CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
June 26, 2012 – 12:47 a.m.
Holder Contempt Vote Unlikely to Slow Justice Department
By John Gramlich, CQ Staff
The House is expected to hold Attorney General
Minority Leader
Legal experts, however, say the operational effects on the Justice Department of the first contempt vote by a full House against an attorney general would be relatively minor.
For one thing, much of Holder’s time has already been taken up by the “Fast and Furious” scandal at the center of the contempt proceedings. In addition to holding private meetings with lawmakers, Holder has testified before congressional committees nine times in 14 months about the operation, in which the U.S. attorney’s office in Arizona allowed guns to be smuggled into Mexico in an effort to trace them to drug cartels.
House Republicans are investigating senior Justice officials’ involvement in the botched operation and are seeking to hold the attorney general in contempt for not turning over documents requested in a subpoena.
Some observers say a contempt vote on the floor may actually reduce Holder’s interactions with the chamber, because it would mark the formal end of a process. Negotiations between the two sides over the disputed documents would most likely continue, however.
Meanwhile, Holder’s involvement in Justice Department prosecutions that are already under way is probably minimal, said James E.Tierney, a former Democratic state attorney general in Maine and the director of the National State Attorneys General Program at Columbia Law School.
Voter rights cases and others “are going to continue, unless the attorney general is spending his time at the law library personally reviewing affidavits, which I highly doubt,” Tierney said.
Also, the partisan nature of the contempt proceedings against Holder suggests that he may not be undermined as much as Pelosi believes, according to Tierney. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted along party lines, 23-17, to find Holder in contempt last week, and a floor vote is likely to break down along similarly partisan lines.
A partisan contempt resolution, Tierney said, does not carry the same weight as a bipartisan one.
“There wasn’t a single crossover from Democrat to Republican that would make one pause and think that elected officials are truly weighing and balancing what’s going on,” Tierney said. “It’s just a reflection of the sad divisions in Washington.”
“If the system were working correctly and the attorney general of the United States were held in contempt,” Tierney added, “that should shut the Department of Justice down. But it’s not. It’s just business as usual in Washington.”
A contempt vote by the full chamber could have a “marginal impact” on Holder with regard to personal stress and unwanted media attention in an election year, according to Nicholas M. Gess, who served as a senior staff member for Janet Reno, the last attorney general to have been threatened with a contempt citation in the House.
Holder Contempt Vote Unlikely to Slow Justice Department
Gess noted that the contempt proceedings challenge Holder in his professional role; they don’t stem from criminal wrongdoing or personal malfeasance on Holder’s part.
“I don’t see it as a bottom-line problem, and it’s not going to make a difference as to whether he accomplishes his priority goals or not,” Gess said.