Senate Minority Whip Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) told Breitbart News on Monday that the Obama administration’s decision to block publication Operation Fast and Furious whistleblower John Dodson’s book is troubling.
In response to the attempt to block the book’s publication and the fact that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is representing Dodson for what it calls “censorship”, Cornyn said it is quite clear the Obama administration is hiding something.
“After years of stonewalling, conflicting statements, and politically timed redactions, it’s clear that when it comes to Operation Fast and Furious, the Administration is using every tool in the shed to keep something from the American people,” Cornyn said in a statement provided to Breitbart News. “The President and Eric Holder have kept thousands of files locked up that could provide answers and closure to the families of the victims of Fast and Furious.”
“And now they want to keep the ATF agent who first brought the mismanagement of Fast and Furious to light from publishing his firsthand account,” he said. “The main question that remains is: What are President Obama and Eric Holder hiding?”
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last year, Cornyn called for Holder’s resignation weeks before the House voted him to be held in both criminal and civil contempt of Congress while President Barack Obama asserted executive privilege over Fast and Furious documents. “It is more with sorrow than regret and anger that I would say that you leave me no alternative, than to join those who call upon you to resign your office,” Cornyn said at the time.
“Americans deserve an attorney general who will be honest with them. They deserve an attorney general who will uphold the basic standards of political independence and accountability,” he declared. “You have proven time and time again, sadly, that you’re unwilling to do so. I’m afraid we have come to an impasse… you have violated the public trust, in my view.”
Cornyn was just one of hundreds of lawmakers who demanded Holder resign his position over Fast and Furious. While Holder remains in office, a federal judge has discarded his Department of Justice’s attempts to dismiss the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform lawsuit challenging President Obama’s assertion of executive privilege over the documents.