Attorney General Eric Holder will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee at a Justice Department oversight hearing on November 8.
The date of the hearing was announced Monday in a news release issued by the panel’s chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).
Although the November Senate panel will convene as a standard departmental oversight hearing, Holder can expect a tough reception from Republican senators who have been up in arms over the handling of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive’s failed gun-walking initiative, Operation Fast and Furious.
At a regular House Judiciary Committee Department of Homeland Security oversight hearing last week, Republican Congressmen grilled Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano over what she knew about the ATF operation.
Holder has particularly drawn the ire of Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking Republican of the Senate Judiciary Committee who has been assisting Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and a member of the House Judiciary Committee, in his congressional probe of Operation Fast and Furious.
Last week, Grassley and Issa blasted the Attorney General for an October 11 response to a query made by the senator.
Holder has also been called to testify about Operation Fast and Furious before a House Judiciary Committee investigative meeting on December 8.
