Photo Credit: ReutersA federal judge has refused Attorney General Eric Holder’s request that he be allowed to proceed now with an appeal in a case where the House of Representatives is seeking to enforce subpoenas for documents related to the controversial Operation Fast and Furious gun investigation.
In a ruling Monday afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson said her September 30 ruling rejecting Holder’s request to dismiss the lawsuit was not such a close call that it deserved immediate review from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
“While the Court agrees with defendant’s characterization of the matter as significant, that is not the test,” Jackson wrote in her new four-page decision (posted here). ”
Jackson’s latest ruling means it is likely the Justice Department will have to produce a detailed log of what was withheld from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and why. Rounds of protracted litigation over the legitimacy of the withholdings seem all but certain, unless the sides come to an agreement which has heretofore eluded them.
“The Court is not of the opinion that its denial of the motion to dismiss involves a controlling question of law as to which there is a substantial ground for difference of opinion,” she wrote in her Monday order, issued just one business day after Holder’s lawyers asked for the immediate appeal. “The ruling was based upon Supreme Court precedent and Circuit precedent, and it was decided in accordance with an opinion issued by another judge of this court in a substantially similar matter…. Defendant has not pointed to any precedent that would supply the grounds for a difference of opinion.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-11-19 00:54:492016-04-11 11:14:02Judge Won’t Allow Holder Appeal Now in Contempt Case
A group of fed-up House Republicans who say they are tired of being stonewalled by Attorney General Eric Holder plan to formally introduce articles of impeachment on Thursday in a bid to remove the nation’s top law enforcement officer from office.
Several GOP congressmen have been drafting articles of impeachment over a number of controversies relating to the U.S. Department of Justice. The lawmakers’ grievances include Holder’s refusal to turn over documents relating to Operation Fast and Furious, the DOJ’s habit of selectively enforcing federal laws, and the department’s refusal to prosecute IRS officials who accessed confidential taxpayer information, among other things.
The articles of impeachment also accuse Holder of providing false testimony to Congress, which is a “clear violation” of the law.
Rep. Pete Olson (R-Texas) told CQ Roll Call that he plans to formally introduce the charges on Thursday. Further, Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) confirmed the impeachment effort to TheBlaze TV in an interview set to air on Wednesday night. You can watch Yoho’s appearance on tonight’s episode of “Wilkow!” here.
Photo Credit: TPNN Citing Multiple Scandals Rep. Calls for Impeachment of Eric Holder
By Greg Campbell
On Wednesday, Florida Congressman Ted Yoho spoke candidly with TPNN’s The Voice of Reason, Tim Constantine. As President Obama, seemingly, walks between the rain drops without having to deal with the consequences of the numerous scandals that are piling up on his doorstep, Rep. Yoho noted that Attorney General Eric Holder, the Justice Department’s chief law enforcer, has been held in contempt of Congress and should be impeached.
Speaking of a mounting movement in Congress amongst conservatives to consider impeachment of Holder, Rep. Yoho explained,
“Whether it was Fast and Furious or some of these other [scandals], not enforcing the laws on the books and not upholding his constitutional duties and violating the law on numerous occasions- these things have been mounting up… When we got back from this last break we just said, ‘We’re going to go ahead with this. There’s just too many things that they’ve done in this administration, especially with the Attorney General, that anybody else in America, had they done what he had done, would go to jail. And so, the American people want accountability in their government and this is the time to start it.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-11-14 02:43:042016-04-11 11:14:23GOP Rep. Confirms Articles of Impeachment will be Filed Against Eric Holder (+video)
We are going to punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us. –President Barack Obama, October 2010.
The Obama Justice Department has increased Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement actions over 65% compared to the prior administration, a dramatic shift that stands to benefit Attorney General Eric Holder’s former law firm Covington & Burling—the firm that helped write the law and describes itself as “a leading voice” on FCPA enforcement and compliance. Several FCPA investigations by the Obama Justice Department have included companies headed by top Republican donors including Koch Industries, Las Vegas Sands, Inc., Walmart, News Corporation, and Hewlett-Packard.
Government Accountability Institute (GAI) President and Breitbart News Senior Editor-At-Large Peter Schweizer makes the stunning charges and lays out the evidence in his new book, Extortion: How Politicians Extract Your Money, Buy Votes, and Line Their Own Pockets. Schweizer appeared last week on 60 Minutes and Hannity after the New York Times published two articles on the book’s investigative findings.
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was created in 1977 to ban American companies doing business overseas from bribing foreign officials. Executives found guilty of violating the law can face up to 20 years in prison. The law was written with the help of lawyers at Covington & Burling, the former law firm of Attorney General Eric Holder and former DOJ Criminal Division head Lanny Breuer.
On its website, the firm boasts, “Covington lawyers have a unique command of anti-corruption laws, in part due to our role in helping draft the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in 1977.” The firm describes itself as “a leading voice in the private bar on US legislation and policy guidance relating to FCPA enforcement and compliance.” Breuer has since left DOJ and gone back through the revolving door to Covington where he makes nearly $4 million as vice chair of the firm. His duties, of course, include helping clients navigate “anti-corruption matters.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-10-29 00:13:342016-04-11 11:15:28‘Extortion’: Holder Abuses Law to Enrich Former Employer, Target Republicans
Photo Credit: Getty ImagesFor Eric Holder, American racial history is frozen in the 1960s. The Supreme Court ruled in June that a section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act is no longer justified due to racial progress, but the U.S. Attorney General has launched a campaign to undo the decision state-by-state. His latest target is North Carolina, which he seems to think is run from the grave by the early version of George Wallace.
The real current Governor, Republican Pat McCrory, signed a law in August that requires voters to present government-issued photo ID at the polling station, including a state driver’s license or military ID. Voters who show up without one can still cast a provisional ballot pending their return with a photo ID. The law also shortens early voting to 10 days from 17 and ends a program that preregistered high school students before they were eligible to vote.
According to Mr. Holder, this amounts to a shocking return to the Jim Crow era. He describes these modest measures to secure the integrity of the ballot as “aggressive steps to curtail the voting rights of African Americans.” And he is suing the state to bring it back under the federal supervision of the Voting Rights Act for all of its future voting-law changes.
The Supreme Court held in June that such federal “preclearance” under Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act had outlived its usefulness in states where black and white voter registration and participation rates are roughly equal. That should have been good news, but now Mr. Holder wants to haul North Carolina and Texas back into long-term federal supervision through a back door.
The 10th Amendment long has been a favorite of more conservative- and libertarian-leaning Americans for limiting the power of the federal government with respect to the states.
The amendment particularly has been invoked by opponents of President Obama’s many moves to expand the federal government’s reach, including in health care and state law enforcement.
So when Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder, invoked the 10th Amendment in the Justice Department’s decision to not challenge state lawmakers in Colorado and Washington who challenged federal statutes by passing laws legalizing possession of marijuana, a Colorado congressman wanted to know the extent of Holder’s conversion.
“The real question is, ‘Does this mean that states now have the right to pre-empt federal law under the 10th Amendment?’” wrote Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., in a letter to Holder.
The letter came after Holder confirmed publicly that the Department of Justice, which repeatedly has said that states cannot deviate from federal law, would defer to Colorado and Washington state laws regarding marijuana.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas accused Attorney General Eric Holder of “working to undermine the integrity of our elections” in response to a Justice Department lawsuit that would block Texas voter ID and redistricting laws and require the Lone Star State to seek federal approval for other election changes.
“Today’s decision by the U.S. Department of Justice to sue Texas is, sadly, only the latest manifestation of the DOJ’s increasing politicization under this Administration,” Cruz said in a statement.
“Americans overwhelmingly support voter ID laws because they understand that voter fraud weakens our democracy, and unfortunately it is often minority voters who are the victims of that fraud. The Department of Justice should not be working to undermine the integrity of our elections.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-08-23 00:42:442013-08-23 00:42:44Ted Cruz: Eric Holder ‘Working to Undermine the Integrity of our Elections’
Photo Credit: USDAgovJudicial Watch announced today that it has obtained documents from the Department of Justice (DOJ) revealing that between March 27, 2009, and August 24, 2012, Attorney General Eric Holder accrued $4,263,704.01 in total travel expenses. This included $697,525.20 in taxpayer-funded personal travel expenses. The documents were released to Judicial Watch in June in response to an August 2012 Freedom of Information Act request.
Altogether, Holder took 213 out-of-Washington trips during the 42 months for which Judicial Watch obtained records. His 31 personal trips during the time period included two trips to Martha’s Vineyard with a flight-only price tag of $95,184.50, as well as eight trips to Farmingdale, New York, at a flight cost of $118,553.71. On September 9, 2010, Holder took a one-day personal jaunt to Atlantic City that cost the taxpayers $7,408 in flight expenses alone.
Holder’s first taxpayer-funded trip noted in the documents was to an April 2009 “US/Mexico Arms Trafficking Strategy Meeting” (government cost “unavailable”) concerning gun-running between the US and Mexico, an issue in which the attorney general subsequently said he had no involvement. Among other controversial Holder travel expenditures:
In April, 2011, Holder charged taxpayers $15,452.50 for a speaking engagement at Al Sharpton’s National Action Network in New York City.
In June, 2012, Holder charged $38,108.18 in “business and personal” expenses to address LULAC, a liberal group that strongly supports amnesty for illegal aliens, in Orlando and New Orleans.
In July, 2012, Holder charged an additional $38,108.18, this time fully billed to the taxpayers, to speak before La Raza, another controversial pro-amnesty group, in Las Vegas.
Also in July, 2012, Holder flew on a Department of Defense plane, at unknown cost, to speak before the NAACP convention in Houston.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-08-07 02:45:202016-04-11 11:17:35Judicial Watch Obtains Documents Revealing AG Holder Travel Expenses Exceeded $4 Million in Four Years
Photo Credit: Fox NewsRepublican report concludes Holder misled Congress on reporter targeting
By Fox News. House Republicans, in a lengthy report on the Justice Department’s leak investigations, formally accused Attorney General Eric Holder of misleading Congress with “deceptive” testimony that he knew nothing of the “potential prosecution” of the press.
The 70-page report was released late Wednesday by Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee. To coincide with the release, lawmakers also wrote a letter to President Obama calling for a “change in leadership” at the Justice Department.
“The deceptive and misleading testimony of Attorney General Holder is unfortunately just the most recent example in a long list of scandals that have plagued the department,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said in a statement.
The report delved into the department’s aggressive investigations over various security leaks, but focused in large part on the FBI affidavit seeking a search warrant for Fox News correspondent James Rosen’s emails in connection with one such probe. The DOJ sought access to the documents by arguing Rosen was a likely criminal “co-conspirator” in a leak case, citing the Espionage Act. Read more from this story HERE.
GOP Letter to Obama Seeking “Change in Leadership at the Justice Department”
July 31,2013
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President,
As members of the House Judiciary Committee, we write to express to you our grave concerns with Attorney General Eric Holder’s lack of leadership of the Justice Department. This lack of leadership is borne out by his recent testimony before the Committee and by the Justice Department’s handling of criminal investigations involving members of the media. Attached for your review is a report prepared by the Committee entitled “Journalists or Criminals? Attorney General Eric Holder’s Testimony before the Committee and the Justice Department’s National Security Leak Investigative Techniques.”
The report finds that Mr. Holder provided deceptive and misleading testimony to the Committee. On May 15,2013, Mr. Holder testified under oath before the House Judiciary Committee that the “potential prosecution” of a member of the media for a violation of the Espionage Act was something that he had never “been involved” in or “heard of.” Subsequently, it was revealed that he personally approved a search warrant for Fox News Chief Washington Correspondent James Rosen’s emails, alleging to a federal judge that Mr. Rosen was a co-conspirator in an Espionage Act investigation.
We believe that Mr. Holder’s simple and direct statement had the intended effect – to leave the members of the Committee with the impression that not only had the potential prosecution of a reporter never been contemplated during Mr. Holder’s tenure, but that nothing comparable to the Rosen search warrant had ever been executed by your administration. Mr. Holder was not conversing with fellow prosecutors at the Justice Department; he was speaking to members of Congress and the American people in a venue that requires the utmost candor and clarity.
In addition, the Committee report finds that Mr. Holder and the Justice Department inappropriately interpreted the Privacy Protection Act of 1980 (PP A) to obtain a search warrant for Mr. Rosen’s emails in contravention to congressional intent. Likewise, Mr. Holder’sproposal to am end the PPA is unnecessary, offered only as a cover for his testimony and the Department’s investigation of journalists.
Mr. Holder’s testimony and the Justice Department’s targeting of the media is but the latest in a series of controversial and questionable investigations undertaken during your tenure as President that cry out for a change in leadership at the Justice Department.
Sincerely,
Republican Members of the House Committee on the Judiciary
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-08-01 03:49:352016-04-11 11:17:56GOP Report: Holder Deliberately Misled Congress, Should be Fired (+video)
Photo Credit: APThe US has told the Russian government that it will not seek the death penalty for Edward Snowden should he be extradited, in an attempt to prevent Moscow from granting asylum to the former National Security Agency contractor.
In a letter sent this week, US attorney general Eric Holder told his Russian counterpart that the charges faced by Snowden do not carry the death penalty. Holder added that the US “would not seek the death penalty even if Mr Snowden were charged with additional, death penalty-eligible crimes”.
Holder said he had sent the letter, addressed to Alexander Vladimirovich, Russia’s minister of justice, in response to reports that Snowden had applied for temporary asylum in Russia “on the grounds that if he were returned to the United States, he would be tortured and would face the death penalty”.
“These claims are entirely without merit,” Holder said. In addition to his assurance that Snowden would not face capital punishment, the attorney general wrote: “Torture is unlawful in the United States.”
In the letter, released by the US Department of Justice on Friday, Holder added: “We believe that these assurances eliminate these asserted grounds for Mr Snowden’s claim that he should be treated as a refugee or granted asylum, temporary or otherwise.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-07-28 03:41:462016-04-11 11:18:13Snowden Claims US Will Use Torture or Worse if He is Returned but Holder Promises Not to Execute Him
By Bruce Johnson. Per the Florida Statute, Use of force in defense of person. 776.012
“A person is justified in using force, except deadly force, against another when and to the extent that the person reasonably believes that such conduct is necessary to defend himself or herself or another against the other’s imminent use of unlawful force. However, a person is justified in the use of deadly force and does not have a duty to retreat if:
He or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent (1) death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony; ..”
If you have no opportunity to retreat, you can stand your ground. If that is “bad law,” please provide, Mr. Holder, the “good law.”
Are we to pull out a rule book if we are pinned to the ground, or may we defend ourselves against someone who is in the process of rearranging your brain cells against the concrete?
If a Black Panther comes at you with a billy club at a polling place, and you defend yourself, in the Holder world, have you done something wrong? Probably. Read more from this story HERE.
Obama co-sponsored bill strengthening Illinois stand-your-ground law in 2004
By Thomas Lifson. Now we have proof that the current Obama-Holder campaign against stand-your-ground laws is nothing more than a pose intended to distract from their political problems, having whipped up a racialist fury and pushed prosecution of George Zimmerman. Although State Senator Barack Obama could boast of few legislative accomplishments, one thing he did do was co-sponsor a bill strengthening the Illionois stand-your-ground law. The Illinois Review writes:
The Obama-sponsored bill (SB 2386) enlarged the state’s 1961 law by shielding the person who was attacked from being sued in civil court by perpetrators or their estates when a “stand your ground” defense is used in protecting his or her person, dwelling or other property…
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-07-23 02:10:082016-04-11 11:18:35If a Person Cannot ‘Stand His Ground,’ What Can He Do?
