The House Oversight Committee will file a civil contempt suit against Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday in an attempt to force the release of Operation Fast & Furious documents.
Fast & Furious was the gun walking scheme in which agents of the ATF allowed guns to walk in to the hands of Mexican drug cartels. Guns have been linked to the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and 300+ Mexican citizens, including prominent lawyer Mario Gonzalez, brother of then State Attorney Patricia Gonzalez. Agent Terry’s birthday was on Saturday. He would have been 42. Over 1,000 guns are still missing.
The House of Representatives voted to hold Mr. Holder in criminal and civil contempt of Congress, as the DOJ has been stonewalling Congress for 18 months. The Justice Department announced after the vote they would not pursue the criminal case against Mr. Holder. In the civil lawsuit they’ll ask a federal judge to force the DOJ to release the documents.
Recently, the Oversight Committee released the first of three reports detailing the top people in the ATF responsible for Fast & Furious. This report led to the resignation of William Hoover.
Despite numerous crimes falling under the Department of Justice umbrella,no one within the DOJ has been held responsible for Fast & Furious. People have either been allowed to resign quietly or reassigned to other positions.