http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/14/us-usa-congress-holder-idUSBRE9AD02O20131114?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews
House Republicans to try to impeach U.S. Attorney General Holder
WASHINGTON
U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder speaks during the Community Memorial Service at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama September 15, 2013.
CREDIT: REUTERS/MARVIN GENTRY
(Reuters) - Republicans in the House of Representatives plan to introduce articles of impeachment against Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday, in the hopes of removing a cabinet member they say has lied to Congress as well as failed to uphold federal law.
"This was not a decision that I made lightly. Since the House voted in 2012 to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt, the pattern of disregard for the rule of law and refusal to be forthright has only continued," Texas Representative Pete Olson, who drafted the articles, said in a statement provided to Reuters on Wednesday.
"The American people deserve answers and accountability. If the attorney general refuses to provide answers, then Congress must take action."
The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment on the possibility of an impeachment move.
The resolution could pass the Republican-dominated House but would likely sputter in the Democratic-dominated Senate, which would have to hold a trial to remove Holder, who has been attorney general since 2009, from office.
Still, an impeachment drive would further fuel the tensions that exist between the federal government's top law enforcement officer and conservative lawmakers. According to the media firm CQ Roll Call, 10 other Republicans would co-sponsor the articles of impeachment, five of whom are from Texas.
According to an outline, the first article is based on "Operation Fast and Furious" a bungled attempt to build cases against major gun traffickers who supplied firearms to Mexican drug cartels, while electing not to immediately prosecute low-level traffickers even as they bought 2,000 potentially illegal guns.
The operation came to light after two of those firearms were found in Arizona at the scene of the fatal shooting of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.
After Holder refused to give a congressional committee subpoenaed documents about the Justice Department's involvement in "Fast and Furious" he was found in contempt of Congress. The House oversight committee has also sued for the documents.
The other impeachment articles rest on issues that have raised conservatives' ire in recent years, including Holder's decisions not to enforce laws on same-sex marriage, on prison sentences for certain drug crimes and not to prosecute an official in the Internal Revenue Service for targeting conservative political activists.
They also say Holder lied to Congress about a Justice Department investigation into Fox News correspondent James Rosen.
GOP Lawmakers Release Holder Articles of Impeachment
Posted at 4:13 p.m. on Nov. 13
Attorney General Eric Holder on Capitol Hill earlier this year. (CQ Roll Call File Photo)
A rump group of House Republicans are tired of waiting for answers from Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. — they want him impeached and will formally introduce their charges Thursday.
As Roll Call previously reported, a small group of GOP lawmakers have been drafting articles of impeachment for Holder over a string of controversies, including a Department of Justice refusal to turn over documents related to Operation Fast and Furious, a refusal to uphold certain laws — namely the Defense of Marriage Act, the Controlled Substances Act and the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 — and a refusal to prosecute IRS officials who accessed tax records of political donors and candidates without authorization. The articles of impeachment also charge that Holder provided false testimony to Congress — a “clear violation” of law.
Texas Republican Pete Olson, who is leading the charge behind the Holder articles of impeachment, said this wasn’t a decision he took lightly.
“Since the House voted in 2012 to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt, the pattern of disregard for the rule of law and refusal to be forthright has continued,” Olson said in a statement to CQ Roll Call. “The American people deserve answers and accountability. If the Attorney General refuses to provide answers, then Congress must take action.”
Olson told CQ Roll Call that he would be dropping the articles of impeachment Thursday. On Wednesday, he released a five-page white paper explaining the four articles of impeachment against Holder.
Article I of the impeachment proceedings claims that Holder “engaged in a pattern of conduct incompatible with the trust and confidence placed in him” by refusing to comply with a subpoena issued by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for documents related to “a legitimate congressional investigation into Operation Fast and Furious by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms that put thousands of illegally-purchased weapons into the hands of cartel leaders, ultimately resulting in the death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry on December 14, 2010.”
“The Justice Department deliberately withheld documents, preventing the Committee from performing its constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch,” the white paper said, noting that any person who “willfully makes default” of a congressional subpoena is in violation of federal law.
President Barack Obama exercised executive privilege over those documents, but that does not satisfy the group.
“Despite the President’s dubious claim of executive privilege, Attorney General Holder violated federal law by failing to turn over lawfully subpoenaed documents requested by Congress,” the section-by-section analysis of the impeachment proceedings claims.
Article II of the proceedings charges that Holder violated his oath of office by refusing to enforce certain laws that the Obama administration, for various reasons, decided not to enforce, including the Defense of Marriage Act, which the administration deemed unconstitutional.
“If the Administration wants to change the law, it should ask Congress to amend it. Only the Supreme Court can deem laws unconstitutional,” the white paper said.
Article III also charges that Holder violated his oath of office, this time by “refusing to prosecute individuals involved in the Internal Revenue Service scandal of unauthorized disclosure of tax records belonging to political donors.”
Finally, Article IV claims Holder “provided false testimony to the House Judiciary Committee” regarding the potential prosecution of a member of the news media, Fox News correspondent James Rosen, using the Espionage Act.
“Attorney General Holder knew that the Justice Department was investigating James Rosen as a co-conspirator in alleged violations of the Espionage Act as early as June 2009. Under the Privacy Protection Act, journalists cannot be investigated in order to obtain information about a third party. The fact that there was a search warrant carried out on James Rosen means that the Justice Department either intended to prosecute him, or the Justice Department clearly violated the Privacy Protection Act,” the white paper said.
Olson is joined by 10 other Republicans — five of whom are also from Texas — in co-sponsoring the articles of impeachment:
Rep. Phil Roe of Tennessee
Rep. Ted Yoho of Florida
Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia
Rep. Larry Bucshon of Indiana
Rep. Blake Farenthold of Texas
Rep. Randy Weber of Texas
Rep. Roger Williams of Texas
Rep. Bill Flores of Texas
Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas
Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota
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