CNN 2012-06-28

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Good evening, everyone. We begin tonight "Keeping Them Honest." With big developments on the story we've been following on from day one. The bungled ATF operation called "Fast and Furious." Developments that could land the nation's top law enforcement official in contempt of Congress and perhaps set off a constitutional battle between Congress and the White House. 

 

Let me give you some background first. "Fast and Furious," you may remember, let buyers purchase guns in the United States, smuggle³ them into New Mexico. The idea was to track the guns as they made their way inside Mexican drug cartels. 

 

Instead the ATF lost track of those guns in part because U.S. authorities never bothered to tell the Mexican authorities about the scheme. They never had a way to actually track the guns. That is, not until people started dying. 

 

The only way you're going to find those guns in Mexico is where? 

 

At crime scenes. At the death - at the site of somebody who's dead. At a gun battle between the police and the bad guys in which either the bad guy was killed and his gun was left at the scene or used during the commission of a crime in which the gun was left behind. 

 

That makes no sense to me. 

 

Between reasonable men within the law enforcement community, no, there is no reasonable explanation to let these guns walk. 

 

Well, two of those guns made their way back north to the scene where border agent Brian Terry was shot dead a year and a half ago. He just finished buying Christmas presents for his family. Two months later, ATF agent Jaime Zapata was killed in Mexico by one of a batch⁴ of 10 firearms bought in Houston as part of "Fast and Furious." 

 

Now lawyers for the family confirmed today that they'll be suing the Justice Department, but the big headlines today were in Washington, D.C. After initially⁵ cooperating with the House Oversight⁶ Committee, which is investigating "Fast and Furious," Attorney General Eric Holder⁷ refused to turn over more internal Justice Department documents. In a letter today, the deputy attorney general, James Cole, notified the committee chairman, Darrell Issa that President Obama was withholding⁸ them on the basis of executive privilege. 

 

Now the move came after threats from the committee to cite Holder for contempt and negotiations⁹ yesterday between the Attorney General and committee members. Today's decision to invoke¹⁰ executive privilege led Republicans on the committee to say their search for accountability is being stymied¹¹. 

 

If Congress has time to look into Major League Baseball, the BCS and invite Stephen Colbert to come to a committee hearing, surely to goodness, we have time to get answers on a fundamentally flawed lethal¹² investigation¹³ like "Fast and Furious." 

 

Well late today Gowdy's committee voted along party lines to recommend the house issue a contempt citation¹⁴ against Holder and Democrats¹⁵ accused Chairman Issa and his Republican committee colleagues of conducting a political witch hunt. Republicans suggest the administration is impeding¹⁶ the search for accountability and using executive privilege to do that. 

 

Keeping both sides honest though tonight, it's worth pointing out a couple of facts: This is the first time that President Obama has invoked¹⁷ executive privilege. Back when Democrats controlled the House, any Republican administration was claiming executive privilege for the sixth time by the way, the sound bites were 180 degrees opposite. Back then, as House members debated contempt citation against two George W. Bush advisers¹⁸, Republican members including Darrell Issa simply got up and walked out. 

 

We will not stand here and watch this floor be abused for pure political grandstanding at the expense of our national security. We will, we wil, we will not stand for this and we will not stay for this. And I would ask my House Republican colleagues and those who believe that we should be here protecting the American people not vote on this bill. Let's just get up and leave.

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