(Image source: The New York Times )



BY CHRISTINA HARTMAN

 

A House panel has approved a resolution holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress.

That after a day of drama on Capitol Hill, starting with President Obama’s first ever use of executive privilege over documents relating to the gun-running scandal known as “Fast and Furious.”

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee announced Tuesday it was pressing ahead with the vote, which charges the nation’s top law enforcement official with failing to produce documents to support a congressional investigation into the scandal.

SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-Iowa): “About 80,000 pages exist. We’ve got about 6,000 pages. We thought they were going to produce the documents yesterday. All they want to do is negotiate.”

Republicans want those documents because they say it would show how high-up knowledge of the flawed operation went. “Fast and Furious” saw saw federal agents purposely give guns to criminals in order to track illegal purchases. They lost track of some of those arms, which later turned up at crime scenes, including the murder of a U.S. border patrol agent. Wednesday’s back-and-forth saw Democrats accusing Republicans of political theater, and Republicans accusing Democrats of a cover-up. WRC has the video.

REP. TREY GOWDY (R-SC): “What in the world is he exerting executive privilege for? He's part of it or he's not.”
REP. CAROLYN MALONEY (D-NY): “It shouldn't be a political witch hunt against the attorney general of our country and our president in an election year.”

Wednesday’s contempt vote is just in committee, meaning it now goes to the full House for a vote. If the full House approves, it goes to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. MSNBC’s Jim Miklashevski notes , what happens after that is a little more complicated.

BASHIR: “This would take at least two years to get to court proceedings if at all.”
MIKLASHEVSKI: “It could. At the end of two years this Congress ceases to exist. The House term spends and contempt citation would vanish at that point.”

That’s because a misdemeanor contempt citation is only as good as the House that issued it. As for a potential court battle, remember: President Obama invoked executive privilege to NOT hand over the documents Republicans want. The Guardian’s Ewen MacAskill says , that means this whole thing could be for nothing.

“If it gets as far as the courts, it is likely a judge would throw it out: it is rare for a judge to ignore executive privilege.”

The vote strictly followed party lines — 23-17.