House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) today received a letter from Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik in response to a recent letter they sent to Attorney General Eric Holder.
The original letter was regarding the discrepancy between Holder’s sworn testimony before the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month and his decision to obtain a search warrant for the emails of James Rosen, the chief Washington correspondent for Fox News.
Holder testified to Congress: “Well, I would say this, with regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of the material, that is not something that I have ever been involved in, heard of or would think would be a wise policy.” In the days following Holder’s statement, media reports revealed that Holder was the person who signed the search warrant, describing James Rosen as “an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator.”
According the Chairman Goodlatte “Attorney General Holder still has yet to respond to our letter. He can’t outsource the responsibility for his actions to lower level staff–the buck stops with him. The American people and Congress deserve answers and accountability from Attorney General Holder. The House Judiciary Committee anxiously awaits his response to our May 29 letter by this Wednesday’s deadline.”
Sensenbrenner took it a step further calling the response “insulting and further proof that Attorney General Holder refuses to hold himself accountable. Not only did the letter come from a low-level staffer at DOJ, not Holder himself, it fails to answer the questions raised by his misleading testimony.”
The deadline for Holder to answer the original request for more information is Wednesday, June 5.