House Judiciary Chairman sends Letter to Obama, calls for Special Counsel

A huge chunk of the Justice Department stonewall relative to Operation Fast and Furious appears to be in the process of being dislodged. Whenever administration officials, to include DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, FBI Director Robert Mueller, Asst Attorney General Robert Weich, Attorney General Eric Holder, and even Barack Obama are asked questions about the operation that allowed guns to 'walk' into Mexico, the default response has been that the DOJ IG has been assigned the task of investigating. That all changed with the release of memos that seem to implicate Eric Holder in the commission of perjury in front of the House Judiciary Committee on May 3rd.

Now House Judiciary committee chairman Lamar Smith, has sent Obama a letter, calling for a special independent counsel to investigate.

These events are significant on many levels. Here is video of an interview Obama gave to Univision's Jorge Ramos earlier this year during which the president said that neither he nor Eric Holder authorized the program that led to the death of hundreds of Mexican civilians and at least one Federal US agent (Brian Terry). Obama also said he had not been informed about the operation. Assuming he was telling the truth (I know, it's a stretch), he should want Holder fired immediately.



By the way, the New York Times has actually picked up on this story but seems to have a difficult time printing Brian Terry's name, referring to him only as 'border agent.'

There's one aspect to all of this I keep coming back to. If Holder's defense is that he didn't read the memos he received on Fast and Furious, what does that say about the person who authored them? The implication is that Asst Atty General Lanny Breuer knew about the operation but Holder did not. By claiming he didn't read the memos, isn't Holder throwing Breuer under the bus?

h/t Sipsey Street