furious Debate Pits Watergate Imagery Against McCarthyism
Rob Margetta can be reached at rmargetta@cq.com