Issa pressing to talk with White House aide connected to Fast and Furious, Bill Newell

Those who have been following the Fast and Furious investigation might remember a compelling exchange Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) had with former ATF Special Agent in Charge William Newell last summer. It had to do with e-mail correspondence Newell had with a man named Kevin O'Reilly, who, at the time of those e-mails was a National Security Council staffer for the White House.

Issa's Oversight Committee is now pressing the administration for access to O'Reilly.

Via Fox News:

Two top Republican lawmakers investigating the Fast and Furious controversy are demanding the White House make a former aide available for testimony to see whether the scandal reached the upper echelons of the administration, according to a letter obtained by Fox News.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, fired off the letter Wednesday urging the White House to make available Kevin O'Reilly, a former National Security Council staffer who is currently stationed in Iraq for the State Department.

The lawmakers are giving White House staffers the deadline of April 4 to respond, with Republican aides privately saying the back-and-forth could provoke a showdown over executive privilege if the administration tries to shield O'Reilly from talking to investigators.

Issa and Grassley wrote in the letter that O'Reilly's personal lawyer has told them that he would permit his client to speak to the lawmakers as long as the White House does not object, and they are willing to do the interview by phone to accommodate O'Reilly's work.

That last paragraph is very telling. It shows that O'Reilly is not willing to fall completely on the White House's sword. By taking that stance, he is necessarily implicating the Obama administration as being complicit in the stonewall if he is not permitted to testify.

HERE is a copy of the letter from Issa and Grassley to White House Counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler.

Below is video of the July 26, 2011 exchange between SAC Newell, Gowdy, and Issa about the former's e-mail correspondence with O'Reilly.