Rep. Darrell Issa says the GOP is preparing to file a lawsuit against Attorney General Eric Holder during the August congressional recess in an attempt to compel his disclosure of Fast and Furious documents.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) at the more confrontational December Judiciary Committee hearing. (Getty)
The California Republican, and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman, told NBC News on Friday that the GOP has a “100 percent chance” the judge will overrule President Barack Obama’s assertion of executive privilege over the documents related to the failed gun-walking operation.
Issa contends that the privilege does not apply to the thousands of pages of documents he has demanded from the Justice Department.
Eric Holder
“The idea that you would withhold based on some executive privilege the documents related to a cover up of a crime is absurd, but that’s the claim that the attorney general is hiding behind,” Issa told NBC News.
Holder has argued that the release of certain documents could harm the integrity of ongoing investigations. The attorney general was found in contempt of Congress in June, with a majority of the House of Representatives voting to censure the top federal law enforcement official for his refusal to hand over certain documents.
Democrats have called the Oversight Committee’s inquiry a witchhunt, and many lawmakers walked out of the contempt vote.
