Speaker John Boehner’s office released a statement the following the House Oversight Panel’s 23-17 vote placing Attorney General Holder in contempt. A vote on the contempt charge on the House Floor will happen next week,according to Speaker Boehner’s office.
Congressman Darrell Issa, California Republican and Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said he would look over the executive privilege President Barack Obama put forth this morning on the documents regarding the Fast and Furious investigation.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Texas Democrat, discussed why she believed the President could assert executive privilege today. President Obama did this in order to withhold documents relating to the Fast and Furious investigation Congressman Issa’s Oversight Committee has subpoenaed. “First of all, the executive privilege is part if the executive,” she said.
“I think the White House has the authority to assert executive privilege and I believe that a member of their cabinet has been forthright, thorough, and committed to telling the truth. The executive privilege is based upon, I think, long weeks of the general…general Holder, conveying to the committee that documents that could not be presented were documents that were in the middle of an investigation and criminal proceeding. In this nation we respect due process,” Jackson Lee added.
