On May 3 Attorney General Eric Holder testified to Congress under oath that he first heard about F&F in April of 2011:
"I'm not sure of the exact date," Holder asserted, "but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks."Unfortunately for Mr. Holder's credibility, and perhaps for his career, newly discovered memos suggest that that claim is at variance with the truth:
One memo dated July 2010 shows that Michael Walther, director of the National Drug Intelligence Center, told Holder that straw buyers in the Fast and Furious operation "are responsible for the purchase of 1,500 firearms that were then supplied to the Mexican drug trafficking cartels."The Justice Department is claiming that Mr. Holder never read these memoranda. If not, he should be impeached for incompetence and dereliction of duty. On the other hand, if he did read them and lied to Congress about it he should be impeached for perjury.
Other documents also indicate that Holder began receiving weekly briefings on the program from the National Drug Intelligence Center "beginning, at the latest, on July 5, 2010," Smith wrote.
"These updates mentioned, not only the name of the operation, but also specific details about guns being trafficked to Mexico," Smith wrote in the letter to Obama.
"Allegations that senior Justice Department officials may have intentionally misled members of Congress are extremely troubling and must be addressed by an independent and objective special counsel. I urge you to appoint a special counsel who will investigate these allegations as soon as possible," Smith wrote.
And whoever on his staff came up with the lame excuse that he didn't read the memos should be impeached for stupidity.
In any case, if he did commit perjury and is impeached and removed from office I would imagine that he would also be in jeopardy of disbarment from the practice of law just as President Clinton was for lying under oath. It's amazing how trying to cover up a scandal so often produces worse ramifications than would have resulted from admitting up front that you were the one who originally authorized the boneheaded scheme and accepting responsibility for it. UPDATE: It may be even worse for Mr. Holder than I thought. This is from The Daily Caller:
Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona told The Daily Caller on Wednesday that Obama administration officials responsible for Operation Fast and Furious might be accessories to murder.Any day now the mainstream media will wake up and realize that this story isn't going to go away and then maybe they'll start reporting on it.
“We’re talking about consequences of criminal activity, where we actually allowed guns to walk into the hands of criminals, where our livelihoods are at risk,” Gosar said in a phone interview. “When you facilitate that and a murder or a felony occurs, you’re called an accessory. That means that there’s criminal activity.”
Gosar said the government should be held to the same standard as everyone else. Fast and Furious weapons were used to kill U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, as well as scores of Mexican citizens, and he thinks administration officials should be held accountable.
“We impugn the private sector, we impugn main street America, and the bureaucracy cannot be held to any different standard whatsoever,” Gosar told TheDC, insisting that Justice Department and ATF officials “intentionally — intentionally — violated the law.”