Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) sent a letter firing back at Attorney General Eric Holder, who had accused House Republicans of engaging in “political posturing” instead of trying to actually get to the bottom of what went wrong in ATF’s Fast and Furious scandal.
“Incredibly, in your letter from Friday you now claim that you were unaware of Fast and Furious because your staff failed to inform you of information contained in memos that were specifically addressed to you,” Issa wrote.
“At best, this indicates negligence and incompetence in your duties as Attorney General. At worst, it places your credibility into serious doubt,” he continued.
Issa wrote that Holder had “made numerous statements about Fast and Furious that have eventually been proven to be untrue.”
“Your lack of trustworthiness while speaking about Fast and Furious has called into question your overall credibility as Attorney General,” Issa said. “The time for deflecting blame and obstructing our investigation is over. The time has come for you to come clean to the American public about what you knew about Fast and Furious, when you knew it, and who is going to be held accountable for failing to shut down a program that has already had deadly consequences, and will likely cause more casualties for years to come.”
There’s been no evidence so far that Holder was ever told about the controversial gun “walking” practice that occurred in Fast and Furious (just as it had in a similar Bush-era ATF program) before whistleblowers came forward in the beginning of 2011. Holder’s letter pointed out that Issa too had been briefed about Fast and Furious before the allegations about the controversial tactics emerged.
There’s not evidence that Issa was told about the controversial tactics either. Issa downplayed that fact that he was briefed about Fast and Furious when he appeared on Fox News Sunday.
“The interesting thing is he’s quoting a story he planted, that the Justice shopped around to the newspapers,” Issa said.
Issa’s letter here. Issa’s appearance on Fox embedded below.
Ryan J. Reilly
Ryan J. Reilly is a D.C.-based reporter for TPM. Prior to joining TPM, he worked for a news website covering the Justice Department and was a researcher for Bloomberg News. His email address is ryan(at)talkingpointsmemo.com.
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