Judge Slaps Down Eric Holder's Request For Fast and Furious Lawsuit to be Dismissed

Judge Slaps Down Eric Holder's Request For Fast and Furious Lawsuit to be Dismissed

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2013/10/01/judge-slaps-down-eric-holders-request-for-fast-and-furious-lawsuit-to-be-dismissed-n1713760

Katie Pavlich | Oct 01, 2013

Late Monday night, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson denied a Department of Justice request todismiss a lawsuit filed by the House Oversight Committee last summer over Operation Fast and Furious documents.

“In the Court's view endorsing the proposition that the executive may assert an unreviewable right to withhold materials from the legislature would offend the Constitution more than undertaking to resolve the specific dispute that has been presented here,” Jackson wrote in her ruling. "Neither legal nor prudential considerations support the dismissal of this action, the defendant’s motion to dismiss the action will be denied."

The lawsuit was filed shortly after Attorney General Eric Holder was held in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over requested Fast and Furious documents to Congress and after President Obama asserted executive privilege over documents despite denying any involvement in the operation.

"This ruling is a repudiation of the Obama Justice Department and Congressional Democrats who argued the courts should have no role in the dispute over President 

Obama's improper assertion of executive privilege to protect an attempted Justice Department cover-up of Operation Fast and Furious,” Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa said in a statement. “I remain confident in the merits of the House's decision to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt; this ruling is an important step toward the transparency and accountability the Obama Administration has refused to provide."

Senator Chuck Grassley, who has been investigating Operation Fast and Furious since early 2011, also released a statement.

“This is an important step toward ensuring that Congress’ constitutional responsibility to provide oversight of the executive branch is vindicated. The President’s sweeping assertion of executive privilege over Fast and Furious documents is completely contrary to the transparent government that he promised and beyond any valid claim of privilege under the law," Grassley said. "The documents subpoenaed by the House of Representatives are essential to gaining a full understanding of the gunwalking program that led to the tragic death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent and the efforts to keep the truth about it from Congress and the American people. Given that its refusal to comply with the subpoena is unlikely to survive legal scrutiny, I fully expect the Obama administration to continue to put up procedural roadblocks to resolving this dispute. However, I look forward to the court finally deciding the case on the merits.”

At this point, there has not been a ruling from Jackson about whether Obama's executive privilege will stand. A ruling on whether executive privilege applies to the Fast and Furious documents in question is expected within the next two weeks. 

Justice Department seeks dismissal of Fast and Furious

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/16/justice-department-seeks-dismissal-fast-and-furious-lawsuit/

WASHINGTON –  The Justice Department on Monday night sought dismissal of a lawsuit by a Republican-led House of Representatives committee demanding that Attorney General Eric Holder produce records about the botched law enforcement probe of gun-trafficking called Operation Fast and Furious.

President Barack Obama has invoked executive privilege and the attorney general has been found to be in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over documents that might explain what led the Justice Department to reverse course after initially denying that federal agents had used a controversial tactic called gun-walking in the failed law enforcement operation. The tactic resulted in hundreds of illegally acquired weapons purchased at Arizona gun shops winding up in Mexico, where many of them were recovered from crime scenes. Two guns in Operation Fast and Furious were found on the U.S. side of the border at the scene of a shooting in which U.S. border agent Brian Terry was killed. In a Feb. 4, 2011, letter to Congress, the Justice Department said that agents made every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico, which turned out to be incorrect. Ten months later, the department withdrew the letter.

In its court papers, the Justice Department says the Constitution does not permit the courts to resolve the political dispute between the executive branch and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that is seeking the records. The political branches have a long history of resolving disputes over congressional requests without judicial intervention, the court filing said.

If the lawsuit is allowed to go forward, "countless other suits by Congress are sure to follow, given the volume of document requests issued by the dozens of congressional committees that perform oversight functions," the Justice Department's court filing stated. "This case thus illustrates vividly why the judiciary must defer to the time-tested political process for resolution of such disputes."

In the current dispute over records from Operation Fast and Furious, the House asked the court to reject a claim by the president asserting executive privilege, a legal position designed to protect certain internal administration communications from disclosure.

The failure of Holder and House Republicans to work out a deal on the documents led to votes in June that held the attorney general in civil and criminal contempt of Congress.

In Fast and Furious, federal agents abandoned the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agency's usual practice of intercepting all weapons they believed to be illicitly purchased, often as soon as they were taken out of gun shops. Instead, the goal of the tactic known as "gun-walking" was to track such weapons to high-level arms traffickers, who had long eluded prosecution, and to dismantle their networks. Federal agents lost track of many of the guns. The operation identified more than 2,000 illicitly purchased weapons, and some 1,400 of them have yet to be recovered.

http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/dcd/ajackson

Photo: Taisie Berkeley

Chambers: (202) 354-3460

Courtroom Deputy: John Haley (202) 354-3133

Amy Berman Jackson was appointed as a United States District Judge in March of 2011. Prior to joining the Court, she was engaged in private practice in Washington, D.C. as a member of Trout Cacheris, where she specialized in complex criminal and civil trials and appeals. Earlier, she was a partner at Venable, Baetjer, Howard, and Civiletti. She began her career as a law clerk for the Hon. Harrison L. Winter on the United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, and she served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, where she received Department of Justice Special Achievement Awards for her work on murder and sexual assault cases.

Judge Jackson received her J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School and her A.B. cum laude from Harvard College.

Click Here to visit Judge Jackson's Court Webpage (including internship and clerkship information).