Democrats Try To Shape The Fast and Furious Narrative – Issa threatens Holder with Contempt Unless He Complies With Subpoena For Documents

Image via The Politico

The AP’s headline is surprisingly honest:  Democrats try to shape the narrative in advance of the Thursday hearing.

Mike Vanderboegh’s is brutally so:“Minority Report” — Bloody Hands Cummings & White House issue a report saying that the Bushes made them do it, and besides, it was all Phoenix’s fault. 

No Lawyers – Only Guns and Money: The Minority Report Released By Cummings: Here is the full Minority Report released by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings:

You will note that significant effort is put into “Bush did it” claims and that the personnel recommendations note that those involved on the ground have either resigned or be reassigned.

Report posted here: “Fatally Flawed: Five Years of Gunwalking in Arizona.” I think I detect a theme.

Vanderboegh notes:

As I told some folks with the investigation today, this is a house of cards capable of being collapsed by one more email.

And what do you know, almost as if  on cue, The Hill reports:

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) threatened to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress if the nation’s top cop doesn’t hand over Justice Department documents within nine days.

Issa, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, blasted Holder in a letter on Tuesday for refusing to comply with the panel’s subpoena for documents relating to the “Operation Fast and Furious” gun-trafficking operation.

“If the department continues to obstruct the congressional inquiry by not providing documents and information, this committee will have no alternative but to move forward with proceedings to hold you in contempt of Congress,” Issa wrote in the letter to Holder.

Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have repeatedly asked DOJ for documents pertaining to the creation of a letter the department sent to Grassley on Feb. 4, 2011, which stated that it did everything in its power to stop guns from being trafficked across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Testimony from agents involved in Fast and Furious and subsequent documents released by DOJ show that these claims are false. The Department of Justice has since withdrawn the Feb. 4 letter.

Holder, who is scheduled to appear before Issa’s committee on Thursday, has told lawmakers that he regrets the use of inaccurate information in the letter but that DOJ was not attempting to intentionally mislead or lie to Congress.  “If the department continues to obstruct the congressional inquiry by not providing documents and information, this committee will have no alternative but to move forward with proceedings to hold you in contempt of Congress,” Issa wrote in the letter to Holder.

Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have repeatedly asked DOJ for documents pertaining to the creation of a letter the department sent to Grassley on Feb. 4, 2011, which stated that it did everything in its power to stop guns from being trafficked across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Testimony from agents involved in Fast and Furious and subsequent documents released by DOJ show that these claims are false. The Department of Justice has since withdrawn the Feb. 4 letter.

Holder, who is scheduled to appear before Issa’s committee on Thursday, has told lawmakers that he regrets the use of inaccurate information in the letter but that DOJ was not attempting to intentionally mislead or lie to Congress.

Issa’s letter, here.

UPDATE:

Mike Vanderboegh is in DC gathering as much info as he can ahead of Holder’s hearing. Go to SSI for all of the latest gossip, including why Holder will be testifying alone, without the “Fifth Amendment Theater” of Burke, Cunningham, Hurley and Morrissey. Some say another grilling of Holder w/o a smoking gun will make him look  sympathetic (he always look like a lying crapweasel to me), others say this is all part of a drip-drip-drip strategy designed to climax this Fall, for reasons I should not have to explain.

UPDATE II:

Issa, on Fox, this morning passes along the shocking information that only 6-8% of the documents he has requested have been delivered.

Congress’s patience is not infinite, he says.

UPDATE III:

Here, Darrell Issa indicates his lack of confidence to the Democrat report by comparing the allegations that no one high up the chain of command at the DOJ knew about Fast and Furious to “Bagdad Bob’s” denials during the first Iraq War.

The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s website on the Fast and Furious Investigation, here.

SEE ALSO:

Mary Chastain, Big Government: Democrats Clear DOJ of Fast and Furious, Media Eats It Up

The same media that virtually ignored Friday’s damning DOJ document drop.

Linked by Doug Ross and Michelle Malkin, thanks!