The criminal contempt charge refers the dispute to a U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, who was appointed by Obama and who serves under Holder, meaning he’s not likely to seek action.
House Republicans voted Thursday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, an issue that has become so politicized that nearly all Democrats walked out during the vote.
The 255-to-67 vote marks the first time in history that a U.S. attorney general has been held in contempt of Congress. Nearly all Republicans voted to charge Holder with criminal contempt, along with 17 Democrats. The House also voted 258 to 95 on a civil contempt resolution.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who has led the 18-month investigation into Holder’s role in the Justice Department’s botched Fast and Furious operation, said after the vote that his long quest for documents tied to the operation has been “fair and fact-based,” despite Democrats, the Justice Department and the White House regularly slamming him for being on a political witch hunt. Issa has been pressing Holder for documents, without any preconditions, that could shed light on why the administration initially denied that a risky “gun-walking” investigative tactic was used in the operation that allowed hundreds of guns to be smuggled from Arizona to Mexico.
“Today, a bipartisan majority of the House of Representatives voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for his continued refusal to produce relevant documents in the investigation of Operation Fast and Furious,” Issa said after the vote. “This was not the outcome I had sought and it could have been avoided had Attorney General Holder actually produced the subpoenaed documents he said he could provide.”
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