Holder Sued Over Botched US-Mexico Arms Operation Agence France-Presse
go to original August 13, 2012

A U.S. Border Patrol agent arrives for a memorial service for slain comrade Brian Terry on Jan. 21, 2011, in Tucson. Terry was killed during a shootout the month before near the U.S.-Mexico Border. (John Moore/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — A US congressional committee filed a lawsuit Monday to force Attorney General Eric Holder to turn over documents related to a botched gun-running operation called "Fast and Furious."

"The House's filing asks the federal court to rule that President (Barack) Obama's assertion of executive privilege was invalid and compel Attorney General Eric Holder to produce subpoenaed documents," said a statement from the Republican-led House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which investigated the operation.

In June, the House of Representatives took the historic and controversial step of holding Holder in contempt over the gun-tracking operation and his refusal to turn over the requested documents.

But the Justice Department declined to prosecute Holder for his refusal, after the president said the materials were protected under "executive privilege."

Committee chairman Darrell Issa, a Republican, said Obama's decision to assert his privilege, "nearly eight months after the subpoena had been issued," was unfounded.

It was "a calculated political maneuver designed to stop the release of documents until after November's elections," Issa alleged.

The White House and the attorney general counter that the investigation itself is politically motivated, timed to make headlines during a tough presidential campaign.

"It seems clear that House Republican leaders do not want to resolve the contempt issue and prefer to generate unnecessary conflict with the administration as the election nears," said Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the committee.

Issa is seeking to discover who in the government knew about the operation -- which was launched in Arizona by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives -- and whether there was a cover-up.

Holder has said he was unaware of it and has ordered his own internal investigation.

The sting operation, named after the Fast and Furious series of Hollywood action movies, was designed to track weapons purchased by straw buyers and smuggled to drug cartels in Mexico.

But many of the guns went missing, and two were later found at the murder scene of a US border patrol agent.

Holder has testified about the scandal nine times and turned over 7,600 documents, but Issa says that is less than 10 percent of what was being sought.

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