Federal Suit to Get the Truth from AG Holder about Fast & Furious
The ongoing battle to get the truth about the failed Justice Department program that resulted in the murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent today moved from Congress to the courts.
A House committee, which has been investigating the botched gun-running program known as Operation Fast & Furious, today filed a federal lawsuit seeking documents being withheld by the Justice Department and Attorney General Holder.
The lawsuit is clear: "Portentously, the (Justice) Department from the outset actively resisted cooperating fully with the committee's investigation," the lawsuit argues.
The suit comes just weeks after Congress voted to hold the Attorney General in contempt of Congress after he refused to turn over additional documents. The contempt vote came after President Obama asserted executive privilege over the documents. The lawsuit is focused on that very issue: whether the Justice Department can withhold documents under executive privilege when, as the lawsuit contends, "there has been no suggestion that the documents at issue implicate or otherwise involve any advice to the President" or otherwise involve "core constitutional functions of the President."
As I told Megyn Kelly on FOX News today, this litigation is very important because it attempts to get to the bottom of who was responsible for this failed program, who knew about it, and how it was covered up.
The lawsuit was necessary, according to House Speaker Boehner, because the House he said was left with "no choice but to take legal action so we can get to the bottom of the Fast and Furious operation that cost border agent Brian Terry his life."
As Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, put it: "President Obama exceeded his authority by asserting executive privilege over subpoenaed documents related to the Justice Department’s cover-up of Operation Fast and Furious."
We need to get to the bottom of what happened with this disastrous program. That's why the ACLJ will be filing an amicus brief backing the Congressional lawsuit filed today. And, we want you to stand with us in this important case. Add your name to our amicus brief right now.
It's time to stop the stonewalling. Time to get the facts - the truth about Fast & Furious.