On October 23, Judicial Watch announced it received a “Vaughn index” for records the Department of Justice has withheld from Congress regarding Operation Fast and Furious. Contained in the index details are evidence that Obama asserted executive privilege for Attorney General Eric Holder’s wife Sharon Malone–and his mother.
According to Judicial Watch, emails between Holder and his wife and Holder and his mother are the materials withheld via executive privilege and “the dubious claim of deliberative process privilege.”
Yet the release of the Vaughn index is a good thing, and it comes after Judge John D. Bates ordered the index in response to Judicial Watch’s September 2012 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit.
Breitbart News previously reported that Bates issued his ruling on July 31.
Judicial Watch’s “preliminary take” on the Vaughn index is that it reveals “numerous emails that detail Attorney General Holder’s direct involvement in crafting talking points, the timing of public disclosures, and handling Congressional inquiries in the Fast and Furious matter.”
The documents also show that “the scandal required the attention of virtually every top official of the DOJ and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF). They also show continuing executive privilege claims for “nearly 20 email communications between Holder and [his wife].”
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